News

This page gives up-to-date major news items to supplement our monthly newsletter, •The London Bus• (TLB). Items noted here will be incorporated in the next issue of TLB in greater detail. News updates will usually be weekly, by Sunday evening, but if major stories arise we will attempt to announce them sooner. Reports more than a month old and already reported in TLB are deleted. Each issue of TLB is typically 40 pages containing references to around 300 routes and 1000 vehicles, together with the business and political news, the publicity output of the companies, forthcoming exhibitions and rallies, and much more. To get the full picture, why not join now? Go to the Membership Page for details.

If you need to contact us with anything to do with membership, subscriptions to TLB or LBM and queries over postal sales, email to lotsmemsec@gmail.com and it will be passed to the correct person. Reports for TLB/LBM or queries to other society officers can go via the TLB Editor davestewart297@gmail.com and it will passed to the correct person.

LOTS meetings and events

Conway Hall meetings

Due to the continuing pandemic all LOTS meetings are CANCELLED until February 2021

Conway Hall is located at Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Nearest Underground station: Holborn (Central and Piccadilly Lines) Buses: 1, 8, 19, 38, 55, 59, 68, 91, 168, 188, 243 & 521 stop nearby. Doors open from 6pm. sales stand from 6.30pm, event begins at 7.30 and is finished by 10pm. There is no charge. Visitors are welcome, especially from other societies or if you buy something or join as a new member. In normal times, meetings are held monthly (except January, July & August).

TLB 673 and LBM 192 were posted on 15 September. The closing date for TLB 674 is 30 September and it is due for posting on 12/13 October.

LBM 192 was posted on 15 September with TLB 673. An encouraging response to the Editor’s call for new material has enabled us to plan on the basis of LBM 193 and LBM 194 to be available in November 2020 and January 2021 respectively with normal production resuming from LBM 195 (Spring 2021) in March 2021. We will confirm these arrangements here (i.e. on our website) and in TLBs in due course.

Please address your orders to LOTS Postal Sales, Unit G16 Lombard Business Park. 8 Lombard Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 3TZ. Orders are processed weekly. Make sure that the 'Postal Sales' name is included prominently, so we can give the order the best attention. An updated Sales List was included with TLB670. You can use this list to order, or a letter is perfectly acceptable, and so is the Sales List printed off from our website. In each case, please don’t staple cheques to the form – they really won’t get lost by us but might be when the banks try to process them electronically!

LOTS’ latest publications, available now:

LOTS LBM192 London Bus Magazine Summer 2020: (£5.00) **NEW** Main articles are ‘Out with the old’ about LT’s vehicle replacement programme from 1935-39, a ‘London Country Retrospective‘ with b/w photographs, and ‘Royal Ascot in 1970’.LOTS London Bus & Tram Fleetbook 2020. The 32nd edition of our 128-page pocket size Fleetbook, now updated to June 2020. Orders can now be taken by Postal Sales ( £7.00 post free to members, add +15% for postage to UK non-members or +30% for all overseas orders.

TLB EXTRA 1955 is now available, same prices as Fleetbook. An updated full sales list can be printed out by going to the ‘Sales’ tab on this website. Extra 1954 and Extra 1953 (£7.00 each) also recent issues.

LOTS Review 2019 (£13.00) As ever, this is the original and definitive story of buses in London and the country areas during the last year, fully illustrated with informative captions.

LOTS SUP-39A: (£4.50) This 56-page booklet encompasses the TfL operators’ fleet and garage allocations from SUP36 and a simplified PVR table from SUP37. Some features are dropped from 36 (eg. Fleets of non-TfL operators – see Fleetbook and occasional features in TLB) while items like LSP operations from 37 are dropped. The PVR tables are now in route order. It also removes much of the duplication of vehicle type codes, garage codes, and which bit of each group runs what. Current at September 2019

LOTS SUP-24I: (£4.50) The latest LT Service Vehicles Current fleet. Current at September 2019

TLB Extra – Vehicle news of 1948 to the 1980s: (£6.50/£7 each year) (80-pages illustrated)

Sales List in TLB670: Please note on page 2 that Capital Transport books attributed to Mick Webber are incorrect. ‘London’s 70s Buses’ is by

(SEC, John Allpress’s) The three Routes Handbooks for 2019 - Brighton & Hove Buses; First Hampshire & Dorset and Stagecoach South

London Country Vehicle Memories by Julian Bowden & Michael Dryhurst £16.00 Bowden Publishing (A4 format)

The London Feltham Tram The Evolution of a Classic Tramcar Design by Peter Waller £25.00 Pen & Sword Books

Croydon Tramlink A Definitive History by Gareth David £30.00 Pen & Sword Books

SEC’s 2020 Update to its 2019 Fleet List and Sussex Independents books, 32pp (£2.50).

Trolleybuses in East Central London. Published by Adam Gordon £30.00. 184 pages –details on ahgbooks.com website.

Wires above South East London. (Robert Harley) £25.00 Heathfield Publishing (part of Capital Transport – more details on C/Ts website)

Regional Tramways: London Transport (Waller) £25.00 Pen & Sword (includes history, DLR and Croydon Tramlink)

Greater London Bus Map for 15 June 2019 (2) and a Night Bus Map for 15th June 2019 (£4)
From each edition of the series an amount of the price is donated to a charity. In this case it is to the Firefighters Association.

Also, in the Historical series -
The 1976 Greater London Bus Map, 10th April 1976 - £4.00
The 1952 Greater London Bus Map, 6th July 1952 (Second Edition) - £4.00

Amendment to the Sales List in TLB670: Please note on page 2 that Capital Transport books attributed to Mick Webber are incorrect.

‘London’s 70s Buses’ is by Matt Wharmby and ‘London’s Country Buses’ is by Kevin McCormack.

See the Publications Page for details of LOTS publications or the Sales Bulletin for our current stocklist.

Note that on the ‘membership’ page of this website is a new membership form. When you are due for renewal you should receive one of these, or you can print the one on the website. Note that at the bottom of the form that there is a new way of renewing. It can be paid directly to our bank account and then you must send the MemSec an email to let him know you have done it.

Latest news

1) Last weekend’s changes in SE London went ahead as planned, albeit some with a lot of last minute preparation work! Routes 202, 246 and 354 changed hands, the 352 got a type change (to WSs) and the 202 saw the first 70-plate buses (HT class E400Hs) in TfL service.

2) One item that got deferred from 19 September was the extension of route 383 in Finchley, now delayed to 17 October. Another deferment will be the new 456 beyond 17 October, now with no firm date.

3) Meanwhile next Saturday 3 October will see the conversion of Arriva route 313 at Enfield to LT operation and the transfer of the C3 from Abellio to Tower Transit who should operate it with VN class Volvo B9TLs to begin with. Because TT’s VNs are needed for the C3, their operation on several RATP school extras (TLB673 page 10) will need to be covered by RATP, mostly using ex-contract buses.

4) During the past week 15 x RATP E400s (ADE class) were sent on loan to Stagecoach to cover temporarily the assumption (from Arriva) routes 173/673 from Barking until electric BYD/E400EVs are delivered. The ADEs went to West Ham to be parked up until the 173/673 is taken over on 17 October. At present it Is likely that the first few E400EVs may start off the conversion of the 174 before the 173.

5) The well-travelled BYD/E400EV electric demonstrator LF69 UXJ is now with RATP at Fulwell (as BCE47000) and is now being tested over route 71. Other electric news is that the four MetroCity-EVs from RATP Hounslow have been transferred to Arriva who should use them to enhance the service on route 312 at Croydon.

1) The service changes in London from the 19^th are on course to go ahead as planned but with some additional type changes. By the 17th Norwood had 16 delivered of its new Arriva HT-class ADL E400H-MMCs for route 202. WHV-class Volvo B5LHs from the loss by Go-Ahead of the 202 will enable the 119 to regain the type and the 200 at Merton to get a few more. In the Bromley area route 246 passes from Go-Ahead to Stagecoach while the 354 went the other way and the 352 had its contract renewed. WS class StreetLites had already moved to Orpington Garage to cover nominally the 354 but are to be used on the 352 instead. Existing fleet Enviro200s will work the 246 and 354 (long and short versions respectively. The contract for the 358 also stays at Go-Ahead, keeping its Citaros.

1) Please be aware that Go-Coach’s bus display and running day next Saturday 19th has been cancelled following the PM’s ruling over groups of people. LOTS had intended to have our Sales Stand there.

2) Delivery of Arriva’s new HT-class E400Hs has been unusually fairly swift and there should be well enough for Norwood Garage’s take-up of route 202 from Go-Ahead next Saturday 19th when hopefully Go-Ahead’s WHVs can be returned to route 119 after the transfer of ten of them to east London school buses two weeks ago. Meanwhile Abellio are STILL awaiting two new E40Ds, one each for the 270 and 285 contracts that began three months ago.

3) When Arriva’s Stamford Hill Garage closes within the next two months, routes 73 and 253 will move (to Clapton and Ash Grove respectively). A small PVR reduction is due on route 38 with a few LTs becoming surplus. Nine are to move to Enfield Garage and driver training on the type there has already begun for use on route 313 (Chingford- Enfield- Potters Bar).

4) New operator to our area Vectare has added three ex- Rotala Volvo B7RLEs to its the Sprinter fleet. The latter work the 13 (Epping) and 61 (Brentwood) , the Volvos the school runs on 13 (as S13) and 390. Another smart minibus operator in our area is Carlone in Surrey who, on Monday 14^th restores its 442/X442 Staines- Heathrow T5 service to its full pre-virus timetable and does some re-mixing of sections of 592/593 south of Staines.

5) The Ian Allan transport bookshop at Waterloo, although having only recently re-opened, is now to close permanently “by the end of October”.

Coming Events (updated 29 September)

(LSS) = LOTS Sales Stand booked to attend

These are publicised as a service to the readership; LOTS has neither any involvement nor responsibility for any event noted. Many events have admission fees, I have included them where they have advised, you should check with organisers or websites before attending if costs worry you. We usually confine this listing to events with an expected London bus interest or within easy reach of London. Full national event lists can be found in the April issue each year of ‘Buses’ magazine and at http://www.classicbuses.co.uk/events.html Our website is regularly updated with other events.

Brooklands Museum is open on Thurs, Fris, Sats and Suns. Open 10am-5pm (bus museum is staffed from 11am to 4pm only) and last entry at 2pm. There will be restrictions on overall numbers (to 500 persons on site) but that should be adequate for now. All entry is by pre-booking only and that includes London Bus Museum members (don’t forget membership card!). Payments only on-line at brooklandsmuseum.com or with ‘contactless’ (no cash), temperature checks on entry, wear face coverings on site. If you visit, LBM ask that you do not bring food or drink into the Bus Museum building and then take any ‘waste’ home (i.e. don’t use the waste bins).

Events cancelled:

Theydon Bois NLETE Bazaar (Saturday 03 October).

London Bus Museum rally (Sunday 18 October)

Aldenham Transport Spectacular (Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th November)

NLETE bazaars at Enfield (Saturday 14 November) and Barnet (Saturday 5 December)

Ensign vintage bus running day (Saturday 5 December).

You must check on the event websites or on the full national event list at http://www.classicbuses.co.uk/events.html
Our website is regularly updated with other events.



	Latest Update: 29 September 2020 Society news This page gives up-to-date major news items to supplement our monthly newsletter, •The London Bus• (TLB). Items noted here will be incorporated in the next issue of TLB in greater detail. News updates will usually be weekly, by Sunday evening, but if major stories arise we will attempt to announce them sooner. Reports more than a month old and already reported in TLB are deleted. Each issue of TLB is typically 40 pages containing references to around 300 routes and 1000 vehicles, together with the business and political news, the publicity output of the companies, forthcoming exhibitions and rallies, and much more. To get the full picture, why not join now? Go to the Membership Page for details. If you need to contact us with anything to do with membership, subscriptions to TLB or LBM and queries over postal sales, email to lotsmemsec@gmail.com and it will be passed to the correct person. Reports for TLB/LBM or queries to other society officers can go via the TLB Editor davestewart297@gmail.com and it will passed to the correct person. Note that the TLB Editor has a new address: davestewart297@gmail.com. LOTS meetings and events Conway Hall meetings Due to the continuing pandemic all LOTS meetings are CANCELLED until February 2021 Conway Hall is located at Red Lion Square, London WC1R 4RL. Nearest Underground station: Holborn (Central and Piccadilly Lines) Buses: 1, 8, 19, 38, 55, 59, 68, 91, 168, 188, 243 & 521 stop nearby. Doors open from 6pm. sales stand from 6.30pm, event begins at 7.30 and is finished by 10pm. There is no charge. Visitors are welcome, especially from other societies or if you buy something or join as a new member. In normal times, meetings are held monthly (except January, July & August). The London Bus (TLB) TLB 673 and LBM 192 were posted on 15 September. The closing date for TLB 674 is 30 September and it is due for posting on 12/13 October. LOTS London Bus Magazine update LBM 192 was posted on 15 September with TLB 673. An encouraging response to the Editor’s call for new material has enabled us to plan on the basis of LBM 193 and LBM 194 to be available in November 2020 and January 2021 respectively with normal production resuming from LBM 195 (Spring 2021) in March 2021. We will confirm these arrangements here (i.e. on our website) and in TLBs in due course. New and Recent LOTS publications: Please address your orders to LOTS Postal Sales, Unit G16 Lombard Business Park. 8 Lombard Road, Wimbledon, London SW19 3TZ. Orders are processed weekly. Make sure that the 'Postal Sales' name is included prominently, so we can give the order the best attention. An updated Sales List was included with TLB670. You can use this list to order, or a letter is perfectly acceptable, and so is the Sales List printed off from our website. In each case, please don’t staple cheques to the form – they really won’t get lost by us but might be when the banks try to process them electronically! LOTS’ latest publications, available now: LOTS LBM192 London Bus Magazine Summer 2020: (£5.00) NEW Main articles are ‘Out with the old’ about LT’s vehicle replacement programme from 1935-39, a ‘London Country Retrospective‘ with b/w photographs, and ‘Royal Ascot in 1970’.LOTS London Bus & Tram Fleetbook 2020. The 32nd edition of our 128-page pocket size Fleetbook, now updated to June 2020. Orders can now be taken by Postal Sales ( £7.00 post free to members, add +15% for postage to UK non-members or +30% for all overseas orders. TLB EXTRA 1955 is now available, same prices as Fleetbook. An updated full sales list can be printed out by going to the ‘Sales’ tab on this website. Extra 1954 and Extra 1953 (£7.00 each) also recent issues. LOTS Review 2019 (£13.00) As ever, this is the original and definitive story of buses in London and the country areas during the last year, fully illustrated with informative captions. LOTS SUP-39A: (£4.50) This 56-page booklet encompasses the TfL operators’ fleet and garage allocations from SUP36 and a simplified PVR table from SUP37. Some features are dropped from 36 (eg. Fleets of non-TfL operators – see Fleetbook and occasional features in TLB) while items like LSP operations from 37 are dropped. The PVR tables are now in route order. It also removes much of the duplication of vehicle type codes, garage codes, and which bit of each group runs what. Current at September 2019 LOTS SUP-24I: (£4.50) The latest LT Service Vehicles Current fleet. Current at September 2019 TLB Extra – Vehicle news of 1948 to the 1980s: (£6.50/£7 each year) (80-pages illustrated) Sales List in TLB670: Please note on page 2 that Capital Transport books attributed to Mick Webber are incorrect. ‘London’s 70s Buses’ is by Matt Wharmby and ‘London’s Country Buses’ is by Kevin McCormack. From the Sales List, the following are now out of print: LOTS TLB Extra 1973. Grey-Green and Contemporaries (1961 to Arriva years) (SEC, John Allpress’s) The three Routes Handbooks for 2019 - Brighton & Hove Buses; First Hampshire & Dorset and Stagecoach South Recent items from other publishers: London Country Vehicle Memories by Julian Bowden & Michael Dryhurst £16.00 Bowden Publishing (A4 format) The London Feltham Tram The Evolution of a Classic Tramcar Design by Peter Waller £25.00 Pen & Sword Books Croydon Tramlink A Definitive History by Gareth David £30.00 Pen & Sword Books SEC’s 2020 Update to its 2019 Fleet List and Sussex Independents books, 32pp (£2.50). Trolleybuses in East Central London. Published by Adam Gordon £30.00. 184 pages –details on ahgbooks.com website. Wires above South East London. (Robert Harley) £25.00 Heathfield Publishing (part of Capital Transport – more details on C/Ts website) Regional Tramways: London Transport (Waller) £25.00 Pen & Sword (includes history, DLR and Croydon Tramlink) From Mike Harris, the latest London bus maps: Greater London Bus Map for 15 June 2019 (2) and a Night Bus Map for 15th June 2019 (£4) From each edition of the series an amount of the price is donated to a charity. In this case it is to the Firefighters Association. Also, in the Historical series - The 1976 Greater London Bus Map, 10th April 1976 - £4.00 The 1952 Greater London Bus Map, 6th July 1952 (Second Edition) - £4.00 Amendment to the Sales List in TLB670: Please note on page 2 that Capital Transport books attributed to Mick Webber are incorrect. ‘London’s 70s Buses’ is by Matt Wharmby and ‘London’s Country Buses’ is by Kevin McCormack. See the Publications Page for details of LOTS publications or the Sales Bulletin for our current stocklist. Note that on the ‘membership’ page of this website is a new membership form. When you are due for renewal you should receive one of these, or you can print the one on the website. Note that at the bottom of the form that there is a new way of renewing. It can be paid directly to our bank account and then you must send the MemSec an email to let him know you have done it. Non-members may wish to look at a sample issue of TLB. Hopefully this will whet your appetite for joining LOTS! Latest news Saturday 26 September 1) Last weekend’s changes in SE London went ahead as planned, albeit some with a lot of last minute preparation work! Routes 202, 246 and 354 changed hands, the 352 got a type change (to WSs) and the 202 saw the first 70-plate buses (HT class E400Hs) in TfL service. 2) One item that got deferred from 19 September was the extension of route 383 in Finchley, now delayed to 17 October. Another deferment will be the new 456 beyond 17 October, now with no firm date. 3) Meanwhile next Saturday 3 October will see the conversion of Arriva route 313 at Enfield to LT operation and the transfer of the C3 from Abellio to Tower Transit who should operate it with VN class Volvo B9TLs to begin with. Because TT’s VNs are needed for the C3, their operation on several RATP school extras (TLB673 page 10) will need to be covered by RATP, mostly using ex-contract buses. 4) During the past week 15 x RATP E400s (ADE class) were sent on loan to Stagecoach to cover temporarily the assumption (from Arriva) routes 173/673 from Barking until electric BYD/E400EVs are delivered. The ADEs went to West Ham to be parked up until the 173/673 is taken over on 17 October. At present it Is likely that the first few E400EVs may start off the conversion of the 174 before the 173. 5) The well-travelled BYD/E400EV electric demonstrator LF69 UXJ is now with RATP at Fulwell (as BCE47000) and is now being tested over route 71. Other electric news is that the four MetroCity-EVs from RATP Hounslow have been transferred to Arriva who should use them to enhance the service on route 312 at Croydon. Thursday 17 September 1) The service changes in London from the 19^th are on course to go ahead as planned but with some additional type changes. By the 17th Norwood had 16 delivered of its new Arriva HT-class ADL E400H-MMCs for route 202. WHV-class Volvo B5LHs from the loss by Go-Ahead of the 202 will enable the 119 to regain the type and the 200 at Merton to get a few more. In the Bromley area route 246 passes from Go-Ahead to Stagecoach while the 354 went the other way and the 352 had its contract renewed. WS class StreetLites had already moved to Orpington Garage to cover nominally the 354 but are to be used on the 352 instead. Existing fleet Enviro200s will work the 246 and 354 (long and short versions respectively. The contract for the 358 also stays at Go-Ahead, keeping its Citaros. Saturday 12 September 1) Please be aware that Go-Coach’s bus display and running day next Saturday 19th has been cancelled following the PM’s ruling over groups of people. LOTS had intended to have our Sales Stand there. 2) Delivery of Arriva’s new HT-class E400Hs has been unusually fairly swift and there should be well enough for Norwood Garage’s take-up of route 202 from Go-Ahead next Saturday 19th when hopefully Go-Ahead’s WHVs can be returned to route 119 after the transfer of ten of them to east London school buses two weeks ago. Meanwhile Abellio are STILL awaiting two new E40Ds, one each for the 270 and 285 contracts that began three months ago. 3) When Arriva’s Stamford Hill Garage closes within the next two months, routes 73 and 253 will move (to Clapton and Ash Grove respectively). A small PVR reduction is due on route 38 with a few LTs becoming surplus. Nine are to move to Enfield Garage and driver training on the type there has already begun for use on route 313 (Chingford- Enfield- Potters Bar). 4) New operator to our area Vectare has added three ex- Rotala Volvo B7RLEs to its the Sprinter fleet. The latter work the 13 (Epping) and 61 (Brentwood) , the Volvos the school runs on 13 (as S13) and 390. Another smart minibus operator in our area is Carlone in Surrey who, on Monday 14^th restores its 442/X442 Staines- Heathrow T5 service to its full pre-virus timetable and does some re-mixing of sections of 592/593 south of Staines. 5) The Ian Allan transport bookshop at Waterloo, although having only recently re-opened, is now to close permanently “by the end of October”. For earlier news read LOTS TLB Coming Events (updated 29 September) (LSS) = LOTS Sales Stand booked to attend These are publicised as a service to the readership; LOTS has neither any involvement nor responsibility for any event noted. Many events have admission fees, I have included them where they have advised, you should check with organisers or websites before attending if costs worry you. We usually confine this listing to events with an expected London bus interest or within easy reach of London. Full national event lists can be found in the April issue each year of ‘Buses’ magazine and at http://www.classicbuses.co.uk/events.html Our website is regularly updated with other events. Brooklands Museum is open on Thurs, Fris, Sats and Suns. Open 10am-5pm (bus museum is staffed from 11am to 4pm only) and last entry at 2pm. There will be restrictions on overall numbers (to 500 persons on site) but that should be adequate for now. All entry is by pre-booking only and that includes London Bus Museum members (don’t forget membership card!). Payments only on-line at brooklandsmuseum.com or with ‘contactless’ (no cash), temperature checks on entry, wear face coverings on site. If you visit, LBM ask that you do not bring food or drink into the Bus Museum building and then take any ‘waste’ home (i.e. don’t use the waste bins). Events cancelled: Theydon Bois NLETE Bazaar (Saturday 03 October). London Bus Museum rally (Sunday 18 October) Aldenham Transport Spectacular (Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th November) NLETE bazaars at Enfield (Saturday 14 November) and Barnet (Saturday 5 December) Ensign vintage bus running day (Saturday 5 December). You must check on the event websites or on the full national event list at http://www.classicbuses.co.uk/events.html Our website is regularly updated with other events.

Latest Update: 29 September 2020

LOTS meetings and events

Conway Hall meetings

Latest news