Latest Update:  27 July 2021

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.

For queries about Postal Sales, please email lotspostalsales@gmail.com.This E mail address may also be used for ordering from Postal Sales if wishing to pay by direct debit bank transfer - for details see Page 1 of the Sales Bulletin.

LOTS meetings and events

Conway Hall meetings

Due to the continuing pandemic all LOTS meetings are CANCELLED until further notice

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 7.30pm 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 683 was posted on Tuesday 20 July. The closing date for reports for TLB 684 is 4 August and it is due for posting on Tuesday 17 August.

New and Recent LOTS publications:

For queries about Postal Sales, please email lotspostalsales@gmail.com This E mail address may also be used for ordering from Postal Sales if wishing to pay by direct debit bank transfer - for details see Page 1 of the Sales Bulletin.

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:

NEW LOTS London Bus & Tram Fleetbook 2021:   Updated to TLB681.   (£7.00).

NEW TLB Extra 1956  The last of the series although there is a difference. 1956 was a fairly slack year for vehicle changes so this

book has been expanded from 60 to 80 pages to include a summary of all the updates to all the other issues 1948 to 1955 and

1957-1984. Fully illustrated in B&W but with original 1956 colour cover pictures. (£7.00).   

NEW LOTS Review 2020:  An A4-size 80-page book detailing all the London region events of last year, with over 100 colour pictures.  £13.00. 

LOTS SUP-39B TfL Bus Operators Fleet Allocations and PVRs (£4.50) 

LBM 195 Spring 2021 London Bus Magazine (£5). The main features are another 'travelogue' by Bob Saxby featuring TDs and trolleys at Edgware and "Origins of Peckham route 381" by Malc McDonald.

LOTS LBM194 Winter 2020/21 London Bus Magazine (£5) The main article is 'A return to Hammersmith please - a history of London bus routes 110 & 111 by Colin Stannard and Peter Bradley. Also, 'A modern London enthusiast' by Matthew Wharmby, mainly a photographic item covering the years 1983-1989 but including some photos of 1991. Plus 'Rail Air Links to Feltham Station' by Philip Wallis.

LOTS LBM193 London Bus Magazine Autumn 2020: (£5.00)  Main articles are 'In Memory of via points' by Colin Fradd with 57 pictures; reminiscences of bus, tram and trolleybus routes serving Clerkenwell in the early 1950s by Nigel Davis, plus 'All change at the London Bus Museum'.

LOTS London Bus & Tram Fleetbook 2020. The 32nd edition of our 128-page pocket size Fleetbook,  updated to June 2020. Orders can 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-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: 

Young Routemasters (James Whiting) £16.95. A photograph and caption book covering each route conversion to Routemasters 1956 to 1965

London's Disused Railway Stations - Inner South East London (CT) £22

Wires above South East London (Robert Harley) £25

A London trolleybus reborn Q1 1812 (Dave Chick) £25

Vehicle History File - London DMS (Wooleybus) £22.50

Valliant Years (coaches in W & NW London) (£50)

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

 
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 

Tuesday 27 July

LBSL intends to enter into new contracts for the following routes with the operators listed below:

The hybrid and diesel vehicles detailed above will meet Euro VI emissions standards.

The above contracts will commence on the following dates:

30th April 2022: Routes 111 & U10.

28th May 2022: Route 177.

30th July 2022: Route 613.

Saturday 25 July

1) Delivery of RATP’s fleet of 127 BYD/ADL E400EVs have begun although they will be stored for a time as none of their intended garages and routes will be able to take them for another couple of months.   At Arriva London the E400EVs ordered for route 319 and – once delivered - may be able to be used in a few months time as electric installation has begun at Brixton Hill Garage. 

2) Last weekend the Gropo Julia London tour gained an extra bus, a Volvo/ Gemini (No.13808) from  Stagecoach in Cambridge in City Sightseeing red livery.

Saturday 17 July

1) This Saturday 17^th July saw the transfer of Go-Ahead routes 15/N15, 115, 649/650/651 from River Road Barking to Henley Road Garage at North Woolwich.

2) All the London sightseeing operators are now running but with a hefty reduction in the number of open-top buses out in service. This is to be commensurate with the severe reduction in tourism.  

3) One month after the start of electric operation on Go-Ahead route 200 with 7 MetroDecker EVs, just 2 more (Me 8 and 9) appeared in use on 16th July.

Saturday 10 July

1) The last of the 37 Tower Transit MetroDecker EVs arrived finally in early July, nine months after the first appeared.  Routes 23 and C3 (combined pvr 32) are now fully stocked with the type with only the occasional DNH or MV when necessary.    Meanwhile, London General’s  first seven continue in service in route 200 with ten of the order still to come.    

2) The hydrogen fuel cell buses (WHD class) at Metroline continue to be only out in service in small numbers.  From the fleet of 20 there has never been more than 10 in use on any one day and it is usually  no more than 5 or 6 and just 1 or 2 at weekends.  Consequently VWHs remain the dominant type on route 7 .

3) Southdown PSV is revising its  whole network from 24^th July. Route 357 will be withdrawn and the 411 will be extended at both ends to cover most of it.  Substantial changes also on the 422/424.  In Essex from 26^th July route 381 will pass from Ugobus to Vectare and the 418 from Central Connect to Stephenson’s of Essex. This introduces the latter to the Loughton area and they will also take the school 804 route from the next term.