AEC Routemaster RCL2256 Southend Transport 121, Service 1.
The standard Routemaster bus was an undoubted success story for London Transport (LT), and its integral construction had kept LT at the forefront of new bus innovation. However, by the end of the 1950s, questions were being asked by the wider bus industry about whether a 64 seat double decker was commercially viable long-term, especially as the economics of bus operation became more challenging. Greater capacity was being called for.
In 1961 LT ordered 24 new Routemasters, which would have an increased capacity of 72 seats. Like the 64 seaters, these new buses would be engineered by AEC at Southall, with body construction and assembly completed at Park Royal Vehicles. These new vehicles mechanically similar to their shorter cousins, sharing the same engines, brakes, transmission and electrical equipment. However, they were 2ft 4in longer than the standard Routemaster, having a small square window on the upper and lower decks where an additional bay had been added.
A further 500 RMLs would be built; the first of this new batch being delivered on 1st July 1965, and the last entering service in February 1968. The RMLs would go on to serve London for the best part of the next four decades, finally being withdrawn from front line service in 2005. In fact, one historian would go as far as saying that the RML was “the most successful Routemaster variant ever devised.”
Our model may appear to be an RML at first glance, but registration CUV256C actually started life as a Green Line RCL coach in June 1965, complete with twin headlights and rear platform doors. As RCL2256 it was converted to a bus layout by London Transport in 1980, and received an RM type platform following an accident that same year. The model depicts this unusual hybrid in its circa 1991 guise as working for Southend Transport on Service 1 to Southend Central Bus Station.
The new models are based on EFE Road’s refined and updated RML tooling, and now feature such enhancements as bodyside panel lines and highly detailed liveries and advertisements.
• Colours/details of final model may vary from illustration
• Authentically detailed die-cast model from EFE Road
• Complementary to OO scale model railways (1:76 scale)
