Routemaster bus RM1368

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English: Routemaster bus RM1368 (reg. 368 CLT) was delivered to London Transport in November 1962. From October 1967, it was allocated to Tottenham garage (code AR), where on New Year's Eve 1973 it was seriously burnt out in an arson attack. The damage was deemed serious enough that rebuilding the upper deck was not considered viable, but the damage to the rest of the bus wasn't seen to be serious enough to warrant scrapping. During 1975 it was duly converted by London Transport's apprentices at Aldenham Works, becoming one of the few single deck Routemasters in existence. While it was restored to fully operational condition, it never re-entered public transport service. It was instead allocated to London Transport's Chiswick Works, becoming the vehicle on which proposed modifications to the now in production RM class could be tried out first. This allowed the previous experimental test bed, the 1958 built double-decker RM8, to be finally released into public service. To prevent people hopping on RM1368, the conversion involved remodelling the rear open platform extending the rear panelling across the full width (leaving the original off-centre rear window) and fitting a pair of hinged lockable doors in the remaining square space in the side. No route destination equipement was fitted - instead simple 'Private' signs were rivetted to the front and back. In contrast to later single deck Routemaster conversions, RM1368 was fitted with a fully rounded standard style roof. It served as the test bed vehicle well into the 1980s, rarely venturing outside of the Chiswick works. In the late 1970's, it was fitted with an LPG powered engine and was one of the first buses in the UK so fitted. In 1990 it was sold, although it did not enter preservation until 1997. It began appearing at bus rallies in June 1998, initially for six months with unrestored paintwork, but it has since been restored into London Transport red with flake grey relief band and gold fleetnumber, but minus the gold 'LONDON TRANSPORT' fleetnames and legal lettering it wore as the test vehicle.

In preservation[edit]