Northern Routemasters

The Northern Routemasters were a batch of 50 front entrance Routemasters buses built in 1964/5, for the Northern General Transport Company (trading simply as 'Northern'). Fitted with with a worm drive to the rear axle, they were to be used on their faster cross country routes. They are also known as the RMF class, being based on the design of the prototype front entrance Routemaster bus built for London Transport, numbered RMF1254 (which was sold to Northern in 1966, taking the fleet total to 51). Also, 16 of the buses were later bought by LT and given RMF prefixed fleetnumbers, but only 4 were used in service.

RMF1254 (254 CLT)

The LT prototype RMF1254 was built in 1962, registered 254 CLT. After joining Northern, it was re-numbered 2145 (the next after the 50 production buses), and then later re-numbered 3118 (no longer the one after the new numbers of the other 50). After withdawal in 1980 it was immediately preserved.

• 
  RMF1254 (254 CLT) in preservation, at Showbus 2006
• 
  RMF1254 (254 CLT) in preservation, at Showbus 2006

Liveries & features

• 
  2105 preserved in original Northern livery
• 
  2099 preserved in Tynemouth livery (worn by 13 buses from 1969 to 1971)
• 
  Nearside (2099)
• 
  Offside (2099)
• 
  Rear (2099)
• 
  Entrance arrangement (2099)
• 
  Entrance arrangement (2099)
• 
  Entrance arrangement (2099)

Production fleet

Caption key:

• Original Northern fleetnumber/second Northern fleetnumber (simply add 984) - the change was part of a general fleet re-numbering in 1975
• original registration in brackets: 2085-2101: (RCN 685-702), 2103: (DUP 249B), 2104-2107: (EUP 404-7B), 2108-2134: (FPT 578-604C)
• any later re-registrations, in brackets
• any later fleetnumbers
• see #Notes
• image description in italics

• 
  2099/3083
  (RCN 699)
  (EDS 508B, PCN 762)
  52, 617
  OO
  2099 (PCN 762) in preservation, at the 2009 Metrocentre bus rally
• 
  RMF27712016
  (RCN 701)
  (EYY 776B, 65346, RCN 701)
  RMF2771
  LTA
  OO(EX)
  2101 as "Beatrix" (EYY 776B) with www.japanorbust.org.uk, Nov 2014
• 
  2105/3089
  (EUP 405B)
  2105
  OO
  2105 (EUP 405B) in preservation, Dec 2011

Notes

• The 50 production buses were built as two batches, the first 18 in March/April 1964, the remaining 32 from October 1964 to June 1965
  • WS - after suffering accident damage in 1972, No. 2085 was modified, moving the cab backwards enabling one-man operation - it became known as the 'Wearside
  • AD - all buses were withdrawn normally except 3093, which suffered accident damage in 1976

• LTA - London Transport bought 12 of the former Northern buses, some direct, some via 3rd parties, intending to use them in London. These were assigned RFM numbers - RMF2761-2772* After assesment, it was decided not to put them into service.

• SC1 - 29 of the 50 saw no further use after withdrawal by Northern/assesment by LT, either being scrapped directly or by later owners

• OO - the remaining 21 buses had various subsequent owners (including preservation)
  • EX - at least 3 of the 21 have been exported (either immediately or later), with at least one being repatriated (2101)
  • LTT - as well as private/franchised London tour operators, notably four were operated directly by London Transport as tour buses. These were assigned the numbers:
    • RMF2791* (2119/3103) - hired from dealer Brakells
    • RMF2792* (2107/3091) - hired from dealer Brakells
    • RMF2793 (2106/3090) - hired from dealer Brakells
    • RMF2794 (2118/3102) - hired from Obsolete Fleet (open top)

• SC2 - of these remaining 21 buses, 7 have definitely since been scrapped

• (asterisk) - the hired LT tour buses first numbered, RMF2761/2 had to be renumbered to RMF2791/2, to avoid clashing with the series applied to the 12 buses in the LT assessment batch