George Shillibeer Omnibus 150th anniversary buses

English: In 1979, London Transport decided to mark the 150th anniversary of the setting up of the first public transport service in London, George Shillibeer's Omnibus, by painting several buses in a green livery resembling this original horse-drawn bus, a replica of which is displayed in the London Transport Museum [1].

History edit

English: The original Shillibeer Omnibus ran from Paddington Green along New Road (now Marylebone Road), via Somers Town and City Road to the Bank.

The commemorative buses were to be sponsored, so the prototype Routemaster RM2, by now assigned to Chiswick Works as an experimental bus, was painted first in January 1978, as a demonstrator. Also painted was the London Transport ex-Green Line / London Country RCL coach class Routemaster RCL2221, bought back by LT and converted in January 1979 to a mobile cinema and exhibition bus. [2]. The other buses were all normal service buses drawn from the red Central area, and comprised 12 RM class Routemaster buses (all in the CUV ---C registration series), and the DM class Daimler Fleetline DM2646 (reg. THX 646S), the last DM to be built. [3]

The official date of the 150th anniversary was 2 March 1979. The service buses were repainted in the two months before, most as they came out of overhaul, and then presented together in a ceremony at Guildhall, London, attended by Sir John Betjemin, the Poet Laureate. [4][5] They then went into service for the first time wearing the special livery the day after.

On 15 April 1979 in Hyde Park there was also a preserved bus rally and procession of the Omnibus liveried buses and horse buses. [6]

RM2 was repainted into LT red by June 1979. The service buses were all repainted back into red by February 1980, with some being repainted earlier, in November 1979. The cinema bus was repainted in a red & yellow scheme in 1981. Of the buses that survived into preservation, at least two have been restored to the Shillibeer livery, RM2186 and RM2208 but both have since been repainted into LT red again leaving Leyland Fleetline DMS2646 as the sole remaining representative to carry the 1979 Shillibeer livery.

In addition, at least one RML class Routemaster, RML2524 (reg. JJD 524D) was repainted into a version of this livery by Arriva London in its last two years of service from 2004 [7], passing into preservation in May 2005 still wearing the livery, into 2010. [8]

Fleet details edit

English: The details of the Shillibeer liveried buses were as follows:

Fleet No.	Registration	Fate
RM2	SLT 57	Preserved
RM2130	CUV 130C	Scrapped (June 1987)
RM2142	CUV 142C	Scrapped (July 1992)
RM2153	CUV 153C	Preserved?
RM2155	CUV 155C	Exported (Sri Lanka, 1988)
RM2158	CUV 158C	Exported (Sri Lanka, 1988)
RM2160	CUV 160C	Exported (Sri Lanka, 1988)
RM2184	CUV 184C	Scrapped (June 1987)
RM2186	CUV 186C	Preserved
RM2191	CUV 191C	Scrapped February 1989
RM2193	CUV 193C	Exported (Japan, 1987)
RM2204	CUV 204C	Scrapped (October 1994)
RM2208	CUV 208C	Preserved
RCL2221	CUV 221C	Preserved
DM2646	THX 646S	Preserved

In service edit

RM2191, September 1979, Oxford Street (route 137)

In preservation edit

RM2208, 18 April 2010, Manchester Museum of Transport London Bus Day
RM2208, 18 April 2010, Manchester Museum of Transport London Bus Day
RM2186, 8 December 2007, Regent's Park route 159 anniversary run
RM2208, 22 July 2012, Newbury Bus & Coach Preservation Show