At Westerham on 31 August 1980 a white Triumph Spitfire MkIII makes sure it gets into the picture as preserved London Transport (LT) RT 3491 sits in the turning circle/bus stop adjacent to what had been the forecourt of Westerham station. Links to the past can be seen on the right; part of the wall which had been the base of the station building, the post box, some fencing and, just visible, a telegraph pole. RT 3491 is correctly screened for a short working on route 410. LT destination displays displayed intermediate points in the same order irrespective of direction, only the ultimate destination being changed at each end of the route. Everything about LT-spec buses was well thought out and the front display could be altered by the driver without the need to leave his cab, leaving the conductor free to deal with the rear display and his or her waybill. In practice, however, ultimate destinations were often changed just before arriving at a terminus. This saved time and was of benefit to passengers waiting at termini. Other points to note are the lavish provision of destination displays; not only was there a display front and rear but a route number and 'via point' display above the platform. There was also a route number display under the canopy and at one time a further route number display on the offside rear. The latter was later dispensed with. Just below the nearside front window the garage and duty stencils can be seen, in this case the garage code is RG (Reigate) which shared operation of the route with Godstone garage (GD). The lettering on the lower bodyside behind the front wheel was, and still is, a legal requirement and gave the name and address of the owner, in this case 'London Transport Executive 55 Broadway S.W.1'. This address was known to LT staff as 'The Kremlin'. The lettering just ahead of rear wheel gave the unladen weight (UW) and vehicle speed, 30 MPH in this case. This was not the maximum speed a bus was capable of achieving but what it was restricted to in service. The advertisement on the side of the bus was for E. Brakell of Cheam, a bus dealer who also owns some preserved vehicles, including RT 3491, and has provided vehicles for work such as the Round London Sightseeing Tour. The general pattern of LT bus route numbering was 1 - 299 for the red central area, 300 - 499 for the green country area and the 700 series for Green Line routes. The 500 - 699 series were trolleybus routes. In LT days RT 3491 never worked the 410 as she was always a red central area bus. The 410 is historically associated with the 'Lowbridge' RLH class, this being necessitated by the low headroom railway bridge at Oxted. In the 1960s the route was diverted to avoid the bridge and RT buses introduced but this diversion resulted in complaints. Ultimately the road was lowered beneath the bridge and the route reverted to its former route. In October 1965 RML buses took over the route until February 1972 when AF class buses, funny things with the engine in the wrong place at the rear, took over. Some pictures of the route, including an RLH at Westerham, can be seen here. The 410 was withdrawn in September 1990 and replaced in part by the 320 Bromley - Westerham.
Photo by David Jones from his Flickr photostream