PRESERVED BUSES & COACHES
| FLEET No | RT 1702 |
| REG | KYY 529 |
| MAKE | AEC |
| MODEL | RT |
| YEAR | 1950 |
| BODY | Park Royal Vehicles |
| OWNER | RT1702 Preservation Society, Sidcup, Kent. |
| HISTORY | The RT standard London
Transport bus was introduced in 1946. There had been a small number
built to a slightly different design from 1939, but the war stopped
production. The early RTs had a route number box on the roof, but
this was replaced by a three-piece display between the front windows for
the vast majority of RTs. The chassis was an AEC Regent III, hence
the code RT (Regent Three). Bodies were mostly built by Park Royal
and Weymann, but some were supplied by Craven (120) and Saunders
(300). They had 56 seats, 26 lower, 30 upper.
RT 1702 is a celebrity RT. New in 1950, she embarked on an extensive European tour that year, to promote Great Britain. After her return, and seeing normal service at Mortlake garage, she became a Festival of Britain bus in 1951, providing London tours and conveying passengers to the festival on the South Bank. The bus was in normal use for the decade 1952-1962. After that year she was stored, but had various short periods of use until 1972. She was then sold for preservation, and purchased by the RT1702 Preservation Society. Her celebrity status was revived in 2000 when she went on display in the Millennium Dome in south east London. As well as appearing at numerous bus rallies, she took part in various London Transport events during the period 2005-2009. Details of the early years of RT 1702, including archive photos are available here. |
| Above photo taken at: | Cobham London Bus Museum Spring Gathering at Dunsfold Aerodrome, Surrey. |
| Taken: | 10th April 2011 |
Photographs © Mike Smith 2011
None to be reproduced elsewhere without permission
mjs@onlineweb.com