Well this page must begin with some prototypes.
I must recommend Ian Smith's excellent site called "Ian's Bus Stop" where there is much about buses from the 1930's but in particular information on the Routemaster. I cannot profess to know as much as Ian and so here is the link to his Routemaster page.
The first prototypes (RM 1 and 2) were built at LT Chiswick by LT and PRV. Designed to take RT engines they were later given engines from AEC.
This is RM1 pictured at the LT
Museum Depot at Acton in March 2008 (Click
here for the Featured article). Now looking very different to how it first
appeared in 1954; the vehicle went through many modifications especially to the
front-end, finally being given the standard look of all production Routemasters.
Here is the
link to Ian's page about RM1.
This is RM2 also pictured at
the LT Museum Depot at Acton in March 2008. It first appeared in grey
primer with the same front-end as RM1. This vehicle too went through many
modifications and various liveries first including country area green and then
LT red. Now back at the LT Museum it is undergoing long term restoration
(begun in'03) back to its country green livery. Here
is the link to Ian's page about RM2.
Other prototypes were RM3 and various Coach prototypes. RM5-7 were production test rigs and it was from RM8, being being the first production bus, that full production began at PRV. See Ian's pages about the prototypes.
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Pictured here by Suzanne Chilton, is 62CLT (RM1062 standard length). It was new into service in January 1962 and finally bought in 2005 by Western Greyhound for Park & Ride Services at Newquay in Cornwall (information courtesy of Ian's Bus Stop).
The 2007 Ladies Driving Challenge held at RAF Portreath in Cornwall was an event to raise money for the Firefighters Charity and the bus featured amongst several other buses and vehicles of all types from trucks to tanks, challenging ladies to demonstrate their driving skills. The pictures offer an unusual backdrop for a London bus.
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Here is the Maker's Plate from RM445. New in August 1960, the vehicle had a 25 year run before being withdrawn in March 1985, then sold in August and subsequently scrapped. The plate was always situated above the luggage compartment by where the conductor stood. Mounted on ash (the popular timber at PRV for the frames of pre-Routemaster buses), I use this as a desk paperweight.
