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Evocative sound of the old London bus from childhood 👍

He shouldn't be driving with the door open. Also I noticed he put gears into neutral before applying handbrake. Bad habit.

Great video. Thoroughly enjoyed. Yes the two second hold in neutral between changes saves wear in the gearbox. What I have done in the past when changing down is a blip on the throttle when in neutral similar to double de clutching. Great driving there. 😊

I tried a Scania or Volvo bus with a Wilson gearbox 30 years ago. Is this also a Wilson?

I’d like to add an additional comment…. When I worked for “private” enterprise after a gap of 18 years without any PSV driving, the first thing I noticed was that the WESTINGHOUSE STOP FLAG had been done away with! The most simple yet effective way of knowing when the bus was dangerous to drive through not enough AIR PRESSURE, and they done away with it, thinking that drivers would refuse to drive the vehicle when the device warned you not to! Little did they realise that AEC buses were far more reliable than their modern counterparts 😈

Good Fun. I own a Vintage Model A Ford, it's enjoyable just to do a short runs and keep it all working.

Thanks for the ride Alan! I was a keen LT Bus spotter as a boy in North London, and remember when the RM's took over from the Trolley Bus I went to school on. On my 70th Birthday my Mrs bought me a driving experience in an RML. Box ticked! It only occurred to me today, the huge responsibility of transporting 70 people safely around London! Must have been an exhausting job to do everyday!

R.I.P

The way we used to drive these in service and to get the best out of them was to start off in automatic top (which is actually 2nd starting away), when the gearbox changed up itself to 3rd, push the gear selector straight through to 3rd. Give it welly 😁, get the most out of 3rd until you hear the engine wanting the change, then pull the selector straight back to 4th without a pause. All nice and smooth honestly 👍 Come to a stop, put it into neutral. Never idle in gear especially on a wet road as the flywheel housing can overheat and if it gets in contact with a wet road it may go up in flames, one of the first things we learnt at Chiswick. From my garage we only ever used 1st in one location, a steep incline near Swiss Cottage. Even crawling around the garage to reach the watering point we crept round in 2nd (auto top 4th position), 1st just strains too much at low speed. So basically we drove with a combination of auto and manual but only paused after using 1st. Best buses I have ever driven and I've driven quite a few especially with Wilts & Dorset as was.

Be interesting to know how many RMs still have original engines, be it AEC or Leyland.

Thanks for the quick tutorial..... i'm being thrown in at the deep end in a couple of days driving RM1380 😄

What is the top speed of a routemaster?

The square box next to the starter is the microphone for the two way radio to communicate with the depot and find out about incidents on route

🇨🇦 Hi 👋 Alan thank you for the Lovely Ridealong 🚎

Great going along for the ride alan . Thanks for sharing ❤

That engine sounds strong and healthy! Fired up straight away and didn't miss a beat!

That’s a great restoration job , silly question but are you going to clean up and restore the dashboard and control side ?

As soon as i heard that engine idle, it brought back to my school days in the 60s. The 177 from Abbey Wood to my school at Charlton. Mother was a clippie at Abbey Wood, on the 161a, then the 180, and on to the 177 all the way to Blackfriars Embankment. LOVE IT.

"Errrgh, didn't like that. Felt horrible 🤢". Loved that bit 😅😅😅👍!

Anything like this is right up my street. Fantastic! Great stuff!😊

What a good old girl this bus is great in looks you can't beat a this old girl she's the best

Great video but...select gear then release hand brake. Likewise, hand brake then in to neutral. RM's in the original configuration can be driven as auto or semi auto, like the BL class and a few others. From a gear in to neutral then in to the next gear is the correct way.

Come on Alan! let's see more Routemaster action, hope your ok.

Climbing out of the cab forwards. No! No! No! You never saw a service driver do that, nor any professional trick driver today.

Lovely video bought back many happy memories , I wish you all the best in keeping her on the road 👍🇬🇧

With practice you could quickly flick up through the gears,going down you paused in neutral and gave it a rev. Driving in automatic was boring and was more Jerry and was not appreciated by your conductor or "clippy".

Rip

i love these old buses, up north i remember traveling to school on a bristol lodeka, (also painted red) which are very simlar to the routemaster, esp the lodeka,s with the rear entry that had a manual folding door in two halfs that was rairly ever closed even in winter, there were single bristol lodekas aswell, but we mainly allways had the double deckers on for school, another differance i remember was a long bench seat behind the driver that faced the oppisate way, both styles to me are lovely in design & as far as i,m concerned they look like a bus should look, where as today, i dont know what they look like, esp todays single decker buses that look as though they.ve came out of a sausage making machine, cos they have no shape or form & you can hardly tell the differance from front to back, god knows whos designed them.. enjoyed all your videos btw.

I drove the RM and RML late seventies and eighties out of Tottenham bus garage AR they were nice machines we then had to go on the Metro bus much easier to drive but just wasn’t the same

What a lovely old bus, built to last forever, engine runs on just above tickover through all the gears, you can keep all your modern eco boom plastic engines that will be lucky to do 90,000 miles

Handbrake neutral, not neutral handbrake

Check water level with the engine running.

much too quick

Thank you. My late father drove these in the 60s in london out of kilburn and battersea garages. His view from the cab would have been different though.

Hello Alan, been a while since you posted a video, I am sure we are all concerned and hope all is well, I live in Wisbech and came through your village a week ago and saw your RM parked at home , hope you are well. Dave.

Do you know Pete and his bus?

on these busses how do you change the destination blinds

Lovely!!!

And to think I sold my one :-/

Is this semi automatic manual transmission with automatic clutch ? We never had this in mass production in Germany, only manual transmission, oder Automatic Transmission with TorqueConverter.

I now realise that it could be worse, my neighbours only have works vans and a motorhome.... Jealous of your reversing ability as I struggle to reverse my Viva into my (wide) driveway and have given up even attempting to reverse it into the garage 😓

Hello Alan I've been checking out the bus and what a great idea running fish and chips, when are gonna load up a new video 👍

Lovely gear changes there. May have been mentioned before. Maybe work on the downward changes. Same as upward changes but with a blip on the accelerator in neutral. Rather like double de clutching with a manual gearbox. Keep the videos coming. Thoroughly enjoyed. 😊

Just love that video thanks for sharing

Alan mate! What you been up to? Hope this message finds you well. Hope to hear from you soon. Enjoyed your videos! Danny in america

Great video 😊

I didn't see you complete a daily walk round check

I had my first drive of a Routmaster the other day. Loved it, So much more fun then the moden things we have to drive these days. I want one. Sadly i can't aford one and i've no where to park one.

Will you be making anymore videos?

Very good alan,👍🇬🇧