I must have been at Aldenham on Nov 7th 1983 and took these pictures of RM 2052 which had recently been arson attacked at Peckham Garage. It had only been overhauled a few months before......

Noticed the cannibalisation of the other two vehicles in shot. Also seems strange that the front destination blind has survived the inferno.

November 1983 would have seen me working for the local Foden/Shelvoke & Drewry service agent - mud and muck, ah happy days.

RM 1244 was also from Peckham, it had been withdrawn some 5 months earlier there, which probably explains the cannibalisation. It went to Bus sales at Southall and was sold for scrap 18 months later.

My bus number (if any): RTL 960, RMC 1458 RM 1585, (M 961, M 271 - both sold) and several RTs

RM 2052 hung around at Aldenham until collected by PVS for scrap on July 16th/17th 1984 along with eleven long term withdrawn others dumped there.

RM 1244 didn`t go with this batch but hung on there even longer. Amazing what I recall from so long back but RM 1244 was there for an unusually long time. So I had another look and found that I have a picture of it at Bus Sales on 15 Sept 1983 and another of it at Aldenham taken eleven days later. Buses never went from Sales to Aldenham for continued storage as withdrawn stock so I looked a bit more. On my list of disposal dates I recorded RM 1244 as going to PVS on Jan 25th 1985 (along with others from Aldenham in the days before) with a note that it was a `wear and tear` withdrawal (probably cracked B Frame) but a further note `turn-over`. I reckon RM 1244 went from Bus Sales to Aldenham to be the turn-over demonstrator bus at the open day. I was a bit too busy dealing with the shuttle service to see what was going on at the open day but maybe someone will shed some light on my guess regarding RM 1244.

Yes, RM1244 was the turn over bus at the September 1984 Aldenham open day.

(I knew that I recognised that fleet number for some reason.)

My bus number (if any): RM1368

Thanks Andrew. I`m taking some more slides to be digitalised today so I`ll include the one of RM 1244 taken the day after the open day so we`ll be able to see how carefully it was tipped over and righted! Hopefully I`ll post it on here next weekend.

That explains why RSE don't have it as an unlicensed transfer to Works for that period.

My bus number (if any): RTL 960, RMC 1458 RM 1585, (M 961, M 271 - both sold) and several RTs