In the Summer of 1985 RM 652 left the LT Sales Department for a trial period of use with Clydeside Buses in Scotland as they explored possibilities that could be available with deregulation in 1986. The end result was the mass purchase of RM`s which took to the road with pro-active publicity aimed at bringing the merits of crew operation to a wide audience. RM 652 was often the bus depicted.

It was probably because of Clydeside`s enthusiastic approach to restoring crew operation that other operators around the UK tried it too. But as we all know, these various operations soon lost the novelty factor in the face of rising costs.

So it was quite a surprise a few years later to find that the principle of crew operation would create a resurgence of interest in London with RM`s being bought back from all over the UK. In a bizarre twist of fate, among the many sourced was RM 652 and it`s still in service now on the 15`s some thirty years after first leaving LT.

Yesterday evening I travelled on it. I`ve been on it before and probably sat upstairs but sitting yesterday at the front of the lower deck there was an unexpected surprise that I had to take a photo of. The outer perspex cover of the illuminated advert box was missing revealing the inner Perspex covering over the fluorescent tube. Adverts were never pasted onto that inner cover in LT days but someone at Clydeside around thirty years ago must have thought it suitable. And thirty years later back in London the advert is still there, albeit faded and dirty, for anyone to read and has a wonderful irony about it all things considered!