Today marks thirty four years since Mortlake Garage closed - June 24 1983.

With the closure, another aspect of Routemaster operation finished.

The need for Route 33 buses to get to and from Mortlake Garage relevant to line of route on Upper Richmond Road at East Sheen involved crossing the railway at Mortlake Station. This, I believe, was the last instance of a Routemaster operated route using a railway level crossing. Until November 1979 such positioning trips were made out of service (dead) but a schedule change then made these journeys `live` and could thus carry passengers. True, there were only a handful of these runs predictably to take up service in the early mornings and to run back to the garage after the evening peak or at close of service so the number of passengers using them was minimal.





What a potentially frustrating piece of the route this was. A busy railway line with a hyper-active crossing gate that often stayed down for two trains to pass and within a minute of the gates lifting the red light could flash again and another long wait would occur. Annoying for a crew on their finishing trip to the garage and annoying for the point inspector at Queens Road who might expect a bus to arrive on time from the garage only to have it turn up ten minutes late having been on the road for less than twenty minutes.




The pictures here of RM 1631 on 21 June 1983 typify the situation just a few days before it finished for ever - or at least so far as Routemaster operation went as a regular bus service along Sheen Lane was introduced many years later.