London Routemasters in the Late 1970s and Early 1980s

The Routemaster is the iconic London bus, recognised around the world. This pictorial account features previously unseen pictures of the ubiquitous RM, far and wide throughout the network during the period 1976-83, which included the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, when 25 of the type were specially painted in an all-over silver color scheme. By the end of this period buses formerly allocated to the country garages had mainly gravitated back to the central area, some of which saw further passenger service while others were converted to driver training buses. It was also around this time that London Transport began to dispose of their RMs in significant numbers.

Mike Rhodes hails from Preston and became interested in both road and rail transport from an early age. He has published several books and has been photographing buses since 1974.