As mentioned earlier this week, today a collection of buses plied their trade around North London offering free rides to anyone after a dose of nostalgia.

Although there were routemasters taking people from central London to the area, I decided to take a ride from Edgware to the RAF museum in a single-decker bus.

Once at Edgware, there was a little difficulty in finding a local bus stop map to locate “Stop A” where the bus would pick us up from though – and I could see quite a few other people wandering round with event guides and looking a bit lost.

Incidentally, another reason not to trust the bus maps is that someone decided to put up a map of local shops selling bus tickets – but evidently didn’t understand that Edgware Station in Edgware is not at all close to Edgware Road Station in central London.

Anyhow, two vintage buses arrived one after the other, and after one person tried to get on thinking it was a normal bus, the rest of us were able to embark for a more interesting trip to the museum.

Like all bad school kids, I chose to sit at the back of the bus.

Fortunately, this was a swift route without the tedious stopping every few minutes at bus stops and we made our way over to the RAF Museum which was acting as the hub for most of the bus routes.

Another nice change was the lack of smell of McDonalds or the sound of mobile phones being used as portable jukeboxes by idiots who think everyone shares their taste in music. The seats were also spotlessly clean.

However, as with many vintage events, the greatest pleasure comes from sitting on the bus (or train etc) and seeing the looks of surprise in the bystanders. This time it seemed that the children delivered the greatest smiles along the route, although the occasional adult seemed to realise bus was a bit different and looked up in surprise.

I really should try saving the pennies for a trip on one of the steam trains that travel around London and see if that has the same “bystander effect”.

At the RAF Museum, the buses were turning around their routes and some were stopping for a while as the drivers nipped off to use the loo and drink coffee.

The day was organised by Red-RF, who seem to do these events every few years.

A few more photos over at my usual Flickr account

Fancy a trip on a vintage red bus?

Then you are in luck as this coming Sunday(29th August), a collection of vintage buses, all at least 45 years old will be plying the very same routes that they would have travelled along in the 1960s and collecting passengers as usual. However, unlike those days of old, there will be no need to hunt out old shillings and pennies as the whole event is free of charge.

Most of the buses line up before a previous run-out

In addition to local services running around North London, some long journeys will operate on routes from central London in the morning. These will generally be Routemaster-operated. Details here

In total, nine routes are being recreated based on the layout of the bus routes in the 1960s – taking passengers to the RAF Museum in Collindale – which is also free to enter and can easily suck away hours of time if you haven’t been before.

There will be a commemorative guide to the event which will be on sale in the RAF Museum. In addition, there will be a limited static display of buses on the forecourt of the RAF Museum, including buses laying over between services.

The following services are planned for operation, generally between about 10.30 am and 5 pm.

Most buses will start and finish their duties at the RAF Museum.  For the other main boarding points on each route, see the route details and the programme.

The most frequently served places will be the following:

All vehicles are over 45 years old, some over 60. They are privately owned and cared for so there is an understandable ban on food/drink when on the buses.

This coming Friday (20th August) marks two very special events.

Spitfire P7350 (Mk IIa)

There will be a reciting of Winston Churchill’s famous speech, “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few”, at precisely 3:52pm, marking the 70th anniversary of the day – and time -  the speech was originally delivered by Churchill.

The recital will take place outside the Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall – and will be followed by a flypast over Whitehall by a Spitfire and a Hurricane at 4pm.

The Spitfire is P7350, the oldest airworthy Spitfire and the only Spitfire still flying to have actually fought in the Battle of Britain, while the Hurricane is LF363, the last Hurricane to enter service with the RAF.

Veteran Battle of Britain pilots will also be at the Cabinet War Rooms, although I am not sure if they are doing anything public or are just there for the benefit of the media.

In addition though – the flypast will be part of an all-day event where two Spitfires and the Hurricane will fly over all the key Battle of Britain fighter bases.

Click for a zoomable Google map of the route over London

The map presumes they are flying point to point and not diverting anywhere

The key times and venues for us in London (and South East) are:

…coming in from oop Norf

13:08 – Rochester

13:13 – Gravesend

13:18 – West Malling

13:29 – Redhill

13:30 – Kenley

13:37 – Croydon

13:40 – Biggin Hill – Land

15:40 – Biggin Hill – Take-off

16:00 – Cabinet War Offices

16:03 – Hendon (RAF Museum)

16:06 – Bentley Priory

16:16 – High Wycombe

…down to Southampton and Portsmouth then back up again

17:15 – Uxbridge

17:20 – Northolt – Landing

The full map for the whole UK route is available via this PDF file.

Other blog posts you might like:

List of military fly pasts over London (and surrounds)

Visiting the “Battle of Britain” Underground Bunker

When the Central Line was used as a fighter plane factory

About a week ago, I had a press release from the RAF Museum in North London announcing a small bit of significant history was about to occur – but failed to mention the date.

I however, then kept forgetting to contact them to find out when it would happen – and erm, today seems to be the day.

The event is in itself, not huge – a small boat will travel around the parts of the UK visiting various ports, including St Katherine’s Dock near the Tower of London. However, this is the ST206, a Seaplane Tender from the 1930s – and most importantly, it will be the last RAF boat to fly the RAF Ensign on the water.

From the RAF Museum:

The small launch, ST206, was used by the RAF to ferry passengers and crew to and from the giant flying boats of the 1930s and was used as a fire tender and rescue launch during the Second World War.

The launch was developed by TE Lawrence – Lawrence of Arabia – in his little-know career after his famous desert exploits in World War One.

Sitting at home working this lunchtime, I looked up to see a small boat going past the flat, flying the distinctive RAF Ensign and after a moment to realise what was going on, ran out and grabbed a photo.

ST-206 on the Thames - click for larger version

Although I can’t see the boat number on the front, a few checks on Google seems to confirm that it is indeed the ST-206 heading up the river.

If you want to see the last boat to fly the RAF flag, then head over to St Katherine’s Dock.

After the final journey is finished, the boat will be taken by road to the RAF Museum to be put on display.

If you are an auction house wanting to sell large items – such as maybe, a collection of cars, then you need somewhere to put them on display.

A large shed is ideal – and if it contains an equally large collection of vintage aircraft, all the better. That is the concept behind the annual car sale in North London and one of the key dates in my calendar.

As I have mentioned in the past, my knowledge of cars could be fitted onto the back of the proverbial postage stamp, but I can still appreciate the athletics, if not understanding the adoration they seem to elicit in the – usually male – audience.

As I wandered around photographing the cars and peering inside, often a chap would come up and exclaim “is that the [insert awestruck technical jargon] car?” to which I would have to explain that I had absolutely no idea what sort of car it was, let alone if it was the [insert awestruck technical jargon] version.

Sorry – I just don’t get it.

This year was extra special, for amongst the collection of cars with heritages that I couldn’t even begin to understand, was a car that I could actually get my head around. Yes, that Ferrari from the hit film, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was up for sale and as part of the generation that grew up with its teenage rebellion as an iconic image to aspire to, even if none of us ever did so.

For me, that car is iconic – not for the car, which is actually one of three replicas made for filming with – but for the message the film sends. To see a key prop from the film is therefore a quite spine tingling experience.

Bonhams, who were hosting the auction had made a great deal of fuss about the fact that they were selling this car, so when I got into the museum, I was surprised to see it almost hidden in a corner away from the main collection of vehicles. A single sign with the lot number to identify it – and nothing else to explain it heritage to the passers by who might have ventured in this corner of the building.

I wonder how many people visiting the museum this weekend will wander around seeing the nice, but average vintage cars and not realise that there is teenage rebellion lurking in the corner?

On the upside, it did mean I had the spot all to myself, and maybe for just a tiny moment, I understood how motor-fans can get so dewy eyed about cars.

If you want to see the exteriors (and smell the interiors) of a collection of vintage cars – you need to get over to the RAF Museum tomorrow as they will all be sold on Monday.

I took loads of photos – as usual on my Flickr Gallery.