Worcester Park Running Day

Sunday 10th August 2008

Report and pictures

The 2008 Worcester Park Running Day saw 36 buses and 2 coaches, all over 40 years old, running in service in south London. Full details of the services and the history of the area are on the event pages.

74-year old STL441 suffered a fuel problem initially, but was soon fixed thanks to the experts from Cobham Bus Museum and was popular with a wide range of passengers when it entered service.

Photo © Peter Boalch

Conductors' log cards show that over 8,000 journeys were completed on the day, with the busiest period, not surprisingly, being early afternoon. This means that well over a thousand people came out to enjoy the buses.

On the day, a few services were lost due to the non-availability of RM1, which suffered a fuel problem on its way in the morning and retired, and also to fuel supply problems on two Cobham buses, although these were repaired and the buses ran for most of the day. Road congestion in South Wimbledon and elsewhere took its toll, but we were blessed with good weather and an incredible range of buses.

Unfortunately we again under-estimated demand and ran out of programmes (despite doubling the print run). However, a few spares surfaced and are still available. See here.

An enormous thank you is due to the crews, all of whom were volunteers, together with the behind-the-scenes help of many others. Over a hundred volunteers contributed to the day, and their efforts were kindly supported by London General, Epsom Coaches, TfL and South West Trains, who provided facilities for the event.

Feedback (and memories) from passengers now here, with more pictures!

The Gallery

In this section of the site, we show photos contributed by a large number of photographers, to whom our thanks for their support.

Part 1: Buses and coaches operating on the day

Part 2: Highlights

Part 3: Re-living 1948

Part 4: The 127

Part 5: The 213 and the single-deckers

Part 6: The 93 and the double-deckers

Part 7: Green Lines and coaches

Part 8: Scenes

Part 9: Volunteers

Part 10: Final selection

One of many highlights was the re-appearance on the 93 of a "pre-war RT" (properly a 2RT2, they were built in 1940), RT113. Passengers arriving from Epsom move on to the next treat.