Red RF routes

Route 108

Page last updated 19 October 2017
 
Unfortunately, I do not have permission to upload pictures of RFs on the 108, although I can send them on request.  Ron Wellings' pictures show RF304 and RF445 at either end of this short working, the southern end in Devas Street against a backdrop of the Victorian hospital and a cleared bomb site.
 
Meanwhile, this is Bromley by Bow High Street in 1953.  RF445 leads another RF and bears a 208 blind from a Scooter.
Note Barton's Cooperage in the background.
Photo © Alan Cross
 
Dates of RF operation

10 Jun 53 to 4 Jul 53

and

? April 1967

 

Destinations

BROMLEY BY BOW Edgar Road and BROMLEY BY BOW Devas Street

 

RF Garages

D      Dalston

 

Reason for single-deck operation

The temporary working used Devons Road to link the Seven Stars terminus in Edgar Road with the short-working terminus of the main 108 in Devas Street.  Devons Road has a 12' bridge under the railway.

 

By a happy coincidence, the Barton's Cooperage building bears number 108.  Their Leyland Beaver ENJ903 in this 1952 photo demonstrates the amount of empty space being carried when transporting barrels, no doubt destined for local breweries.

Photo Arthur Hustwitt Memorial Collection © NA3T

 

Route history

The history of route 108 is provided on the 208 page, as the 208 (formerly 108D) started life as a short-working of route 108.

 

The reason for inclusion here of a separate page is that a temporary supplementary service was twice introduced on the 108 at Bromley by Bow, first on 10 Jun 53 and second 'at the end of April' 1967, because road works made double-deck through-running impossible (in 1953 the road works were possibly on the bridge at Bromley by Bow Station, in 1967 on St Leonards Road, presumably in connection with the imminent opening of the second bore of the Blackwall Tunnel) .  The period of the 1953 single-bus shuttle was 3½ weeks, but in 1967 is not known.  The main 108 service (and in 1967, the 108A) terminated south of the road works at Devas Street, and it seems likely that its timings were retained with a longer lay-over.  Certainly in 1953, there was no change to the main allocation.

 

The workings were not recorded in traffic circulars or allocation books, but internal LT records from 1953 provide details of the dates operated.  Formal blinds were manufactured in 1953, even for such a temporary working.  They read '108 Bromley Stn and Bromley High St'.  In 1967, blinds reportedly read 'Emergency Service'.

 
RF route in detail
BROMLEY by BOW Edgar Road, High Street Bromley by Bow (return via St Leonard's Street, Bruce Road to Edgar Road), Devons Road, Devas Street, BROMLEY by BOW Devas Street (return via St Leonard's Street, Marner Street).

 

RF allocation

PVR 1953 (Jun): Mon-Fri 1(*), Sat 1, Sun 1

PVR 1967 (Apr): 1

* it has been claimed that three buses were in use, which might be needed if every journey were to be met in the peaks, but both available photos show buses running as D1 and a gaggle of passengers boarding, as if a queue had built up.  Other available information suggests one bus was used.

 

Map extract © Philips 1930, showing 1953 details