Looking rather battered, Green Line RF33 waits at Hampton Court Station.  It was one of those painted in the experimental light green livery, outshopped from Aldenham in 1960 and running from Reigate on the 711, then loaned to Fulwell for three months in early 1963 before going on to Northfleet.

Photo Ian Armstrong collection

Although served by the Surbiton to Cobham railway since 1885, Claygate did not have a bus service until the introduction of the 206 in May 1936 to serve the growth in housing.   One-man operated by Kingston garage and running between Claygate The Causeway and Esher every half hour, the service initially used DA-class Darts.  Cubs were allocated briefly over the 1936/7 winter, but the petrol-engined Darts were finally withdrawn at the outbreak of war and replaced by Cubs.

OMO Cub operation continued through the war years, with the route being extended in 1942, first just to Lower Green in peak hours and Saturday afternoons from March to May only, then Monday to Saturday (except evenings) to Imber Court Ember Lane from December - but via Portsmouth Road, not Lower Green.

OMO working came to an end, first time round, on 10 Sep 46 when the route was converted to 14T12 crew operation and extended daily north of Imber Court to Hampton Court Station.  A further small extension came in June 1950 when the Claygate terminus moved south to Holroyd Road.

After the trams came the trolleybuses.  After the trolleybuses came the RFs (and RMs).  Fulwell Depot on 7 Sep 69, and RFs have been in residence for over 7 years.  RF524 ready for the 206 stands in front of two Routemasters on trolleybus replacement routes 281 (601) and 267 (667).   RFs again stood on the forecourt on the 30th anniversary RF celebration on 22 Mar 09.

Photo © Peter Esposito

Still (nominally) T-operated, the allocation moved to the new Norbiton (NB) garage in May 1952, where the Ts were officially replaced by TDs in October 1954.  Two months later, the route was diverted to run north and west of Sandown Park, finally serving Lower Green again. 

Just before the TDs were replaced at NB, Sunday operation moved back to Kingston in May 1959.  On 10 June, a batch of RFs arrived at NB; these were part of the batch which had been converted for one-man operation but which could not be introduced as such, pending union agreement (which came five years later).  These doored buses converted the 206 and 264, ousting Norbiton's TDs.  Others went to Kingston for the 216; as K's first RFs, they could not be introduced until crew training was completed and they did so on 1 July.  Sunday 206 operation therefore waited three weeks for conversion.

Operation of the 206 moved to Fulwell as part of the reshuffle following the end of the trolleybus era on 8 May 1962, bringing garage journeys via Hampton Hill.

On 18 Nov 64, London Transport finally realised its ambition to bring one-man operation back to the Central Area, and four routes were converted - the 206, Norbiton's 201, Kingston's 216 and North Street's deeply rural 250.  The route then continued unchanged for 12 years until 1976, when it was converted to BL operation. 

However the end was near, and the route ran its last journey on 28 Oct 78, effectively absorbed into the 215.  Steve Thomson lives in Claygate and notes that the change was regarded there as "something of a triumph for local pressure over LT.  When the 206 went, Claygate at last got a direct link to Surbiton & Kingston, the places in demand then and now - and the 15-min service offered by the K3 today is probably the best that Claygate has ever had."  Towards the other end of the route, in Ember Lane, Richard Day laments the passing of RFs running the 206.  "If only they were running now.  I think it was a seven day a week, every twenty minute service.  These days we have the 515, which runs Monday to Saturday daytime, once an hour. Well, that’s progress for you."

Re-creation

The 206 was RF operated at our Kingston RF Event 2009.

RF326 pauses at Esher The Bear during the 2009 Kingston event.

Photo © Steve Bidey