Not known, but as there is no obvious physical restriction, it may have been due to the rural and infrequent nature of the service.  It is notable that all of the G-series routes operated in the Romford area in the 1920s and early 30s were single-decked.

RF415 sits in Victoria Road, Romford, on the stand used for the 250 and 86 in the early days of the Romford Ring Road.  This is soon after the route had been cut back from Hornchurch in 1973, at which point short-workings to Passingford Bridge were added to replace journeys on route 175.  Thanks to SCT61 for helping identify the stand!

Photo © Paul Redmond

Route history

Meanwhile, in October 1934, the 250 had a partner route 250^A, also from Gordon Avenue, which diverged at Passingford Bridge for Ongar.  As would be expected in such sparsely populated country, the routes were infrequent even then, with about six through journeys each day on each. The 250^A became the 123 (and later still the 175) when double-decked in December 1936, whereupon the section south of Romford Station was replaced by an increased service on the 250. 

Improved frequencies in 1943 and again in 1946 increased the vehicle requirement to 4 (5 on Sundays), still met by the now elderly petrol-engined 1T1s, occasionally supplemented by ex-Tilling 3T3s.  In October 1948, the first four of the second batch of TDs went to Hornchurch for the 250, with a single 1T1 retained as a spare and for the Sunday service until a fifth TD became available (on conversion of the 247 single-deck workings and 248 to TD - from LTL and T respectively - in April 1949).

In May 1950, the route was extended to Hornchurch Garage, an arrangement that was to stand (except for Sundays in that first winter) for 23 years.  At the same time, the introduction of Sunday short workings between Epping and Theydon Bois increased the vehicle requirement, leading to the reappearance of two Ts (from the 252 allocation) on Sundays for that first summer.  For the summer of 1951, the shorts were replaced by an increase in frequency of through journeys from 30 to 20 minutes.  The Sunday requirement was now 7, the extra 3 TDs being available from the 248 and newly-converted 238.  These extra summer Sunday journeys worked each year until 1954.

The next change was the re-allocation of the 250 and its four TDs to Romford North Street (NS) garage on its opening on 12 Aug 53; the 238 and 248 did not move across and it is presumed that the extra Sunday buses were borrowed from RD. 

In November 1958, the route was rerouted south of Epping away from the direct 20 route to serve Ivychimneys Road, opening up new bus territory.  The next change was a curious extension, of certain Monday to Saturday afternoon journeys and just for eight weeks from February to April 1959, to Upminster and over the old 249 (withdrawn the previous year) to Corbets Tey.  These ceased on the reintroduction of the 249, now renumbered 248^A and operating Monday to Friday peaks only.

Conversion to RF operation came a few months later, in July 1959, by which time it was the only single-deck route operating in the Romford area.  The route was obviously suited to OMO conversion, and it was one of the first four in November 1964.

The route continued unchanged (other than local rerouting on the redevelopment of Romford centre) until cut back from Hornchurch to Romford Station on 16 Jun 73.  On the same date, Monday to Saturday Passingford Bridge to Romford Station shorts were introduced, in replacement for these journeys on the immensely complex RT-operated 175 (whose through journeys to Ongar were covered by the new 175^A).  The final change during RF operation was an extension in Epping to serve St Margaret's Hospital from November 1974. 

The route was finally converted to BL operation in April 1976, lasting less than eight months before discontinuation on 8 January 1977.  During their early days, the BLs were very unreliable, leading to gaps of up to three hours on this hourly route.  Consideration was given to bringing back RFs, but this was not actioned.  The 250 was replaced by joining the route end-to end with BL-operated 247 (Romford to Brentwood), making it then the longest route in London, with a journey time of around 100 minutes.

The 247 was itself to be finally withdrawn in July 1981.  Following the withdrawal of TfL from the area north-west of Passingford Bridge, the service between Abridge and Epping has become embroiled in the turmoil of Harlow's bus services.  After a period of no provision, the Greater London part of the route has been covered with one bus (except Sundays) by TfL route 375 between Romford and Passingford Bridge (still in the middle of nowhere); see Robert Munster's London Bus Routes site.