Barking
“RT80” Anniversary Event
30/3/19
This event commemorated two major anniversaries of the RT type – it was 80 years since the famous class was introduced, and forty years since the last was withdrawn from London service (on route 62). The last garage to operate the type was Barking and Stagecoach kindly made the garage available for the day. Go Ahead also made their River Road garage available for RTs in other liveries, plus other types, to be displayed.
The displays at Barking were intended to be that the garage yard would contain all of the RTs in the later all-red livery but it didn’t quite work out that way. We didn’t mind our two RTs being parked together, though!
In the afternoon, our two RTs went out on a short trip for photographers to Little Heath, a terminus of route 62 in earlier days.
There was much activity at River Road garage too, although we ourselves didn’t have time to visit there. RTs not in Central area colours were displayed there, along with RFs and other types – some of which operated local services.
At the end of the day, 29 RTs formed a cavalcade into Barking town centre and back.
Apparently the grand total of RT family vehicles present was 50, this was a fantastic achievement. We think it is the best event we have participated in since we bought our first bus in 1983.