THE LONDON & HOME COUNTIES SHOWBUS BUS IMAGE GALLERY
Red Rover DMS buses
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140 |
  
 
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 Freshly arrived at the Red Rover depot around September 1979, 140 (MLK419L) is being inspected on the hoist. The bus had spent most of its London life working out of Norbiton depot.
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 Not too long after, a freshly painted 140 is seen at Westcott Bus Station. One might wonder why such a small village at Westcott had a Bus Station, but it was part of the Ministry of Defence Propellants, Explosives and Rocket Motor Establishment (PERME). In its heyday the Ministry ran its own fleet of buses, in military green, on a network of local routes designed to bring workers in from the local villages. Red Rover participated in this, its route to Bicester neatly timed to ferry workers along that route. Route 1 provided a link to Aylesbury and the bus was used inside the Establishment to collect workers and bring them to the Bus Station. Drivers enjoyed this as it they got to race down the runway as they transvered the old World War II airfield. The airstrip has another claim to fame as Superman landed there once, actor, the late Christopher Reeve, had problems with his light aircraft one summer's day around 1985 and had to make an emergency landing on the then mothballed airstrip. Luckily he did not meet a DMS coming the other way! It is still known in aviation circles as it serves as a waypoint for aircraft traversing the country. However the MoD has now vacated the site which these days is known as Westcott Venture Park.
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 Back in the early eighties Milton Keynes Shopping City was new. Red Rover started a couple of weekly shoppers services targeting Milton Keynes Market Day. They also had an evening run in the opposite direction bringing folk to Aylesbury to play bingo! The new city lacked such a facility.
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 A second view of 140 on a spartan Midsummer Boulevard, looking much different today.
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 Clearly 140 was there for Market Day and had probably done service 515 from Great Missenden via a swathe of villages to the new shopping metropolis. The other service came from the Bicester direction and because of low bridges needed a singledecker.
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