THE SHOWBUS LONDON BUS IMAGE GALLERY
Blue liveried RT family buses
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 New in 1954 with a Park Royal body in Green Line livery RT4497 (OLD717) had a conventional London life, gaining a Weymann body in 1966 and passing to the fledgling London Country Bus Services. Unusually in 1972 it was bought back by London Transport and painted red in 1972 only to be sold the following year to Wolfee Garage in Westerham. It was rallied for a while and found itself converted by Leavesden Studios as the Harry Potter Knight Bus in 2003. It nearly came to SHOWBUS in 2005, it was languishing at Pinewood Studios and we had a well placed contact at the Studio who knew Sir John Mills who could probably have pulled the right strings, but sadly Sir John passed away before we got that far. Shortly after the bus was moved to the new Harry Potter Studio Tour near Watford where it is seen on display. Other similar attractions in Florida and California at least have replica Knight Buses, but this is the original. Others are based on the Routemaster and achieve the third deck by squeezing it in (externally at least) between the two existing decks. Picture ref A3340 |
An offside view of RT4497.
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This view gives an insight as to how the additional middle deck altered the rake of the bus' front profile.
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The rear view shows the bus still sporting its original registration.
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The bus is surrounded by buildings used on the Harry Potter sets.
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