London Bus liveries 1980s-1990s

[Phil R]

Morning

 

Been researching London bus liveries from the mid 80s to mid 90s.

As I understand it, buses carried the white LT roundel until Dec 1987 when LONDON BUSES in red on a yellow background was added to the horizontal bar. Then on 1st April 1989 the various bus units were formed eg Leaside with the Swan logo.

Can anyone confirm this please ?

Also, were the changes carried out overnight on the changeover date or did some buses run round for months with the previous livery?

There seem to be very few diecast models available that are correct for the 1988/early 89 period (ie updated roundel but without bus unit name and logo).

 

Hope that all makes sense.

 

Many thanks

 

Phil

[SRman]

As with railway stock, it takes time to change everything over, so there were some buses running around with older liveries and insignia or even hybrid liveries. I can't confirm the dates you have, although they sound about right to me.

[BernardTPM]

The 'yellow' background on the revised roundel was really more a buff colour. A grey skirt was added to this 'new' livery after a while. I have a London Buses Handbook for 1997 with the pictures mainly taken in 1995-6 and none had the London Buses roundel by then, though some of the liveries did feature the grey shirt.

[Phil R]

Thanks gentlemen for your replies and my apologies for not acknowledging them before now.

 

One of the biggest issues I have found when researching both road and rail on the internet is the accuracy of dates of photographs. Quite a number are undated or obviously incorrect.  The "taken on" date on flickr is often when it was uploaded and can be years out.

You can look at background details such as vehicle registration plates or liveries/logos but sometimes you are still left with a wide timespan.

 

Regards

 

Phil