RF48 had arrived a little early at Bromley-by-Bow, but after a few minutes we could hear the distinctive sound of another RF approaching. It was RF486, arriving on the 208 rom Clapton Pond. It squeezed past RF28, and pulled up at the Seven Stars stance.
After giving time for a transfer of passengers RF28 was away again, heading back towards Leyton, pulling round past RF486 before looping back to the big roundabout.
I joined RF486, with Claire Green hugely enjoying herself at the wheel. We set off for the back streets route northwards. We turned off Bow Road up Fairfield Road, passing Bow garage and diving under the railway. A wriggle left and right took us into Parnell Road, where we met a pair of DMLs on the S2.
But the S2 turns off right to dive under the A12 dual carriageway, while our route continued north along Cadogan Terrace, nowadays no longer blessed with buses, but with plentiful parked cars and speed bumps. We proceeded decorously. A spot of excitement came as we came down towards Wick Road, as TD95 passed across our bows on the 236 towards Dalston.
We turned left, then right to pass under the very low bridge under the North London Line. This was too low even for RLHs, so the 178 had to pass under the next - higher- bridge to the east. We motored up Homerton High Street to reach Clapton Pond, where Claire pulled round onto the old stand by the pond - past the long line of two bendi-buses on the 38 before returning to the main road and our allocated stop.
I had no sooner alighted from RF486 when RF457 came past, also sporting 208 blinds. It headed on up towards the roundabout to turn.
RT2043 eased passed southwards in the heavy traffic heading south past Clapton Pond. RF486 completed unloading, and Claire reset the front blinds for the return journey to Bromley-by-Bow. I noticed that on the back it still wore its 208A blinds from earlier in the day.
RLH61 came up through the north-bound traffic on a terminating 178. I braved the traffic and crossed the road without losing any vital bits. RF457 came back down to load up again (or not), and was passed by RTL139, which pulled in to the stop.
I jumped onto the RTL, without really noticing where it was going...
All photos by Ian Smith. Click on most of them for a larger picture.
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