That delightful-looking one-and-a-half-decker coach was operated by BEA (or British European Airways), one of the two nationalised airlines created after the Second World War (the other was BOAC, or British Overseas Airways Corporation) which would eventually be merged into British Airways.
BEA had a fleet of these fine beasts that shuttled between Heathrow Airport and what was known as the West London Air Terminal -- a vast check-in area in South Kensington on a triangle of land above Underground railway sidings (it's now occupied by an equally vast Sainsburys).
The idea was that you would go to the WLT and check in, go through Customs and dump your bags, go through passport control, and then join the coach which would whisk you to Heathrow (or, rather, which would grind along the congestion of the A4 and reach Heathrow an hour or so later).
BOAC ran a similar operation from their much more conveniently sited and very swanky Art Deco terminal at Victoria Station, although this BOAC bus is seen at Heathrow:
The Victoria Air Terminal was in the old Imperial Airways building, which is now occupied by the National Audit Office but outside which you can still see this rather glorious sculpture Speed Wings Over the World, by Eric Broadbent -- the "speedwing" was the symbol of Imperial Airways, and the call sign of British Airways jets is still "Speed Bird xxx":
That's one of my ancient photos, of which I'm very fond, but back to BEA.
They didn't just use those fabulous RF coaches:
And, obviously, there were a couple of livery variations, too:
All that has disappeared, of course, with the extension of the Underground to Heathrow Airport and, subsequently, the opening of the Heathrow Express. I still miss the opportunity to dump luggage early on in the journey to the plane (there was a shortlived experiment which enabled you to check-in at Paddington Station). The Swiss seem able to do this, so I wonder why it is beyond us?
4 comments:
I once checked in at Paddington rather than Heathrow, for the experience; the girls on the desk seemed baffled. It seemed the Paddington assignment was mainly a skive...
I used the Paddington check-in several times, always marvelling at the convenience. And the Victoria check-in for Gatwick was equally useful.
All gone now, in the dual names of economics and "security" -- apparently those cunning terrorists might have checked in their luggage and then not boarded the train... FFS.
You may like to know that the BEA (and later BA) vehicles were operated by London Transport on behalf of the airline. The RFs were at one stage kept in the basement of Victoria bus garage prior to the trolleybus depot at Hammersmith (Butterwick) becoming available for the fleet. RF and RM vehicles were specified by LT to enable them to fit the overhaul process at Aldenham Works. The precursor to the RM vehicles was RMF1254 which was turned out (with a baggage trailer) in full LT livery of the time but never turned a wheel in revenue service. Instead it toured the country as a demonstrator, finishing up with Northern General in Newcastle, who purchased a number of front entrance RMs.
Oh, these pictures are a delight, LeDuc! Classic buses are a secret passion of mine and these are fantastic examples. The ones pictured at Heathrow must date from the time when the terminals had the grand and wonderful mnemonics of Britannic, Oceanic and Europa.
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