Photo © Roger Cox. Please do not re-post without permission.

The closure of the Westerham Valley Branch Line on 28 October 1961 provoked the ire of the wealthy residents along its route.
In 1965 London Transport rather belatedly espied an opportunity to upgrade the existing 705 Green Line into an upmarket commuter coach service from Sevenoaks via the Westerham valley to Bromley, London and onward to Windsor, and purchased fourteen Willowbrook bodied DP49F AEC Reliance 4U2RA with AH 690 11.3 litre engines coupled to five speed semi auto gearboxes.
The AH 690 was a wet liner engine, and all AEC wet liner motors were known to have intrinsic weaknesses that the manufacturer could never entirely resolve; indeed the firm gave up the struggle and went back to dry liners from the mid sixties. At the same time London Transport bought eight essentially similar machines, class EC, for their BEA contract operation to Heathrow, which differed only in respect of the passenger doorway design and in luggage provision. The RCs went into service early in 1966 followed by the ECs in July 1966, and almost immediately proved to be troublesome, allegedly in respect particularly of the engine wet liners causing overheating and in the dual circuit air braking system. Provincial operators persevered with their Reliances and coped with the shortcomings, but LT fundamentally capitulated, initially withdrawing their RC and EC fleets after less than two years in service. The RCs reappeared spasmodically on lighter duties in the ensuing twelve years, though much of that time was spent in store, and all were gone by 1977. RC11 was gutted by fire in 1971.
In the photo RC12, CUV70C, is seen on the A233 approaching Biggin Hill from Aperfield in the early summer of 1966 during the period when the type was first introduced on Green Line 705. Several sections of the A233 are now dual carriageway but this part seems to be still recognisable from nigh on sixty years ago. From Google Earth the exact location would appear to be at the junction with a very recent new roadway called Nightingale Close, where the now redundant dropped kerb remains evident on the right hand pavement.

Photo taken by Roger Cox, early summer 1966, A233 on the approach to Biggin Hill

©1966-2025 Roger Cox All Rights Reserved.
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