The London Routemaster bus is probably the most famous bus design ever produced, an icon of the capital's transport that is recognised throughout the world. Over 2,760 of them were built between 1954 and 1968 and until December 2005 hundreds of them still operated in London until being phased out in favour of contemporary low floor designs.

Between 1982 and 1988, conversion of routes to one man operation resulted in large numbers of Routemasters (RMs) being withdrawn from service in London. Following the deregulation of bus services outside London in 1986 new private operators saw conductor operated RMs as giving them a competitive advantage to win customers. Hundreds of them were quickly snapped up to operate in towns and cities such as Carlisle, Glasgow, Hull, Manchester, Southend and Southampton. Blackpool too purchased twelve in 1986/8 and operated the type until 1996. No. 521 was the pilot Routemaster that introduced the type to Blackpool in January 1986 before a decision was made to purchase further examples.

As RM1583 it was new in May 1963 to Mortlake garage where it operated until May 1975 when it was transferred to Tottenham garage for service 73, that will finally cease Routemaster operation in Autumn 2004. It remained at Tottenham until its last overhaul in February 1980 when it received the body no.B1354 (London Transport separated body and chassis at overhaul) from RM1227. It was transferred upon completion of overhaul to Croydon where it remained until withdrawn in July 1984, following the cessation of conductor operation at that garage.

Following withdrawal it was stored initially at Croydon but later at the former AEC Southall works along with many other withdrawn buses until it was selected to travel north to Blackpool. A handful of rear entrance PD3s were in service at the time, so the RMs fitted in well on the town's remaining conductor operated services 5, 14 and 22/22A. Subsequently, RM1583 was acquired and renumbered 521 in the Blackpool fleet and followed by five further examples from the capital.

Unusually, Blackpool chose to repaint the RMs in 1930s style red and white livery and No. 521 was the first to receive this in May 1986. Later in the year the Routemasters were dedicated to service 12 that was converted back to conductor operation in October 1986 (to compete with Fylde Transport). Initially operating between Blackpool and Squires Gate, but later extended through to St. Annes in competition with Fylde Transport's "Blue Buses". In 1988, six more Routemasters were acquired for operation on the sea front bus service and a further example was acquired in December 1989.

In common with trends elsewhere, Blackpool's town services were gradually converted to one man operation and for many years the RMs were confined to summer season use on the Pontins to Gynn Square service until 1994. The following year the RMs were confined to depot but came out of retirement briefly in 1996 for a Park & Ride service to Lytham Open Golf Championships in July, with Nos. 521-524 being retained for operation of the Zoo service for the rest of the year.

In 1997, Blackpool Transport finally decided to sell them and all remaining examples were sold to Reading Mainline for further service - despite being over 30 years old! Operation in Reading was relatively short-lived after the business was sold to its competitor Reading Buses. However, in a twist of fate, Transport for London needed more RMs back in the capital to improve the frequency on some services still operated by Routemasters in advance of congestion charging. Eight of the ex-Blackpool RMs were refurbished by Marshalls of Cambridge and returned to London where some are still in operation on the retained Routemaster heritage routes 9 and 15.

No. 521 however passed to Walkabout Inns as a promotional bus and toured the country until 2003 when it became surplus to requirements. A deal was struck for it to be acquired for the LTT collection. So, Blackpool's first Routemaster returned to the resort in September 2003 secured for the LTT collection. 

Over the winter of 2003/2004 it was completely repanelled and paint stripped by LTT volunteers. In June 2004, 521 returned to its vintage style Blackpool red and white livery repainted by S&T Coachpainters of Blackburn and fitted with authentic style destination blinds manufactured by McKenna Brothers in Manchester. Later, in November 2006 the bus was upgraded back to Class VI psv standard, fitted with a tachograph and operated for Classic Bus in 2007 on sea front 12 service. 

For more information on the London Routemaster visit www.routemaster.org.uk