Undaunted by a national rail strike, visitors found other ways of travelling to Wiltshire in mid-August to seize the annual opportunity of riding on classic London doubledeckers across the Salisbury Plain military range
The busy scene at Gore Cross, connection point for 23A journeys to different parts of Salisbury Plain. The original 30ft Routemaster, RML880 in the RATP heritage fleet, is in the centre behind Ensignbus RML2734 and ahead of Go-Ahead’s open-top RML2318. Many are boarding the open-topper on the far left, the London Bus Company’s RT3435.
DARREN HALL
RML2735, in CentreWest livery with branding for places served by the 23A, outside Tilshead Village Hall where tea rooms were open and a sales stand was located. This Cummins-engined Routemaster is owned by Imberbus organiser Sir Peter Hendy, current chair of Network Rail who was managing director of CentreWest. Behind it is MCW Metrobus M1, now part of the Ensignbus heritage fleet.
DARREN HALL
Having overcome the restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic, which prevented it happening in 2020, Imberbus faced another challenge this year, with Saturday August 20 one of the days when the Rail Maritime & Transport (RMT) union called a national strike on the rail network.
