The Routemaster was the successor to the RT, and like in predecessor it was designed by London Transport to handle the rigors of service in the capital. The first production vehicles entered service in 1959, replacing trolleybuses at Popular and West Ham garages. In all over 2100 standard length Routemasters entered service between 1959 and 1964.

In 1961 a trial batch of 24 Routemasters were produced with 72 seats, this was an increase of 8 over the original version, and was achieved by adding an extra half bay to the centre of the bus. From 1965 all remaining production switched to this higher capacity version, which was classified RML.

A version of the original RM was also produced for use on the Green Line network, one of the four prototype Routemasters was built as a Green Line coach CRL4, following trials it was deemed a success and an order was placed for 68 Park Royal examples, these were given the class code RMC and were numbered RMC1453-1520. Apart from more luxurious seating, powered doors, and twin head lamps they differed little from the original bus version in appearance. With the introduction of the longer RML type further batches of Green Line vehicles were built to the new longer length and classified RCL.

All the remaining RMC vehicles passed to London Country when they took over London Transport's Country area in 1970. The RMC's were gradually replaced by more modern coaches on the Green Line network during late 1970's. The vehicles were then demoted to normal bus services and most continued in use until their withdrawal in the early 1980's.
In a final twist of fate almost all the vehicles along with the majority of London Country's surviving RCL's & RML's were repurchased by London Transport, the majority of the RMC's were converted to driver trainers or staff buses with those being deemed beyond economic repair being broken up for spares.

Following trials of the prototype long front entrance Routemaster RMF1254, a fleet of 65 short versions were produced for use on a service linking the Cromwell Road Air Terminal with Heathrow Airport, the service was operated on behalf of B.E.A. by London Transport and the buses were a common sight traveling along the A4 & M4 towing their special luggage trailers.
The full fleet continued in service until the late 1975 when the airport service began to be gradually rundown the service was finally withdrawn in 1979.

All 65 vehicles passed into the main London Transport fleet where they gained the RMA classification. The intention had been to use the RMA on normal services and a small batch were tested on route 175 in East London in 1975, unfortunately after less than a year the vehicles were deemed unsuitable for further normal passenger service and withdrawn. The RMA's were found a new use as staff buses transporting staff to and from Aldenham and Chiswick Works. Ten buses were converted to driver trainers which required the removal of the staircase and the fitting of a extra offside window in place of the original staircase panel.

The RM fleet remained almost intact until the Fairs Fares ruling in the mid 1980's, which resulted in the first large scale withdrawal of the RM class. This coincided with the de-regulation of the rest of the UK bus industry, and many operators saw the crew operated Routemaster, as an effective weapon in this new era of competition.

Some surplus Routemasters were converted to open top by London Buses, these were use on the operators Original London Sightseeing tour, and later passed to the privatized London Coaches operation.

During the early 1990's the still almost complete RML class underwent a major modernization programme, while most of the remaining RM class vehicles received new cleaner engines.

In early 2003 Transport for London decided to begin the process of withdrawing all the remaining Routemasters, the last Routemasters were withdrawn from normal London routes on the 9 December 2005, however a small batch of vehicles continue to operate two special Central London Heritage routes.

THE EFE MODELS
The first Routemaster model was released in March 1993, and like the RT has proved to be one of the most popular of all the castings. It has also been used for numerous limited edition code 2 commissioned issues.
Two open top versions were added in 1994 and 1995, the only difference between the two being, one has cast blind boxes while the other does not.
Two versions of prototype Routemaster were introduced into the range during 2004, to coincide with the 50th Anniversary of the famous London bus. These models have the original bonnet designs which were used on the first two experimental prototypes, RM1 and RM2.

During 2006 all the original Routemaster casting's were re-tooled, the models were updated and improved with features such as flush glazing and a bulk head window on the rear platform. Two new short Routemaster models were also be added to the range in the form of the RMC coach and the airport front entrance RMA bus & luggage trailer.

The first releases of these new & improved models formed part of a special Routemaster Family collection that ran to eight models in total, the first of these were released in October 2006.
The long Routemaster models were also re-tooled and a new long front entrance (RMF) model as used by Northern General was also added to the range. (See Long Routemaster section)
It not yet been confirmed whether the open top RM will also be re-tooled but this could probably happen if required as the existing open top casting would only require new flush glazing.

Extra large pictures of the 'prototype' models (302/3/16) can be found in this while the 'production' models (156/78/9,315/7/8) are covered in this