Rollsign Gallery - Great Britain (England)

Rollsigns from Great Britain (England)

This Crosville, England Tyvek (paper) front destination
sign is off a 1973 Bristol Rell with an Eastern Coach
Works body, like the one in the picture above. The sign
has no print date or manufacturer. It has 50 exposures.

These rollsigns were mostly purchased through "eBay", or came from other
collectors from around the world. The knowledge of their history is limited.

These two "Dayglo" Tyvek bus signs are from London United
Busways, a service operating out of Shepherd's Bush garage
in west London. London United was a privatised company that
was formed after the break up of London Transport/London
Buses. In 1996, it was sold to a French company called
"Transdev" and continued to provide service to this date.

Both of these signs were designed for a Routemaster
double decker bus. The "PP" sign (left) is dated from about
1996 and has four exposures, the "LL" sign (right) has no
printed date, and has 5 exposures. The "LL" sign's tag is
seen below. It was printed on the back of the sign.
Both signs have been drawn virtually perfect to scale. The
"LL" sign (left) has been enlarged to 1 1/2 times the size of
other signs, to enhance detail.

PRINTED BY
McKENNA BROTHERS
TEL: 0161-655 3244.

SHEPHERD'S BUSH
RM VEH

WLT-880 (RML-880) London United Routemaster is seen on Route 94,
Sept. 29, 2002. The destinations on the sign in the picture are the same
as the second exposure on each sign. The "PP" sign (above/right) is
located under the second deck overhang, above the left side headlight.
The "LL" sign (right) is above the side/rear entrance.
(Photo courtesy of the website: www.gakei.com)

A guide to the destination blind letter codes and their placements on a Routemaster is shown in the lower right corner of this page.

This Tyvek (paper) front route number sign
(MM position) is from London Transport,
and covers routes from Hackney Depot in
the northeast central area of London. The
sign may have been removed from bus #323.
It has no printed date or manufacturer.
It has 34 exposures.

The logos on this
sign are listed below.

← First Transit.

← DLR Bus

← London Underground

← British Railways

London Transport has always had a strict guideline for its look, including the
destination blinds in their buses. The McKenna Brothers company has been in
business since 1978, and has been the main supplier of Tyvek (paper) destination
blinds for years, using the Johnston typeface font as the standard. Originally the signs
were black with white lettering, but later prints use a florescent green colour for the
characters, called DayGlo. With Routemanter buses having so many different blinds,
this coding was created to identify which sign went in which location on the buses.

For more information on the McKenna Brothers and the history of the Johnston typeface:

http://www.mckennabrothers.co.uk

The McKenna Brothers company website.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnston_(typeface )

Johnston Typeface Wikipedia page.

This rollsign was removed from London
Transport AEC Regent #RT4191 after it was
retired from a second life in the USA.
It is made of a paper like surface with manually
silk screened lettering, attached to a fabric
mesh like backing called "tanjib". It was
manufactured in-house by London Transport.
Its sign tag is shown in the first photo below.
The "R" means it is from Riverside Garage in
west London. The "8 9 71" represents its print
date, 8th September 1971. It has 9 exposures.
The bus it was removed from and how it was
discovered in the bus is also shown. It was
discovered in a scrap yard in central Iowa (USA)
and was photographed on January 22, 2020.

(Historical and factual information assistance
from Marc McDonald & Arthur Balfour. Thank you!)

The markings printed on the end of the rollsign.

London Transport AEC Regent #RT4191, shown as it was
discovered in a scrap yard in central Iowa on January 22, 2020.

These two photos show the condition of the blind inside the bus.
Unfortunately the glass window was broken and it suffered
some damage from exposure to the elements over the years.

This "Kentish Bus" Tyvek (paper) side destination
blind is from a minibus or small single-deck bus.
In the first two blocks (as far as "Shorne
Ridgeway") it includes a number of destinations
for routes on the borders of south-east London
and Kent, mostly on the Kent side of the border.
PETTS WOOD via Orpington and ST MARY CRAY
via Orpington may be London Transport/TfL route
R7, which was part of the London bus network;
Petts Wood may be in yellow as buses in both
directions may have served the same stop in
Orpington town centre, so using yellow for buses
to Petts Wood would reduce the risk of someone
getting on a bus going in the wrong direction.
Other destinations in this block are for routes
beyond the London Transport/TfL boundary.
The third block is for other routes which Kentish
Bus operated at that time on behalf of London
Transport (now TfL) - 428, 492, 272, 96, 269,
228/328 and 233 all appear to be included. Some
of these were never scheduled for small buses,
others might have had them only on Sundays.
The blind has no print date or manufacturer.
It has 64 exposures
(Assistance with the historical information
from Malc McDonald. Thank you!)

This Tyvek (paper) front destination sign was originally
from Boro'line Maidstone. Their livery was blue and
yellow, and they used the same colours for their blinds
(rollsigns). The blue/yellow displays are for routes 108,
188, 492, 422, 233, 228/328, then a Sunday-only 22
(which was manly outside the London boundary), then
route 132. Kentish bus took over Boro'line Maidsotne's
London bus operations in 1992.
The standard white-out-of-black panels look likely to have
been added later. Those at the top are additional points
on route 108 where a journey could be curtailed. Those at
the bottom are for route D9, which Kentish Bus operated
at certain times. The blind is from before the Kentish Bus
takeover, because of the displays for route 188 (Euston,
Greenwich, Surrey Docks, Waterloo, Aldwych, Russell
Square). Boro'line surrendered the contract for the 188 in
1990, so it didn't pass to Kentish Bus; those displays
effectively became redundant in 1990.
Looking at the routes included and the layout of the blind,
it seems likely that it would date from sometime between
1989 and 1990, and have been intended for a Leyland
Lynx or maybe a Leyland Naitonal. The blind was
manufactured by Norbury Brothers, and has 34 exposures.
(Assistance with the historical information from
Marc McDonald and Arthur Balfour. Thank you!)

Kentish Bus (ex-Boro'line Maidstone) Leyland Lynx #408,
displaying a destination blind similar to the one shown
here, is seen at Bexleyheath, Market Place, from 1992.
(Photo from the Ian Armstrong collection. Used with permission.)

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