It was just past the official middle of Summer, and so perhaps it was time to risk the weather with an open top bus. For this trip, we arranged a hire from Mac Tours for the use of one of their ERM class AEC Routemaster open top buses. The vehicle was one of the batch of buses that were converted to open top by previous owner London Coaches for sightseeing work in London, later rebuilt by extending the length of the bus by insertion of a complete standard window bay, hence the ERM (Extra Long Routemaster) classification, bringing the total length of the bus to 32’6”, compared to the standard Routemaster’s 27’6”. The complete batch of ten of these buses were acquired from London Coaches by Mac Tours in 2002, and have served in this fleet of other Routemaster variations since then. We took the bus on a route through the western city suburbs via Chesser, Torphin, along the city bypass, The Bush Estate, Fairmilehead and Liberton, before returning to the city centre. We thank Mac Tours for the use of their bus.
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