It was in 1954 that a radical new bus design emerged from the works of AEC and Park Royal. The prototype Routemaster. RM1, was very different in style to the contemporary bus then being built, but was to set a standard for bus construction that has served London for over 50 years. Although bulk construction of the RM-type did not commence until the late 1950s, as part of the process that was to see the trolleybus eliminated from the streets of the Metropolis, by the late 1960s, when production ceased, almost 3,000 of the models, with its variants, had been delivered for operation by both the Central and Country areas of London Transport. Whilst mass withdrawals commenced in the mid-1980s, many of the vehicles sold at this stage were to find a second career with other operators in the post-deregulation environment. However, 50 years after the introduction of the type, some 500 RMs and RMLs continue to serve London, although increasingly on borrowed time as new ticketing arrangements and legislation mean that newer vehicles are arriving to replace them. Despite the diminution in numbers, the Routemaster will always be seen as emblematic of buses in London and the type has acquired iconic status, not only amongst enthusiasts but also with the wider travelling public. In this, its 50th year of service, there can be no more appropriate time to publish this pictorial tribute to the Routemaster and its decades of service both inside and beyond London. Compiled by Geoff Rixon, whose earlier two books on the subject have proved highly successful and who himself owns one of the best-known Routemasters in preservation, the book provides the reader with a history of the type from its origins in the early 1950s through to the present day. Publication of the book has been scheduled to allow for the various Golden Jubilee events organised for the summer of 2004 (including the restoration of RM2 and RM3) to be incorporated, thus giving a full portrait of the type.