About Robertson Buses

In Real Life

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Robertson Buses is a fictitious bus company with 1/76 scale model vehicles (the same as '00' model railways) created in 2015. It was inspired by other model fleets seen online, made by transport enthusiasts that demonstrate how buses in a particular area might be run in some kind of parallel universe. Some of these model companies aim to replace the real operators and routes in a given area, while some only have routes which plug gaps in the real network.

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'RB' is a mix of both, as it is set in Nottingham which already has a dense provision of buses from the real life operators. Therefore, the routes are mainly filling in the small gaps where no real route exists... in fact many of the routes operated are identical or close to real routes that were withdrawn years ago, due to lack of funding or low patronage. In a few cases, routes run by Robertson Buses have subsequently been duplicated by new routes set up in real life, so in those cases the real routes are ignored, since they wouldn't exist if RB was already providing a similar service.

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All the services operated have been timed realistically to allow a bus to keep to the devised timetable, with each route having a peak vehicle requirement (PVR) so that every route has enough buses allotted to maintain the frequency. Additionally, every vehicle's daily duty is mapped out with a running board, with set times to leave the depot, run different journeys on different routes (many buses interwork between multiple routes) and then back to the depot at the end of the day for fuelling, cleaning and maintenance. There are different duty boards for different days of the week, school holidays etc.

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The fleet is also maintained to a "fairly" realistic standard, in that there must be enough vehicles to cover all the duty boards, plus spares to cover for breakdowns and buses having repairs, repaints and such. Operational considerations are taken into account, like low bridges and the fact more demanding services will need more robust vehicles as standard. However, due to the rather ridiculous price of models depicting modern buses, there's a fair amount of leeway in allowing much older, refurbished buses to be used instead of what a real bus operator would run.​

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In the 1/76 Universe

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Robertson Buses is a relative newcomer to public transport in the East Midlands, slotting into a busy scene and - just like the famous independent Barton Transport - originating from Chilwell on west side of Nottingham. Having grown from its 2015 beginnings with one bus and one route to now having over 30 vehicles and several main services around the Nottingham area, extending into Derbyshire and Lincolnshire/Leicestershire.

 

Initially a bus hire and school transport service was provided, but within a couple of years these were discontinued since nearby there were several, more established operators also catering to this market. Instead RB's focus moved to expanding its network of local bus services, plugging gaps in the existing bus provision, often with support from local authorities. The biggest example of this is route 205, which was launched in 2017 as the Nottingham City Council-funded Townlink, and now runs commercially. The Park & Ride route to Toton Lane also began, and has grown in popularity ever since.

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Operation was scaled back during the pandemic, but passenger levels were able to recover thanks to low-cost fares and continued service improvements to be made. For 2021, summer 'staycation' day trips were run using spare double deckers and coaches, and have proven popular enough to return for the following summers. The first half of 2023 saw the long-awaited full launch of the Counties Connect routes come to fruition, with a self-contained network of four routes running to the east of Nottingham, connecting towns and villages on the borders of Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire.

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Other developments include the provision of works contracts for the Boots factory site in Beeston, the X46 fast coach between Nottingham and Lincoln, new 'shopper' services expanding RB's area of operation and participation in the nationwide £2 bus fare cap scheme. Aa outstation was also set up in the Lincolnshire town of Grantham from which the Counties Connect services are now run. The company is now heading towards its tenth anniversary by re-establishing itself as a school operator, and hopefully refreshing the fleet with several new vehicles.

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The fleet has its own dedicated album on my Flickr site where you can see most of their photos.

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