SMS369 entered service at the end of January 1971 at Merton garage, replacing RTs on route 200. In November 1977, DMSs replaced Swifts on both the 200 and 57. The vehicle was then sent to Aldenham for overhaul in December 1977 where it was one of the few Swifts to be recertified for a further 3 years service, despite a general rundown of the type. It emerged from Aldenham in a revised livery with yellow entrance doors and white roundels instead of red fleetnames and was then allocated to Edgware garage. It eventually became one of the last five Swifts (excluding the Red Arrow examples) still in normal service with London Transport.
Withdrawn in December 1980 after ten years service, it was sold for further use as a school bus. It wore a blue and grey colour scheme during its three years of school service but was repainted into later style LT livery by the next owner. After another ten years, it moved on to another owner, who restored the bus to its original style of LT livery, as it did when it first entered service in 1971. It arrived at the Museum in January 1997, and was eventually donated to the Museum in 1998.
(Londonbusmuseum.com)
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