View allAll Photos Tagged BusGarage
RMA 9 in Catford Garage on 7 June 1980 when an open day was being held with most of the visiting vehicles being displayed on the forecourt leaving parts of the inner garage nearly empty as here.
RML 2452 at Dartford Garage terminus on 23 August 1978. Typical of Northfleet Routemasters with multi-shade green with original Lincoln Green showing through. A lot of primer is visible too on the front.
A disappointingly un-sharp picture of Shillibeer RM 2204 in West Ham Garage on 4 April 1979. This could have been its first day in service in this special livery as there doesn`t appear to be any traces of dirt on the wheels. Twelve buses were painted like this and `sold` to advertisers at an enhanced rate with six being taken by North Thames Gas and the remaining six going to individual companies.
The `old` Norwood garage on 22 April 1981 a few days before it closed to be completely rebuilt. At this time it was one of just three garages operating only RM`s - the other two being Mortlake and Middle Row. Part of the reason for these three not accommodating larger `modern` buses had a lot to do with parking beneath roof support girders which lowered in height at the point of meeting a wall. It`s not so obvious behind RM`s 2113, 1990 and 2108 and in any case the curvature of an RM roof dome could withstand parking close to a roof girder end. Further back, the RM near the fire extinguisher offers a better example of the downward slope of a girder. A Metrobus taken into Mortlake on one occasion proved - thankfully without damage - just how restrictive the space beneath the ends of the roof support girders was. The clearance for an RM was minimal but for a `box shaped` bus non-existent.
RM 93 at Barking Garage on 4 April 1979 - when night buses were almost all crew operated with RT, RM and RML types and the network comprised around twenty routes almost all of which passed through Trafalgar Square where a Night Inspector was based for route control purposes. Crew operated DM types would soon become common place on night routes just before one person operation gathered pace.
Looking like a driver change outside Romford North Street Garage on 11 November 1979. BL 12 had many years of use both with LT and subsequent operators. Which is more than can be said for DMS 647 behind as it lasted no longer than its original seven year initial ticket.
The blind on BL 12 has what must be one of the longest qualifying points to go with a destination.
Some pictures taken by the late Michael Cleary. Late 1983.
It seems that at least two members of staff owned
impressive cars!
I love the way that the geolocation has tagged this as Uxbridge. As strictly speaking it isn't, being located outside Greater London in an area that technically could be called' 'Willowbank' or 'New Denham'. However, if you take a picture at Uxbridge station or in Uxbridge High Street, it tags that as 'Willowbank'!
Barking Garage on 4 April 1979 with RM 396, RM 193 and RT 624 - which three days later would be the last RT in LT service. Barking RT`s in their final months had bonnet number plates and radiator badges removed by `collectors` but it seems that some of their RM`s were seen as fair game too.
Southall Garage on 28 June 1982. M482 looks as if it has been `borrowed` between trips on the E1 and has arrived from Hanwell Garage for a quick visit for some reason - possibly to collect something from the stores. Within a few weeks RM 1058 (and all of the other RM`s based there for the 105`s) would be displaced when Southall Garage converted to an all Metrobus allocation.
Loughton Garage on 26 January 1979 with DMS 1688.
I`m guessing that prior to the new garage builds of the 1980`s, Loughton would have been - at the time of this picture - the newest LT (red bus) garage?
Grays Garage on 7 April 1979 with SNC`s 126 and 118 looking unimpressive as fairly young buses unavailable for service. And in the background is one of the small class of VR`s that were unique to London Country at Grays and they too had class members that were laid up unfit for months. But back then a scene like this was so commonplace around many LT and LCBS garages that it was almost normal - not that it makes the situation any better. Forty years on and the bus industry does seem to have made vast improvements so that young vehicles are rarely found as long term unfit with lots of bits missing...........
LS 176 over a pit in Dalston Garage on the last day of operation, 24 April 1981. Not a lot of room for an LS it appears. The facilities of the new Ash Grove Garage must have been very welcome.
DMS 2392 suffers the indignity of being towed into Sidcup Garage by RT 4198 on 23 August 1978. I was able to take several shots of this short but awkward progression into the garage so these will appear here at some point......
Basking in the sunshine at the old 31A terminus on Strand Road in Howth. Strand Road, part of Shuelmartin, had many route variations over the years, with buses looping or terminatiing & continues to do so with the current route 6 to Howth Dart Station via the Shielmartin loop.
Back in 2016, Clontarf Garage ALX400 AV 285 takes the honors above as a route 31A to Shielmartin Road.
RM 1220 at West Ham Garage on 23 October 1983. It was a Leyland engine bus - one of the last to be overhauled ( a few months before this picture was taken) and therefore one of the last in service working until 1988. Although the cull of RM`s had been severe among Leyland examples in September 1982, as 1984 begun there were still 327 licensed for service although that fell to just 100 on the last day of 1984.
Stonebridge Park Garage on 7 January 1979 at which point the Airport Routemasters which had operated out of here for a few months would only have a few weeks left before the service to Heathrow ceased.
RT 2773 and DMS 1516 in Barking Garage on 4 April 1979. I`m sure that someone must know why RT`s and RM`s at Barking Garage had dents in the lower rear panel.
I worked in two garages that didn`t have roof support pillars and one that did but was a very long shed that made straight line parking possible, This picture taken in the old Plumstead Garage on 29 October 1981 really illustrates the hazard when reversing and the obstacle to tidy efficient parking. Add the further problem of suspension lean of buses much larger than their predecessors and it makes for so many more problems than a garage with a girder or self supporting roof.
On the last operational day of Dalston Garage, 24 April 1981, RM`s 1989, 1978 and 1034 are laying over between the am and pm peak off Route 47 which Dalston only had a small share of. The 47`s moved to the new Ash Grove Garage from the following day but just over a year later a schedule change finally ended the long established placement of the 47`s in a garage north of the Thames. I seem to have captured the three different ways of showing Dalston Garage as a destination.
RM 736 and 2065 at the old Norwood Garage on 22 April 1981 just days before it closed prior to rebuilding on the same site. At this point it was one of three garages to operate nothing other than RM`s - the other two being Middle Row and Mortlake.
Having been new as BEA 21, a significant change of use saw several of the airport Routemasters receiving basic modifications to enable normal service running on the 175`s. Now known as RMA 1, a clue to its brief foray into regular bus service work is the basic route information boxes above the bonnet. Deemed unsuitable for service work, most of the buses involved were relegated to staff bus duties as was the case with RMA 1 though in this view at Fulwell Garage on 7 June 1980 it had been `borrowed` from Riverside Garage for the day to take part in the Catford Garage open day from where it has just returned.
Hackney Garage in Well Street on the last day of operation, 24 April 1981. Although the 6`s were supposed to be RML operated with RM`s on the 30`s and 35`s, Hackney Garage often mixed RM`s and RML`s across all three routes in much the same way as Putney Garage did.
RM 1639 already has an AG code in preparation for the move to Ash Grove from the following day and RM 866 may also have an AG code covered up by the running number plate. RM 1933 still has an H code and RM 1019 is de-blinded awaiting transfer to Poplar. Logically SMS 720 should have been withdrawn with the entry into service of the new Leyland Nationals on Red Arrow routes from Ash Grove but instead it stayed on Red Arrow work at Walworth for a while longer. DMS 2190 had a short life with LT but a significantly longer after-life with other operators spanning almost twenty years.
RM`s displaced from Harrow Weald Garage a few days previously when the 140 route lost crew operation were gathered in the redundant Hackney Garage as seen here on 26 April 1983.
M 22 at Fulwell Garage on 7 April 1979 when it was only about three weeks into service.
Fulwell was one of the largest LT garages in terms of site area covered but not in respect of the number of buses allocated - the garage was well below capacity.
Two upshots of that are visible in this picture. One being the ability to store buses from elsewhere in the fleet such as the newly redundant BA Routemasters of which around ten were present. The other is the renting out of part of the garage premises to an outside concern - in this case Grundy Metals whose sign can be seen.
I`m fairly sure that Finchley Garage was sufficiently under capacity as to have part rented out to a non-LT business. And Edmonton had a different twist to being used for storage when it housed a great quantity of tunnel lining panels for the Victoria Line under construction. Part of Potters Bar Garage was rented to Arlington PSV Sales with a selection of coaches for many years.
T 79 at Romford North Street Garage on 2 February 1982. RM 79 was possibly also based here at that time so I should have tried to get both together!
I actually thought that the T class were a nicely designed bus and better than the Metrobus .
I`m guessing that I went to Leyton Garage on 3 September 1982 looking specifically for RM 1157 on what would have been its last day in service prior to becoming one of the two hundred RM`s withdrawn from service with the massive service reductions from the following day. Maybe it didn`t actually go out in service as it has no running number plate at this point thought it may well have ventured out later. Maybe I ended up at the garage because I couldn`t find it on the road........
I don`t recall the circumstances of how I got this picture outside Southall Garage on 28 June 1982. Maybe I had gone to the central reservation to take a picture of M418 and the fire engine just happened to pass by. Or perhaps I saw it coming and decided it might be possible to capture it alongside the bus. And why was M418 there without a running number plate? About to go out to a breakdown, a road test or to collect something from Hanwell Garage? Ideally the blinds would be set to `private` or not bothered if the bus was not about to run along the 282 route.
It was forty four years ago today on 7 April 1979 that the last RT`s in normal scheduled service came to an end. Through the late morning into lunchtime they came off service to be substituted for RM`s at Barking Garage which for a few hours would be one of just a handful of LT garages to attract vast crowds witnessing the end of another bit of transport history.
It was impossible to get any pictures devoid of people and I was lucky to have got this one without someone walking in front of the camera at the crucial moment. I wonder if anyone looking at this now forty four years on recognises themselves or anyone present.
It was unusual for a bus to run in service with one of the upper back adverts missing but in some ways it adds something to the occasion as it makes the bus particularly distinctive and this view is probably one of the most famous RT pictures of all time as captured by so many people. It`s RT 624 entering Barking Garage as the final end to RT operation. And by an unplanned coincidence on this anniversary it`s also the final upload of my bus garages pictures Tomorrow I will begin another theme.......
Edgware Garage on 7 January 1979. Probably not much chance of any of these being available for service in the coming days and for some of them, never again.....
DMS 1459 in Barking Garage on 11 November 1979 - probably just days before it went for scrap. Spares recovery has caused much of the glass to be removed and I can`t help thinking that the unusual damage to the rear may have happened within the garage?
Edgware Garage on 7 January 1979 and all three of these DMS`s - 668, 680 and 682 - are probably available for service rather than laid up unfit as so many were around the fleet at this time. Around fifteen DMS`s spanning the number range depicted here were allocated to EW from new but many lasted only to the end of their initial seven year ticket and were withdrawn in 1980.
When I took this picture on 23 August 1978 at Bexleyheath Garage, DMS 2358 wasn`t looking too good for a bus just five months on from being new into service.
Back in May 2021 I uploaded a similar picture of RT 851 in Seven Kings Garage. I dated it 4 April 1979 but having found this slightly different picture I`m thinking that it`s this one which was taken on 4 April 1979 and the previous upload (which is on page 7 of my gallery should anyone be interested in making a comparison) was actually taken on 26 January 1979.
I think that the bus looks dirtier in this picture and the side advert has deteriorated a bit. Just to add to the mystery, in each picture there is a DMS behind with the engine exposed. But is it the same DMS given the different adverts? Not that this proves anything as instructions to advert fixers didn`t take account of the availability status of a bus so an advert change whilst temporarily unfit would be entirely possible.
New - and yet to enter service - LS 447 and LS 191 in Dalston Garage on the last day it was operational - 24 April 1981. The new LS was there for type training and would only be used in service from the new Ash Grove Garage which opened the next day to replace Dalston and Hackney garages.
RM 1886 at West Ham Garage on 23 October 1983. It was one of almost 350 Leyland RM`s still in service at that point. By the time it was withdrawn in early August 1984 the total was 202 licensed for service which gives an idea of how rapidly the Leyland RM fleet was reducing. RM 1886 went for scrap on 29/8/84.
RT 2178 in Loughton Garage on 26 January 1979. It spent most of 1978 and 1979 as a driver trainer and the thought that will probably come to mind is `it doesn`t have L plates`. And the reason is that although maintained at Loughton it was based at North Weald airfield and spent its time in the open hence the faded roof and adverts.
RT 2099 and 2106 were likewise and all three were withdrawn at the end of 1979 when, presumably, the need for them at North Weald ceased due to there being no point in tuition being given to complete novices on a vehicle type they were never going to drive in service. Having said that, a few RT trainers were still used well into 1980 - I must have been one of the last to get type training on an RT in the Spring of that year.
The North Weald facility was designed for `off road` training specifically for those who hadn`t previously driven anything big and could have their first such experience in very spacious surroundings where great quantities of traffic cones created narrow lanes and chicanes plus `boxes` to practice reversing. Instructors would arrive from all over the LT network in their designated bus which would normally have two trainees. Whilst the more able one could drive with some freedom around the open space under supervision, the less able novice would receive one to one tuition in the `controlled area` using one of the three RT`s with an Instructor based there.
One of those `this is how it used to be ` pictures. An LT garage with a line of RM`s ready to work. This is Catford Garage on 28 October 1983 with RM`s : 413, 1186, 1536, 1775, 49, 396, 1141 and 1382. One of these had a bizarre and very abrupt life after LT - but more about that at a future date.....
This is Clapton Garage on 11 November 1979 with the former BA 4 now recently bought back into LT stock to become RMA 30 for use as an Aldenham staff bus.
When I took this picture of DMS 817 in Hanwell Garage on 1 March 1979, DMS withdrawals had just started and this one looked as if it would be in that category. But apart from the obvious little items missing, it is otherwise largely intact and appears to have new doors fitted in preparation for going back into service and lasting a few more years.
Shepherds Bush garage on 15 April 1979 with RM 2168, RMA 48 (BA31), RML 2414 and RM 112. The RML looks freshly repainted and as such must have been one of the first of the batch bought back from London Country to appear in red.
RMA 12 and DMS 1955 in Hanwell Garage on 1 March 1979. The RMA still carries an NS garage code from when it was based there a few years earlier in passenger service - for which it gained the route number box under the canopy. The DMS had a short service life with LT but went on to spend much longer in service in Maidstone.
DMS 196 may have been withdrawn by the time of this picture at Fulwell Garage on 7 April 1979. Some around this number range had a short service life and a few never even gained the repaint that removed the white band livery. But this one went on to run for a Midlands operator and lasted longer than many.
Stonebridge Park Garage forecourt on 7 August 1981 - a few days before the garage closed. Facing the road ready for the next trip are M 272, DMS 321, DMS 1974 and M 245 with DMS 1879 arriving.