View allAll Photos Tagged Chiswick
Heading the second run on the final day of the 'Steam Dreams' 'Santa Steam Express' programme away from the water stop at Kew East Junction.
Chiswick House is a nearby stately home in west London once owned by the 3rd Earl of Burlington in the 18th century (1726-9). It was built featuring a neo-Palladian domed villa as its main feature. It occupies the grounds of a large landscape gardens inspired by Italian Renaissance gardens and classical architecture. Chiswick House is believed by some to have been built as a Masonic lodge or temple, the main villa was solely intended to display the Earl's art collection and as there are no bedrooms. A Georgian extension wing was later added by the Duke of Devonshire's family with accommodation quarters in 1788.
London United
Alexander Dennis Enviro200 MMC
DLE30069 - SN17MVU
Seen out of service at Chiswick Business Park.
Taken 07/07/2017
A picture that could so very nearly be 1970 when DMS 1 was first delivered to LT. But whilst publicity pictures of a new bus would usually include a full set of blinds, the giveaway here is a garage code and running number plate which wouldn`t normally feature. The reality is that this is 4 July 1984 just after the full restoration of DMS 1 for the LT Museum had been completed. We took it to Chiswick Works to show it to several people who had helped with advice, parts and knowledge - and to thank them.
A little break from nightly uploads now as I go on holiday. Resume again on the 23rd And if anyone knows of any former LT buses in Mallorca, please reply with a location!
Piccadilly line Westbound and Eastbound Trains call at Chiswick Park during the 2014 Christmas District line engineering work.
I`m sure I wasn`t the only person who thought how inappropriate it was for RM 1 to be left outside at Chiswick Works for a couple of years. But I didn`t know then what I would later discover from conversations with Colin Curtis (LT`s most senior engineering manager) about the difficulty of trying to protect this most historic example of carefully considered bus design. The greatest challenge to keeping it within LT was the rather tenuous situation of a bus being attached to `Research & Development` with no realistic prospect of it being used to trial new ideas in service. And that`s how an `arrangement` came about for Lockheed to `buy it` for ongoing trials with hydraulic brakes.
But when their use of it could go no further it came back to LT and was usually to be found as seen here in the lowest part of `the dip`. Maybe this was chosen to afford a little bit of protection from the weather though the state of the roof is probably relevant to years spent at Lockheeds. My recollection of seeing RM 1 often was that it had regular use by workers looking for somewhere quiet to go at lunchtime. There were just a few seat cushions in it but plenty of lunch wrapper litter plus drinks cans, bottles, cigarette ends and matches. It was a sorry sight internally - often damp too - and, as can be seen here, it wasn`t great externally either with wiper and indicator ears missing.
When I took this picture on 12 September 1979 it was a Wednesday which ordinarily would make this an unusual scene for no other buses to be present. This was often where a couple of staff buses would park and maybe vehicles attached to The Experimental Shop. But with some significant work taking place in the background it is probable that access to `the dip` wasn`t possible. On the lower windscreen is chalked `apprentice repaint 30/11/78. Doesn`t look much like a bus repainted less than year previously but maybe it suggests that an attempt was contemplated to get the bus away from open storage much sooner than actually happened as it would be 1981 before the future of this important bus finally started to move in the right direction.
RT 4210 leaving the main entrance of Chiswick Works on 1 March 1979. At this point there were around fifteen RT`s left in passenger service and around double that number still being used for driver training though within weeks the service buses would be gone and within six months most of the trainers would be gone too.
I have almost one hundred pictures for this theme relevant to the inside and outside of 566 Chiswick High Road. They include driver training buses turning in and out of the site and buses in service going past. From within the site there are pictures of training buses, experimental shop buses, special buses, staff buses and other `visiting` buses for various reasons. Enough probably to keep this theme running for three months!
I have several pictures of new buses being used at Chiswick for type training. It seems that this was a fairly usual situation for a new bus to spend a short time in this role prior to being allocated for service with its place at Chiswick then being taken by another new bus. LS 208 had already spent some months on type training when I took this picture of it doing this on 1 March 1979 but would soon enter passenger carrying service.
Because of the dual carriageway and buses having to exit left out of the main gate, the ideal spot for pictures was really trying at times due to shadows from high buildings and street furniture as can be seen here.
9 May 1982 at Chiswick Works and the unexpected sight of an RT fresh from repaint. Both Skid Buses were so treated, RT 1530 and this one RT 2143. Had to use this picture today as this is upload number 2143 on my Flickr site!
RT 1530 on the Skid Pan at Chiswick Works on 27 February 1982. Looking a bit shabby, this and the other RT skid bus, 2143 would soon receive a repaint.
I`m assuming that the guy in the picture is pointing out where the imminent locking up of wheels will occur when the dry ground is reached. Maybe some contributions should be forthcoming as to what he is saying. How about `oi, you`ve just run over my hat`....
The `what might have been` bus, FRM 1 at Chiswick Works on 12 June 1981. At this time it was allocated to Stockwell Garage for the sightseeing tour and as can be seen from this picture it was well looked after though a recent repaint particularly enhances the appearance.
Behind it is RM 116 - the hydraulic suspension bus. Both it and FRM 1 were being used in everyday service which required the operating garages to do routine maintenance and basic running repairs. But as non-standard buses, any repairs to equipment that was different to `normal` buses, necessitated a visit to the Experimental Shop at Chiswick along with periodic evaluation inspections there too. Buses that were in the care of Research & Development (the official title of The Experimental Shop) were the only buses in the fleet that did not come under the jurisdiction of the Rolling Stock office. Also in this category were several DMS`s that featured ongoing experiments trialled in normal service along with RM 1982.
View the Entire - Symmetry Set
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View my - Most Interesting according to Flickr
Around the back of Chiswick Works on 12 June 1981, RM 1 has finally been moved out of `the dip` where it had been for nearly two years and preparations have begun to rescue this very important vehicle. From conversations that I had with Colin Curtis, LT`s most senior engineer, it appears that it wasn`t easy to set things in motion regarding the refurbishment of RM 1.
The objective was to get it under cover (for the first time in years) at Aldenham Works so that it could be an apprentice project to restore the bus - taking as long as needed for that would keep the bus warm and dry which would stall the noticeable deterioration that had set in from years of outside storage. Resistance that came initially from Aldenham regarding the unsuitability of using a non-standard bus was quickly countered by the undesirability of using a standard complete RM that could be out on the road earning its keep (RM withdrawals were still a long way off at this time). And with normal overhauls being done to a tight time schedule not suited to the downtime that was beneficial to apprentice`s learning new skills and putting them into practice, it was eventually decided that RM 1 could find a useful role at Aldenham. So after months of deliberation, RM 1 would have its future assured for the first time in years.
For many people this is a view that sums up what Chiswick Works was all about. The actual engineering site was vast and with it came a few buses that were attached to Research & Development plus staff buses parked up during the day. But for vehicle movements, the Training School though only occupying a small part of the overall site provided the main interest and photo opportunities.
Only an organisation of the size of LT could provide the infrastructure associated with driver training including a Skid Pan that for size and frequency of use on an in-house site was unique among UK bus firms.
This picture was taken on 17 July 1984 some five years after RT operation in passenger service had ceased. But RT 1530 is still going strong and would have the distinction of being the last RT in LT stock to be used regularly in a non-display capacity - albeit within the confines of Chiswick Works as a Skid Bus.
It was a rather special RT in that it spent longer being used after coming out of passenger carrying service for special purposes that involved being regularly driven than any other RT. In this view it is almost fifteen years since it last ran in normal service with its first assignment being a mobile classroom (one of several) to prepare staff for the changeover to decimal currency in early 1971. The blacked out upper deck windows are relevant to the use of a slide projector as part of the training given. And long after RT repaints ceased, this bus received one in the early 1980`s - the worth of which is obvious here. It even outlived the break up of the `proper` LT to stay on within the new look fragmented London Buses business into the 1990`s. Certainly, a very special RT.
And that concludes the run of pictures that I took over the course of a few years around Chiswick Works. Tomorrow a new theme begins.........
The Eastbound platform at Chiswick Park station, serving the District Line.
Chiswick Park was opened as Acton Green in 1879 & was renamed Chiswick Park in 1910.
An ordinary `service` bus within Chiswick Works is a sight that should logically never be seen. No passing bus route used the Works as a terminus point. So what is RM 2206 doing deep within the site on 31 October 1979? It has come from Turnham Green Garage which had a long association with experimental systems being tried out on buses in service from there so my guess is that the long standing rapport has probably enabled a quick trip to the works to scrounge something that might otherwise have been waited for to get a bus back on the road. But that`s only one possibility. There could be many other reasons too. Such as routine servicing of one of the Skid Buses at Turnham Green or one of the experimental buses and the RM has gone along to bring the other driver back. Who knows....?
Chiswick Back Common - Beautiful display of flowers at the end of Turnham Green Terrace where there are plenty of benches,small shops and buses,tube station - My idea of bliss.
Almost all of the first batch of DMS`s survived their initial seven years and were given an overhaul to carry on in service. It would have created an impression of normal LT policy before subsequent batches of DMS`s often departed for scrap when seven years old. This one, DMS 69 was an oddity as it missed an overhaul but spent almost as long as a permanent trainer as it did in passenger service - the only one to do so. Seen here about to turn into Chiswick Works on 1 March 1979.