First London Greenford Depot [G]

Today I was privileged enough to visit First London's Greenford Garage which is located right at the pinnacle of their Ealing operations. The garage is one that has been requested time and time again so after making the necessary arrangements, I bring you Greenford! 

The depot itself is based on a piece of land occupied by Ealing council and Bin Trucks and other council vehicles can be seen in an out of the premises. The depot is spilt into 2 parts, the West section, where the images from this post were taken and the East section where all the maintenance takes place. The depot itself was first used by the LGOC in 1993, and the opening of this base led to the closure of Hanwell Garage in 1995. 

The depot was primarily opened to house the 'E' routes network with the view to later closing Hanwell Garage, as this base was much larger than the Hanwell one, there was greater opportunity for expansion, which was made evident as in 1995, the base was already operating 110 midibuses. The garage was one of the few in London to operate MAN Marshall single deckers although they did not last long due to their reliability and the standard type was latterly changed to Dennis Dart midibuses.  

The retaining of the routes E1 and E3 saw the phased introduction of low floor Dennis Trident Plaxton President bodied vehicles. In 2003, Ealing Community Transport also began operating from this base following their tender win on the route 195. A new batch of Salvador Ceatano bodied Dennis Darts were procured to run on the route. However maintenance of these vehicles was completed using the First operated utilities. 

On the 14th of March 2009, ECT ceased operating and First were temporarily allocated the Route 195 using their own batch of DMCs and DMLs as an interim allocation, before going on to successfully win the route in 2010. 

The same month brought forth the delivery of 37 new E400 bodied Tridents for retained routes E1 and E3 as well as a multitude of single deck E200s for retained routes, E5, E7, E9 and E10. From November 2010, it is expected that the base will begin operating the Route 92.

At present the base operates, Route 95, 105, 282, E1, E3, E5, E7, E9 and E10.

First London TN32994 YN994 NLP

DML44127 YX09 FKY blinded for Route 282

First London DML41368 seen
devoid of its rear numberplate

First London DN33609 SN09 CGO and 
DML44115 YX09 FLG

First London DMS44406 YX09 FMG

A few DNs lay in the sun

First London DML44128 YX09 FLM 

First London DML41362 W362 VLN

First London DML41402 X402 HLR

First London DML41366 W366 VLN

A general yard shot

Another general yard shot

First London DML44127 YX09 FKY

First London DML41368 W368 VLN

First London TN32994 Y994 NLP

 Garage Fact File

• First used by LGOC in 1993
• Utilised by both Ealing Community Transport and First 
• Has a capacity of 100+ vehicles
• The opening of the base brought forth the closure of Hanwell in 1995