Today's visit was Shepherd's Bush, home to an array of different things, a famous area it is, probably exaggerated by the fact it is home to the BBC television centre located on the Wood Lane, the area has a long history of affluence, which was given a further boost upon the opening of Westfield shopping centre in 2008. However despite all this excitement, we humbly visited the one bus garage in the area which is operated out of by London United Busways, the garage visit has been on the cards ever since the blog opened, so it is somewhat of a small achievement to finally cover the base.
The garage is one of the busiest, if not the busiest London United operate out of, and is due to be upgraded to a Centre of excellence within the next few years, with a similar protocol to Metroline's CELF Centre facility. The base was opened in 1906, and was part of a number of pre-war bus garages being constructed at the time. However at the time of its construction it was used by storage company vanguard until 1908 when LGOC took over ownership of the facility fully. The operation sadly did not last for long, a mere six years which was mainly due to the fact, the nearby Hammersmith Garage (R) was housing a lot of work in the area, namely the Riverside Network of routes. The base was disused from the years 1914-1920 following the WWI and was finally closed in 1923, before being rebuilt the same year as the base we now know today as Shepherd's Bush Garage.
The Garage located on Wells Road in Shepherd's Bush is adjacent to the Shepherd's Bus Market Railway Station which funnily enough, had to be rebuilt upon its completion in 1940 due to the fact the platforms were built 18 inches too narrow of the regulatory requirement. Strangely the garage is one of only a few that have not been subject to much change in their lifespan, with early photos of the base in 1960s and 70s demonstrating the little change in appearance.
In more recent years, the garage has become renown for its diversity of different bus types, and became significant in being the first base in London to take on delivery of the Scania Omnicity buses back in 2006 for flagship route 148. By 2008, the original batch of Scanias had disappeared from the garage and replaced by a new batch, due to the former being low heigh and not to Tfl's ever changing vehicle specification. By 2010, the base had received its first Hybrid vehicles, taking on delivery of 20 E400 Hybrid buses for route 94. The vehicles were a hit amongst drivers, who were used to driving the more lethargic and lack lustre TLA Class ALX400 Tridents.
Following the retaining of the 220 in 2012, the route was moved from the base to the nearby Park Royal base and got the 272 and C1 in exchange, increasing the cost effectiveness of running all three routes. In May 2014, the 419 was transferred from Stamford Brook Garage using its 7xx series DPS class Pointer Darts which can often be seen on the C1.
However for all the garage's hard work it came as a complete shock when it was announced that they had lost the 49 to Abellio, which duly passed to the company on the 6th of September. It was suggested that the VEs made redundant from the loss of the 49 would be heading to Tolworth (TV) and latterly Fulwell (FW) however it seems as if none of those plans will materialise and the buses are due to head back to their leasing company imminently. More photos are available below and I do hope you have enjoyed this write up.
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London United VE10 PG04 WHB
& VE9 PG04 WHA |
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| London United VE7 PG04 WGY |
At present most of the batch from VE1-10 are at the facility in a decommissioned state awaiting their returns to their leasing company. VE1/4/5 & 6 are at sister company, London Sovereign's Edgware Garage covering for some of their vehicles which remain long term VORs.
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| London Sovereign SLE3 YN54 OAC at Shepherd's Bush Garage |
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| London United DE37 & LT136 in the maintenance area |
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| London United DE92 YX58 DXA |
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| London United ADH16 receives some attention in the workshop |
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| London United LT126 about to enter the bus wash |
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| London United TLA19 SN53 KHU |
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| London United LT139 LTZ1139 |
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| The maintenance area |
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| The leftside wall at Shepherd's Bus Garage |
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| WA61 GPO & WA59 EAW |
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| London United TA240 LG02 FBE |
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| Shepherd's Bus Bus Garage facing the front |
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| The maintenance bays |
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| Two of a kind maybe? |
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| London United ADH60 SN60 BYM & LT109 LTZ1109 |
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| London United DPS719 SN55 HSE |
I must send out a huge credit to the staff on duty who ensured that I was safe whilst on site and ensured that my visit was a fun and pleasuring experience. Kudos!
