Dalston bus garage

Dalston bus garage was a bus depot in Dalston, London, England. This garage closed in 1981 and was demolished, the site now containing housing.

History

A former cavalry barracks, Dalston Garage (coded D) was opened as a bus garage by the London General Omnibus Company in 1906. It was on Shrubland Road, opposite the junction with Albion Drive. This garage was closed operationally by London Transport in 1981, when it was replaced by the then new garage at Ash Grove.

Hackney Well Street (coded H) was absorbed into Ash Grove at the same time.

Ash Grove remained a London Transport garage until 1991.

Dalston was notable in the mid-1970s that it ran two types of single decker on route S2 (Clapton Pond-Bromley Station) on comparative trials, to see which would be most suitable for future LT orders. S2 could only take single deckers, due to a number of low bridges en route. The trials began in 1973.

The vehicles trialled were:

• 6 Leyland Nationals LS1-6 (TGY 101-6M)
• 6 Metro Scanias MS1-6 (PGC 201-6L).

The trials finished in 1976, when the Leyland National was selected as the new "Standard" LT single decker.

LS1-6 didn't stay at Dalston though, they were transferred to Hounslow (AV) garage in west London.

MS1-6 were all withdrawn. All bar MS2 passed to Newport Transport in South Wales. MS2 was retained by LT for further experimental premises, based at Chiswick. MS2 was subsequently preserved.

Route S2 subsequently used Leyland Nationals, until the late 1980s when the service went over to midibus operation, initially with MR class Metroriders, and then RB class Renault S75s. The Renaults were superseded by Dennis Darts from the mid-1990s.

Route S2 disappeared in 2008, when it became 488.^[1]

Bus types in use

When it closed, Dalston operated Routemasters (RM) and Leyland Nationals (LS).

References

Coordinates: 51°32′21″N 0°3′50″W / 51.53917°N 0.06389°W / 51.53917; -0.06389