Kirkstall Road Bus Depot (formerly LCT Trams)

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Mon 12 May, 2008 8:37 am

Sorry for going "off topic" into the realms of service and vehicle construction - Kirkstall has only been a modern operating depot since the mid 1990s when Headingley closed down for sale/demolition. Prior to that Kirkstall had, for many decades, been the central maintenance works only.

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Sat 17 May, 2008 9:35 pm

Todsy is the end of Kirkstall Works and Depot - and the end of a long and at one time proud and honourable tradition.Its a safe bet that "Hunslet Park" will never achieve the same !!

chamusdarrach · Post by **chamusdarrach** » Sun 18 May, 2008 12:15 am

Blinkered letters about old junk buses, well, lets look at what First has dumped in leeds..A lot of ex London dual doored Olympians, desperately trying to hide their age by adopting "dateless" Northen Ireland reg numbers, A whole host of Leyland bodied olympians, new in 1992/3, and not to mention the Scania D/D,s that Black Prince aquired 2nd hand, which date from the late 1980's.Thank god I live on the Keighley and District route into Leeds, modern, clean, well maintained buses with friendly drivers, and Harrogate and district also have new buses running into Leeds, the difference is that Transbus has discovered that investing in decent, well driven buses makes more money as they are a viable alternative to using the family car, First, on the otherhand, expect that dirty old buses are good enough for the citizens of Leeds, bet they wouldn't run any of the Leeds fleet in London, though

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Sun 18 May, 2008 1:04 am

I take on board many of the points mentioned and agree to a large extent, but dirt and poor maintenance and unpleasant drivers cannot be blamed on the age of a vehicle, only on the owner/ operator. Only a couple of days ago I had one of many bad experiences travelling from Headingley into Leeds on a single decker possessing all the faults which so distress me - windows flexing like perspex, sides and floor flexing also, rear suspension non operative when encountering anything bigger than a matchstick in the road and the worst of the rude drivers we have to suffer - she glares at everyone ls if they were muck, OAPs in particular, and NEVER speaks to a soul. An old "junk" bus I hear you ask - no, an "08" registered machine a matter of weeks old As far as London vehicles are concerned, I believe that very strict young "maximum age" condiitions are built into the Tfl conditions for a particular service to be operated, which is another issue.

riclam · Post by **riclam** » Sat 24 May, 2008 10:18 pm

[quotenick="chamusdarrach"]Blinkered letters about old junk buses, well, lets look at what First has dumped in leeds..A lot of ex London dual doored Olympians, desperately trying to hide their age by adopting "dateless" Northen Ireland reg numbers, A whole host of Leyland bodied olympians, new in 1992/3, and not to mention the Scania D/D,s that Black Prince aquired 2nd hand, which date from the late 1980's.the dual door olympians are only 10 years and poorly looked after by first!! Yorkshire Rider leeds was still operating pre 1974 corporation buses til 1993 (the dual door atlanteans)and up untill 1999 some buses in the fleet were from as long ago as 1974 (again ancient leyland Atlanteans), old buses are not a new thing in leeds! if first were a decent company that looked after buses, conecentrated on operating buses more than trying to look so good they would be doing somethingLastly we should be thankful the current dual door buses have opening windows unlike the atlanteans mentioned above had large windows but very little by way of air vents, ( i miss them though)whats it matter as long as bus gets you there in anycase and back on topic its a shame another part of leeds history is sold to mindless thugs called developers!!

BLAKEY · Post by **BLAKEY** » Sun 25 May, 2008 12:42 am

Here here riclam on all points !!Speaking from long personal experience on very difficult routes I cannot pour enough praise on the wonderful dual doorway Leeds City Transport Atlanteans and Fleetlines, of which there were hundreds. The bodywork was by Roe of Crossgates to the very highest possible quality of construction and impeccable finish, inside and out. Many features to the the order and specification of LCT were incorporated, including a centre staircase the bottom of which was ideally situated opposite the centre exit, which itself was well distant from the front doors and allowed the fastest possible loading and alighting. Seating was bordering on luxurious - moquette in a beautiful green pattern downstairs, and rich green leather in the upper saloon. Spacious seating was for 78 passengers with NO standing allowed. To top it all the design must be the most handsome ever produced with tidy angles and clean lines everywhere. Proof of the high quality construction could be seen right up to the last mile that these vehicles operated in the total lack of any rattling or movement or deterioration in the bodywork.As mentioned by riclam there was just one major shortcoming though - lovely panoramic windows but totally inadequate ventilation - this could presumably have been sorted before production got into full swing.An interesting little aside here - during the long production run of these superb and I daresay expensive buses - but worth every penny - a tiny private operator in County Durham (Weardale Motor Services) treated themselves to one brand new machine from the Leeds production run, very well placed confidence for sure.Present day designers, manufacturers and operators should pause a while from their arrogant conceited "own trumpet blowing" and look again at and ride upon some of the gleaming rattling thudding horrors that are inflicted on us now.

riclam · Post by **riclam** » Sun 25 May, 2008 2:01 am

BLAKEY wrote: Here here riclam on all points !!Speaking from long personal experience on very difficult routes I cannot pour enough praise on the wonderful dual doorway Leeds City Transport Atlanteans and Fleetlines, of which there were hundreds. The bodywork was by Roe of Crossgates to the very highest possible quality of construction and impeccable finish, inside and out. Many features to the the order and specification of LCT were incorporated, including a centre staircase the bottom of which was ideally situated opposite the centre exit, which itself was well distant from the front doors and allowed the fastest possible loading and alighting. Seating was bordering on luxurious - moquette in a beautiful green pattern downstairs, and rich green leather in the upper saloon. Spacious seating was for 78 passengers with NO standing allowed. To top it all the design must be the most handsome ever produced with tidy angles and clean lines everywhere. Proof of the high quality construction could be seen right up to the last mile that these vehicles operated in the total lack of any rattling or movement or deterioration in the bodywork.As mentioned by riclam there was just one major shortcoming though - lovely panoramic windows but totally inadequate ventilation - this could presumably have been sorted before production got into full swing.An interesting little aside here - during the long production run of these superb and I daresay expensive buses - but worth every penny - a tiny private operator in County Durham (Weardale Motor Services) treated themselves to one brand new machine from the Leeds production run, very well placed confidence for sure.Present day designers, manufacturers and operators should pause a while from their arrogant conceited "own trumpet blowing" and look again at and ride upon some of the gleaming rattling thudding horrors that are inflicted on us now. they were lovely buses really, luckily 1 is been restored and more still around, they dont make buses of that standard today

Terrym · Post by **Terrym** » Tue 27 May, 2008 8:25 am

Hi all,I know this is slightly off topic but I honestly think the downward trend in Leeds began when the P.T.E went to the wall. I had the pleasure of working from Bramley depot from 1974 - 1977, and at that time every bus was washed, cleaned inside and checked every day. Sadly as the years have moved on we have seen Leeds not only loose the majority of it's depots but also the wonderful fleet of buses it used to have.If anyone wishes to see how high the fleet standards were in the past just have a look at the latest edition of Leeds City Transport Buses which covers the period upto 1974.You will see very few buses that are not gleaming, even after 2 or 3 years in service.Compare that to the vehicles of today.Back on topic:It will be sad to see Kirkstall Road depot finally close but we have to remember that it was not really a bus depot, but was designed as a tram depot and then in later years a repair depot and not a operational depot.

BIG N · Post by **BIG N** » Wed 28 May, 2008 3:23 pm

spongebob wrote: Also asked about any known plans for the site but he doesn't know of any, there's a whole lot of land that's going to be lying derelict soon as they're knocking down the chemical place next door (was it part of Yorkshire Chemicals as well?) and I think the Arla foods site on that side of the road is now vacant too. Several years ago I worked for two company's on Washington St - thats the one with Kwik Fit on the corner - Firstly Q.E.D. exhausts and then later for I.H. corrugated.At the time i left Q.E.D. when the buisness was amalgimated within the parent company (Partco) and moved to I.H. at the other end of the street, our premises were owned by the company on the opposite corner from Kwik fit (I believe they were called Forsters and dealt in chemicals) and I.H. were given notice to quit but were told there was no rush and in fact it was almost two years before they moved.It transpired that the entire block, along with the Q.E.D. premises and those of Kwik fit were owened by Forsters and that they had sold them for possible re-development but that there was a hold on this taking place so there was no immediate rush to move out, it also came to light that the premises of Arla had been bought too which led to them building the new place at Stourton, rumours were rife at the time that the bus depot was part of this deal but this was never confirmed.And the new owners of all this land ? - well with the massive growth and development of housing and student accomodation along the Burley Rd corriodor area - it is non other than Asda - who wanted to put a 24 hour hyper market on Kirkstall Rd.

Starbuck · Post by **Starbuck** » Wed 28 May, 2008 5:04 pm

Blakey - I know this is off the main topic but I had to follow on from your comments about the double door atlanteans. I went to junior school on Town Street, Middleton which was on the then 76 route. At first the route had interesting old AECs (number plates with 3 letters and 3 number) some of which had a bench seat behind the drivers cab facing down the bus. These were older and smaller than the Leylands (number plates xxxx NW) which were on the nearby no 12 route. Then one day in 1970 we were all amazed to see these shiny huge doube door atlanteans with the new (reversed) LCT livery. The 76 route seemed to be transformed overnight. These were the most comfortable smooth buses ( hot upstairs in summer). When I had to use them daily to go to ghigh school we had great fun on the stairs changing the "seats availabl" indicator". We had one (a "J" reg) which was even more luxurious - it featured on the back of the timetable book - squared off wheelarches and different internal lighting which i think had been at some kind of bus motorshow. I assume most of these were based at Middleton garage.