London Buses-Edmonton Tramway Avenue Garage January 1986 

My pleasure..... i do have some more film from here, taken on the night it closed in 1986!

That must have been a shock to them! It's been quite a few years sine Tramway Avenus has seen a bus along it.... RM 2214 was the last bus in (more video to upload as i was there when it shut) so you weren't far out numerically......

Oh I wish I'd been there for that!

The 253 ran off Stamford Hill, the 279's was part worked from Edmonton (Enfield had the other allocation). He worked in the better days on London buses.....

Bless Susan xx

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus Edmonton Garage did operate the 253 for a short period of time during the days of trolleybus conversions. Check history on www.londonbuses.co.uk. (1961)

@@peterclark8408 Yes, i can well believe it, LT did some unusual things! In the mid 80s Muswell Hill worked a few jobs on the 73s on a Sunday, just to keep the Routemaster crews on the Mon-Sat 43s with some Sunday work. There must have been a fair bit of dead mileage there!

This was 1986 so it was aleady in service, probably a garage transfer

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus A bit of research has shown that M1424 was built in December 1985 and entered service in February 1986 from Tottenham garage. In fact, this was the final LT Metrobus to enter service (from the original order of 1,440) as M1425 - 40 had already entered service in January. So needless to say, you have caught this bus in brand new condition, prior to entering service! Amazing capture :)

And here it is 9:00.

@@jamesfrench7299 At the time i thought it looked quite clean and smart but in theory that should have all been in service by then. So that was a lucky capture....

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus so basically it still had the plastic wrap on it so to speak. It must have been emanating the new car smell as it drove past. Amazing.

I still have more to upload from Edmonton as i was there the night it shut. I have the final vehicles arriving back, being serviced and shipped out to their new garages so you never know!

Thanks Peter. Another vid close to you. I also have one taken the night it closed, as the buses came in they were serviced and sent off to their new homes, very sad. I am south to PB next week for a couple of weeks so am uploading a few vids quickly to cover while i'm away. Drive safe and keep videoing!

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus Thanks, I shall look forward to your future uploads. Don't suppose you have any from Muswell Hill late 80s or around it's closure in 1990?

No Peter, sorry. By then i was concentrating more on Routemasters + railways. Now of course i wish i had just filmed everything i saw!

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus I wish I had as well. So little filming that I did back then - even lack of photos.

They certainly had a distinive sound but now quite the thrash of a Titan!

Soi Buakhao thanks so much for posting this, the toilets on the main road at the Bus stop which is still there! Were there up until 2002

@@NextSound170 yes, it's amazing what sorts of things survive. Most toilet blocks have been closed and demolished.

Way of the world in London, cycle tracks everywhere but still a dangerous thing to do in London.

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus its a common fake practice, of populist politicians, and majors, here in buenos aires, argentina, there are lots of cycle paths, and with this, the result is narrowed streets, for the cars and buses

@@marcelomenendez1971 We have this s**t over here, i remember seeing blue painted cycle lanes painted on a road i drove buses along, it was only wide enough for a bus to fit in its carriageway by driving over the cycle lane! So waht was the point of them???

Thank you....seems a long time ago now that Edmonton closed.....

Plenty more heritage film to come, keep watching!

I still have a lot of Metro vids to upload so you will get to hear them for a while yet!

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus Just watched it again and @ 6:53 they have put on a 22" single piece rim on the rear wheel, something not commonly seen on Routemasters until the 1990s. The Aussie AEC Swifts of 1974 vintage that were running around my area at this time were the opposite. I only once spotted a two piece 20" rim the back wheel of one others were the more modern single piece jobs.

@@jamesfrench7299 I hadn't noticed that before. Yes that was unusual as Routemasters used split rim wheels until the refurbs of the 90s. What a lot of eagle eyed viewers i get, it's great the way things are picked up that i've never noticed in the last 30 or so years.....

Yes, this was still the early days with my camera. It was actaully a full sixed camera that took E180 VHS tapes so i stood out well when filming. I don't recall seeing any camcorders around until 1992 time......

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus it must have been great to view the results when you got home. The stuff I would have been able to record then.. There was a guy up the street who had a Sony handycam in 87! They're may be footage of a 14 year old me online.

Thanks for the confirmation. PB has had lots of routes over the years, routes came & went quite alarmingly.

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus They even managed to lose the W8 to Capital Citybus but got it back.

Yes, i remember it arriving back at PB in around 2003 or 04 time. In the late 80s/early 90s route tendering meant routes changed garages/operators like a game of pass the parcel.

And LOTS more to come!!! Although i'm off south for a couple of weeks so after tomorrow i won't be uploading until mid July, which is why i've banged a few up in the last couple of days, sort of to tide me over as it were!

The dirty RM you mention was on of Enfields, and this was filmed on a cold February day. In winter the bus could leave a gargae clean in the early morning but with wet, salty roads soon get their lower panels dirty and then have to run like that until they came back in, maybe as late as 01.00 the next day!

Not better with a jet wash ha

Soi Buakhao wouldn’t like to live in that street then if they were leaving early doors and still arriving back at 1am!

The garage was open 24 hours a day. Last bus in at 01.30ish, first one out 04.30ish plus an engineers runs ie-the cleaners (Generalhands) who serviced the buses running in from 18.00-02.00 were taken home by a night Bus Mechanic on a bus which also had to return of course! I believe the house rates (before Council Tax) were less if you lived in Tramway Avenue because of the garage.

I remember riding an RCL on the 279, all the way to Hammond Street, right out in the countryside..... totaly surrel......

You and me both its what got me into the hobby!

The 279 especially, Smithfield to Hammond Street although they ran in two over-lapping sections Smithfield-Waltham Cross and Manor House-Hammond Street with variousshort workings during busy parts of the day. The Hammond Street end probably only had a 20 min service at best.

This was originally a tram depot, hence the street name of Tramway Avenue! One the trams went it was used for Trolleybuses, and when they went in 1961, became a diesel bus garage......

Park road was a turning point. Usually used by route 144 buses. RTs as I remember.

No, it is just the 'parting shot' to put the end cards over so as not to cover up any of the actual upload......

I used to work in a bus garage back in the 80s, all you did was give two blast on the horn, check your mirrows and have a good look around and make your move.

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus Interesting. With boats/ships the reversing warning is three toots.

I bet they burnt well! A wonder the chimney didn't catch fire!......lol

The garage was at the end of Tramway Avenue, it was originally a tram depot. Edmonton Green was called Lower Edmonton and there was a lower level station next to it (on the bus stn side) with a connection line across to the Lea Valley main line. The 149 used to run through to Victoria via Southwark Bridge. By 1985 it had been cut back to Waterloo, i have some vid of them there (maybe tomorrows upload?....). The 259 was around and is a long established route. The 349 was one of London Transport's green country area routes in the Amersham area. These days TfL have reused the old country area route numbers. The 349 was established when the bendy buses were introduced to the 149. The route was split, the bendies on the southern half while convential double deck worked the northern half as a 349.

Soi Buakhao very interesting! So tell me something because im more of a train guy then buses, im only into buses more because im a driver now and is the type to delve into what i do, not just one of those drivers who is driving a bus and dont care or look around at anything else. Where is the remains or can you tell me what is on the site now of this old station? And what was its terminal spots at both ends? Thats crazy to know man, i love this kinda thing. Bloody el 149 went to victoria and waterloo 😂

@@ace-paidinfull5240 The 279 used to go to Hammond Street, way out beyond Waltham Cross! Edmonton Green low level was the original station on a branch from Angel Road. Because it was such a circular route to Liverpool Street a new line was constructed from Hackey direct to Edmonton and on a higher level than the original. It stayed open until 1939 and then closed to passengers although it syed open for goods traffic until the line finally closed in 1964. The shopping centre sits on the low level station site today andc the link line to the high level has disappeared without trace.....

They probably had good times there. They worked for London Transport in its better days.....

Quite a nice little shed from what i was told years ago. They had a right old party on RM 2214 on the last bus in the night it closed. I was there with my camera so will upload it at some point, keep an eye out.....

I think it may have been 260 which is owned by the London Trolleybus Preservation Society and the RT was privatly owned as well. By this time the garage was at only half capacity so storgae was not a problem.

The garage wasn't a large place and seemed quite clean to me even here at the end of its working life. A housing estate now occupies the site.....

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus Yeah I've always known about the housing estate there now as I live round the corner from it. Edmonton isn't nice at all these days such a shame

@@suediocrude9661 It had its moments back then as well! I was always wary of wandering round London with a large video camera on my shoulder........Today of course, just about everybody has a camera on them......

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus I see what you mean, in a big city like London you gotta be vigilant always

To the left hand side, upstairs, as you entered the garage from what i remember.....

That's a nice colour scheme. I rode on M 624 with the Halifax JC about 10 years ago.

To build a housing estate! Just like West Ham, Hornchurch, Loughton, Muswell Hill, Hanwell, Victoria, Elmer's End and more. Route tendering contracted the London Buses fleet as small operators took over various routes.

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus and now they need all those garages back. How very short sighted LRT was back then

It opened originally as a tram shed in 1881 and rebuilt for electric trams in 1904. After the trams went in 1938 Trolleybuses took over until 1961 when Routemasters and other diesel buses arrived. As the bus cuts of the 80s took hold plus route tendering there was over capacity in a lot of garages and so quite a few were/have been shut. As the allocation here was quite small at the end plus as you say at the end of a residential street it was an easy win to close it. Until the 50s/60s i imagine cars were not a problem and two buses could pass one another quite happily.

Closing bus garages must've been worlwide. Insanely, the latest one they've demolished here is being replaced by a three-level one underground..our bio-diesel buses still catch fire (just last week), they'd better know WTF they're doing here by turfing one of their dépôts.

Do any of our so-called transport professionals know what they are doing????

@@SoiBuakhaoRoutemasterbus But...But... They've got a piece of paper that says they know! And they know how to stamp their little feet to get what they want!

Textbook Dave The transport professionals drive around in Cars and have no interest in the public, so good on Lothian, NCT and Reading Buses for maintaining and keeping it local

Thanks for your input, it will keepthe thrash merchants happy.....lol

Soi Buakhao it's a very handy feature on RU-vid. It lets you drop in from time to time and get to your favourite bits -not to deminish your entire effort putting the film together.