Bus garages - Great Britain: books - history and vehicles

British Bus Garages

Bus garages, also known as depots, find their historical lineage in tram depots established by pre-electrification-era tramway companies. These depots were originally constructed to house horse-drawn and steam-hauled tramcars, often featuring attached stables for the former.

Diversity characterized bus garages, with variations in both size and construction type. Some, like London Transport's enduring Stockwell garage and Salford Corporation's Frederick Road tram/bus depot, stand as architectural marvels. Garage capacities spanned a wide range, exemplified by Ribble Motor's Bowness-on-Solway outstation accommodating a single bus and Oldham Corporation's Wallshaw Street garage, initially designed to house 300 buses under one roof.

While former tram depots have transitioned into bus garages, their numbers are dwindling. The deregulation of bus services in 1986 marked a pivotal shift in the bus industry. Privatization during the 1990s led to operators moving away from their inherited garages to establish cost-effective facilities, typically comprising a moderately sized maintenance building and a spacious open-air parking area.
This book offers fascinating unpublished shots of the UK's extensive network of bus depots.

Bus Dealers and Breakers of Yorkshire

Since the late 1920s Yorkshire has played a major role in the sale of second-hand buses and coaches, as well as their ultimate end-of-life destruction. For many years, one of the UK's largest used bus dealers, who during its long and proud history purchased more than 1,500 redundant buses from London Transport in a single transaction, was located in Leeds, where several other smaller but similar concerns were also active.

Since the early 1960s Yorkshire has become the main UK hub for bus and coach dismantling, particularly in the Barnsley and Rotherham area due to its close proximity to the heavy metals market.
Within this book, the area's dealing and scrap industries are both covered in depth through text and photographs to illustrate the importance of their past and present activities in these fields.