Twisted Nerve
Active member
Bus Garage, Edinburgh (August 2003)
This site has long since gone and met its fate will the bulldozers less than a year after I took these shots. I think it originally started out as a Bedford truck dealership for SMT part of the Scottish Motor Traction bus company. In the mid 80’s, around 1986 (de-regulation time of the bus industry) this site became Westfield Bus Depot (Eastern Scottish Omnibuses Ltd) and operated a fleet of mini buses. The depot remained operational until early 2003 when First Group finally closed it down as it was loosing money. In its final days this site held about 60 single/ double deck buses as the mini/ midi bus had ran its course.
The local yobs had a field day in the building and destroyed as much of it as they could and also partially set fire to the workshops. I carried out this explore on my own but unfortunately I didn’t have a torch so the admin block was not visited and I didn’t fancy venturing too deep into the building on my own.
The site
The water flowing out of the pit door was a fire hydrant that the local yobs turned on
A view of the workshops looking from the admin offices/ control room
Looking down to the control room, depot engineers office and the drivers cashing in office from the workshop area
Drivers rest room/ canteen. Again the yobs have totalled this room
Drivers cashing in room. The 2 holes in the wall once housed an automatic money counting machine that you tipped your takings into. These machines were famous for not being accurate! They were removed by the company prior to closure as the company installed hopper vaults in all of its buses eliminating the need for drivers to total up their daily takings
Control room. This was once a busy place with the phones constantly ringing and the drivers calling in for assistance on the radio system. Now its just silent and very derelict.
Another view of the control room with the drivers signing on window boarded up
Public entrance with the name brass plates still attached to the wall
Moving up stairs and this is the view from the top of the stairwell. Again the yobs seem to have been using these windows for target practice
Director’s office with the board room in the background
Fire damage to the rear of the workshops
Fire damage from a different angle with the stores in the background
View right down the depot from the back of the workshops. Note the flooded pit!
Flooded pit which was very dangerous as they are about 5’ deep. I managed to turn the hydrant off!
Boiler room trashed
Engineering office
The shunters bothy with the vault box trolleys in the corner
One of the old shuttle vans that was left behind
This site has long since gone and met its fate will the bulldozers less than a year after I took these shots. I think it originally started out as a Bedford truck dealership for SMT part of the Scottish Motor Traction bus company. In the mid 80’s, around 1986 (de-regulation time of the bus industry) this site became Westfield Bus Depot (Eastern Scottish Omnibuses Ltd) and operated a fleet of mini buses. The depot remained operational until early 2003 when First Group finally closed it down as it was loosing money. In its final days this site held about 60 single/ double deck buses as the mini/ midi bus had ran its course.
The local yobs had a field day in the building and destroyed as much of it as they could and also partially set fire to the workshops. I carried out this explore on my own but unfortunately I didn’t have a torch so the admin block was not visited and I didn’t fancy venturing too deep into the building on my own.
The site
The water flowing out of the pit door was a fire hydrant that the local yobs turned on
A view of the workshops looking from the admin offices/ control room
Looking down to the control room, depot engineers office and the drivers cashing in office from the workshop area
Drivers rest room/ canteen. Again the yobs have totalled this room
Drivers cashing in room. The 2 holes in the wall once housed an automatic money counting machine that you tipped your takings into. These machines were famous for not being accurate! They were removed by the company prior to closure as the company installed hopper vaults in all of its buses eliminating the need for drivers to total up their daily takings
Control room. This was once a busy place with the phones constantly ringing and the drivers calling in for assistance on the radio system. Now its just silent and very derelict.
Another view of the control room with the drivers signing on window boarded up
Public entrance with the name brass plates still attached to the wall
Moving up stairs and this is the view from the top of the stairwell. Again the yobs seem to have been using these windows for target practice
Director’s office with the board room in the background
Fire damage to the rear of the workshops
Fire damage from a different angle with the stores in the background
View right down the depot from the back of the workshops. Note the flooded pit!
Flooded pit which was very dangerous as they are about 5’ deep. I managed to turn the hydrant off!
Boiler room trashed
Engineering office
The shunters bothy with the vault box trolleys in the corner
One of the old shuttle vans that was left behind
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Maybe you could edit that part out? Otherwise a good report-well done for getting the hydrant turned off too! 
