Destination Board from the last 23 tram

Recollections and Photos © When I added this photo above to the web site last week, I did not expect it to become the start of discussions and photos of LRT paintshop at Seafield - but see below. Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: January 12, 201
1.	John Dickson Royston, Edinburgh	Signwriting Number Plates ©
2.	Steven Oliver Duns, Borders, Scotland	Signwriting
3.	Steven Oliver Duns, Borders, Scotland	Slipboards Number Plates
4.	John Dickson Royston, Edinburgh	Signwriting ©
5.	Peter Stubbs Edinburgh	LRT Paintshop at Seafield © © ©
6.	Steven Oliver Duns, Borders, Scotland	Paintshop - Move to Seafield Name Change to LRT Painting of 615
7.	John Dickson Royston, Edinburgh	Seafield Paint Shop - Leyland PD2 © Destination Boards Shrubhill Paintshop Roof
8.	Steven Oliver Duns, Borders, Scotland	Seafield Paint Shop - Leyland PD2 Deregulation - 1986
9.	John Dickson Royston, Edinburgh	Painting the Gold Line © Seafield Paintshop Workers ©

Recollections

John Dickson

Royston, Edinburgh

Thank you to John Dickson for responding to the photo above and sending me a photo of himself at work, when he worked for Lothian Regional Transport, now Lothian Buses, at their Seafield works.

John wrote:

Signwriting

"I used to signwrite these destination boards:

- TO THE ZOO

- TO THE AIRPORT

- etc.

Number Plates

Here is a shot of me signwriting a glass number plate at Seafield. You'll notice that the numbers are reversed and see-through with a coat of white. They light up at night."

John Dickson, Royston, Edinburgh: January 7, 2012

Sepia Photo

I converted the photo above to sepia in an attempt to give it more of a period feel. Here is the result. Please click on this thumbnail image or the one above to enlarge the photo.

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: January 7, 2012

Recollections

Steven Oliver

Duns, Borders, Scotland

Steven Oliver wrote:

Signwriting

"The photos of painting the number plates (above) would have been taken at Shrubhill Works.

LRT moved their engineering facility to Seafield, to a building which had previously been used to store withdrawn buses prior to disposal, when Shrubhill Works closed in 1999." **

Steven Oliver, Duns, Borders, Scotland: January 8, 2012

*** No: See replies 4 and 6 below.

Recollections

Steven Oliver

Duns, Borders, Scotland

Thank you to Steven Oliver who wrote again.

Stephen wrote:

Slipboards

"Incidentally, the correct name for these destination boards or tram boards carried by trams is 'slipboards.' The slipboards are of course still very much in use today."

Number Plates

"Although white on black number plates were outlawed on new cars during the seventies, an exception was made for buses.

London Transport continued to specify this style of number plate on both the front and rear of new buses up until 1985 while Lothian's double decker deliveries up until 1982 had white-on-black rear number plates. The last new Edinburgh buses buses to arrive with this feature were Olympians 666 and 667, delivered in March 1982."

Steven Oliver, Duns, Borders, Scotland: January 8, 2012

Recollections

John Dickson

Royston, Edinburgh

Thank you to John Dickson for replying to Steven Oliver's comments in 2 above.

John wrote:

Signwriting

"I've just read Steven Oliver comments (2 above). In fact, the LRT paintshop moved from Shrubhill to Seafield in 1982 when the roof at Shrubhill Paintshop, Museum, and Spray Booth started to give-way.

The Driving School moved into the Front Office at Seafield. Marine mechanics used it as an overspill, and they did store redundant buses there till they were sold

I cant remember the year but I did a prototype logo, when the company changed to Lothian Region Transport, at Seafield."

LRT Logo

John Dickson, Royston, Edinburgh: January 7, 2012

Recollections

Peter Stubbs

Edinburgh

LRT

Paint Shop at Seafield

Here are three photos that I took when I visited Lothian Region Transport's Paint Shop at Seafield in 1994.

Peter Stubbs, Edinburgh: January 9, 2012

Recollections

Steven Oliver

Duns, Borders, Scotland

Thank you to Steven Oliver who replied

Paint Shop

Move to Seafield

"Brian Melrose, another member of the Edinburgh Transport Group, has been in touch with me to say that the paintshop did indeed move to Seafield in the early-1980s, for the reasons that John described.

The loss of the spray booth at Shrubhill meant that the silver 'Bell's Scotch Whisky' buses and the bus repainted gold for the 'Gold of the Pharaohs' exhibition, went through to Strathclyde PTE's workshops in Glasgow to be spray-painted into their advert liveries."

Name change to LRT

"I can help John with the year Lothian Region Transport came into being. It was 1986, when what was Lothian Regional Council Department of Public Transport became Lothian Region Transport plc in preparation for bus deregulation that October.

This photo shows John applying the white 'LRT Lothian' fleet name which would be used for the next 13 years. There had been several experiments with fleet names during 1986, following the decision to stop using the Council crest on buses at the end of the previous year."

Painting of 615

"I particularly like your picture of bus 615 being repainted, with the fleet names and the gold line below its lower-deck windows yet to be applied.

I think the name of the shade of madder paint which was used on the buses was called "rose madder". And not just on the buses either - I recall being on an enthusiasts tour of Shrubhill in 1996 and noticing that even the toilet cubicle doors were painted madder!"

Steven Oliver, Duns, Borders, Scotland: January 9, 2012

Recollections

John Dickson

Royston, Edinburgh

Thank you to John Dickson for replying and for sending another photo taken in the paint shop at Seafield.

John wrote:

Seafield Paint Shop

Leyland PD2

"Here is a photo of two more buses in the Seafield paintshop.

The Leyland Titan PD2 was being painted for a bus enthusiast in the late 1980s. Maybe Steven will know the owner."

Destination Boards

"Steven Oliver referred to 'destination boards' a ''slip boards' in 2 above. We called them ''route boards', but, what's in a name?"

Shrubhill Paintshop Roof

"The old paintshop roof at Shrubhill (the cause of our move to Seafield) was an 'umbrella roof''. It was designed to give more space inside without the use of pillars, but it only lasted for twenty-odd years."

John Dickson, Royston, Edinburgh: January 9, 2012

Recollections

Steven Oliver

Duns, Borders, Scotland

Thank you to Steven Oliver for commenting on the picture in 7 above.

Steven wrote:

Seafield Paint Shop

Leyland PD2

"The old bus being painted up in John's photo is OFS798 which had served as a training vehicle up until 1982.

It was then sold for preservation, to a Mr David Hunt, before being bought by its present owners Douglas and Ross Scoular in the early 1990s, and has recently undergone a very thorough restoration. Douglas and Ross also own the famous Leyland Leopard three-door bus, no.101."

Deregulation

1986

"The picture of the LRT Lothian fleetname being applied to a bus has just jogged another memory. In the weeks leading up to deregulation, two Leyland Olympian buses, 757 and 784, received LRT Lothian fleetnames along with Atlantean publicity bus 806.

They were then used as information buses to advertise the service changes which would be taking place as a result of deregulation, with 757 and 784 used to promote the extension of Lothian's services beyond the city boundary into the Balerno, Dalkeith, Musselburgh and Penicuik areas.

When you can remember the days prior to deregulation and when Lothian's services were confined to the city, you know that you're getting old - and I'm still only in my late-thirties!"

Steven Oliver, Duns, Borders, Scotland: January 10, 2012

Recollections

John Dickson

Royston, Edinburgh

John Dickson wrote:

Painting the Gold Line

"Brian Melrose has spoken about the gold line under the windows of the buses. It was applied with a long thin brush called a lining tool.

Here is a photo of Graham Carberry painting the line.

The madder paint was supplied by two firms, Masons and Tekaloid.

Seafield Paintshop Workers

"Here is a photo of workers at Seafield Paintshop. They are:

- ON THE LEFT:

- Hugh King

- Jimmy Huth

- [I don't know. He just dropped in.]

- Sammy Tipton

- John Kerrigan

- ON THE RIGHT:

- David Archibald

- Andy Page

- [I cant remember]

- John Wintrop

- Graham Carbeery

John Dickson, Royston, Edinburgh: January 10+11, 2012