Monday 4 June 2018

Omnibological Archaeology - Scarborough (3)

And Three Come (Nearly) Together
Thanks to a comment writer for pointing out that Vine Street garage was shared with West Yorkshire and that many buses in the old photo were, indeed, WY vehicles.
The two companies continued to share resources when they built a shiny new facility facing on to Northway. It was not far from Vine Street and closer to the station.
Observe Brook Street, just above "Police Station" upper left.

Here is a plan of the whole site.
Back then, Brook Street ran right through from Victoria Road to Trafalgar Street. Entrance to the garage (right) and bus station was from Northway itself with departures via Brook Street.
The main passenger entrance was via the archway, with stands located behind the curved brickwork.
After closure the buildings were adapted for other use ...
... with the platform area filled in. The remnants of the essential clock were left in place.
Sadly the main block plus "tower" was demolished to provide access and parking for Aldi.
Whether any parts of the physical bus station section remain as part of Jewsons showroom is unclear ...
... but the Brook Street facade looks very much like the "blocked-in" area as illustrated above!

United's longer distance services had their own bus station at the corner of Somerset Terrance and Valley Bridge Parade ...
... close by their Vernon Road depot. Behind this bus ...
... are the frontages of Somerset Terrace.
Pictures of this facility are absent on-line (unless anyone can help - fbb@xephos.com) but there is one piece of omnibological archaeology to see.

The bus station is now a car park.
But at the back of said car park ...
... complete with horological remnants, is the old office block and "travel centre".

So where did all these deposed buses go. Ultimately everything ended up at on-street stands, as now, but in the interim various services used Westwood Coach Park.
This was a large sloping site alongside the station. And look, there are buses parked in a yard on a road called Westwood.
 
But there is no noticeable slope ...
... and old pictures definitely imply a slope ...
... at the bottom of which stood a building that looked very much like a school.
The school building is still there ...
... with a massive wall opposite!
It's a huge Tesco, innit!

The last bus station standing is now completely obliterated. Longer distance services stop outside the station ...
... with local routes clustered around Westbororugh ...
... and nearby York Place.
With a bit of research, at least the broad outline of the history of public transport history in Scarborough can be gleaned; Yorkshire experts can add dates and detail, and, no doubt, out your exploratory author right - as usual!

But beware - mistakes are possible ...
... this is Scarborough in Toronto, Canada!

Coming Soon
The promised "underground-style" maps for Buses of Sheffield have started to appear on shelters in the city centre.
fbb is trying to source a high-res photo or an actual copy for a full review. Suffice it to say that, at first glance, it is as appallingly awful as fbb feared (but expected) it to be.

In the meantime we will be opening the parcel from Widnes.

BUSTED KEYBOARD UPDATE
All letter keys are now working fine, but the space bar has given up completely! A new keyboard will be fitted by No 3 son at the end of the month. Various techniques are being used e.g. a combination of THREE keybords ...
... to overcome the problem, but reduced blogs are still likely until further notice.

 Next railway blog : Tuesday 5th June 

3 comments:

  1. Sheffield Map?

    No that is not a map, it is a diagram. It is an advertising poster to catch attention. You have 10 seconds may be. It will also act as an index.

    There are maps and journey planners elsewhere to provide geographical information, if you can generate interest in possible bus use in the first place.

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    Replies
    1. Quite right! And there were plenty of maps on the SYPTE website when I looked earlier.

      I suspect that "it is as appallingly awful" translates as "I don't like diagrammatic network displays, and automatically dismiss them".

      Like so many things, the bus industry isn't here to pamper to the outdated views of a keyboard warrior who seemingly bashes the poor keys so hard in frustration that they fail with great regularity....

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  2. To both Anonymouses above, for your information the Sheffield bus "diagram" is most definitely a map.

    It is, in fact, a topological map in the form of a schematic diagram used to illustrate the routes and stations within a public transport system, the primary function of which is to help users to efficiently use the public transport system, including which stops function as interchanges between routes, rather than functioning as a mere "advertising poster".

    The SYPTE website only has one geographical Sheffield map, also with interchange points, but with no indication of how useful any one route might be (i.e. indicating frequency), and with the traditional absence of bus stop locations (other than for a city centre enlargement with stops but no routes). This is reused for the two bus partnership guides, each with the addition of a lengthy frequency guide.

    ReplyDelete