< View previous picture - View next picture > Photographer / Copyright James Mair Images should not be reused without permission. View vehicle details 4423F M506LJV Location Link/s Telstar House, Paddington Date added to site 07/04/2020 Printer-friendly version of this page

Details: The Ford Transit has been the dominant model in the central fleet for many years, and 2000 was no exception, with 194 examples in the leased series (representing 55% of that fleet) and a further 7 in the other series. The Mk5 Transit had been introduced in 1994 and hence, by 2000, very few of the Mk4 model remained. One of the survivors was long-wheelbase van 4423F, new in September 1994 and seen on an unrecorded date at Telstar House, Paddington. Official lists had this van as allocated to South Kensington and (later) Acton Works, for use by the Signal and Electrical department. Although the old LUL white/blue livery looks quite plain compared to today's white/blue/red, it did often feature department names, which was useful to observers. This van carries the title 'Signal & electrical contractors' below the LUL name on the doors. 4423F was withdrawn in autumn 2000. Telstar House was a late-1960s tower block built at the junction of Eastbourne Terrace and Bishops Bridge Road, close to the west end of Paddington Station. It contained offices for various LT departments, including the Computer Centre, catering and several teams working on projects such as the Heathrow Terminal 5 link, Crossrail and the Croxley Link. It was also for a time the headquarters of Centrewest, one of the new companies formed during the privatisation of London Buses in 1994. It is not known if the location had any covered parking spaces, though a handful of vehicles were officially allocated here. The location shown in this photo, and this similar view taken in 1986, is a small parking/turning area which you could look down into from Eastbourne Terrace. A serious fire damaged much of Telstar House in July 2003, and it was later demolished and replaced with a new building bearing the same name.

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