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Garaging Londons Red Buses
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Book Synopsis London Trolleybuses and Red Buses 1959-62 by : Geoff Bannister
Download or read book London Trolleybuses and Red Buses 1959-62 written by Geoff Bannister and published by Fonthill Media. This book was released on 2022-04-08 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author came to London from Burnley in 1949 as a nine-year old having developed an interest in transport at a very early age; he remained here, mainly in Wandsworth, until 1994. In his first two books, he described his trainspotting travels around Britain. In this third book, he considers London Transport’s road fleet with an emphasis on the Central Area during the conversion of the trolleybus routes during 1959-62. He writes about his local trolleybus routes, also recollecting seeing trams as a schoolboy in Tooting. Not possessing a camera until 1959, he has drawn on later photographs and preserved vehicles to fill earlier gaps and takes the reader on a tour of the Central Area with an emphasis on the trolleybuses but covering other vehicles such as the early days of the iconic Routemasters along with everyday shots of life at that time. Green Country buses do make some appearances and he makes a brief nod to the off-the-peg vehicles acquired after RM production which led such chequered lives in the capital.
Book Synopsis The London MB and SM Buses - A London Bus Disappointment by : Jim Blake
Download or read book The London MB and SM Buses - A London Bus Disappointment written by Jim Blake and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2024-07-30 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PURCHASED to replace London Transport's ageing RT-type fleet, and also to ease staff shortages by extending one-man operation, the MB-types were not only a disappointment, but an unmitigated disaster! Their successors, the SM-types, were if anything worse, being underpowered as well as equally unsuitable for London operation. In this new volume of his photos, Jim Blake takes a critical look at what were therefore some of the most unsuccessful buses ever operated by London Transport, operating only between 1966 and 1981, most of them however achieving only six or seven years' service - if that. Most of the pictures featured have never been published before and many show rare and unusual scenes, several inside LT's garages and Aldenham Works, now themselves no longer in existence. In addition to the buses themselves, Jim also catches glimpses of London life spanning the period from the "swinging 'sixties" to the harsh first years of the Thatcher regime. The MB and SM family of vehicles also saw service with London Country, the latter being delivered new to them - but they fared just as badly in the outlying countryside around London as in Central London. They brought to a sad end London Transport's long association with A.E.C. buses, and could not have been more different from the legendary, long-lived RT, RF and Routemaster classes produced by that manufacturer!
Book Synopsis London Buses, 1970–1980 by : Matthew Wharmby
Download or read book London Buses, 1970–1980 written by Matthew Wharmby and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2017-11-30 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 1970s were among London Transports most troubled years. Prohibited from designing its own buses for the gruelling conditions of the capital, LT was compelled to embark upon mass orders for the broadly standard products of national manufacturers, which for one reason or another proved to be disastrous failures in the capital and were disposed of prematurely at a great loss. Despite a continuing spares shortage combined with industrial action, the old organisation kept going somehow, with the venerable RT and Routemaster families still at the forefront of operations.At the same time, the green buses of the Country Area were taken over by the National Bus Company as London Country Bus Services. Little by little, and not without problems of their own, the mostly elderly but standard inherited buses gave way to a variety of diverted orders, some successful others far from so, until by the end of the decade we could see a mostly NBC-standard fleet of one-man-operated buses in corporate leaf green.
Book Synopsis GARAGING LONDON'S RED BUSES. by : MICK. WEBBER
Download or read book GARAGING LONDON'S RED BUSES. written by MICK. WEBBER and published by . This book was released on 2019 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Book Synopsis Border Towns Buses of London Country Transport (North of the Thames) 1969-2019 by : Malcolm Batten
Download or read book Border Towns Buses of London Country Transport (North of the Thames) 1969-2019 written by Malcolm Batten and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2024-04-30 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: London Transport was created in 1933 with monopoly powers. Not only did it have exclusive rights to run bus (and tram and trolleybus) services in the Greater London area, it also ran services in a Country Area all around London. Green Line express services linked the country towns to London and in most cases across to other country towns the other side of the metropolis. This country area extended north as far as Hitchin, east to Brentwood, south to Crawley and west to Windsor. But what of the towns at the edge of the country area? Here the green London Transport buses would meet the bus companies whose operations extended across the rest of the counties of Essex, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire etc. In some cases the town was at a node where more than one company worked in. At Luton there was a municipal fleet. Elsewhere, such as at Aylesbury there were local independent operators who had a share in the town services. It would all change from 1970 when the London Transport Country Area was transferred to the National Bus Company to form a new company named London Country Bus Services. This would later be split into four separate companies. Deregulation in 1985 and privatization in the 1990s led to further changes in the names and ownership of bus companies. Consolidation since then has seen the emergence of national bus groups Stagecoach, First Group, Arriva and Go-Ahead replacing the old names and liveries. But retrenchment by these companies has given an opportunity for new independent companies to fill the gaps. This book takes the form of an anti-clockwise tour around the perimeter of the London Country area, north of the Thames featuring a number of key towns starting at Tilbury and ending at High Wycombe, illustrating some of the many changes to bus companies that have occurred.
Book Synopsis London Transport's Last Buses by : Matthew Wharmby
Download or read book London Transport's Last Buses written by Matthew Wharmby and published by Casemate Publishers. This book was released on 2016-02-29 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Olympian was Leyland's answer to the competition that was threatening to take custom away from its second-generation OMO double-deck products. Simpler than the London Transportcentric Titan but, unlike that integral model, able to respond to the market by being offered as a chassis for bodying by the bodybuilder of the customer's choice, the Olympian was an immediate success and soon replaced both the Atlantean and Bristol VRT as the standard double-decker of the NBC. It wasn't until 1984 that London Transport itself dabbled with the model, taking three for evaluation alongside trios of contemporary double-deckers.The resulting L class spawned an order for 260 more in 1986, featuring accessibility advancements developed by LT in concert with the Ogle design consultancy, but the rapid changes engulfing the organisation meant that no more were ordered. During the 1990s company ownerships shifted repeatedly as the ethos of competition gave way to the cold reality of big business, an unstable situation which even saw London's bus operations broken up.The L class was split between three new companies, but the backlog of older vehicles to replace once corporate interests released funding ensured the buses up to a further decade in service. Finally, as low-floor buses swept into the capital at the turn of the century, Olympian operation at last declined, and the final examples operated early in 2006.This profusely illustrated book describes the diversity of liveries, ownerships and deployments that characterised the London Leyland Olympians' two decades of service.
Book Synopsis London's Buses, 1979–1994 by : Andrew Bartlett
Download or read book London's Buses, 1979–1994 written by Andrew Bartlett and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2022-03-10 with total page 478 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1979, fresh from its general election victory, the Conservative government began formulating plans to deregulate bus services and privatise the companies operating them in England, Scotland and Wales. London was not to be excluded, so from the outset, London Buses was broken up into several areas and from 1985, a tendering system was introduced which permitted other operators to bid for the routes. Opposition from the Labour group at the Greater London Council had to be dealt with – eventually achieved by abolishing it in 1986. However, as each subsequent year passed, promises that deregulation was coming were not met. In late 1992, the privatisation timetable was set, and was ultimately completed at the end of 1994. The issue of deregulation never resurfaced. Copiously illustrated with over 270 photographs, virtually all of which are being published for the first time, this is the story of London Buses over those sixteen tumultuous years. To give greater context to the narrative, annual vehicle acquisition listings show how purchasing policy changed over the period; important route changes, tendering gains and losses and a fleet list for the entire period are also included.
Book Synopsis The Colours of London Buses 1970s by : Kevin McCormack
Download or read book The Colours of London Buses 1970s written by Kevin McCormack and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-02-29 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a colour album of London Buses concentrating mainly on the 1970s which was the first decade since London Transport's inception in 1933 to feature a large number of buses on London streets which were not painted in the mainly all-red (or in a few c
Book Synopsis The London DM and DMS Buses - Two Designs Ill Suited to London by : Jim Blake
Download or read book The London DM and DMS Buses - Two Designs Ill Suited to London written by Jim Blake and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2024-10-30 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: JIM BLAKE'S latest book on London's buses may come as a surprise, since he usually concentrated on older vehicles in the fleet. However, the unpopular, unsuccessful DMs and DMSs were still part of London Transport's history, so he recorded them too, particularly towards the end of the short working lives. Forced by central government to buy "off-the-peg" standard manufacturers' products, rather than their own tried and trusted designs, LT opted for Daimler Fleetlines for their first fleet of one-man-operated double-deckers. Optimistically christened "Londoners" when they first entered service in January 1971, they instantly became unpopular with passengers, staff and bus enthusiasts alike. Their square, box-like appearance and bland all-over red livery did not endear them to the latter. Passengers used to boarding buses immediately with fares collected or tickets checked by a conductor objected to waiting at termini until the driver appeared and opened their doors, and having to queue at stops waiting to pay as they entered. Automatic ticket machines meant to mitigate this broke down making matters worse; all this increased journey times. The vehicles had flimsy bodywork, easily damaged by the slightest collision, and were also mechanically unreliable: their rear engines often caught fire. This made them unpopular with drivers and maintenance staff. Although the type worked satisfactorily in the provinces, it was just not suited for the rigors of London service. This book presents a selection of pictures of them, many previously unpublished and also graphically illustrating the buses' many defects.
Book Synopsis The London DMS Bus by : Matthew (Matt) Wharmby
Download or read book The London DMS Bus written by Matthew (Matt) Wharmby and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-11-30 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vilified as the great failure of all London Transport bus classes, the DMS family of Daimler Fleetline was more like an unlucky victim of straitened times. Desperate to match staff shortages with falling demand for its services during the late 1960s, London Transport was just one organization to see nationwide possibilities and savings in legislation that was about to permit double-deck one-man-operation and partially fund purpose-built vehicles. However, prohibited by circumstances from developing its own rear-engined Routemaster (FRM) concept, LT instituted comparative trials between contemporary Leyland Atlanteans and Daimler Fleetlines.The latter came out on top, and massive orders followed. The first DMSs entering service on 2 January 1971. In service, however, problems quickly manifested. Sophisticated safety features served only to burn out gearboxes and gulp fuel. The passengers, meanwhile, did not appreciate being funnelled through the DMS's recalcitrant automatic fare-collection machinery only to have to stand for lack of seating. Boarding speeds thus slowed to a crawl, to the extent that the savings made by laying off conductors had to be negated by adding more DMSs to converted routes! Second thoughts caused the ongoing order to be amended to include crew-operated Fleetlines (DMs), noise concerns prompted the development of the B20 quiet bus variety, and brave attempts were made to fit the buses into the time-honored system of overhauling at Aldenham Works, but finally the problems proved too much. After enormous expenditure, the first DMSs began to be withdrawn before the final RTs came out of service, and between 1979 and 1983 all but the B20s were sold as is widely known, the DMSs proved perfectly adequate with provincial operators once their London features had been removed. OPO was to become fashionable again in the 1980s as the politicians turned on London Transport itself, breaking it into pieces in order to sell it off. Not only did the B20 DMSs survive to something approaching a normal lifespan, but the new cheap operators awakening with the onset of tendering made use of the type to undercut LT, and it was not until 1993 that the last DMS operated.
Book Synopsis London Transport Buses in the 1960s by : Jim Blake
Download or read book London Transport Buses in the 1960s written by Jim Blake and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2022-11-17 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Just as life in Britain generally changed dramatically during the 1960s, so did London Transport's buses and their operations. Most striking was the abandonment of London's trolleybuses, once the world's biggest system, and their replacement by motorbuses. Begun in 1959 using surplus RT-types, it was completed by May 1962 using new Routemasters, designed specifically to replace them. They then continued to replace RT types, too. Traffic congestion and staff shortages played havoc with London Transport's buses and Green Line coaches during the 1960s, one-man operation was seen as a remedy for the latter, shortening routes in the Central Area for the former. Thus the ill-fated "Reshaping Plan" was born, introducing new O.M.O. bus types. These entered trial service in 1965, and after much delay the plan was implemented from September 1968 onwards. Sadly, new MB-types, also introduced in the Country Area, soon proved a disaster! Unfortunately, owing to a government diktat, Routemaster production ended at the start of 1968, forcing LT to buy "off-the-peg" vehicles unsuited to London operation and their in-house overhaul procedures. The decade ended with the loss of LT's Country Area buses and Green Line coaches to the National Bus Company. Photographer Jim Blake began photographing London's buses towards the end of the trolleybus conversion program in 1961 and continued dealing with the changing scene throughout the decade. He dealt very thoroughly with the "Reshaping" changes, and many of the photographs featured herein show rare and unusual scenes which have never been published before.
Book Synopsis The London Mini and Midi Bus Types by : David Beddall
Download or read book The London Mini and Midi Bus Types written by David Beddall and published by Pen and Sword Transport. This book was released on 2024-05-30 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: London Passenger Transport Board inherited a number of small buses from various independent operators during the early 1930s, followed by the introduction of the Leyland Cub around the same period. The introduction of the big-bus policy saw many of the small buses withdrawn from service. The 1950s saw the introduction of the GS-class Guy Special for use on the lightly-trafficked country routes. More smaller buses entered the London Transport fleet in the form of the Ford Transit and Bristol LH / LHS saloons. The mid-1980s saw a resurgence in small-bus operation as a cost-cutting exercise. Many new types entered service with London Buses Limited and other independent operators. The introduction of these minibuses saw a number of new services introduced to serve previously unserved areas of London. However, the success of these small buses led to their replacement by the larger Dennis Dart midibus. while the introduction of varying lengths of Darts catered for many of London’s needs, other types of mini and midibuses were taken into stock by London based operators for fill in gaps. London’s Mini and midibuses takes a look at the various types of mini and midibuses that have operated on routes in the Greater London area.
Book Synopsis London Buses in the 1970s by : Jim Blake
Download or read book London Buses in the 1970s written by Jim Blake and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2019-06-30 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A compilation of photos taken in the difficult period . . . when LT and London Country were plagued with maintenance problems. A valuable record.” —West Somerset Railway Association Continuing with images from transport photographer Jim Blake’s extensive archives, this book examines the second half of the 1970s, when both London Transport and London Country were still struggling to keep services going. This resulted both from being plagued by a shortage of spare parts for their vehicles and having a number of vehicle types which were unreliable—the MB, SM and DMS classes. In 1975, both operators had to hire buses from other companies, so desperate were they. Many came from the seaside towns of Southend, Bournemouth and Eastbourne. This continued until the spares shortage began to abate later in the decade, particularly with London Country. As the decade progressed, the two fleets began to lose their “ancestral” vehicle types. London Country rapidly became “just another National Bus Company fleet,” buying Leyland Atlanteans and Nationals common to most others throughout the country. Having virtually abandoned the awful MB and SM-types, London Transport had to suffer buying the equally awful DMSs well into 1978, but had already ordered replacements for them by that point—the M class Metrobuses and T class Titans—both of which would finally prove successful. However, plans to convert trunk routes serving Central London to one-person operation were largely abandoned. “A very interesting book. The passenger transport crisis in London in the mid-1970s was a major event.” —Miniaturas JM
Book Synopsis The London Bendy Bus by : Matthew Wharmby
Download or read book The London Bendy Bus written by Matthew Wharmby and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2016-03-30 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Between 2002 and 2006 six of Londons bus companies put into service 390 articulated bendy buses on twelve routes for transport in London.rnrnDuring what turned out to be a foreshortened nine years in service, the Mercedes-Benz Citaro G buses familiar on the continent and worldwide earned an unenviable reputation in London; according to who you read and who you believed, they caught fire at the drop of a hat, they maimed cyclists, they drained revenue from the system due to their susceptibility to fare evasion, they transported already long-suffering passengers in standing crush loads like cattle and they contributed to the extinction of the Routemaster from frontline service. In short, it was often referred to as the bus we hated.rnrnThis account is an attempt by a long-time detractor of the bendy buses to set the vehicles in their proper context not quite to rehabilitate them, but to be as fair as is possible towards a mode of transport which felt about as un-British as could be.
Book Synopsis East London Buses: 1990s by : Malcolm Batten
Download or read book East London Buses: 1990s written by Malcolm Batten and published by Amberley Publishing Limited. This book was released on 2018-09-15 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Malcolm Batten offers a highly illustrated range of photographs looking at East London buses in the 1990s.
Download or read book British Buses, 1967 written by Jim Blake and published by Pen and Sword. This book was released on 2015-08-30 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book looks at an important turning point in the history of the bus industry in Britain. 1967 was the penultimate year to the end of an era, when private and semi-nationalized company's operated the bus networks in this country.After 1967 the network was never the same again, with the formation of the National Bus Company in 1968.The NBC was a very bland organization compared to the colourful bus companies that had existed before nationalization, and many small municipal fleets amalgamated to form Passenger Transport Executives.This comprehensive volume covers a large number of the bus companies throughout the country in 1967 and also has a good readable narrative describing Jim Blake's journeys travelling on these services across Britain.
Book Synopsis The London Single-deck Bus of the Fifties by : J. S. Wagstaff
Download or read book The London Single-deck Bus of the Fifties written by J. S. Wagstaff and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: