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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.
Although there had been experiments with the use of a new form of transport - the ‘trackless tram’ (better known as the trolleybus) - during the first decade of the 20th century, it was in June 1911 that Bradford and Leeds became the country’s pioneering operators of trolleybuses. There had been earlier experimental users – in places like Hove and London – and as the tide turned against the tram in many towns and cities, the trolleybus became a popular alternative with London becoming, for a period, the world’s largest operator of trolleybuses. This volume – one of four that examines the history of all trolleybus operators in the British Isles – focuses on London and the other systems of south-east England
Marking 90 years of London Transport, this selection of images celebrates its buses, trams and trolleybuses in preservation.
In the last century, the trolleybus developed into a successful provider of public transport in many towns and cities around Britain. It is often described as being part tram and part motorbus. The trolleybus was a fast vehicle whose acceleration from rest was far superior to that of any motorbus. Added to this it was quiet and fume-free, and consumed home-produced electricity generated using coal. During the last twenty years, there have been many books about trolleybuses published, but hardly any of these has tackled the subject from the vehicle manufacturers' angle, instead concentrating on individual trolleybus systems. This volume is, therefore, a summary of the British trolleybus, describing each manufacturer and its products, and then showing what happened to these vehicles throughout their life. It contains an alphabetical listing of all the manufacturers, detailing company history and trolleybus types produced including production totals. A second alphabetical company-by-company listing gives full details of every trolleybus built for British use, including data such as chassis number and any subsequent significant changes. As far as possible it is all presented in a non-technical way. This complete guide to the types of British trolleybuses produced, how many and their operational history is superbly illustrated with over 300 photographs, many in colour.
From the horse-drawn trams of the nineteenth century to the larger electric models of the early twentieth, this reliable form of public transport revolutionised town travel by making it affordable enough for working people to use. From the 1930s, the rise of the trolleybus, which also picked up power from overhead cables but ran without expensive tracks, looked set to supersede the tram – but ultimately, by the 1950s, both fell victim to motor buses and private cars. However, since the 1980s the environmental benefits of light rail have encouraged a growing comeback for trams on our crowded and polluted city streets. Using beautiful contemporary photographs, this is the fascinating story of the rise, fall and revival of this everyday, yet sometimes controversial, mode of urban transport.
Although there had been experiments with the use of a new form of transport - the ‘trackless tram’ (better known as the trolleybus) - during the first decade of the 20th century, it was in June 1911 that Bradford and Leeds became the country’s pioneering operators of trolleybuses. There had been earlier experimental users – in places like Hove and London – and as the tide turned against the tram in many towns and cities, the trolleybus became a popular alternative with the trolleybus coming to dominate the provision of local public transport in places like Derby and Ipswich. This volume – one of four that examines the history of all trolleybus operators in the British Isles – focuses on the systems that operated in Wales, the Midlands and East Anglia.
This pictorial book covers London's railways from 1967 to 1977, showing the transition from steam to diesel and electric traction. This volume has a very readable narrative, telling tales of the authors adventures during his many trips around the London railway network. The volume encapsulates a period of time in Britain, during which a great deal of change was taking place, not only with railways and transport, but also socially and economically. Jim Blake, describes all of these changes, while also looking at the capitals transport scene of the period.
LONDON'S FAMOUS RT-TYPE BUSES were an iconic symbol of our Capital city in the 1950s, before being superseded by the Routemasters. Most were built between 1947 and 1954 to replace worn-out pre-war and wartime buses, as well as our remaining trams. More than 7,000 were built in all and although London Transport favored A.E.C. chassis, which the first batches of RTs had, so pressing was the need for new buses that not enough could be supplied by that manufacturer to match demand. Therefore Leyland Motors were contracted to adapt their Leyland "Titan" PD2 chassis to fit bodies that, for the most part, were identical with those on RTs. The result was the 1,631-strong RTL class, together with the 500 RTWs, which had bodies also built by Leyland to the same general design, were built between 1948 and 1954. Always in a minority compared to the 4,825-strong RT class, these Leyland buses had a character all of their own, perhaps personified by their louder engine note. They also had a reputation for being heavier on their steering than the RTs, making them unpopular with staff, and therefore general withdrawal of them commenced in 1958, taking almost ten years to complete (in November 1968), whereas the RTs soldiered on until April 1979. During the RTL and RTW class buses' final years, Jim Blake was out and about photographing them throughout London. A selection of his photographs of them, most previously unpublished, is presented here. Nearly fifty years after their demise from London's streets, the RTLs and RTWs still have a firm following amongst bus enthusiasts and preservationists alike, and it is to them that this book is dedicated!
In this new photographic album from Pen & Sword, transport historian and photographer Jim Blake presents a fascinating selection of pictures of a form of public transport now sadly missing from Britain's streets trolleybuses.
This book looks at the wonderful variety of buses and coaches operated by British Electric Traction group fleets in the 1960s, featuring previously unpublished photographs from Jim Blake's extensive archives. Not only did these fleets, which served most of England and Wales, have a splendid variety of British-built buses and coaches with chassis manufactured by the likes of AEC, Crossley, Daimler, Dennis, Guy and Leyland – with bodywork by such firms as Park Royal, Weymann, Metro-Cammell, East Lancs, Northern Counties, Roe, Duple, Plaxton, Willowbrook and Leyland again – but they also had an array of distinctive liveries. Many dated back to the early part of the century when the operators first started bus operation. The smart maroon and cream of East Kent, the dark green and cream of Maidstone & District or the light green and cream of Southdown, for example, were supplemented by ornate fleet-names, often in gold lettering. These three fleets were just a few of those that served seaside towns, and will remind readers of holidays they spent in the 1950s and '60s. Sadly, the years covered by this book are the final years of the BET group, which was taken over by the nationalised Transport Holding Company in late 1967, as a prelude to the creation of the National Bus Company, under which the distinctive liveries of the BET group fleets, and even some of the operators themselves, would disappear. The 1960s also saw the demise of many traditional types of bus that these fleets operated, owing to the introduction of rear-engined double-deckers, such as the Leyland Atlantean and Daimler Fleetline, as well as the spread of one-man operation. Many of the photographs featured in this book show the older types in their final days – pure nostalgia for the transport enthusiast!