The Colours of London Buses 1970s (ePub)
Imprint: Pen & Sword Transport
File Size: 16.7 MB (.epub)
Pages: 168
Illustrations: 180
ISBN: 9781473868014
Published: 14th March 2016
Other formats available - Buy the Hardback and get the eBook for free! | Price |
---|---|
The Colours of London Buses 1970s Hardback Add to Basket | £18.75 |
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 cases, all-green) livery with which people are familiar. Vehicles in the traditional London liveries have not been ignored but many of the pictures depict this remarkably colourful era and often against the backdrop of famous or historically interesting landmarks which the author has been able to describe. As far as is known, none of the photographs has been published before, and the vast majority were taken by one photographer, sadly now deceased, who had the foresight to compose his picture well. The author is a well-known London Bus enthusiast and this is his 34th transport book and second for Pen & Sword.
There is plenty to hold the interest of both bus aficionados and battle hardened pub quiz addicts too: the link between Barker & Dobson and Everton Football Club for example; the occasion that merited providing carpeted bus aisles; the fate of the ‘naked’ Routemaster. Or why there was a general bus shortage in the 70s; the identity of London’s oldest bus route (and its most unreliable); graphic evidence of the Routemaster’s (literal) tipping point (including the guinea pigs’ view from the top deck); which manufacturers were licensed to build them; what the underside of an in-service vehicle looked like before its routine steam spa; and photographic evidence of their famed flexibility - from Worzel Gummidgesque body transplants at the Aldenham Works to the designers’ response to the perennial problem of high demand routes with low bridges (the RLH)!
Paul Henry Stanton
All this and much, much more. What Londoner could resist?
Metropolitan buses are traditionally coloured red for the inner regions, and dark green for the outer fringes. Some have been repainted for special reasons and all transport enthusiasts will enjoy this nostalgic look back.
This England Autumn 2016
About Kevin McCormack
Kevin McCormack has written forty books on railways and road transport and is actively involved in preservation. He owns a Victorian railway carriage at Didcot Railway Centre, Oxfordshire and is a regular steward at the London Bus Museum located at Brooklands, Surrey.