London Buses in the 1970s

London Buses in the 1970s PDF Author: Jim Blake
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473887224
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
Using photographs from Jim Blake's extensive archives, this book examines the turbulent period in the history of London's buses immediately after London Transport lost its Country Buses and Green Line Coaches to the recently-formed National Bus Company, under their new subsidiary company, London Country Bus Services Ltd.The new entity inherited a largely elderly fleet of buses from London Transport, notably almost 500 RT-class AEC Regent double-deckers, of which replacement was already under way in the shape of new AEC MB and SM class Swift single-deckers.London Transport itself was in the throes of replacing a much larger fleet of these. At the time of the split, it was already apparent that the 36ft-long MB class single-deckers were not suitable for London conditions, particularly in negotiating suburban streets cluttered with cars, and were also mechanically unreliable. The shorter SM class superseded them but they were equally unreliable. January 1971 saw the appearance of London Transport's first purpose-built one-man operated double-decker, the DMS class. All manner of problems plagued these, too.Both operators were also plagued with a shortage of spare parts for their vehicles, made worse by the three-day week imposed by the Heath regime in 1973-4. London Transport and London Country were still closely related, with the latter's buses continuing to be overhauled at LT's Aldenham Works. Such were the problems with the MB, SM, and DMS types that LT not only had to resurrect elderly RTs to keep services going, but even repurchased some from London Country! In turn, the latter operator hired a number of MB-types from LT, now abandoned as useless, from 1974 onwards in an effort to cover their own vehicle shortages. Things looked bleak for both operators in the mid-1970s.This book contains a variety of interesting and often unusual photographs illustrating all of this, most of which have never been published before.

London Buses in the 1970s

London Buses in the 1970s PDF Author: Jim Blake
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473887224
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
Using photographs from Jim Blake's extensive archives, this book examines the turbulent period in the history of London's buses immediately after London Transport lost its Country Buses and Green Line Coaches to the recently-formed National Bus Company, under their new subsidiary company, London Country Bus Services Ltd.The new entity inherited a largely elderly fleet of buses from London Transport, notably almost 500 RT-class AEC Regent double-deckers, of which replacement was already under way in the shape of new AEC MB and SM class Swift single-deckers.London Transport itself was in the throes of replacing a much larger fleet of these. At the time of the split, it was already apparent that the 36ft-long MB class single-deckers were not suitable for London conditions, particularly in negotiating suburban streets cluttered with cars, and were also mechanically unreliable. The shorter SM class superseded them but they were equally unreliable. January 1971 saw the appearance of London Transport's first purpose-built one-man operated double-decker, the DMS class. All manner of problems plagued these, too.Both operators were also plagued with a shortage of spare parts for their vehicles, made worse by the three-day week imposed by the Heath regime in 1973-4. London Transport and London Country were still closely related, with the latter's buses continuing to be overhauled at LT's Aldenham Works. Such were the problems with the MB, SM, and DMS types that LT not only had to resurrect elderly RTs to keep services going, but even repurchased some from London Country! In turn, the latter operator hired a number of MB-types from LT, now abandoned as useless, from 1974 onwards in an effort to cover their own vehicle shortages. Things looked bleak for both operators in the mid-1970s.This book contains a variety of interesting and often unusual photographs illustrating all of this, most of which have never been published before.

East London Buses: 1970s-1980s

East London Buses: 1970s-1980s PDF Author: Malcolm Batten
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 144568022X
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 167

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Book Description
A terrific range of previously unpublished images of East London buses, including Routemasters, during the 1970s-1980s.

British Buses and Coaches in the Late 1970s

British Buses and Coaches in the Late 1970s PDF Author: Stephen Dowle
Publisher: Amberley Publishing Limited
ISBN: 1445681366
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 191

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Book Description
Stephen Dowle offers up a terrific selection of previously unpublished photographs documenting the British bus and coach scene of the late 1970s.

The Colours of London Buses 1970s

The Colours of London Buses 1970s PDF Author: Kevin McCormack
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1473868017
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 342

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Book Description
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

London Transport Buses in East London and Essex

London Transport Buses in East London and Essex PDF Author: David Christie
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781445668000
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
David Christie offers a range of superb images of London Transport buses in the eastern part of London.

London Buses, 1970–1980

London Buses, 1970–1980 PDF Author: Matthew Wharmby
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
ISBN: 1473872960
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
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.

The London DMS Bus

The London DMS Bus PDF Author: Matthew (Matt) Wharmby
Publisher: Pen and Sword
ISBN: 1783831731
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
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.

London's New Routemaster

London's New Routemaster PDF Author: Tony Lewin
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781858946245
Category : Routemaster buses
Languages : en
Pages : 160

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Book Description
Few things are as synonomous with London as its famous red buses, thousands of which carry millions of passengers a year on hundreds of separate routes. Yet since the withdrawl from service of the much loved Routemaster in the mid-2000s, noe of its replacements has succeeded in generating the same kind of affection among the travelling public. Now, however, the stylish, Thomas Hetherwick-designed New Routemaster looks set to recapture the imagination of Londoners and visitors alike. This book tells the story of the New Routemaster.

London Transport in the 1980s

London Transport in the 1980s PDF Author: Michael Baker
Publisher: Ian Allan Publishing
ISBN: 9780711032835
Category : Buses
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The 1980s were a decade of change for London Transport. The last of the RTs and RFs were withdrawn during 1979 and during the 1980s the first large-scale withdrawal of Routemasters commenced, although many of these were to find a second career outside London as they became preferred vehicles by operators keen to acquire a competitive edge in the brave new world of Deregulation. London, too, witnessed revolution; not quite as dramatic as Deregulation but equally significant for the provision of bus services was the 1984 London Regional Transport Act. This separated London Transport from direct responsibility for running services and allowed for the process of franchising and privatisation that was to result in myriad operators - such as Kentish Bus - acquiring operations in the Metropolis and a break, for a brief period, from the predominantly red livery that had adorned London buses since the creation of the LPTB. In terms of vehicle acquisitions, the policy of acquiring vehicles specifically designed for operation in London ceased and, during the decade, many 'off the peg' designs were introduced both by the London Buses operational units and by the new entrants into the market. These included models produced by Dennis, Leyland, Volvo and Scania; some were to prove successful while others less so. In this informative new volume, Michael Baker details the history of public transport during the 1980s, to provide a concise overview of this period of dramatic and turbulent change for London Transport.

London Half-Cab Farewell

London Half-Cab Farewell PDF Author: Kevin Lane
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780711033115
Category : Buses
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
As a result of changes in the provision of funding for new bus acquisitions in the late 1960s, the production of traditional half-cab double deckers ceased in 1970. Kevin Lane presents a complete photographic record chronicling the final decades of half-cab double-decker operations.