BUS BOOKS IN COLOUR

NOW IN STOCK

BY PAUL ROBERTS

Latest in a growing series of bus topics. Full colour to show the joyous variety of liveries we enjoyed then, described by a life-long enthusiast, technical expert and senior man in the industry today. Most people living in the Cannock Chase, Aldridge and Brownhills areas, before 1975, will have heard of Harper Bros (Heath Hayes) Ltd. This company, almost always simply referred to as ‘Harpers’ was synonymous with public transport in the area, taking many residents on their journeys to school, work, days out, tours and even on a summer Saturday coastal express service to their chosen holiday destination. The company also put the name of Heath Hayes, a small Staffordshire mining village, on the national map as bus enthusiasts throughout the country took an interest in this well-known operator. Their mixed fleet amounted to over 50 vehicles, making them the largest independent operator in Staffordshire. They included buses bodied by their own workshops, ancient second-hand workhorses and purpose-built brand new vehicles.

OUT NOW!

Just over 10% of the UK population inhabits the West Country, but a much larger number will have visited the area, at some time in their life, as a holiday destination. My parents took me to Paignton in 1960 where the Devon General fleet of smart red and cream AECs, with musical sound effects, immediately entranced me. Seven years later a college friendship lead me to pay several visits to Exeter and South Devon, enabling me to capture the local scene when Exeter still had municipal buses and Devon General had yet to be absorbed into the National Bus Company. My employment as a full-time PSV-driver ensured that working visits to the area would follow and soon I was despatched on a holiday tour to Teignmouth and, later in the year, to Newquay in Cornwall. On a trip to Torquay I parked my Midland Red coach in Torwood Street garage where the inspector told me that I must report to him on my rest day and operate a local excursion using my coach. This I was more than happy to do and with a hastily assembled set of notes I managed to locate my passengers at various hotels, find the destinations of Cockington and Totnes and complete the tour to everyone's satisfaction. I can now say that 'I worked for Devon General' even if only for a day - and it nearly got me the sack from Midland Red. I did not realise that I needed permission from my Heath Hayes traffic manager and effectively I had been using the vehicle without the owner's consent!

All the operators included in this book were in the old "Western Traffic Area" as defined by the Traffic Commissioners in the 1960s. This neatly covered the counties of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire. I have started the 'journey' in Exeter from where we travel to the south-west. Next we go north-east through to Gloucestershire and finally head east towards Wiltshire.

OUT NOW!

Everyone knows the significance of the year 1066 and, with luck, that of 1485 too. Few however will regard 1969 as having any meaning at all, yet a seismic shift was just about to get underway in the world of British bus transport. It would alter radically the character and scope of our bus services. Four factors would soon combine to change the nature of our bus fleets forever. First, the Transport Act 1968 would sweep away many municipal fleets in our metropolitan areas; secondly, one of our largest bus operators, British Electric Traction (BET), had decided to throw in the towel and sell out to the state owned Transport Holding Company (Tilling had already been thus absorbed) in 1969. This paved the way for wholesale rationalisation which reached its climax with the deregulation of services. Thirdly, car ownership was steadily rising. Customer diversion had started to bite for both bus operators and British Railways. Finally, the half cab bus was doomed by government legislation designed to promote one man operation, producing a bias towards the construction of rear engined buses.

So in the North West, by the end of 1969, the new Passenger Transport Authority for South East Lancashire and North East Cheshire, SELNEC, had swallowed up no less than eleven municipal transport undertakings and the Transport Holding Company had bought BET's transport interests. The Transport Holding Company was soon to metamorphose into the National Bus Company and the consequent rationalisation would, notably, spell the end for the North Western Road Car Company in 1972 while Ribble would be shorn of some of its peripheral operations. SELNEC itself was turned into the Greater Manchester PTE by 1974 as yet another local government reorganisation took place, following which in 1976 it swallowed up the largest remaining private operator, Lancashire United, which survived in name only, until 1981.

By Bob Jackson

AVAILABLE MARCH 2010

The author was persuaded to write this book by his friend Paul Roberts, who has produced two books in this series, Yorkshire Bus Memories in Colour and Midland Bus Memories in Colour. It is not intended to be a photographic record of every bus operator in the South East, more a selection of views that the author took during his travels in the early to mid-1970s. All are from colour transparencies, or slides. The photographs are arranged so as to take the reader on a clockwise circular tour of Hampshire, Surrey, Kent and Sussex although the author has deliberately avoided straying into London Transport territory, which is the subject of another title in this series.

By Garry Yates

AVAILABLE MARCH 2010

Having spent his youth photographing steam locomotives Garry Yates switched, in1968, to taking black and white bus photographs on a 'box' Brownie 127 camera of the exposed radiator Birmingham City Transport buses which, at the time, were disappearing fast as new Fleetline buses took over. In 1973 he could finally afford a better camera and from that time onwards took colour slides and over the last 35 years has covered every bus fleet in the British Isles and Ireland including the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands. Many of the fleets and buildings have disappeared over the years, and today's four large bus companies have certainly made the hobby less interesting with a standardisation of vehicle types and liveries. In this book Garry has tried to give a flavour of London's buses in the 1970s showing the variation of vehicle types in an era when many famous LT buses like the RT and RF came to an end in favour of one man operated buses like the Fleetline (DMS), Leyland Titan (T), and Metrobus (M).

Midlands Bus Memories in Colour

By Paul Roberts

Celebration of some among the multitude of bus operators in the east and west Midlands over a ten-year period beginning in the mid-1960s. Full colour to show the joyous variety of liveries we enjoyed then, described by a life-long enthusiast, technical expert and senior man in the industry today. Proud municipals bearing their distinctive liveries and coats of arms, large regional companies and the tremendous variety of independents make for a splendid collection, the first it is hoped, in a series to cover other parts of the country in the years to come.

AVAILABLE SEPTEMBER 2008