[PDF] London Buses 1970 1980 A Decade Of London Transport And London Country Operations eBook

Author : Matthew Wharmby
Publisher : Casemate Publishers
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 29,47 MB
Release : 2017-11-30
Category : Transportation
ISBN : 1473872960

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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.

Author : Matthew Wharmby
Publisher :
Page : 160 pages
File Size : 34,44 MB
Release : 2018-01-23
Category :
ISBN : 9781473872943

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The 1970s were among London Transport's most troubled years. Prohibited from designing its own buses for the grueling 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 organization 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.

Author : Malcolm Batten
Publisher : Amberley Publishing Limited
Page : 165 pages
File Size : 45,23 MB
Release : 2018-03-15
Category : Transportation
ISBN : 144568022X

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A terrific range of previously unpublished images of East London buses, including Routemasters, during the 1970s-1980s.

Author : Michael Baker
Publisher :
Page : 94 pages
File Size : 18,53 MB
Release : 2006
Category : Buses
ISBN : 9780711031302

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For London transport, the 1970's started with the creation of London Country as a separate operator, with the National Bus Company assuming responsibility for the former London Transport Country area services. By the end of the decade, two of the classic LT bus designs had operated in public service for the last time.

Author : Matthew Wharmby
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 13,90 MB
Release : 2018-03-30
Category : Transportation
ISBN : 1473862299

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Dissatisfied with the reliability of its AEC Merlin and Swift single-deck buses, London Transport in 1973 purchased six Leyland Nationals for evaluation. Liking what it saw of this ultimate standard product, where even the paint swatch was of Leylands choice, LT took up an option to buy fifty more from a canceled export order and then bought further batches of 110, 30 and 140 to bring the LS class to 437 members by the middle of 1980. A year later the last MBAs and SMSs were replaced on Red Arrow services by sixty-nine new Leyland National 2s.Straightforward but reliable, the LS satisfied London Transports single-deck needs for a decade and a half, often standing in for double-deckers when needed, and then going on to help hold the fort during the tough years of early tendering, during which some innovative LS operations introduced several new liveries and identities. The type served the ten years expected out of it with few worries, only starting to disappear when minibuses came on strength at the end of the 1980s. Although the LS was formally retired by 1992, refurbishment programs gave survivors an extended lease of life, bringing us the National Greenway, the ultimate development of the Leyland National. Most of the Red Arrow National 2s thus became GLSs, and lasted until 2002.Matthew Wharmby is an author, photographer and editor specializing in London bus history. His published books include London Transports Last Buses: Leyland Olympians L 1-263, Routemaster Requiem and Routemaster Retrospective (with Geoff Rixon), London Transport 1970-1984 (with R. C. Riley), The London Titan and The London Metrobus. He has also written many articles for Buses, Bus & Coach Preservation, Classic Bus and London Bus Magazine.

Author : Jim Blake
Publisher : Pen and Sword
Page : 351 pages
File Size : 40,72 MB
Release : 2019-06-30
Category : Transportation
ISBN : 1473887186

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“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

Author : Jim Blake
Publisher : Pen and Sword Transport
Page : 337 pages
File Size : 14,4 MB
Release : 2022-11-17
Category : Transportation
ISBN : 1473867878

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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.

Author : MATTHEW WHARMBY
Publisher : Key Publishing
Page : 96 pages
File Size : 30,55 MB
Release : 2020-07
Category :
ISBN : 9781913870348

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London Transport 1970-84 covers the declining years of London's bus operations, during which the venerable RT and Routemaster types were compelled to give way to modern buses. These enjoyed less success, however. In this book, 120 stunning color images are accompanied by informative captions, giving the full picture of this time of huge change.