Category: Articles
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A Rare find
In July 2002 I spent some time working in Scotland and travelled home by many routes. One such journey was on a B road in Central Scotland and I saw a derelict coach parked in an orchard. I could not see sufficient detail to identify the coach so I made a note to bring my…
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Metamorphosis – From LGOC NS bus to London United ‘Diddler’ trolleybus!
The evolution of bus design is a fascinating subject and probably happened faster in the 1929-1939 period, than in any other period. With London Transport, for example, one only has to compare London Transport’s 1929 ST1139, which had vestiges of a piano-front body, plus an open staircase and petrol engine, with its 1939 RT1, sleek…
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One Small Step for a Portsmouth Passenger
A submission a short time ago referred to a Halifax Corporation single decker which was delivered with a front entrance and centre exit. It was a Leyland Leopard L1 with a Weymann B34D body. The contributor and several others commented that this was unusual at the batch’s time of delivery, and that later conversion to…
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Some reflections on the 1930 Road Traffic Act in practice
This article was prompted by the first paragraph of Chapter 16 of Keith Easton’s erudite and comprehensive article on the development of bus services in Hull. His opening explanation of the workings of the 1930 Road Traffic Act is of profound significance to all of us interested in the industry of ‘the old days’. It…
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London Transport RT 4742
Quite by chance I came across the Old Bus Photos website and was quite interested in the information given for RT 4742 on Victor Brumbys RT posting and I thought perhaps you might like chapter and verse on that particular bonnet number so here goes. The original RT 4742 was indeed one of a batch…
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Aldenham & ‘CU’ numbers
Identity swapping between vehicles of identical make and model went on from the time that the LGOC moved its overhaul systems to the new Chiswick works in 1922. This meant that as a vehicle went into works for overhaul its identity was taken over by a freshly overhauled vehicle. The system operated through the London…
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Rebodying in Bradford
We are all well aware that Bradford followed a “Sow’s Ear to Silk Purse” policy by rebodying trolleybuses, but a lesser known fact is that they also rebodied some motorbuses during WW2. “Not a lot of people know that”, to quote a well known “Cockney” film star. Like the “Regen” trolleybuses, BCPT (Bradford Corporation Passenger…
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The Back End of the Bus
Of the thousands of photos of buses now on the web and in print, photos of the back of vehicles are very much in the minority. Yet many a subtle change in design can be just as easily gleaned from photos of the rear as much as photos of front three quarters nearside or offside…
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Early interest in Buses
I’m not sure from where I get my interest in transport – it certainly isn’t a family tradition. In the late 1940s my father was a maintenance electrician with Williamson’s ticket printers of Ashton under Lyne which printed tens of millions of bus tickets. He sometimes brought transport magazines home and, even before I could…