B E T Group Bus Fleets

This book looks at the wonderful variety of buses and coaches operated by British Electric Traction group fleets in the 1960s, featuring previously unpublished photographs from Jim Blake's extensive archives. Not only did these fleets, which served most of England and Wales, have a splendid variety of British-built buses and coaches with chassis manufactured by the likes of AEC, Crossley, Daimler, Dennis, Guy and Leyland – with bodywork by such firms as Park Royal, Weymann, Metro-Cammell, East Lancs, Northern Counties, Roe, Duple, Plaxton, Willowbrook and Leyland again – but they also had an array of distinctive liveries. Many dated back to the early part of the century when the operators first started bus operation. The smart maroon and cream of East Kent, the dark green and cream of Maidstone & District or the light green and cream of Southdown, for example, were supplemented by ornate fleet-names, often in gold lettering. These three fleets were just a few of those that served seaside towns, and will remind readers of holidays they spent in the 1950s and '60s. Sadly, the years covered by this book are the final years of the BET group, which was taken over by the nationalised Transport Holding Company in late 1967, as a prelude to the creation of the National Bus Company, under which the distinctive liveries of the BET group fleets, and even some of the operators themselves, would disappear. The 1960s also saw the demise of many traditional types of bus that these fleets operated, owing to the introduction of rear-engined double-deckers, such as the Leyland Atlantean and Daimler Fleetline, as well as the spread of one-man operation. Many of the photographs featured in this book show the older types in their final days – pure nostalgia for the transport enthusiast!

With rare and previously unpublished images of the mainland national bus company fleets around Wessex.

This book looks at an important turning point in the history of the bus industry in Britain. 1967 was the penultimate year to the end of an era, when private and semi-nationalized company's operated the bus networks in this country.??After 1967 the network was never the same again, with the formation of the National Bus Company in 1968.??The NBC was a very bland organization compared to the colourful bus companies that had existed before nationalization, and many small municipal fleets amalgamated to form Passenger Transport Executives.??This comprehensive volume covers a large number of the bus companies throughout the country in 1967 and also has a good readable narrative describing Jim Blake's journeys travelling on these services across Britain.

Stephen Dowle presents a nostalgic look at the National Bus Company in the 1970s.

An evocative collection of black and white images covering the National Bus Company across England and Wales in its early years from 1969 to 1975.

An all-colour illustrated book that tells the story of the buses that served Britain between 1950 and 1986.