Bus Manufacturers - Great Britain: Books - History and Types

A-Z of British Bus Bodies

A-Z of British Bus Bodies sets out to offer a first port of call for anyone with an interest in those who built bus and coach bodies in Britain and Ireland between 1919 and 1975. From charabanc to service bus, from luxury coach to municipal double-decker, the sheer variety of public service vehicle (PSV) bodies is astonishing.
Contents of this book include an alphabetical listing of British bus body builders between 1919 - 1975, both the well-known larger companies and small local companies. Illustrated with period and modern images, including contemporary advertising material.

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Birmingham's Crossley Buses

Birmingham City Transport's association with Crossley Motors came about after 1945, when BCT required a large number of buses to be delivered quickly, with many manufacturers unable to fulfil orders in the aftermath of the war.
There was a pressing need for additional vehicles, and 1,760 buses were acquired between 1947 and 1954. Crossley Motors had the spare capacity at their Errwood Park factory to build a complete bus, chassis, engine and bodywork and to quickly supply large numbers of a product designed to BCT's stringent specification.

This book reveals their pioneering status, exploring the six major variations in the Crossley order, as well as the takeover of Crossley Motors by ACV and its impact on the Birmingham order. It also looks at the Crossley bodywork built for BCT on Daimler CVG6 chassis between 1952 and 1954.

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East Lancashire Coachbuilders

East Lancashire Coachbuilders was first registered in October 1934 when two former Massey Bros of Wigan employees decided to set up their own company in Blackburn. Their names were George Danson and Alfred Alcock.
Over the next seven decades they supplied both single- and double-deck bodywork to most, if not all, Lancashire municipal bus operators, plus a number of south coast operators.

The majority of photographs in this book have been taken by the author, and are mostly previously unpublished.

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Gardner: L. Gardner and Sons Limited - Legendary Engineering Excellence

This book by historical transport expert Graham Edge is a comprehensive study of a Manchester company whose name became revered in over forty countries. It traces the story from the origins of the firm in 1868 until it ceased engine production almost 130 years later.
In 1929 L Gardner and Sons Ltd perfected a small high-speed, direct injection diesel engine, the world's first for an engine of its size. The company soon developed this into the first purpose-built automotive engine of its type. This renowned Gardner LW series was also revolutionary in its use of lightweight aluminium alloys.
Because diesel fuel was more economical than petroleum spirit for most of the last century, and especially in the 1930s, Gardner was able to capitalise on a huge and growing market. Their diesel engines went on to gain an unrivalled reputation for reliability and economy in buses, coaches, lorries, rail, shipping and industrial installations. Their heyday was probably from the end of the Second World War to the early 1960s, a time when their order book was always full.

As well as telling the story of the company's engineering achievements (and setbacks), the author also brings to life some of the personalities involved, not least the members of the Gardner family. Although they were 'engineers par excellence', some of the 'could be quite irascible!'
By the 1970s Gardners were being left behind by changes in the transport market and also faced damaging industrial relations. In 1977 they became part of the Hawker Siddeley group.

This is a reprint of a book first published in 2002 and revised in 2006. Graham Edge was able to draw on knowledge freely provided by former sales director Dion Houghton. The superb photographs are mainly from the archives of Dion Houghton and Paul Gardner, the great-grandson of the founder. Each photograph has a detailed caption and the book's Appendices include production figures.

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Guy Motors - Buses and Coaches

Covering all the motor bus and trolleybus products of Guy Motors, this book recounts the history of an iconic British coachbuilder. It begins with the early origins of Sydney Guy's eponymous company, followed by the ubiquitous Arab bus and the eventual absorption of the company into the British Leyland empire.

Starting with the small single deck vehicles of the 1920s, the story continues with the development of the six-wheeled chassis, with both internal combustion and electrically powered trolleybus formats.
The book also examines the leading technological developments in braking, suspension and chassis design, now commonplace, that were to lead to both the Victory and Wulfrunian products, neither of which were the commercial success originally intended.

The story develops with the acquisition of the Guy Motors business by Jaguar and eventual absorption into British Leyland, and ends with the final Guy Motors-inspired designs sold under the Leyland brand.
In addition to new images of preserved vehicles, the book is illustrated with an extensive selection of period images of vehicles in normal service and manufacturer's sales brochures.

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Last Years of the London Metrobus

Mainstay of London Buses Ltd's fleet into the 1990s, London's MCW Metrobus fleet of M class remained almost completely intact by the time of privatisation in the autumn of 1994.
In the hands of seven new companies thereafter, there followed multiple new liveries and new identities, but it wasn't until the end of the decade when this account takes up their story, that withdrawals commenced in the face of new low-floor double-deck buses.

Even then, the venerable M class remained a solid option for second-hand purchases, allowing examples to remain into service past their twentieth birthdays.
Between 1998 and 2004 the M fleets of Arriva London North and South, First Capital and Centrewest, London General, London United, Metroline and Metroline London Northern and a host of smaller London contractors dwindled until the last examples, lingering on school routes for Leaside Travel, signed off at the beginning of 2006.

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The History of Optare

Bus builder Optare was formed by some of its employees in 1984 after the closure of old-established coachbuilder Chas H. Roe at Crossgates, Leeds. After establishing itself as a 'new company' and introducing a new product range - initially in the minibus field - it purchased the designs of Birmingham-based MCW when that concern took the decision to cease bus building.

After being acquired by Dutch bus builder DAF, following the collapse of that company Optare repurchased itself and became independent again. Then, it was acquired by Hungarian manufacturer American Bus Industries but, history repeating itself, it was repurchased by its management to become independent again. Then, it was purchased in a reverse takeover by the Darwen Group, who owned East Lancashire Coachbuilders which, in turn, was acquired by Indian manufacturer Ashok-Leyland, in whose ownership it remains today, albeit still working from its established manufacturing base in Yorkshire.

A company with a fascinating story, it is one whose history should be recorded.

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