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    B.E.T. Group Bus Fleets: The Final Years
    B.E.T. Group Bus Fleets: The Final Years
    B.E.T. Group Bus Fleets: The Final Years
    Ebook226 pages47 minutes

    B.E.T. Group Bus Fleets: The Final Years

    By Jim Blake

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    About this ebook

    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variety of buses and coaches operated by British Electric Traction group fleets in the 1960s, featuring previously unpublished photographs from Jim Blake's extensive archives.Not only did these fleets, which served most of England and Wales, have a splendid variety of British-built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!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateOct 19, 2016
    ISBN9781473857278
    B.E.T. Group Bus Fleets: The Final Years
    Author

    Jim Blake

    Jim Blake was born at the end of 1947, and he soon developed a passionate interest in railways, buses and trolleybuses. In 1965, he bought a colour cine-camera, with which he captured what is now very rare footage of long-lost buses, trolleybuses and steam locomotives. These transport photographs have been published in various books and magazines. Jim also started the North London Transport Society and, in conjunction with the group, he has compiled and published a number of books on the subject since 1977, featuring many of the 100,000 or so transport photographs he has taken over the years.

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      Book preview

      B.E.T. Group Bus Fleets - Jim Blake

      Published in 2017 by

      Pen & Sword Transport

      an imprint of

      Pen & Sword Books Ltd

      47 Church Street

      Barnsley

      South Yorkshire

      S70 2AS

      Copyright © James Blake, 2017

      ISBN 9 781 47385 726 1

      The right of James Blake to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.

      Typeset by Matthew Wharmby

      Printed and bound

      Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Pen & Sword Archaeology, Atlas, Aviation, Battleground, Discovery, Family History, History, Maritime, Military, Naval, Politics, Railways, Select, Transport, True Crime, and Fiction, Frontline Books, Leo Cooper, Praetorian Press, Seaforth Publishing and Wharncliffe.

      For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact

      PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED

      47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England

      E-mail: enquiries@pen-and-sword.co.uk

      Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk

      CONTENTS

      About the Author

      Introduction

      A Brief Look at the Individual Operators

      Pictures

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      I was born at the end of 1947, just five days before the ‘Big Four’ railway companies, and many bus companies – including London Transport – were nationalised by Clement Attlee’s Labour government.

      Like most young lads born in the early post-war years, I soon developed a passionate interest in railways, the myriad steam engines still running on Britain’s railways in those days in particular. However, because my home in Canonbury Avenue, Islington, was just a few minutes’ walk from North London’s last two tram routes, the 33 in Essex Road and the 35 in Holloway Road and Upper Street, my parents often took me on these for outings to the South Bank, particularly to the Festival of Britain which was held there in the last summer they ran, in 1951. Moreover, my father worked at the GPO’s West Central District Office in Holborn and often travelled to and from work on the 35 tram. As a result, I knew many of the tram crews, who would let me stand by the driver at the front of the trams as they travelled through the Kingsway Tram Subway. This was an unforgettable experience for a four-year-old! In addition, my home was in the heart of North London’s trolleybus system, with route 611 actually passing my home, and one of the busiest and most complicated trolleybus junctions in the world – Holloway, Nag’s Head – a short ride away along Holloway Road. Here, the trolleybuses’ overhead almost blotted out the sky! Thus from a very early age, I developed an interest in buses and trolleybuses which was equal to that of my interest in railways, and I have retained both until the present day.

      I was educated at my local Highbury County Grammar School, and later at Kingsway College, by coincidence a stone’s throw from the old tram subway. I was first bought a camera for my 14th birthday at the end of 1961, which was immediately put to good use photographing the last London trolleybuses in North West London on their very snowy last day a week later. Three years later, I started work as an administrator for the old London County Council at County Hall, by coincidence adjacent to the former Festival of Britain site. I travelled to and from work on bus routes 171 or 172, which had replaced the 33 and 35 trams mentioned above.

      By now, my interest in buses and trolleybuses had expanded to include those of other operators, and I travelled throughout England and Wales between 1961 and 1968 in pursuit of them, being able to afford to travel further afield after starting work. I also bought a colour cine-camera in 1965, with which I was able to capture what is now very rare footage of long-lost buses, trolleybuses and steam locomotives. Where the latter are concerned, I was one of the initial purchasers of the unique British Railways ‘Pacific’ locomotive 71000 Duke of Gloucester, which was the last ever passenger express engine built for use in Britain before the end of mainline steam construction in 1960. Other preservationists laughed at our group which had purchased what, in effect, was a cannibalised hulk from Barry scrapyard at the end of 1973, but they laughed on the other side of their faces when, after extensive and innovative rebuilding, it steamed again in 1986. It has since become one of the best-known and loved preserved British locomotives, often returning to the main lines.

      Although I spent thirty-five years in local government administration, with the LCC’s successor, the Greater London Council, then Haringey Council and finally literally back on my old

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