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London Buses in the 1970s (Hardback)

1975–1979: From Crisis to Recovery

P&S History > British History P&S History > By Century > 20th Century Photographic Books Transport > Buses Transport > London Transport World History > UK & Ireland > England > London

By Jim Blake
Imprint: Pen & Sword Transport
Pages: 192
Illustrations: 25
ISBN: 9781473887169
Published: 7th August 2019

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Continuing with photographs from 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.

Reviewed alongside British Municipal Bus Operators

Jim Blake has a number of bus books to his name, and is well regarded in bus circles. The photos are good and clear with information about each bus and information on various bus types as well. A potentially useful resource for the modeller.

Diesel and Electric Modellers United, Issue 92

A very interesting book. The passenger transport crisis in London in the mid-1970s was a major event.

Read the full Spanish review here

Miniaturas JM

This is a compilation of photos taken in the difficult period in the late 1970s when LT and London Country were plagued with maintenance problems. A valuable record of the London scene at the time.

West Somerset Railway Association

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 Jim Blake

About Jim Blake

JIM BLAKE was born in December 1947 and brought up in Islington, North London. As did most young lads then, he soon developed an interest in railways, but also London's trams, trolleybuses and buses since North London's last two tram routes ran near his home, at the heart of London Transport's trolleybus system. His interest developed into transport photography in 1961 and he took over 100,000 photos before retiring his cameras in 2015. He still lives in North London today.

Perfect Partner

British Buses 1967 (Hardback)

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…

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