Sunday 24th August 2025 Richard Delahoy has kindly sent me a copy of his recently published book about the famous route X1 which plied between Southend and London in the 1980s. It's sub-title ‘The rise and fall of a deregulated phenomenon’ neatly encapsulates the book's substantial content. Richard has not only put together a truly... Continue Reading →
Sunday 17th August 2025 The third review in this weekly trilogy of recently purchased books is a must read for anyone interested in the minutia of how bus networks develop to serve an expanding New Town over a period of three decades. Anyone who has devoured one of Laurie Akehurst’s previous books on London Transport... Continue Reading →
Sunday 10th August 2025 The second of the three books I bought recently is this wonderful Southdown photo album featuring prints from the Peter Mitchell collection of over 500 negatives of photographs he took in the heyday of that much loved bus company in the 1950s and 1960s and which Capital Transport arranged to have... Continue Reading →
Sunday 3rd August 2025 While passing through Covent Garden recently I naturally called by London Transport Museum’s slimmed down, sad-shadow-of-it’s-former-glory bookshop, but still managed to splash the cash (or more accurately, tap the card) and buy three books, each with a personal connection. Here’s the first: it’s the sad tale of the London Merlins told... Continue Reading →
Monday 21st April 2025 This Easter weekend's blogfest began with a Book Review, so it seems appropriate to bookend it with another. Keith Shayshutt has just published another treasure trove of nostalgia comprising historic details about bus route and operational developments over a period of time in a geographic area. Following his previous books looking... Continue Reading →
Friday 18th April 2025 Welcome to the first of an Easter special of daily posts over the bank holiday weekend and kicking these off here's a review of a splendid new book that's just been self-published by blog reader Eric R Sykes. As the title suggests the book features scenic bus routes that can be... Continue Reading →
Sunday 27th October 2024 Hot off the press, this latest book published last week and written by renowned industry expert Chris Cheek is a must read for anyone with a serious interest in the future of the bus industry. As its title (which adds the strap line "The Opportunities and Threats") conveys, the book provides... Continue Reading →
Sunday 11th August 2024 I’m a child of the mid to late 1950s and early 1960s and as regular blog readers will know, growing up in the fairly affluent north London suburb of Winchmore Hill my early interest in public transport was first kindled by watching and travelling on the soon to be replaced trolleybuses... Continue Reading →
Sunday 14th July 2024 This delightful paperback book by Gray Lightfoot was published earlier this year and if you fancy a funny, irreverent, down-to-earth honest account of what it’s like to be a bus driver in the tourist hot spot of Cornwall, then this is definitely the book for you. Author and poet Gray, joined... Continue Reading →
Sunday 19th May 2024 Keith Shayshutt has just published another book about buses in the south west. This time he’s turned his forensic investigative powers to examine the turbulent 1978-1982 period when Western National, like all National Bus Company subsidiaries, went through the MAP (Market Analysis Project) era to establish a viable network of bus... Continue Reading →
Thursday 14th March 2024 The sub title of this 'hot off the press' voluminous book, coming in at 420 pages, 'In shades of brown & cream' adds 'South Yorkshire PTE - the bus operating years' clarifying it's a comprehensive study of that renowned bus operator in what was dubbed at the time 'The People's Republic... Continue Reading →
Thursday 26th October 2023 A ride on the Waverley paddle steamer Earlier this month the famous Waverley - the world's last seagoing paddle steamer - was in London operating a series of daily tours along the Thames estuary as part of its Summer seasonal programme of trips around the coast of Britain. The paddle steamer... Continue Reading →
Sunday 22nd October 2023 This new book by Matthew Keyte gives a fascinating insight into life working for London Country Bus Services (LCBS) and the privatised London Country Bus North West Ltd during a period that saw seismic change including converting routes to driver only operation, revitalising the Green Line network and deregulation and privatisation.... Continue Reading →
Sunday 2nd April 2023 I wrote a tribute to the wonderful award winning photographer Roger Bamber when he sadly died last September. Before his untimely death he'd been working on a book showcasing the tremendous collection of photographs taken during his lifelong career including spells with the Daily Mail, the Sun and The Guardian. It... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 10th January 2023 For the purposes of this blog please imagine you've woken up and it's July 1960. You're just catching a train on the Hertford North line from Grange Park station and in the booking office propped up against the ticket office window are a pile of little orange books. You know immediately... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 4th October 2022 Truro bus station Despite Saturday's rail strike I managed a quick visit to Cornwall over the weekend which entailed an unwelcome long drive as I had a commitment in Truro on Sunday morning I had to fulfill. As I seldom drive long distances these days the trip reminded me of the... Continue Reading →
Thursday 24th February 2022 A fascinating exhibition opened at the beginning of this year in Elstree & Borehamwood Museum. I paid a visit a few weeks ago and thought I'd share the highlights with you. Elstree & Borehamwood Museum is a small one room affair on the second floor of Elstree & Borehamwood library located... Continue Reading →
Friday 8th December 2021 Regular blog readers will know how much I love a good map. So I was delighted to receive an invitation from a 'long time ago' colleague* in the bus industry, Alex Nelson, to a launch lunch for the latest edition of the splendid National Rail Map he produces every year as... Continue Reading →
Friday 30th July 2021 I first met Ben Colson in 1977. He was working for Eastern Counties in Norwich and I'd been posted there for three weeks to undertake what was called 'comparative training' with the jointly managed West Riding and Yorkshire Woollen bus companies where I'd been working on the National Bus Company's two... Continue Reading →
Wednesday 16th September 2020 Vested (non financial) interest alert: along with Ray Stenning of Best Impressions I wrote chapter 17 in this newly published book. Last week was a busy one for the likes of Waterstones. A record number of new books were introduced into the market after the Covid publishing pause and in preparation... Continue Reading →
Thursday 16th July 2020 It’s always nice to get a bus timetable book delivered through the post, so many thanks to Transport for Cornwall for sending me a copy of their 196 page book 'Your handy guide to Buses in Cornwall'. I'd seen it advertised on social media and saw you could request one be... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 21st April 2020 My good friend Ray Stenning has only gone and done it again. Following last year's publication of 'Ribble' by Roger Davies, Ray's teamed up with career busman and retired engineer David Toy to publish another superb book you won't regret buying. This one tells the story of the much loved Maidstone... Continue Reading →
Monday 3rd February 2020 I gave my mate Roger Davies' book Ribble a plug when it was published last summer by my mate Ray Stenning and now it's time to extol the virtues of another book about 'the mighty' Ribble, by another colleague from years back, Paul Kirkham. Except this book takes a completely different... Continue Reading →
Tuesday 10th December 2019 It may be a bit pricey - at £8 (and only for six months validity too); it may be hard to find - usually only available from 'under the counter' at certain GWR rail stations; it may have some annoying flaws in its layout and content (see below); but it's a... Continue Reading →
Sunday 2nd June 2019 A totally biased book review for a Sunday evening. Ribble. Celebrating the centenary of an iconic bus company Roger Davies, the book's author, is a good mate; I've known him for over forty years; our paths first crossed when we both worked in Kent in the 1970s with Maidstone & District/East... Continue Reading →
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