Transport: general interest

The 1955 Railway Modernisation Plan provided for the introduction of 2,500 new diesel locomotives, with initial orders for 171 examples, to replace steam locomotives on Britain's railways.

The first forty-five years of the twentieth century saw the most formative period in the history of commercial vehicles: in 1900 the mechanically powered lorry was a novelty, yet by 1945 the ancestors of today's 38-ton juggernauts were clearly identifiable.

Following Eric Treacy's death in 1978, the demand for his books has increased.

The years from 1969 to 1975 were a time of great change for buses in England and Wales as operations were consolidated and rationalised under the publicly owned National Bus Company.

The Black Country is an area immediately to the west of Birmingham heavily associated with the Industrial Revolution.

Hill's Tramroad was established in about 1817 by the Blaenavon ironmaster Thomas Hill to connect his ironworks with Llanfoist Wharf on the Brecknock & Abergavenny Canal.

The Routemaster is the iconic London bus, recognised around the world.

In this comprehensive and readable book, tractor expert Jonathan Whitlam tells the story of the development of International Harvester from its North American roots in the 1900s.

The Peak District has always been a formidable barrier to transport links across it, particularly railways.

This book is a pictorial record of diesel-powered freight and passenger services throughout the area surrounding the North Wessex Downs.

Between 1982 and 2015, Showbus, Britain's largest bus rally, was, with the exception of 2013, held at two sites.

The rapid disappearance of steam from British Railways in the late 1960s was a bitter blow for the thousands of railway enthusiasts who had been brought up with the sounds, smells and sheer excitement of steam power.

In this fascinating and engrossing book, VW expert Richard Copping covers the complete history of the first generation VW Transporter or 'Camper', probably the most famous commercial and leisure van of all time.

'In no other country in the world is there anything to match Britain's love affair with the steam train; nowhere else are there so many preserved railways keeping the magic of steam alive.

Between the two world wars there was a golden era of industrial design when the benefits of streamlining were realised, allowing for reduced wind resistance, faster transportation and a more efficient economy.

In 1976 a Jersey-based air taxi operator purchased two elderly Dakota aircraft for cargo charters as Air Atlantique.

The Hall class 4-6-0, itself a development of the celebrated Saint class, represents the precursor of thousands of mixed traffic 4-6-0 engines that were built for Britain's railways and were the breadwinners in all types of work and conditions.

Humber Cars date back to 1899, when Thomas Humber produced his Humber Phaeton model.

The North of England has long been an area of immense interest to bus enthusiasts.

RAF Coastal Command was founded in 1936 when the Royal Air Force restructured into Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands.

Return to the era when rail blue ruled supreme on the railways of Britain, when a wide variety of British-built trains operated from the highlands of Scotland, through the now vanished industrial north and midlands, through the Welsh valleys, across the suburban networks of the south-east, and through the picturesque West Country.

Across the country at numerous locations the government operated another railway, hidden from the public, behind high wire fences.

With its roots dating back to the late 1940s and the de Havilland Comet airliner, the Nimrod already had pedigree when it first appeared in the late 1960s in place of the Avro Shackleton in the Maritime Reconnaissance role.

The Blackburn, later Hawker Siddeley, Buccaneer enjoyed an incredible service career that lasted over four decades.

The Midland main line from London St Pancras to the north of England is one of Britain's most important trunk routes.

Coal and iron making first brought railways to what is now called South Yorkshire.

George and Robert Stephenson are well known names in the canon of railway history.

Often regarded as a quiet holiday county, in fact Dorset has many aviation connections.

Steam power led the transport revolution in England throughout the nineteenth century, but was crippled on the road network by punitive legislation.

Since the dawn of the railways, away from the glamour of the main line express, thousands of miles of industrial railway moved raw materials and finished products.

The metre-gauge railways of South East Asia are a popular destination for railway enthusiasts from all over the world.

Rich in both ironstone and coal, the East Midlands historically enjoyed an intensive network of railways linking its major towns and cities, many of which are still in place.

The Chilterns consist of a band of chalk hills to the north-west of London stretching from Oxfordshire to Hertfordshire.

Southdown Motor Services was a well-known and respected bus and coach operator formed in 1915 and based in the south of England.

For centuries tourists and other travellers have been travelling north to the Highlands of Scotland.

Like many of the conurbations across Britain, the Greater Manchester region in the 1990s offered a fascinating mixture of buses from operators both large and small, new and established.

'You see them everywhere' was the slogan adopted by Bedford when advertising its commercial vehicles in the 1930s and it held true for many decades.

Nowhere had the nineteenth-century rivalry between competing railway companies had a more marked effect on the much later motor-omnibus industry than in the South West of England.

The 1950s and 1960s was a time of profound cultural and technological transformation.

Steam in East Anglia recalls the era when steam ruled the tracks and the railways conveyed passengers and goods, from the commuter lines of Tilbury and Southend to the rural tranquillity of north Norfolk.

Although to many enthusiasts, municipal vehicles never extended beyond the trams, trolleybuses and buses that were required to provide the basic public service, behind them were a range of vehicles that were required to enable operations to proceed smoothly.

The North Western Road Car Company is just a fading memory now, but for fifty years its red and cream buses served a broad sweep of England's North West from the Cheshire plain to the Pennines, and from Manchester's industrial mills to the threshold of the Potteries.

In 1959 there were twenty-seven Corporation Transport systems in the Red Rose County.

When the words Buses of North Staffordshire are used most people will think of PMT, and later First, running through the urban areas of Stoke-on-Trent, with additional vehicles from a few medium-sized family-owned operators thrown in for good measure.

Blazefield commenced operations in 1991, having bought the final shares in the former AJS Holdings group.

Preserved (or heritage) railways have, in the majority of cases, at least one working steam locomotive and either a diesel unit or a diesel locomotive.

In 1968, Jimmy James was in his final year as a student at the University of Manchester and realised that steam, as a way of life, was coming to an end all around him.

Following on from their use in revenue-earning service, many vehicles (locomotives, carriages and freight wagons) are put to use within the departmental operating fleet, often being rebuilt for a specific purpose.

Like the railway industry in the nineteenth century, Britain was a major player in supplying the world with buses, particularly double-deckers.

As the Rover's name suggests, the north of the area ranges from Cardiff and Bristol (close to the Severn) to Swindon and Cheltenham, then extends down to the Southampton area (on the Solent) with a coastal stretch from Portsmouth as far as Weymouth.