The Flickr Motorbusservices Image Generatr

The charming cover to the Midland "Red"'s illustrated guide to their vast operating territory, motor bus and coach services and holiday tours. Showing one of the Company's own built "QL" type buses passing Bidford Church this was the first edition to carry the words "Railways Joint Motor Services" as 1930 was the year that two of the main line railways, the London Midland & Scottish and Great Western, acquired a shareholding in the company. This was now legally allowed to enable the railways to gain a financial foothold in the rapidly growing bus industry as well as helping companies such as the BMMO to have access to capital.

The guide, a gazetter illustrated with many photographs, also conatins adverts for companies and services associated with the company and places served.

In the format that survived for decades for London bus maps this is the 1937 version with the strong LT house style - a simple decorative border and the roundel in the centre. This version has the less common and eye catching airbrush stipple red field behind the roundel. Interesting to note that the company's Johnston typeface isn't used - by 1937 I have a suspicion that Christian Barman, the Publicity Manager and assistant to Frank Pick was experimenting with design and typography such as in ticket and map design.

THis version of the bus map was actually designed and compiled by Lt. Colonel W. R. Mansfield M.I.Mech.E., M.Inst.T, F.R.P.S., M.S.I. of London in 1934 and was used for many editions.

I have, allowing for the folds of the map and its fragility managed to scan this is three sections; west, central and east. This can covers North London, including St. Albans and Enfield down to the south including the City and West End down to Croydon and Caterham.

This carries the telephone number of ABBey 1234; This had just changed from the original VICtoria 6800.

In the format that survived for decades for London bus maps this is the 1937 version with the strong LT house style - a simple decorative border and the roundel in the centre. This version has the less common and eye catching airbrush stipple red field behind the roundel. Interesting to note that the company's Johnston typeface isn't used - by 1937 I have a suspicion that Christian Barman, the Publicity Manager and assistant to Frank Pick was experimenting with design and typography such as in ticket and map design.

THis version of the bus map was actually designed and compiled by Lt. Colonel W. R. Mansfield M.I.Mech.E., M.Inst.T, F.R.P.S., M.S.I. of London in 1934 and was used for many editions.

I have, allowing for the folds of the map and its fragility managed to scan this is three sections; west, central and east. This section covers from the north in Essex, including Epping and Brentwood, through the East End and Docks to Westerham, Bromley and Dartford.

This carries the telephone number of ABBey 1234; This had just changed from the original VICtoria 6800.

In the format that survived for decades for London bus maps this is the 1937 version with the strong LT house style - a simple decorative border and the roundel in the centre. This version has the less common and eye catching airbrush stipple red field behind the roundel. Interesting to note that the company's Johnston typeface isn't used - by 1937 I have a suspicion that Christian Barman, the Publicity Manager and assistant to Frank Pick was experimenting with design and typography such as in ticket and map design.

THis version of the bus map was actually designed and compiled by Lt. Colonel W. R. Mansfield M.I.Mech.E., M.Inst.T, F.R.P.S., M.S.I. of London in 1934 and was used for many editions. This shows both North West and South West London - from Watford to Tadworth including Uxbridge, Feltham and Weybridge.

I have, allowing for the folds of the map and its fragility managed to scan this is three sections; west, central and east.

This carries the telephone number of ABBey 1234; This had just changed from the original VICtoria 6800.

In the format that survived for decades for London bus maps this is the 1937 version with the strong LT house style - a simple decorative border and the roundel in the centre. This version has the less common and eye catching airbrush stipple red field behind the roundel. Interesting to note that the company's Johnston typeface isn't used - by 1937 I have a suspicion that Christian Barman, the Publicity Manager and assistant to Frank Pick was experimenting with design and typography such as in ticket and map design.

THis version of the bus map was actually designed and compiled by Lt. Colonel W. R. Mansfield M.I.Mech.E., M.Inst.T, F.R.P.S., M.S.I. of London in 1934 and was used for many editions.

This carries the telephone number of ABBey 1234; This had just changed from the original VICtoria 6800.

The Midland Red, officially named the Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Co. Ltd., had its origins in early Edwardian years when a local company formed in 1904 was acquired by the mighty British Electric Traction company in 1905; the new BMMO started service with motor buses that year although by 1907 it had reverted to horse buses until 1913 when it again started to operate motor vehicles.

Midland Red grew to become one of the largest provincial bus and coach operators in the UK and, for many years, it built its own vehicles. This advert appears in a 1934 pageant guide for Shropshire and so promotes the company's Shrewsbury and county services along with bus and coach hire services.

The timetable booklet for S.T.A.R.N., the Société de Transports Auxiliaires de la Région du Nord who operated motor bus services in connection with the Chemin de fer du Nord and published for services starting in June 1932. The booklet contains a map showing the services across the Region du Nord with routes along the Channel/Pas de Calais shore and from inland towns and cities including Lille, Bethune, Abbeville, Arras, Amiens and Lille. I am uncertain if, by this date, routes were replacements for uneconomic branches or were established as feeders to the railway; I suspect both may have been the case.

The cover shows a modern motor coach speeding along with a pennent for STARN. The vehicle looks like a Renault, given the badge, and it's worth recording that Citroën not only built buses and coaches but also spawned a operating empire so perhaps STARN decided not to 'advertise' a rival's products and services!

The timetable booklet for S.T.A.R.N., the Société de Transports Auxiliaires de la Région du Nord who operated motor bus services in connection with the Chemin de fer du Nord and published for services starting in June 1932. The booklet contains a map showing the services across the Region du Nord with routes along the Channel/Pas de Calais shore and from inland towns and cities including Lille, Bethune, Abbeville, Arras, Amiens and Lille. I am uncertain if, by this date, routes were replacements for uneconomic branches or were established as feeders to the railway; I suspect both may have been the case.

The cover shows a modern motor coach speeding along with a pennent for STARN. The vehicle looks like a Renault, given the badge, and it's worth recording that Citroën not only built buses and coaches but also spawned a operating empire so perhaps STARN decided not to 'advertise' a rival's products and services!

The map even shows the seasonal bus service over the border into Belgium as well as an advert for a Paris based supplier of fuels, oils and lubricants; Les Consommateurs de Pétrole.

A large letterpress poster giving timetable and route details for the Postbus "Kraftposten" motor services operated in the Hamburg region from 6 October 1929. The areas covered include Lüneberger Heide, Niederelbe, Schleswig-Holstein and Lauenberg. The routes show the connections to the Reichsbahn train services.

This is a fairly rough & ready photograph given the size of the poster that has obviously been folded for many years.

The 1934 edition of W. Alexander's guide to its tour and bus services, based on Glasgow and parts of Central Scotland, contains many adverts for associated companies and services. It includes this advert for the Belfast based bus and coach operator, H.M.S. Catherwood, the year before this short lived but successful company was to vanish.

Catherwood's were formed in 1925 and grew from a singel bus route and a coach operation, to become a successful operator both north and south of the relatively new Border between Northern and Southern Ireland. By 1927 this included a long distance service between Belfast and Dublin, much to the chagrin of the Great Northern Railway. In 1928 they became a private limited company and were engaged in bus 'wars' in Belfast with the Corporation (who saw them off) and in Derry/Londonderry where they were more successful; the council awarded them an effective franchise to run the city's bus services. In 1932 the Tilling Group became the majority shareholder in the concern that was by now a staunch purchaser of Leyland vehicles.

However in 1933 the company lost all its services south of the Border to the GNR(I) and the GSR and, in 1935, this was followed by the effective nationalisation of all road services in Ulster by the Northern Ireland Road Transport Board and so, after only a decade, Catherwood's vanished.

An advert in the 1934 edition of the W. Alexander's tour guide booklet, this for the Glasgow based travel agency of A.J. Thomson, "King of the Highways". It might seem slightly strange that Thomson's were advertising effectively rival services, such a a daily Glasgow - London service, and tours in an Alexander's publication but I wonder if their services fell into the hands of the acquistive SMT/Alexander's empire? Their advert in the 1929 issue of 'Cover the Country" notes them as a booking agency for Alexander's as does this one.

Like many early tram and bus operators the Bath Electric Tramways Co. Ltd. issued a guide book to inform passengers as to their services and the opportunities such transport opened to residents and visitors. Written for the Company by Lawrence H. Wilson the guide book, with this dull marbled red card cover, was to show Bath "through and round the city by Electric Car with notes also on popular excursions to some of the old world towns and villages in the neighbourhood by motor 'bus". Electric car here means of course the tramcar and electric 'cars had first run in the city in 1904 when a B.E.T backed company started to operate on what had been previously horse tram served routes dating back to 1880.

The Company were very early proponents of the new motor bus purchasing their first vehicles in 1906 and they not only stuck at it, unlike many other early motor bus operators, they made quite the success of them as this guide book shows; not only were proposed tram routes opened using buses but routes acted as feeders to the city's tram routes as well as some extensive 'long distance' services. In 1936 the Bath Company was effectively purchased by the major operator the Bristol Carriage & Tramways Co. Ltd, who, as they were in their home city, set about abandoning the tram system and replacing them with Bristol built buses. The last tram ran in 1939.

The guide that contains detailed descriptions of routes and destinations is not dated; a pencil date of 1906 is present but that feels a little early but it could be a little later and it its certainly, given the style, pre-WW1.

The jolly cover to an early British Railways publication with a roundabout, sdaly unattributed, issued by the Scottish Region and listing "Circular Tours in Scotland" for 1949. These were tickets issued, at reduced rates, on specified journeys for day or longer, period trips that allowed the use of connecting train, motor bus and steamer services. The tickets were usually valid for break of journey and for leisure as well as commercial travel.

On 17 November 1963 major changes took place to the street network in Glasgow's city centre. Glasgow's noted 'grid system' did, in some ways, make such a change at first sight simpler and the change must also have been assisted by the final removal of street tramway operation in the city the previous year.

The new 'one way' system necessitated major changes in the 'flexible' pattern of motor bus operation across the city centre and Glasgow Corporation Transport issued this small card folder detailing the changes to routes, stops and showing the new traffic flows.

The changes, along with the introduction of parking, waiting and loading restrictions, are mentioned in the GCT Annual Report for 1964 as helping speed up the flow of bus operation and an extension to the one way system was introduced on 23 February 1964. Sadly this 'speeding up' of services was shortlived as subsequent annual reports increasingly note that despite the abandonment of the trams, one streets and Glasgow's new central area motorway traffic speeds continued to fall.

On 17 November 1963 major changes took place to the street network in Glasgow's city centre. Glasgow's noted 'grid system' did, in some ways, make such a change at first sight simpler and the change must also have been assisted by the final removal of street tramway operation in the city the previous year.

The new 'one way' system necessitated major changes in the 'flexible' pattern of motor bus operation across the city centre and Glasgow Corporation Transport issued this small card folder detailing the changes to routes, stops and showing the new traffic flows.

The changes, along with the introduction of parking, waiting and loading restrictions, are mentioned in the GCT Annual Report for 1964 as helping speed up the flow of bus operation and an extension to the one way system was introduced on 23 February 1964. Sadly this 'speeding up' of services was shortlived as subsequent annual reports increasingly note that despite the abandonment of the trams, one streets and Glasgow's new central area motorway traffic speeds continued to fall.

On 17 November 1963 major changes took place to the street network in Glasgow's city centre. Glasgow's noted 'grid system' did, in some ways, make such a change at first sight simpler and the change must also have been assisted by the final removal of street tramway operation in the city the previous year.

The new 'one way' system necessitated major changes in the 'flexible' pattern of motor bus operation across the city centre and Glasgow Corporation Transport issued this small card folder detailing the changes to routes, stops and showing the new traffic flows.

The changes, along with the introduction of parking, waiting and loading restrictions, are mentioned in the GCT Annual Report for 1964 as helping speed up the flow of bus operation and an extension to the one way system was introduced on 23 February 1964. Sadly this 'speeding up' of services was shortlived as subsequent annual reports increasingly note that despite the abandonment of the trams, one streets and Glasgow's new central area motorway traffic speeds continued to fall.

A descriptive guide giving details of the German Post Office's Mail Buses in the Black Forest and Lake Constance area of southern Germany issued in 1956; to be precise the 30th April 1956! The tile page was designed by artist Alfred Haller of Lörrach and it was printed by Göppert in Wladkirch.

One of the many thousands of such 'official' guides and handbooks issued by UK local authorities and, like many others, published on their behalf by the Cheltenham based concern of Ed. J. Burrow. They conatin information as to services, amenities and local commercial activities and this, for Clitheroe in the Ribble Valley in Lancashire, is typical. The Borough was one of the councils reformed under the 1835 legislation and the Town Council remained the local authority until 1974 when it became part of the new Ribble Valley Borough Council; a successor parish council survives.

The front cover shows a picturesque view up towards the ruined Castle that still dominates this town. The guide is, as often the case, undated but the text lets slip that the town only recently introduced a supply of electricity in 1927 and so a date of c.1928 seems likely. The guide makes great play on the extent of motor bus services in the vicinity and this advert is for the independent "Bounty Motor Services of neighbouring Slaidburn, then over the old county boundary and just inside the West Riding of Yorkshire. Owned by Colin Walker, this appears to be a realtive of the village's innkeeper, Rober Walker, who ran the Hark to Bounty Inn and both concerns sharing the same telephone number of Slaidburn 14!

The outfit would likely have been typical of the 1920s small independent bus operator, often running a small number of buses and coaches, and of a breed that had grown massively in post-WW1 years thanks to the development of motor vehicles that had been assisted by the war effort along with a glut of ex-military vehicles along with staff trained to maintain them. I'm not sure what happened to Bounty Motor Services but in the late 1920s and early 1930s, often backed by railway capital, major regional bus concerns came into prominance by buying up local concerns, such as Ribble Motor Services who would become the major player in this part of Lancashire and West Yorkshire. At the time they ran buses between Slaidburn and neighbouring localities such as Newton, Dunspor Bridge, Whitewell, Bashall Eaves, Wadidngton, Moor Cock, Waddington Fells, Thornley and Longridge. They would have offered unprecidented mobility to such a rural area.