Amberley Publishing imprint: 2699 books

The West Bromwich Corporation Act of 1913 gave the Corporation the powers to operate motor buses, the first of which were four Albion single-deckers that lasted for less than seven weeks before the chassis were commandeered for war work in October 1914. After the First World War, bus services began...

This is the story of Belfast's trolleybus system, told through an eclectic collection of over 200 photographs, from its opening in 1938 to its closure in 1968. During that time it had the largest number of operating trolleybuses in the UK outside London Transport's enormous fleet. 246 trolleybuses...

The first trams to be operated in West Bromwich belonged to the South Staffordshire Tramways Company, which began operating double-deck steam trams from Handsworth to Wednesbury in 1883, eventually extending the route to Dudley. Between 1885 and 1893 the Birmingham & Midland Tramways Company operated...

This is the story of Walsall's trolleybus system, from its opening in 1931 through to its eventual closure in October 1970. David Harvey takes us through the geography of the area, social change, development, expansion and the effects of demands on the fleet during World War II. He shows us how 1952...

Throughout their existence from 1904 until 1981, the Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Co. was an idiosyncratic operator whose operational area ranged from the Welsh Marches and Shropshire in the west to Northamptonshire and Rutland in the east; and from Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire in the...

Throughout their existence from 1904 until 1981, the Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Co. was an idiosyncratic operator whose operational area covered an area from the Welsh Marches and Shropshire in the west to Northamptonshire and Rutland in the east and from Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire...

The Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Company began to operate motor buses in the Birmingham and Black Country area in 1912, radiating their services out as far as Leicester. By the 1920s they were building their own buses and SOS was born, standing for 'Shire's Own Specification', named after...

In July 1901, the Leicester Tramways Company was taken over by Leicester Corporation. Although most of the companyʼs vehicles were tramcars, there were also thirty horse-drawn buses. The first Corporation motor buses, however, did not arrive in the city until 1924; Midland Red and various independent...

Coventry’s buses had first entered service in 1914, supplementing the tram network. The city’s transport network was heavily damaged by bombing during the Second World War. After the end of the war and the end of austerity, new Daimler buses began to arrive in the city to replace the austerity...

David Harvey takes us on a journey on the second longest bus route that was initiated by Birmingham Corporation. The 29A bus route operated across Birmingham and technically it was the only Corporation bus service that crossed the city boundary at both termini. From Pheasey Estate and the huge municipal...

Coal was the very bedrock on which the town of Whitehaven was built, the trade in coal with Dublin starting after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Shipping ever increasing quantities of coal to Ireland brought another industry to the town – shipbuilding. In the seventeenth century, the Whitehaven...

The area of Lancashire and Cheshire can be considered one of the homes of the Industrial Revolution, and it was the abundance of coal close to the surface that literally helped fuel the great growth in cities such as Manchester and Liverpool. With poor roads, it was easier to move coal by water and...

The first deep shafts sunk at Atherton were by John Fletcher. The family firm of Fletcher, Burrows & Co. sank numerous shafts in the vicinity of the village of Atherton including Gibfield, Howe Bridge and Hindsford. Nationalized in 1947, the collieries were operated by the National Coal Board...

Airlines are competitive and complex businesses and great airlines don’t just happen. In British Airways’ case it has been a long journey – in fact, it has been many millions of journeys of customer expectations, experiences and emotions, connected by tradition, innovation and service. From...