Bristol Omnibus Company: The Twilight Years

This book is a unique collection of photos that document the history and vehicles of the Bristol Omnibus Co. The author spent two decades working for the company and captured its vehicles and operations on film during the late 1970s. The collection is particularly poignant as it records a period on the eve of the company's demise, just before it was broken up into operating units in readiness for privatisation and deregulation in 1986.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 96 pages
Publication date: 15 April 2018
Publisher: Amberley Publishing

Several books have documented the history and vehicles of the Bristol Omnibus Co. It was one of the largest and most prominent British bus operators, and – with a nod in the direction of Midland Red – unique in that, as well as operating buses, it also constructed them and supplied them to the entire industry. This book is a little different. The author spent two decades working for the company as a conductor and driver. A devotee of buses and keen amateur photographer, for several years during the late 1970s, he kept a record on film of the company's vehicles and operations as he experienced them. He visited the extremes of the company's territory and sometimes even took his camera to work with him to snap his own bus on little-known services at obscure locations. On Saturdays, when maintenance staff only worked a half day, and he had the place to himself in the afternoons, he strolled around the yard of the company's main depot and Central Repair Works at Lawrence Hill, where 'time-expired buses awaiting disposal to dealers and their spanking-new, freshly delivered replacements were to be found. Oddities not normally seen on the roads, or vehicles from the fascinating ancillary fleet, were usually present. This wonderful collection of photos is of particular poignancy in that it records a period on the very eve of this famous company's demise. Within a few years, it had been broken up into 'operating units in readiness for the privatization apocalypse of 1986 and the deregulation of the industry. These were its Twilight Years.

Weight: 286g
Dimension: 167 x 236 x 9 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781445673424