On The Buses – Buses of Britain Book 8 – 29 March 2024

Produced by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, this series takes a snapshot back into a time when the world was a very different place. Titles alternate between the 'colour files' and the mainly black and white and, much older material, based around the Chris Hodge 'Stilltime' Collection and other mono archive collections. In both cases, the books contain 100 pages - even numbered issues are the 'colour files' edited by Paul Appleton, while the odd-numbered issues are the (mainly) mono editions edited by Vintage Roadscene editor, Mike Forbes.
The 'colour file' editions are bursting with colour images, mainly from the 1950s and '60s - with some taken in the early years of the 1970s - a period when very few people were recording the bus scene in glorious colour. Fortunately, Geoff Lumb did and his collection gives us an excellent insight to the contemporary scene at that time, covering the fleets of a variety of operators from the south of England to the Scottish Highlands and from the South Wales valleys to East Anglia.
The mono editions go back even further and, therefore, are largely in monochrome, with some material dating back to the 1930s, but mainly from the early post-war years. Manufacturers' official pictures and other promotional material, buses at commercial vehicle shows and on test cover a wide range of subjects, but most of the pictures were taken during visits to operators around the country to go with contemporary magazine articles.
As interesting as the buses themselves, in their evocative period liveries, are the street scenes in which they operate, with the advertising, vehicles and fashions of the day providing a wonderful insight into times gone by. Almost 200, previously unpublished images are contained within each issue; you can almost smell the leather seats, hear the clippie's ticket machine and the crash of the gearbox as we set off on a trail of discovery, to a time of municipal transport and early nationalisation of Britain's unique public service vehicle scene - a time long gone and never to return.