When bus and coach manufacturers or bodybuilders brought out a new design, they would usually provide a demonstration vehicle for would-be purchasers to try out before buying. These vehicles would later be sold off after a few years and were sometimes snapped up by small companies that might not have been able to afford the cost of a new vehicle. Some of the larger companies would buy a small selection of vehicles by different makers to compare in service before deciding on which type to standardise on for mass purchase. Other innovative companies might rebuild existing vehicles in their own workshops in an attempt to improve their performance or extend their life, or to try out new ideas. This book looks at a variety of demonstration vehicles, on display, in use, and after being sold off; as well as vehicles that were bought experimentally or modified extensively during their service life.

During the history of Britain's electric tramcar fleets, many thousands were manufactured of which the vast majority saw out their operational life with a single owner. However, for several hundred there was to be a second - if not, in certain cases, a third - career with a new operator. Almost from the dawn of the electric era in the late 19th century tramcars were loaned or bought and sold between operators. The reasons for this were multifarious. Sometimes the aspirations of the original owners for traffic proved wildly optimistic and the fleet was downsized to reflect better the actual passenger levels. War was a further cause as operators sought to strengthen their fleets to cater for unexpectedly high level of demand or to replace trams destroyed by enemy action. For other operators, modernisation represented an opportunity to sell older cars whilst, certainly from the 1930s, a number of operators - such as Aberdeen, Leeds and Sunderland - took advantage of the demise of tramways elsewhere to supplement their fleet with trams that were being withdrawn but which still had many years of useful operational life in them. The process was to continue right through to the mid-1950s when Glasgow took advantage of the demise of the once-extensive Liverpool system to purchase a number of the streamlined bogie bogie cars that were built in the late 1930s. In this book the author provides a pictorial history - with detailed captions - to the many electric trams that were to operate with more than one tramway during the period up to the closure of the closure of the Glasgow system in 1962.

The larger bus operators, whether municipal or company owned, have traditionally trained their own new drivers. Normally older vehicles from the fleet were retained and adapted for training, adorned with 'L' plates. In earlier days they would usually just retain fleet livery. Sometimes they might receive a separate livery, to warn other road users. When the National Bus Company introduced corporate liveries of red or green for its fleets, many of their constituent companies used yellow for their training and service vehicles. Then, as recruitment became more difficult from around the 1980s, colourful liveries with invitational recruitment slogans tended to appear and this has continued since. Rather surprisingly, companies often bought in buses for training from other companies rather than converting their own, and these might be types not otherwise represented in their fleet. This book looks at a variety of training vehicles from around the country over the last fifty years, including examples that have survived into preservation.

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. The Art Deco-influenced style was also a huge public relations exercise in the glamour-obsessed 1920s and 1930s. Its most obvious manifestations were on the railways, with beautiful streamlined locomotives in daring colour schemes on prestigious named expresses, especially in Europe and North America. They included the Fliegender Hamburger diesel train in Germany, the American Mercury trains and of course Sir Nigel Gresley's A4 Class, on which the streamlined casing and internal streamlining allowed Mallard to break the world speed record. The idea of streamlining made even more sense in the air, where the great airships were crossing the Atlantic, and aircraft like the Douglas DC3 cut through the air more easily than anything that came before. Meanwhile, on the world's roads, buses and cars lost their perpendicular looks and marques like Cord and Bugatti led the way with increasingly aerodynamic, wind-tunnel-tested profiles. Designers like Raymond Loewy, as well as designing streamlined locomotives, began to apply the same style to products for which wind resistance was irrelevant, such as buildings, refrigerators and even pencil sharpeners. This book tells the story of the streamline era - its designers, its successes and failures, its inspiration and its legacy.

Crosville is the story of the Crosville Motor Company and the Leyland Tiger buses they operated during the post-world war II period. As with many other operators nationwide, Crosville Motor Services based in Chester faced difficulties in re-establishing both stage carriage and private hire bus and coach services in the early years following the second world war. The need to support a weakened economy by exporting goods meant the supply of new vehicles was limited while existing fleets had suffered through the war years because of a lack of spares, skilled personnel to fit them, and general maintenance. At the same time, the general public needed to see not only local but long-distance travel re-established. The latter, in terms of holiday travel, was particularly important to Crosville, who in pre-war times had built up a network of services in the Merseyside and North Wales areas, with a special need to provide transport along the North Wales coast. The many resorts there were now beginning to re-establish their status as holiday centers required holidaymakers to be transported to them. In order to fulfil that need Crosville took delivery in 1949/50 of 35 single deck buses, classed as dual-purpose (bus/coach) vehicles. Government intervention had redirected these 35 Leyland Tiger PS1/1 vehicles (originally ordered by Midland General) to Crosville to assist with their vehicle shortage. They were Leyland's first post-war design, but because of nationalisation which occurred in the transport industry at the time of their delivery they would eventually become non-standard in the Crosville fleet. Crosville shows how political decisions enforced changes to the organisation of public transport and vehicle design and the book will appeal to anyone interested in vintage motor vehicles and the history of transport in the United Kingdom.

Designing and building your own motorcaravan gives you the freedom to create a distinctive holiday home tailored to your needs - and also enables you to control the cost. Whether you want to fit out a van, renovate a camper, revive an old model or build one from scratch, this manual will take you every step of the way. This new edition includes up-to-date information on electrical systems and water supplies, as well as sought-after storage options and weight-saving tips when working with wood. Armed with all the facts - and many step-by-step instructions - building your own motorcaravan quickly becomes achievable.

This book tells the complete story of one of the most significant agricultural inventions of all time - the combine harvester. Starting with the early straw walkers and rotary models, author Jonathan Whitlam charts the chronological evolution of these complex machines which soon became indispensable to the cereal farmer. The author shows how the combine developed into the huge modern machine, capable of processing hundreds of acres of wheat in a day. The story of the combine harvester is meshed with the cereal harvest, starting with the first mechanisation of the harvest with the sail reaper, moving through to the binder and then the threshing drum. The book describes the early arrival of the combine harvester in the shape of the reaper-thresher in the USA and then smaller, more compact trailed versions that were also used in Europe. The self-propelled combine arrived in the 1940s, which is when the idea really began to take off. The book looks at the various different makes of combine harvester such as those produced by Case, New Holland, International Harvester, John Deere and Massey Ferguson and discusses what the future holds for the combine harvester, including advanced designs and driverless drones. Accompanied by a wide variety of new colour photographs, this book will appeal to farm machinery enthusiasts and those interested in the development of modern industrial machinery.

What happens to old buses at the end of their career, when they are replaced by newer vehicles? Some inevitably go to scrap, especially if they have been cannibalised for spares. Some see further service with other bus companies. A few lucky ones pass directly into preservation. But many find further employment with so-called 'Non-PSV' users; some of these may continue to carry passengers, perhaps as works transport or for a community group. Some may be used for driver training. However, others will be converted to fulfil a whole variety of roles - catering or hospitality vehicles; advertising promotional vehicles; ambulances; mobile homes; playbuses; horseboxes; vehicle transporters, and more. This book looks at a variety of old buses and coaches and the varied roles they have fulfilled over the last fifty years.

Featuring the custom car cult of hot rods, drag racers and low riders, classic films like Thunder Road and American Graffiti, 'rebels' such as James Dean and Marlon Brando, and much more, 'Car Culture' is as exuberant and fascinating as the car craze itself. With 48 pages of brilliant color photographs.

Bus garages, or depots if that is your preferred nomenclature, come in all shapes and sizes and have their origins in the tram depots that were established by the various tramway companies of the pre-electrification era. Tram depots were originally built for horse-drawn and steam-hauled tramcars and, in the case of the former, often had stables attached. Hardly any two bus garages were the same as they varied in both size and type of construction. Some, such as London Transport's Stockwell garage (which is still in use) and Salford Corporation's Frederick Road tram/bus depot, could be considered architectural gems. The capacity of a garage could vary enormously; examples of this were Ribble Motor's outstation at Bowness-on-Solway with space to garage just one bus and Oldham Corporation's Wallshaw Street garage, which when built was designed to hold 300 buses under one roof. There are still a significant number of former tram depots functioning as bus garages, but they are on the decline. The deregulation of bus services in 1986 changed the course of the bus industry forever. As undertakings were privatised and sold off during the 1990s, the new operators moved out of their inherited garages and set up more low-cost establishments. These generally consisted of a moderately sized maintenance building and a large open-air parking area.

The AEC Regal IVs and Regent IIIs, or to give them their class prefix letters RFs and RTs, are among the most revered buses to have served London over the years. The RFs were maids of all work and were tailored for private hire work, Green Line coach work and ordinary stage bus work in both the central and country areas. The first of the type were introduced in October 1951 and a total of 700 vehicles were built for the London Transport Executive. They replaced virtually all the other types of single-deckers then operating in the metropolis. The RT was first introduced to service in 1939 and production ran to 151 vehicles before construction ceased in early 1942. Following the war the Park Royal factory recommenced building the type in 1947 with the last new chassis being rolled out in 1954, taking the bonnet number RT4825. Both types soldiered on throughout the 1970s as LTE encountered severe problems with their 'OPO' replacements before both finally bowed out within a week of each other in March/April 1979. This account charts the last years of operation of both types from the mid-1970s onward, focusing on South London.

This book shares the valuable collection of the Schlumpf brothers, whose collection of 427 beautiful classic cars-including 122 Bugatis-made it Europe's most exciting auto collection. Now known as the National Auto Museum of France, this amazing collection is presented in this book for all the world to see.