Paddington is one of London's-indeed the world's-great railway stations. Designed basically by Brunel, although others contributed, it has served its intended purpose of providing a starting point and a culmination of countless journeys between the capital, the West Country, the Midlands, Merseyside, Wales and beyond, to Ireland and America, for over 180 years. In a highly illustrated book we look at the trains, steam diesel and electric, which have served it, the people who have passed through, and have worked there. We also consider its surroundings, which were once the fields belonging to Westbourne Manor House, where its locomotive depot would be built. A little further out was Old Oak Common, now deep in inner suburbia, the GWRs largest depot, still the home of the High Speed Trains and used as a depot for the Cross Rail construction. The approach to Paddington involved negotiating a fascinating complex of lines, serving both goods and passenger traffic, signal boxes and semaphore signals galore. To this day it is the only main line London station served by surface Underground trains.

A photographic journey of the ever changing railway scene of southern England stretching from Cornwall to the Kent Coast, served from 1953 to the present day by the Southern Region and its successors. When our story begins steam west of the Portsmouth man line still reigns supreme whilst much of the rest of the network is served by Southern Electric. Many of the trains at work in 1953 were of pre-1939 origin, some even dating back to the first decade of the 20th century, although the influence of Oliver Bullied's revolutionary semi-streamline pacifics and high capacity suburban electric multiple units pointed to the future. By 1967 diesel would replace steam, and electrification would spread, whilst many less well used lines in Hampshire, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall would close. Electrification had begun in the London area in the early 1900s, expanding to the Kent, Sussex and east Hampshire coasts, in the process creating the greatest main line electrified system in the world: this would continue down to today.

Back in 1985 the first 'British Railways Past and Present' was published, it has only taken 25 years for us to start the same treatment for Britain's road transport scene. There is perhaps no better place to start than in the Capital City. London's buses are well known throughout the world, being synonymous with the city. This volume takes us on a nostalgic tour of not just street scenes but also caomparative shots of the various bus related sites of the city. Bus stations and interchange points and garages and depots are slectively covered. The changes in the buses themselves and the advent in recent years of the return of the long lost street tramway make for fascinating reminders of both the past and the progress! This though is not just about the public service vehicles it is also about the cars, trucks, bikes and other motor vehicles that can be seen in the background. The fashions have also changed over the years while the buildings are remarkable either because they still stand or indeed because of what has replaced them after they have been swept aside in the passage of time.

Kent is one of the most diverse and interesting of all English counties. Stretching into London at its north western extremity, and at the same time the nearest county to mainland Europe, its bus companies reflect this variety. From the 1930s onwards three companies dominated its bus and coach services, East Kent, Maidstone and District and London Transport. There had once been trams, in Margate and Dartford for example, and trolleybuses also in Dartford and well as in the county town of Maidstone. The area around Chatham and the Thames estuary was heavily industrialised, which provided much business for Chatham and District buses which replaced trams in the Medway towns and was a subsidiary of Maidstone and District. But Kent is also deeply rural and Maidstone and District buses in their dark green and off white livery with perhaps the most attractive logo of any bus company complimented the lush greens of the hop fields for example. The dark red and pale cream of East Kent's buses will always be associated with Kent's holiday resorts as well as Canterbury with its world famous cathedral.Probably no company, other than London Transport, suffered as much in the Second World War as East Kent, its routes in and around Dover being within shelling distance of Nazi guns mounted on the French coast whilst whether they liked it or not Kent bus passengers had a grand stand view of the Battle of Britain as it was fought out over their heads.

Think of Sussex Buses and almost automatically that means Southdown: think of locations and that means Brighton. Well, you will find plenty of pictures of both within these pages, but there is much more besides. Although Southdown was far and away the biggest cheese in Sussex, three other BET concerns, Aldershot and District, Maidstone and District and East Kent, worked into the county, as did London Transport. Trams operated beside the seaside in Brighton and Hastings, their systems and the little four-wheel cars which operated them being replaced by almost silent, streamlined (well perhaps not the early Hastings ones) trolleybuses in the 1930s. Eastbourne was the world's first municipality to operate motorbuses - applause please. Brighton, ah, Brighton deserves a new chapter. Not only did Brighton Corporation operate trams, then trolleybuses and motor buses, but the town was also served by Thomas Tilling's Brighton and Hove and District which was eventually swallowed up by Southdown. In NBC days, the Corporation misguidedly adopted a pale blue livery, which like the NBC green did not wear very well. Privatisation saw the emergence of the Brighton, Hove Bus and Coach Company which would by the mid first decade of the 21st century become the jewel in the crown that Southdown had once assumed. With routes spreading far beyond the City of Brighton and Hove, some of them once operated by Southdown, notably to Lewes, Tunbridge Wells, and Eastbourne, a livery of basically red and pale cream and thus recalling days gone by, but designed by Ray Stenning's Best Impressions and thus totally of the 21st century, buses named after notable Brighton inhabitants, ranging from world famous statesmen and stars of stage, screen and radio, to good men and women who have improved in various ways the lives of their fellow citizens, all part of an imaginative publicity drive which has seen the graph of the growth of bus travel in the city climb steadily and reap a number of well deserved awards.

In this 85th volume: We travel back to the streets of Sunderland in the 1950sSunderland's trams had an appeal to tram enthusiasts that was as great as any other British system. Possibly it was the fact that many were second-hand from other systems, or was it their (almost unique) pantographs in their later years? Like many others, David Clarke was fascinated by trams from an early age. He can remember looking out of the first-floor front window of his house (they lived above a shop where his father was manager) and noticing not the few motor cars, which were all black, or the trade vans, or even the fairly ordinary shops and houses, but the brightly coloured red and cream trams that seemed to pass by every few minutes. This was North London, not Sunderland, but the effect would have been the same anywhere. Trams were the conspicuous things, and they were beautiful to behold. When he was just short of two years old they were taken away and trolleybuses substituted, and he can remember asking his mother what had happened to them. The trolleys somehow did not command the presence that the trams had held. His first visit to Sunderland was in February 1953. he spent the day riding the trams and securing a few photographs of them. The memory of that first ride to Seaburn (Sealane) in the glorious midday sunshine will stick forever. And those elegant centre-entrance cars! He later discovered similar trams in Blackpool and Aberdeen, but these were his first experience of something quite modern. The reason (or excuse) for producing this new book of Sunderland tram photographs is the recent discovery of the excellent collection of the late Peter Mitchell. Peter was a friend of David who lived close by in North London and they occasionally met up at David's home or went on public transport visits together. Peter was working and could afford a good camera; David was on pocket money and had a cheap box camera. So it is Peter's superb pictures, and some views by Clarence Carter, that are presented here, together with 11 of Richard Wiseman's excellent photographs, which he has kindly allowed to be to used. This book is not a intended to be a definitive history of the trams or the system, this book is just sheer nostalgia. It is hoped that it will have appeal not only to tram enthusiasts but also to locals (and ex-locals) of Sunderland who remember the trams, and the streets they ran in, before the great Motor Car Age arrived.

The aim of this series is to appeal to readers of all ages, perhaps for different reasons... In this volume: We travel all the way back to the year 1956 * The UK bans heroin * RAF retires last Lancaster bomber * Suez crisis causes UK petrol rationing * First Eurovision Song Contest broadcast * Hard disk drive invented * TV broadcasting begins in Australia For the younger reader there are wonderful pictures of buses and coaches that they will never have seen. There will, for example, be half-cab single and double deckers the like of which are no longerin production. Some will be recognised from models and books, while others will be seen for the first time. For the older reader the books are designed to build into a collection placing road transport in the context of key events, thus providing an historical perspective of travel in times past. For those old enough to remember the years depicted, the series will, we hope, provide reminders for many of school days, time perhaps spent bus-spotting, depot visiting and generally visiting interesting locations! The books also make ideal theme gifts for the year of birth, marriage, retirement, starting work and other such

By the end of the 1950s, steam had already mostly disappeared from passenger work in the Republic of Ireland, yet it lingered on in Northern Ireland. In fact, it lasted longer there than anywhere else on the main line within the British Isles. The products of General Motors came to dominate locomotive-hauled freight and passenger work in the entire 32 Counties, whilst electrification transformed travel in and around Dublin. Preservation has ensured that much of what might have vanished in the way of infrastructure, the iconic narrow gauge and a wonderful variety of locomotives is still there to be enjoyed by both the Irish and visitors from near and far. With over 200 images, this is a visual journey around the Emerald Isle, starting in the 1960s and moving through to modern times, showing the various traction, locomotives and stations that have made Ireland's railways what they are today.

London Transport was created in 1933 to coordinate the shambolic, overlapping transport systems of the capital, and for decades has striven to meet the challenges of organising London travel. Now operating as Transport for London (TfL), it continues this demanding work. In this fully illustrated volume, Michael H. C. Baker presents the complete story of the organisation from its origins, through the upheavals of the Second World War, to TfL's biggest modern project - Crossrail. Covering modes of transport including trams, trolleybuses, the iconic RT and Routemaster buses and the trains of the Underground, this is an essential guide to London's world-famous transport operator.