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During the 1970s and 1980s the Port of London, and shipping on the
River Thames was in a state of transition. New methods of cargo
handling, in particular the introduction of containers and Roll-on,
Roll-off vehicle ferries called for new investment and a rethink on
the way dock traffic was traditionally managed. As a result, The
Port of London Authority decided to run down and close the various
London docks and concentrate all new investment downriver at their
Tilbury docks. These photographs, along with some from earlier
decades, and mostly previously unpublished, are a fascinating
insight into this period, when traditional ships and cargo handling
methods worked alongside the new technology. Ships designed for
carrying cargo in their holds were sometimes adapted to carry
containers as deck cargo. There were also shipping types now lost
to history, including colliers and sludge boats. Not forgotten are
the passenger ships -cruise liners to ferries. The various vessels
that serviced the port from tugs to salvage craft and floating
cranes. Finally, the heritage craft from traditional Thames Sailing
barges to former paddle steamers now adapted as floating
pub/restaurants.
The railway lines of London and the South East include tracks from
all four of the constituent companies that made up British Railways
and subsequently became the Eastern, Midland, Southern and Western
regions. Each region took a separate approach when diesels and
electrics replaced steam in the 1950s and 1960s. In June 1986
Network SouthEast was launched to collectively market passenger
services throughout this area, with a distinctive livery applied to
locomotives, rolling stock and stations. This lasted until it was
disbanded from 1 April 1994 in preparation for privatisation, since
when a variety of companies have held franchises for particular
areas. This book features a selection of diesel and electric
locomotives in an area of some 50-60 miles from the capital, over a
period beginning in 1969. It takes the form of visiting the lines
from each of the main London termini, showing a typical selection
of the freight and passenger workings to be seen.
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Secret Newham
Malcolm Batten
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R485
R392
Discovery Miles 3 920
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Ships in 9 - 15 working days
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Secret Newham delves into the fascinating but often quirky and
curious history of the towns that make up the borough of Newham in
East London. From the origins of place names, memorials and street
names to tales behind past and present industries and businesses,
the origins of the area’s growth and wealth are revealed. Docks
and shipping played a vital role until recent decades and other
forms of transport also shaped the area, not least the railways in
Stratford. The two World Wars changed the face of much of Newham
and many repurposed buildings can be found behind new facades.
Newham’s parks and green spaces also have a story to tell and
here sport has played a significant role, not least with hosting
much of the 2012 London Olympics. With tales of remarkable
characters, unusual events and tucked away or disappeared
historical buildings and locations, Secret Newham will appeal to
all those with an interest in the history of this corner of London.
The London–Brighton Historic Commercial Vehicle run is one of the
premier events in the calendar for preserved commercial vehicle
owners and enthusiasts alike. First held in 1962, this annual event
has continued to feature every year since. Until 2019 it was
traditionally held on the first Sunday in May, with vehicles
traveling from London to Brighton where they line up on Marina
Drive for judging and prizegiving in the afternoon. There is a
rolling minimum age limit of 25 years, but vehicles may date back
to the very origins of the internal combustion engine, while steam
powered traction engines and wagons are also included. Malcolm
Batten first visited Brighton for the Run in 1971 and has been back
each year without exception. This book highlights some of the
vehicles on show between 1996 and 2021, when the run celebrated its
sixtieth anniversary.
The busy London Underground may seem an unlikely location for
heritage train operation, especially involving steam. However, this
was the world’s first Underground railway network, and the
original sections were built to main line gauge using steam
traction. London Transport and its successor London Underground Ltd
have been acutely aware of the significance of this and have
strived to preserve and present their heritage. Over the decades,
open days and special trains operated over parts of the system.
This included the running of steam-, diesel- and electric-hauled
trains for the public to ride on, while at the same time
maintaining the normal level of Underground train service on these
lines. These special trains ran not only in the open-air outer
sections of the network, but even on occasion through the
cut-and-cover tunnel sections of central London. New signalling
systems mean that this is unlikely to happen again, but the London
Transport Museum continues to offer a programme of exhibitions,
guided history tours and open days at the Acton museum depot. This
book looks back at the principal events since 1963.
The first standard gauge heritage steam railway in Britain, the
Bluebell Railway, opened in 1960. Since then, over eighty have
opened to the public. While each of these has its individual
characteristics, nearly all are former British railways branch
lines or parts of secondary routes, closed either under the
Beeching axe or under subsequent cutbacks. The six-mile-long Epping
Ongar Railway is different and unique. Despite its location in
rural Essex, this was not part of the British Rail network at
closure but was an electrified section of the London Underground.
Its rundown and closure was a protracted affair spanning
twenty-five years. On closure it was earmarked to become a heritage
line, but it would be another eighteen years before it re-opened in
its current guise with steam and diesel traction. This book tells
its story up to the re-opening in 2012 and of the ten years of
progress since then.
Londoners, and London-bound commuters, rely heavily on the
railways, the London Underground and Docklands Light Railway to get
around. This means there is a constant need for maintenance, and
sections of lines are often closed at weekends for track work and
other enhancements to take place. Rail replacement buses are
employed whenever there is not an easy alternative rail route. This
book features a variety of companies and vehicles engaged on rail
replacement services around London and the South East over the last
fifty years.
The preservation of our transport heritage is something that the
British excel at. The Buses magazine Museum & Rally Guide
2020-21 lists forty museums in the United Kingdom plus one in the
Republic of Ireland with collections of buses (and sometimes trams
or trolleybuses) amongst their exhibits. The rally calendar section
lists hundreds of events taking part every year. This has all
developed since the 1950s. Prior to this a few far-sighted
companies such as The London General Omnibus Company (later London
Transport) had put aside some old vehicles but they were not on
regular display. Private preservation started in the 1950s and the
first clubs for preservationists were established such as the
Historic Commercial Vehicle Club in 1958. A few early events were
held, but the first regular event was the HCVC (now HCVS) London to
Brighton Run which began in 1962 and has continued ever since.
Museum sites were established in the 1960s - The Museum of British
Transport opened in stages between 1961 and 1963 and would lead
eventually to the London Transport Museum. The East Anglian
Transport Museum at Carlton Colville and the Sandtoft Transport
Centre both opened in the 1960s. But it would be the 1970s when the
rallies and Open Days' we know today really began to take off. This
book looks back at the formative years to 1980 when the seeds of
the preservation and rally movement of today were being sown.
The commercial life of traction engines and steam wagons largely
came to an end in the 1950s and early 1960s. It was also at this
time that preservation and display in the form of rallies came into
being. It is generally acknowledged that the traction engine rally
scene has its origins in a race between two engine-owning farmers
at Appleford, Berkshire in August 1950\. The rally movement soon
grew as area preservation societies were formed. Some of these
early societies and rallies continued to flourish and a number of
these have now celebrated fifty or more years of activity, albeit
not always on the same site throughout. Other rallies flourished
for a while but then ceased for varying reasons. There have also
been a number of one-off' events. The initial concept of rallies
has developed over the years. Instead of just ring events many now
try to incorporate working areas where the different types of
engines can be demonstrated doing the tasks for which they were
built. This book features a number of these rallies, starting with
some of the early events of the 1950s and 1960s. Then a few
one-off' events are featured, followed by looking at some of the
rallies that no longer take place, and finishing with examples of
those that are still flourishing. It aims to show something of the
individual character of each rally, and some of the highlights of
events that the author has visited over the last fifty years.
London's docks were once the busiest in Britain. They had developed
piecemeal from the beginning of the nineteenth century as the
existing riverside wharves became too congested and pilfering
became rife. Dock systems were built on both sides of the Thames.
The largest group, 'The Royals' comprising the Royal Victoria,
Royal Albert and King George V Docks, created the greatest enclosed
dock area in the world. Changes in cargo handling methods such as
containerisation led to all new developments being concentrated at
Tilbury from the late 1960s, and the closure of the London docks,
along with nearly all of the private riverside wharves and canal
wharves. The London Docklands Development Corporation was set up to
redevelop the dock sites. So what replaced the docks, and what
remains to remind us of what was there before? This book follows
the Thames Path, which has opened up much of what was once a
largely hidden world, from London Bridge to Greenwich to examine
the changes and the heritage that remains on both sides of the
river. Also included is the Regent's Canal, which took goods
onwards into London and linked to the Midlands, and the sewer
network that makes use of the Thames.
There have always been small buses used by bus companies for a
variety of reasons, but in the 1970s a number of companies employed
van-derived minibuses on experimental services such as Dial-a Ride
schemes. These were small-scale operations. From around 1984 the
majority of British bus companies started buying minibuses in bulk.
They began replacing full-size vehicles and soon whole town local
networks were being converted to their use. At first these
continued to be on small, van-derived chassis - Ford, Freight-Rover
and Mercedes-Benz - seating around sixteen passengers, but soon
larger, purpose-built vehicles began to appear from companies
sometimes unfamiliar to the British bus market. There were also
attempts to produce 'midibuses' - larger than a minibus but smaller
than a full-size bus. By the mid-1990s the boom had come to an end.
Larger vehicles started to replace many of these minibuses.
Although modern accessible minibuses are still produced and still
have a role to play, it is a far cry from their heyday. This book
looks back at the rise and fall of the minibus in British bus
services.
When London first applied as a contender to stage the 2012 Olympic
Games, there was cynical speculation as to whether the transport
infrastructure could cope should it win. During the bidding process
for 2012, Transport for London, the capital's transport strategy
provider, did its bit to promote the application with buses and
Stratford station displaying prominent 'Back the Bid' slogans.
There was a 'can-do' mentality among transport management on this
occasion, and in this book Malcolm Batten looks at the preparation
and delivery of the Olympic and Paralympic games by London's
transport providers. The transport legacy is also examined here,
with previously unpublished photographs celebrating a landmark
achievement in the history of London transport.
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.
London's rail freight traffic is dictated by the geography of the
city. When railways first came to London, each line was built by a
different company seeking to link their area to the capital. There
was no through service from one side of London to the other, and
indeed the railway companies were prevented from entering the
central area of the City and West End. In order to transfer freight
traffic from one company to another, the various railway companies
made links to the orbital North London Railway, which ran from
Broad Street station in the east to Richmond in the south-west, and
also had a route into the east London docks. Traffic from north to
south London was dictated by the River Thames and the need to
maintain height for navigation to the upriver docks and wharves.
Thus there were no bridges east of London Bridge until Tower Bridge
(road) opened in 1894, and no others until the QE2 bridge at
Dartford (also road) opened in 1991. Most cross-river traffic,
which these days includes traffic to and from the Channel Tunnel,
used the route through Kensington Olympia and the river bridge at
Chelsea. This book takes the freight routes around London
geographically, in an anti-clockwise direction, starting in east
London north of the Thames and ending in south-east London. It
covers the period since 1985 when BR blue gave way to corporate
sectors with different liveries and on into privatisation, and
shows the various types of locomotives used, and freight traffic
carried over this period.
London's docks were once the busiest in Britain. They had developed
piecemeal from the beginning of the nineteenth century as the
existing riverside wharves became too congested and pilfering
became rife. Dock systems were built on both sides of the Thames.
The largest group, 'The Royals' comprising the Royal Victoria,
Royal Albert and King George V docks, created the greatest enclosed
dock area in the world. Changes in cargo handling methods, such as
containerisation, led to all new developments being concentrated at
Tilbury from the late 1960s and the closure of the London docks,
along with nearly all of the private riverside wharves and canal
wharves. The London Docklands Development Corporation was set up to
redevelop the dock sites. So what replaced the docks, and what
remains to remind us of what was there before? This book follows
the Thames Path, which has opened up much of what was once a
largely hidden world, from Greenwich to Rainham and Erith to
examine the changes and the heritage that remains on both sides of
the river. Also included is the network of rivers, canals and
sewers in East London that linked into and made use of the Thames.
Finally, it looks at Tilbury on the north bank, where the docks are
now concentrated, and Gravesend on the south side, a town with long
maritime connections to London.
Steam rollers began to be manufactured during the 1860s, and it was
Thomas Aveling who perfected the most common three-point design
with a wide steerable roll at the front and a roll either side at
the rear. His company, Aveling & Porter, became the largest
manufacturer of steam rollers, although most other traction engine
builders also produced designs – some of which were quite
innovative. They were the last type of steam-powered road vehicle
in general use, some remaining in service until the mid-1960s.
Consequently, many hundreds have survived into preservation and can
regularly be seen at rallies and other events. This book
illustrates many of the examples from different makers that can be
seen in Britain and tells of their history into preservation.
Britain's railways in the early 1970s looked to be in terminal
decline. The Beeching cuts of the 1960s had slashed much of the
network, but still lines were closing and underinvestment left much
of the rest in a sorry state. Since then, there has been
privatisation and transformation (although whether these are cause
and effect are debatable) to a situation now where passenger travel
is booming. Nowhere has change been more pronounced than in East
London. The redevelopment of the former docks into Docklands led to
the construction of the Docklands Light Railway in the late 1980s,
and the rejuvenation of other lines. The Millennium Dome
celebrations and the award of the Olympic Games to Stratford each
justified investment in new lines and facilities. But most of all,
London's growing population has required transport, and
particularly rail investment, to keep the city moving. Crossrail is
the largest single investment, linking east and south-east London
through the City and West End to Heathrow and Reading in the west.
This book charts the changes to East London's railways from the
1970s to the forthcoming opening of Crossrail.
In the days before privatisation, many bus companies adapted old
buses for a variety of specialist uses as service vehicles. Using
the skills and ingenuity of their workshops, buses might become,
among other things, stores vans, tree loppers or uniform stores.
Trolleybuses may have been converted to tower wagons to maintain
the overhead wires. Some bus operators converted old buses to
towing lorries to rescue broken down vehicles. Others preferred
ex-military trucks such as the AEC Matador. These came with
somewhat austere cabs, but here again the body shop would often
come up with a custom-built body using various bus parts. Buses
would also be adapted to serve as information offices or publicity
buses, promoting such things as holiday tours or special ticket
offers. Since privatisation, such practices have died out for a
variety of reasons. Expensive, in-house workshops have largely been
closed. Construction and Use Regulations have been tightened up.
Emissions zone restrictions may limit the use of older less clean
engines in city centres. Furthermore the modern low-floor
rear-engine buses are probably less suited to such conversions.
Companies will use the services of specialist commercial bus and
truck rescue services rather than retaining their own towing
vehicles. This book looks at a variety of service vehicles from
around the country over the last fifty years, including examples
that have survived into preservation.
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.
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.
The start of the twenty-first century saw a flurry of bus activity
at Stratford in East London to provide services to the Millennium
Dome - this proved to be largely unneeded. Far more significant was
the award of the Olympic Games to London in 2012, with Stratford as
the hub of the events and of subsequent regeneration. Following
privatisation of London Transport in the 1990s, a small number of
large operators had arisen, buying out many of the smaller
companies that had won tendered services. The variety of liveries
was also to disappear as Transport for London increasingly
specified London red livery for its tendered buses. London bus
travel has boomed, as a result of the popular Oyster card, Freedom
Passes and the fact that the population is rapidly growing. A
nightlife economy has led to more routes running 24/7. With a
wealth of previously unpublished images, Malcolm Batten observes
what has changed in the East London bus scene since the turn of the
century.
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