Old Buses (Shire Library)

Interest in old buses has increased enormously in recent years, so that there are now probably over two thousand of these vehicles restored and preserved for future generations. Some were discovered up to fifty years after their withdrawal from passenger carrying, serving as summer houses, tool sheds or for other purposes. Hundreds of hours of loving care were expended on them so that they can now be seen as they looked in their prime. This book traces the development of the omnibus through the horse-drawn era to that of mechanical propulsion, when, after experiments with steam and electric battery units, the petrol engine reigned supreme until just before the Second World War.