In this new album from Pen & Sword, transport historian and photographer Jim Blake presents a selection of pictures he took around the country in British steam's final years.British Railways withdrew their last steam engines with almost indecent haste in the mid- to late–1960s, many having seen only a few years' service before consignment to the scrapheap. Jim's pictures graphically show how not only the locomotives themselves were neglected in their final years, but also their working environment. Their motive power depots were also badly run down, particularly when slated for closure upon steam's demise.Most of Jim's pictures of steam locomotives, taken fifty years ago, are previously unpublished. In BR steam's last two years, they were based in two distinctly different areas on the London & South Western main line, and in the industrial north. However, their decline was just as sad and depressing in both areas once proud depots such as London's Nine Elms, with broken windows and roof open to the sky, not repaired after wartime, piles of ash and clinker everywhere, were just as derelict as those in such places as Wigan or Sunderland. Many scenes herein invoke the sad, eerie atmosphere of steam's last months.Ironically, it was London Transport who operated the last publicly-owned standard gauge steam locomotives in 1971, some three years after BR's had gone. These are included within these pages too.
This fascinating and informative book looks at the Tilling Group of bus companies during the 1960s. These operated approximately half of the inter-urban and rural bus services in England and Wales, and were nationalized by Clement Attlee's Labour Government in 1948 under the control of the British Transport Commission. Ownership passed to the Transport Holding Company Ltd in 1963, though the fleets remained under Tilling Group control.During the period covered by this book, the operators within the group had very standardized fleets, with the vast majority of their buses and coaches having Bristol chassis and Eastern Coachworks (ECW) bodywork. This was a result of these manufacturers also having been nationalized and controlled by the BTC and THC.However, some Tilling Group operators still had earlier vehicles with, for instance, AEC or Leyland chassis, which were acquired prior to the requirement for them to buy only Bristol products, whilst some also had coaches with Bedford or Ford Thames chassis built in the 1950s and 1960s.Unlike the BET fleets throughout England and Wales, most Tilling fleets also had highly standardized liveries, either of red with cream relief, or green with cream relief for their stage carriage buses, or the reverse of this for their coaches. There were some exceptions, though. The most obvious ones were Midland General and Notts & Derby with an attractive dark blue and cream, as well as the Royal Blue coaches of Southern and Western National, and the maroon and cream coaches of Thames Valley subsidiary South Midland.All Tilling Group companies became part of the National Bus Company in early 1969, and before long their traditional liveries became just a memory when the NBC imposed standard red or green liveries.Throughout most of the 1960s, Jim Blake travelled to these operators and photographed their vehicles, and spent many summer Saturdays at London's Victoria Coach Station, where their service buses as well as express coaches could be seen. He was fortunate to capture much of this changing transport scene on film, and presents some of these photographs in this volume. Many have never been published before.
This book looks at an important turning point in the history of the bus industry in Britain. 1967 was the penultimate year to the end of an era, when private and semi-nationalized company's operated the bus networks in this country.After 1967 the network was never the same again, with the formation of the National Bus Company in 1968.The NBC was a very bland organization compared to the colourful bus companies that had existed before nationalization, and many small municipal fleets amalgamated to form Passenger Transport Executives.This comprehensive volume covers a large number of the bus companies throughout the country in 1967 and also has a good readable narrative describing Jim Blake's journeys travelling on these services across Britain.
This book looks at the wonderful variety of buses and coaches operated by British Electric Traction group fleets in the 1960s, featuring previously unpublished photographs from Jim Blake's extensive archives. Not only did these fleets, which served most of England and Wales, have a splendid variety of British-built buses and coaches with chassis manufactured by the likes of AEC, Crossley, Daimler, Dennis, Guy and Leyland with bodywork by such firms as Park Royal, Weymann, Metro-Cammell, East Lancs, Northern Counties, Roe, Duple, Plaxton, Willowbrook and Leyland again but they also had an array of distinctive liveries. Many dated back to the early part of the century when the operators first started bus operation. The smart maroon and cream of East Kent, the dark green and cream of Maidstone & District or the light green and cream of Southdown, for example, were supplemented by ornate fleet-names, often in gold lettering. These three fleets were just a few of those that served seaside towns, and will remind readers of holidays they spent in the 1950s and '60s. Sadly, the years covered by this book are the final years of the BET group, which was taken over by the nationalised Transport Holding Company in late 1967, as a prelude to the creation of the National Bus Company, under which the distinctive liveries of the BET group fleets, and even some of the operators themselves, would disappear. The 1960s also saw the demise of many traditional types of bus that these fleets operated, owing to the introduction of rear-engined double-deckers, such as the Leyland Atlantean and Daimler Fleetline, as well as the spread of one-man operation. Many of the photographs featured in this book show the older types in their final days pure nostalgia for the transport enthusiast!
PURCHASED to replace London Transport's ageing RT-type fleet, and also to ease staff shortages by extending one-man operation, the MB-types were not only a disappointment, but an unmitigated disaster! Their successors, the SM-types, were if anything worse, being underpowered as well as equally unsuitable for London operation. In this new volume of his photos, Jim Blake takes a critical look at what were therefore some of the most unsuccessful buses ever operated by London Transport, operating only between 1966 and 1981, most of them however achieving only six or seven years' service - if that. Most of the pictures featured have never been published before and many show rare and unusual scenes, several inside LT's garages and Aldenham Works, now themselves no longer in existence. In addition to the buses themselves, Jim also catches glimpses of London life spanning the period from the "swinging 'sixties" to the harsh first years of the Thatcher regime. The MB and SM family of vehicles also saw service with London Country, the latter being delivered new to them - but they fared just as badly in the outlying countryside around London as in Central London. They brought to a sad end London Transport's long association with A.E.C. buses, and could not have been more different from the legendary, long-lived RT, RF and Routemaster classes produced by that manufacturer!
A pictorial history of buses and coaches of the period, drawn from a British transport photographer’s vast collection. British Buses and Coaches in the 1960s is an overview of the bus and coach scene during a decade of great social and economic change in Britain’s history. This volume looks at the interesting and varied number of bus and coach operators that still existed, before and just after the formation of the National Bus Company in 1968. With around 300 photos, Jim Blake has compiled an informative volume of material from his extensive collection of negatives taken during that period, which give a flavor of how things were at that time of great transformation.
Blake Shelton is a country music superstar. So how did this incredible talent rise to the top? In this fascinating introduction, young readers will learn about Blake’s childhood in Oklahoma and how he achieved his dream of becoming a country music icon. Each 24-page book in this series of introductory biographies features controlled text with age-appropriate vocabulary and simple sentence construction. The narrative text, colorful design, and colorful photos will speak to even the most reluctant of readers.
An extensively illustrated history of the transition from steam to diesel and electric traction, and the last few decades before privatization. Jim Blake took a huge number of pictures capturing both the dramatic changes and decline of the railways pre-1997, both in the London area where he lived and around the country. This book provides a photographic history of the period, covering all aspects of the railway and its operations. It portrays the process of coming to terms with the post-Beeching, post-steam era, before a change of political will brought more rail investment. The volume looks not only at locomotives and trains, but also the overall railway scene during a tumultuous era.
JIM BLAKE'S latest book on London's buses may come as a surprise, since he usually concentrated on older vehicles in the fleet. However, the unpopular, unsuccessful DMs and DMSs were still part of London Transport's history, so he recorded them too, particularly towards the end of the short working lives. Forced by central government to buy "off-the-peg" standard manufacturers' products, rather than their own tried and trusted designs, LT opted for Daimler Fleetlines for their first fleet of one-man-operated double-deckers. Optimistically christened "Londoners" when they first entered service in January 1971, they instantly became unpopular with passengers, staff and bus enthusiasts alike. Their square, box-like appearance and bland all-over red livery did not endear them to the latter. Passengers used to boarding buses immediately with fares collected or tickets checked by a conductor objected to waiting at termini until the driver appeared and opened their doors, and having to queue at stops waiting to pay as they entered. Automatic ticket machines meant to mitigate this broke down making matters worse; all this increased journey times. The vehicles had flimsy bodywork, easily damaged by the slightest collision, and were also mechanically unreliable: their rear engines often caught fire. This made them unpopular with drivers and maintenance staff. Although the type worked satisfactorily in the provinces, it was just not suited for the rigors of London service. This book presents a selection of pictures of them, many previously unpublished and also graphically illustrating the buses' many defects.
Butler University Professor Emeritus James Watt brings a lifetime of love and scholarship to the difficult subject of William Blake and his work. Watt's book is not just more Blake criticism, or more literary criticism in general, but a radically different and powerfully personal way of seeing the great poet and artist. Watt's book is a revelation which uses Blake to draw the reader into harmony with self and world- and of course, Blake.
The renowned transport photographer and author of British Railways in Transition looks at municipal operators in England and Wales in the 1960s. Going back to the very first horse-bus or tram operations in Victorian times, many towns and cities throughout Britain had such operators, owned and run by the town or city councils. Most of them had tramway systems, many of which were replaced by trolleybuses from the 1920s onwards. In turn, after the Second World War, trolleybuses too were on the way out, with motorbuses unfortunately replacing both forms of electric traction. By the 1960s, only a handful were still operating trams, then by the end of the decade only few trolleybus systems remained. During this period, some of these operators had very large fleets, for example those serving the conurbations of Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester, whilst others had very small fleets, such as West Bridgford Urban District Council in Nottinghamshire. Municipal operators had a wide variety of vehicle types, encompassing virtually all chassis and body makes then in service, and were also well known for their distinctive, traditional liveries. In addition to the buses, there were also still trams and trolleybuses, which to many enthusiasts made them that much more interesting. “Jim Blake has a number of bus books to his name, and is well regarded in bus circles. The photos are good and clear with information about each bus and information on various bus types as well. A potentially useful resource for the modeler.” —Diesel and Electric Modellers United “Magnificent portrait of the time through an interesting collection of images.” —Miniaturas JM
“A compilation of photos taken in the difficult period . . . when LT and London Country were plagued with maintenance problems. A valuable record.” —West Somerset Railway Association Continuing with images from transport photographer Jim Blake’s extensive archives, this book examines the second half of the 1970s, when both London Transport and London Country were still struggling to keep services going. This resulted both from being plagued by a shortage of spare parts for their vehicles and having a number of vehicle types which were unreliable—the MB, SM and DMS classes. In 1975, both operators had to hire buses from other companies, so desperate were they. Many came from the seaside towns of Southend, Bournemouth and Eastbourne. This continued until the spares shortage began to abate later in the decade, particularly with London Country. As the decade progressed, the two fleets began to lose their “ancestral” vehicle types. London Country rapidly became “just another National Bus Company fleet,” buying Leyland Atlanteans and Nationals common to most others throughout the country. Having virtually abandoned the awful MB and SM-types, London Transport had to suffer buying the equally awful DMSs well into 1978, but had already ordered replacements for them by that point—the M class Metrobuses and T class Titans—both of which would finally prove successful. However, plans to convert trunk routes serving Central London to one-person operation were largely abandoned. “A very interesting book. The passenger transport crisis in London in the mid-1970s was a major event.” —Miniaturas JM
In this new photographic album from Pen & Sword, transport historian and photographer Jim Blake presents a fascinating selection of pictures of a form of public transport now sadly missing from Britain's streets trolleybuses.
During the 1960s, a large number of independent bus and coach fleets existed, which varied enormously in size and scope of operation. They ranged from major operators such as Barton Transport (Nottinghamshire); Lancashire United and West Riding who operated stage carriage services as well as coach fleets; or Wallace Arnold Tours of Leeds, a major coach touring company in Britain and Continental Europe; to small operators who possessed just a handful of vehicles. The latter were sometimes involved only in private hire work, for such things as outings to sporting events or theaters, school or industrial contracts or often a combination of both. Smaller operators were based throughout the country, sometimes in tiny villages but also in the heart of large cities. Often the smaller operators bought redundant buses and coaches from major operators, whether BET, BTC (Tilling) or municipal concerns, or London Transport. Many got bargains from the latter, with surplus RT and RTL double-deckers sold following the disastrous bus strike and service cuts of 1958. Conversely, redundant vehicles bought by independent fleets often brought types that came from as far away as Scotland to London and the south east. In the 1960s, the oldest buses and coaches with independent fleets were those employed on school or industrial contracts. These were not subject to the rigorous tests governing those carrying fare-paying passengers, so could be kept going until they were literally falling apart! These were known as non-PSVs, i.e. non-public service vehicles. On the other hand, some very small independent fleets, often with the title Luxury Coaches, took great pride in their fleets. They would purchase new coaches every two or three years and keep them in immaculate condition. The net result was that British independent bus and coach operators in the 1960s had a fascinating variety of chassis and body makes and styles, as well as liveries. This book shows many of these as they were between fifty and sixty years ago.
JIM BLAKE's second volume of his photographs featuring the London Underground cover the period from 1985, shortly after the Thatcher regime's destruction of London Transport and its re-birth as London Underground Ltd., to 2021 when the Northern Line gained its new branch from Kennington to Battersea Power Station. This was a turbulent time in the system's history, encompassing the withdrawal of the last pre-war passenger rolling stock (in 1988) and then the abolition of two-person operated trains at the beginning of 2000. With the exception of the Waterloo & City Line, which was transferred from British Rail to London Underground in the 1990s, all Underground lines are covered together with the rolling stock operating them. Jim's photographs concentrate on the older types. What is very striking in them is how the system seemed to be going downhill rapidly during the Thatcher years when this survey begins - plagued by the curse of graffiti and liberally littered thanks to cuts in staff who once dealt with such problems. Fortunately, since Transport for London's takeover of the Underground from 2000 onwards, things in that respect have markedly improved, trains and stations are much cleaner and therefore welcoming to passengers. The contrast between the late 1980s/early 1990s and today's Underground is very clear in Jim's photographs featured here, most previously unpublished. It is unfortunate that further improvements, not to mention long-planned extensions to the system, continue to be frustrated by government spending restrictions at the time of writing.
This pictorial book covers London's railways from 1967 to 1977, showing the transition from steam to diesel and electric traction.This volume has a very readable narrative, telling tales of the authors adventures during his many trips around the London railway network.The volume encapsulates a period of time in Britain, during which a great deal of change was taking place, not only with railways and transport, but also socially and economically.Jim Blake, describes all of these changes, while also looking at the capitals transport scene of the period.
Just as life in Britain generally changed dramatically during the 1960s, so did London Transport's buses and their operations. Most striking was the abandonment of London's trolleybuses, once the world's biggest system, and their replacement by motorbuses. Begun in 1959 using surplus RT-types, it was completed by May 1962 using new Routemasters, designed specifically to replace them. They then continued to replace RT types, too. Traffic congestion and staff shortages played havoc with London Transport's buses and Green Line coaches during the 1960s, one-man operation was seen as a remedy for the latter, shortening routes in the Central Area for the former. Thus the ill-fated "Reshaping Plan" was born, introducing new O.M.O. bus types. These entered trial service in 1965, and after much delay the plan was implemented from September 1968 onwards. Sadly, new MB-types, also introduced in the Country Area, soon proved a disaster! Unfortunately, owing to a government diktat, Routemaster production ended at the start of 1968, forcing LT to buy "off-the-peg" vehicles unsuited to London operation and their in-house overhaul procedures. The decade ended with the loss of LT's Country Area buses and Green Line coaches to the National Bus Company. Photographer Jim Blake began photographing London's buses towards the end of the trolleybus conversion program in 1961 and continued dealing with the changing scene throughout the decade. He dealt very thoroughly with the "Reshaping" changes, and many of the photographs featured herein show rare and unusual scenes which have never been published before.
Global best-selling World of Darkness RPG phenomena, VAMPIRE: The Masquerade and WEREWOLF: The Apocalypse are CAPTURED TOGETHER FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A COMPLETE SERIES OMNIBUS EDITION, featuring VAMPIRE: The Masquerade Winter's Teeth issues #1-#10 and the crossover Vampire: The Masquerade and World of Darkness: CRIMSON THAW event series, issues #1-#3! UNSEEN EVIL LURKS EVERYWHERE IN THE WORLD OF DARKNESS VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE The Complete Series collects all 10 issues of Vampire: The Masquerade: Winter’s Teeth and all 3 issues of the never-before-collected vampire/werewolf crossover World of Darkness: Crimson Thaw, plus more than 30 pages of original roleplaying supplements, including lore sheets for playable characters featured in the series!! Vampire: The Masquerade: Winter’s Teeth A tale of two vampires in the Twin Cities… When Cecily Bain, an enforcer for the Twin Cities’ vampiric elite, takes a mysterious new vampire, Alejandra, under her wing, she’s dragged into an insidious conspiracy. After learning a disturbing fact about her fake childe’s past, Cecily must keep her secrets close, and Ali at arm’s length. As she searches the streets of the Twin Cities for answers, a terrifying possibility surfaces: perhaps Ali has learned the ways of the Kindred better than Cecily herself. Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the cities, Colleen Pendergrass, embraced by her husband against her will, and a rebellious found-family of vampire cast-outs investigates a vicious killing. As the unlives of the Kindred twine together and betrayals are unearthed, will Cecily be able to escape and save what’s left of her family, or will she be yet another pawn sacrificed to maintain the age-old secret: that vampires exist among the living? World of Darkness: Crimson Thaw There's worse living in the shadows than vampires … something with even bigger teeth. Cecily Bain has become everything she never wanted as The Prince of the Twin Cities. But her rule over a fractured, backbiting vampire court is interrupted by an intruder: something big, hairy and full of teeth. For over a century, werewolves of the Twin Cities have protected their blessed places from threats both physical and spiritual. When vampires under Cecily’s rule move in on one of these precious sites, it’s a declaration of war, one that Tyrell ‘the Stainless’ Stinar and his ferocious pack will avenge at any cost, even if that includes slaying one of their own.The immortal enmity between the Kindred and the Garou comes to a head on the streets of the Twin Cities! For fans of VAMPIRE: The Masquerade RPG, WEREWOLF: The Apocalypse RPG, The World of Darkness, American Vampire, Killadelphia, Something is Killing the Children, Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat/The Vampire Chronicles, Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood, Certain Dark Things, Underworld, and vampire/werewolf/monster graphic novels, tabletop/RPGs, books, movies, video games, and series! “This is a fresh take on vampires, mixing it with crime, thrillers, and a pinch of romance all with a vein of horror running through it.” -- Horror DNA “… strongly recommend this book to both fans of the franchise and newcomers.” – Grimdark Magazine “Vampire: the Masquerade … is an enjoyable read even if you’re not familiar with the RPG… like the real world, but with hotter outfits, blood, and fangs. – Graphic Policy
The global bestseller Vampire: The Masquerade comes to comics in Vampire: The Masquerade Vol. 2: The Mortician's Army. As the unlives of the Kindred twine together and betrayals are unearthed, will Cecily be able to escape and save what's left of her family? Or will she be yet another pawn sacrificed to maintain the age-old secret: that vampires exist amonth the living? BORN FROM THE DARK WORLD OF THE INTERNATIONALLY BEST-SELLING ROLE PLAYING GAME, THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED COMIC SERIES CONTINUES. BORN FROM THE DARK WORLD OF THE INTERNATIONALLY BEST-SELLING ROLE PLAYING GAME, THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED COMIC SERIES CONTINUES. Lick the blood off your lips...Vampire: The Masquerade is here! After learning a disturbing fact about her fake childe’s past, Cecily must keep her secrets close and Ali at arm’s length. As she searches the streets of the Twin Cities for answers, a terrifying possibility surfaces: perhaps Ali has learned the ways of the Kindred better than Cecily herself. Vampire: The Masquerade Vol. 2: The Mortician's Army, collects issues #6 - #10 of the series. And don't miss the first volume: Vampire: The Masquerade Vol. 1: Winter's Teeth collecting issues #1 - #5 of the ongoing series. For fans of VAMPIRE: The Masquerade RPG, WEREWOLF: The Apocalypse RPG, The World of Darkness, American Vampire, Killadelphia, Something is Killing the Children, Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat/The Vampire Chronicles, Sookie Stackhouse/Southern Vampire Mysteries/True Blood, Certain Dark Things, Underworld, and vampire/werewolf/monster graphic novels, tabletop/RPGs, books, movies, video games, and series! “This is a fresh take on vampires, mixing it with crime, thrillers, and a pinch of romance all with a vein of horror running through it.” -- Horror DNA “… strongly recommend this book to both fans of the franchise and newcomers.” – Grimdark Magazine "I’m absolutely in love with what a badass Cecily is..." - The Wandering Nerd Girl “Vampire: the Masquerade … is an enjoyable read even if you’re not familiar with the RPG… like the real world, but with hotter outfits, blood, and fangs. – Graphic Policy “This is the horror thriller we all need.” – Horror DNA
This is a short, beautifully-photographed record of a remote portion of Utah's high western desert, with detailed explanations of the geological art forged over millions of years. Among the rocks and strata, the reader will discover bits of poetry, softening the hard science with spirit and emotion. The journal portion at the end of the book gives the reader a chance to write his or her own thoughts, experience ... and maybe some poetry.
Using photographs from Jim Blake's extensive archives, this book examines the turbulent period in the history of London's buses immediately after London Transport lost its Country Buses and Green Line Coaches to the recently-formed National Bus Company, under their new subsidiary company, London Country Bus Services Ltd.The new entity inherited a largely elderly fleet of buses from London Transport, notably almost 500 RT-class AEC Regent double-deckers, of which replacement was already under way in the shape of new AEC MB and SM class Swift single-deckers.London Transport itself was in the throes of replacing a much larger fleet of these. At the time of the split, it was already apparent that the 36ft-long MB class single-deckers were not suitable for London conditions, particularly in negotiating suburban streets cluttered with cars, and were also mechanically unreliable. The shorter SM class superseded them but they were equally unreliable. January 1971 saw the appearance of London Transport's first purpose-built one-man operated double-decker, the DMS class. All manner of problems plagued these, too.Both operators were also plagued with a shortage of spare parts for their vehicles, made worse by the three-day week imposed by the Heath regime in 1973-4. London Transport and London Country were still closely related, with the latter's buses continuing to be overhauled at LT's Aldenham Works. Such were the problems with the MB, SM, and DMS types that LT not only had to resurrect elderly RTs to keep services going, but even repurchased some from London Country! In turn, the latter operator hired a number of MB-types from LT, now abandoned as useless, from 1974 onwards in an effort to cover their own vehicle shortages. Things looked bleak for both operators in the mid-1970s.This book contains a variety of interesting and often unusual photographs illustrating all of this, most of which have never been published before.
LONDON’S HISTORIC, iconic Underground railway system in the period from 1968 to 1985 was a very different place to what it is in the 2020s. Much of its rolling stock dated from before World War Two, and with the exception of the new Victoria Line and the isolated Woodford to Hainault shuttle, trains were all two-person operated as the 1970s dawned. Transport photographer Jim Blake recorded most of the system on film before it would change forever, concentrating on the older rolling stock as well as other items of interest due for replacement or modernisation, during this period when, regrettably, London Transport was often starved of much-needed funds by central government. The eminently sensible transfer of overall control of London’s buses and Underground system to the city-wide Greater London Council at the beginning of 1970 was snatched away by the Thatcher regime in 1984, after which things rapidly went downhill. This book covers the years of GLC control, including the months prior to their taking charge in order to set the scene. Many rare and unusual scenes are included in this volume, especially of the then still basically intact portion of the uncompleted Northern Line extension between Drayton Park and Highgate, which had been so close to completion when work was halted during the war, but then abandoned in the early 1950s, incurring much wasted work and expenditure. For anyone with a serious interest in London’s Underground, this book is essential reading, including as it does many pervious unpublished photographs.
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