In London's Titans David Beddall documents the Titan’s service in London, both in normal passenger service and as a tour bus, through a diverse selection of high-quality images.
The Titan was an integral double-decker bus built by Leyland Motors, becoming the standard double-decker produced by the company in the 1980s. Leyland built one of the prototype Titans to London specification and it was used on trials from Chalk Farm garage in May 1976. The first six entered service with London Transport from Hornchurch garage in December 1978. The first 250 were built at the former AEC facility in Southall. Production then moved north to Leyland’s own factory in Workington.
A total of 1,125 Titans were built new for London, with the last members of the fleet being delivered to London Transport in 1984. These were joined by five additional Titans from West Midlands PTE in 1984, as well as a former demonstrator, bringing the total to 1,131. At the time of privatisation, Titans passed to six of the new London operators. A number of Titans went to London Pride and the Big Bus Company for further use as tour buses. The photographs are presented in two-per-page format and are accompanied by explanatory captions.
152 colour and 34 black & white photographs. 96 pages.