National Bus Company Service Vehicles 1972-1986: Another Look is the follow-up to Michael Hitchen’s popular first volume, looking at service vehicles in the golden age of the National Bus Company.
The National Bus Company was the largest bus company in the world and like any large transportation organisation, it required auxiliary vehicles to support its main business conveying the public from one place to another.
Formed of around thirty-six local constituent companies, along with the ‘NATIONAL’ Central Activities Group which operated long distance and tour coaches, each company had its own service vehicle fleet to support its operations, varying from Heavy Vehicle Recovery to Driver Training and every other facet to keep the fleet operational. The former PSV conversions, Driver trainers, Tree loppers or Towing buses, which were all based on a bus, attracted the attention of photographers and enthusiasts and as a result were well photographed and documented. In an era when film was precious, the commercial vehicles owned by the NBC however, were often ignored, making photographs very rare.
In this second volume the author, Michael Hitchen presents photographs covering more examples of service vehicles used by the National Bus Company between 1972 and its demise in 1986. The majority of the photographs are shown in two-per-page format and each one is accompanied by an explanatory caption.
166 colour and 9 black & white photographs. 96 pages.