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Devised and designed by
NICHOLAS MADDREN
HAMLYN LONDON
PAUL
•
;;
CONTENTS
7 AUTHOR'S PREFACE 72 THE ROARING 'TWENTIES: Conservatism
in London; the independents; L.C.C. cheap fares;
9 QUICKER THAN WALKING: Early carriers; the Feltham trams; competition in the provinces;
stage, hackney and mail-coaches; omnibuses in growth of big groups; the 'sharra'; first trolley-
France; Shillibeer in London; early tramways buses; tramway replacements; the S.T.C.R.P.
and railways; steam road coaches; the New York the B.V.G.; American rural buses; transconti-
and Harlaem railroad; the London associations. nental lines.
20 THE HORSE SUPREME: The Exhibition of 88 THE TROUBLED 'THIRTIES: Decline of the
851; la Compagnie Generale des Omnibus; the interurbans; the P.C.C. car; development of
1
London General; le Chemin de Fer Americain; diesel engines; legislative control in Britain; the
railway omnibuses in Liverpool; George Francis 'low-bridge' bus; tram modernization schemes;
Train's English tramways; the Landport and the London Passenger Transport Board; trolley-
Southsea tramway; tramsand busesincontinental buses in London; end of Paris trams.
Europe; first trams in London; competition
among bus owners. 100 WAR—AND NO PEACE: The Blitz; fuel
shortage; 'utility' models; the last London tram;
36 MECHANICAL MARVELS: Steam trams; recession in traffic; Paris dependent on Metro;
municipal operation; European light railways; vehicle looting; new trams in Europe; end of
compressed-air cars; cable traction; internal American interurbans; decline ofstreet railways;
combustion; electricity; Boston streetcar tunnels; Toronto subway; trams for buses in Melbourne.
overhead collection; the stud system; conduit
tramways; steam, electric and petrol buses. 116 FIGHTING FOR LIFE: Inroads of the private
car; baneful effect of politics; problems in Glas-
52 END OF AN ERA: The electric traction mania; gow; British trams and trolleybuses on the wane;
American interurbans; municipal arguments in motorbus dimensions increased; buses without
Britain; planning in Vienna; haphazard devel- conductors;single-ordouble-deck?; tramtunnels
opment in Paris; tramway consolidation in articulation; North American systems hard hit.
London; Thomas Tilling's motorbuses; General
motorization; the 'Combine'; country buses; 134 THE FUTURE AND THE PAST: Subsidies;
articulated cars in U.S.; the 1914-18 war; 'jit- self-guided bus-trains; monorails; hovercraft;
neys' in Los Angeles. tram and trolley museums.
Published by PAUL HAMLYN LTD
Drury House Russell Street London WC2
c Copyright 1967 Paul Hamlyn Ltd
Printed in Italy by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore - Verona
Frontispiece: Nottingham tramcar No. 146, by Brush, 1914
;;;
AUTHOR'S PREFACE
In this book I have tried within limits to describe
the history and development over the last century
and a half of public road transport, in all its many
forms.
The task of selecting material and compressing it
into a book of this scope was formidable and some
readers may feel that I have given insufficient attention
to the aspect of transport in which they are especially
interested. This is perhaps inevitable, but from my
efforts I hope that the specialists will find a useful
source for reference to dates and major events, and
that younger readers will be encouraged to go on for
themselves and find out more about transport and
its history.
I could not have written this book without the
previous work of Charles E. Lee who, besides allow-
ing me to draw on his great knowledge ofthe subject,
has been good enough to read through my manuscript
Charles F. Klapper ('The Golden Age ofTramways')
T. C. Barker and R. M. Robbins ('A History of Lon-
don Transport') E. L. Cornwell ('Commercial Road
;
Vehicles') Robert ('Les Tramways Parisiens') F.
; J. ;
Rowsome and S. D. Maguire ('Trolley Car Treasury')
L. A. G. Strong ('The Rolling Road') the late F. M.
;
Atkins; G. E. Baddeley; M. Gibson; G. Gillham;
J.
W. Gratwicke; S. E. Harrison; A. G.Jenson;J.Joyce;
the late O. J. Morris; J. F. Parke; G. J. Robbins; A.
A. Townsin; J. S. Webb; W. J. Wyse and a great
number of other members of the Omnibus Society,
the Light Railway Transport League, the Tramway
and Light Railway Society, the Tramway Museum
Society and the Transport Ticket Society.
CHAS. DUNBAR
S.
QUICKER THAN WALKING
For the greater part of the period Man has been on the great majority of people to the place of their
earth, the majority of human beings have had no birth. The virtual collapse of feudalism after the
reason or desire to go further than their two legs Black Death and the growing importance ofthe towns
could carry them. Even in the highly complex in- from the fifteenth century onwards gradually led to an
dustrial civilizations of the West there are still thous- increase in land communications.
ands who have never gone more than a few miles By the reign ofJames I there were a great number
from the place of their birth. of regular carrier services connecting all the principal
Mass movements of whole tribes began, perhaps centres of England and Wales with London. The
five or six thousand years ago, because of the need to wagons used on these services carried passengers but
seek new sources of food supply but, in general, the the state of the roads made this form of travel an
individual did not stray from his fellows. As time extremely slow business. Wealthy people usually
went on, daring men began to explore other countries travelled on horseback, as did the post boys. The
than their own but their movements were largely by Royal Mail can trace its origins back to the fifteenth
water. It was only as settled agricultural systems century but it was not until 1784 that it began to be
developed, that any thought of regular trade entered conveyed by wheeled vehicles.
men's heads. Before this happened, the growth of London and
Trade brought into existence a system of tracks of other large cities abroad prompted the building
and one such, it seems, was established in Britain of coaches for the well-to-do. These were copied and
before the Romans came. Many ofthese ancient ways adapted for public transport on definite routes and
formed the basis of the military roads which the so became stage-coaches. About the same time, from
invaders built to consolidate their position, but when
they left, their roads gradually fell into decay. In colour, top: A two-ton Gurney steam carriage on the Bath-
The disrepair of the highways did not prohibit London road, 1829. Bottom: A country horse-bus preserved
movement but it limited the use of wheeled vehicles, iAnbothvee:ClTahpehafimrstTrmaanislp-ocrotacMhuesnetuermedinsLerovnidcoenon the Bristol-
while the social effect ofthe feudal system was to rivet London route on August 2, 1784
Left: The Malton and Hull 'fly-boat' of 1827, otherwise known
as the Velocitas
Centre: Coach travel in the south and west of Ireland, 1830s
Below: 'Behind Time' by Gilbert Wright, showing the High-
flyer and Comet passing on the Leeds-York road
1633 onward, hackney-coaches appeared in London.
These were vehicles which could be found waiting
—
for individual hire at a particular stand the start,
in fact, of the present-day taxi rank.
The philosopher Blaise Pascal started a service of
carosses a cinq sols in Paris in 1662, but this facility
ofvehicles running on five regular routes and available
to anyone did not last long. The government unwisely
forbade the use of these coaches by the gens du peuple
and so killed potential custom. By 1675 the service
had ceased.
August 2nd, 1 784 is an important date in transport
history for on that day John Palmer, a Bath theatre
proprietor, having secured a contract with the Post
Office, started a regular service of mail-coaches be-
tween Bristol and London, which, in addition to the
mails, carried passengers also. The feature of these
mail-coaches which distinguished them from the
stage-coaches was the armed guard, who was in
government employ. They did not have to pay turn-
pike tolls and the arrangements for frequent changes
of horses which were an essential part of the system
enabled a high average speed to be maintained,
particularly after the great road improvements en-
gineered by Metcalfe, Loudon, Telford and Macadam.
10
