Products Video Review

Tiff Needell My Story

Customer Reviews
  •  Thank you for sending my book so speedily it arrived this morning in perfect condition. Excellent service!!! Kind Regards, 

    Mr Gilbert

Bus Company Service Vehicles

9781398104747Click to enlarge product image
Bus Company Service Vehicles

Bus Company Service Vehicles

Author: Malcolm Batten

  • 9781398104747
  • In Stock
  • Current
  • 2021
  • Awaiting Review

Our Price: £15.99

Add to Shopping Bag


In the days before privatisation, many bus companies adapted old buses for a variety of specialist uses as service vehicles. Using the skills and ingenuity of their workshops, buses might become, among other things, stores vans, tree loppers or uniform stores. Trolleybuses may have been converted to tower wagons to maintain the overhead wires. Some bus operators converted old buses to towing lorries to rescue broken down vehicles. Others preferred ex-military trucks such as the AEC Matador. These came with somewhat austere cabs, but here again the body shop would often come up with a custom-built body using various bus parts. Buses would also be adapted to serve as information offices or publicity buses, promoting such things as holiday tours or special ticket offers. Since privatisation, such practices have died out for a variety of reasons. Expensive, in-house workshops have largely been closed. Construction and Use Regulations have been tightened up. Emissions zone restrictions may limit the use of older less clean engines in city centres. Furthermore the modern low-floor rear-engine buses are probably less suited to such conversions. Companies will use the services of specialist commercial bus and truck rescue services rather than retaining their own towing vehicles. This book looks at a variety of service vehicles from around the country over the last fifty years, including examples that have survived into preservation.

Publisher: Amberley Publishing

Status: Current

Number of pages: 96

Binding: SBD

  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • Send to Friend

Latest TweetsFollow us on Twitter

Call us on: 01256 765 443

Monday to Friday 9am - 5:30pm Excluding Bank Holidays