Birmingham Buses Part 1

The blue and cream livery of the Birmingham Corporation bus fleet was for decades to the streets of Birmingham, what the red buses were and still are to London. Unlike London the blue and cream has given way to new and varied liveries following the 'deregulation' of the bus industry. Indeed the buses are no longer run by the Corporation and so this two volume set provides a nostalgic look at the fleet and the streets through which they ran.This first volume covers the early years, when open staircase vehicles were common and horse drawn vehicles were very much still in evidence on the streets of Birmingham. Gas lighting, horse troughs, hats and early uncontrolled advertising were the order of the day. Surprisingly traffic jams were in evidence even in the pre first world war days. The two world wars obviously had a serious effect on the period covered by this volume and this is evident in many of the nostalgic pictures to be found within these pages. The tram system of Birmingham, once the largest in the worl