West and East Yorkshire Buses and Trolleybuses in 1962

Featuring previously unpublished images, Philip Wallis looks back sixty years at the fascinating bus scene of Yorkshire of 1962.

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Philip Wallis visited West and East Yorkshire with his camera in 1962. What he didn’t know at the time was that he would capture on film a sector of the bus industry that was about to be lost forever. The area’s two largest independents, Samuel Ledgard and West Riding, would be sold to the nationalised Transport Holding Company within five years. British Electric Traction group companies would be merged with the Transport Holding Company to form the National Bus Company in 1969. Under government directive to create larger operating units, most of the area’s municipal operators were destined to be absorbed into massive Passenger Transport Executives in 1974. Rigid standardisation would then become the order of the day.

This book illustrates and describes the fascinating range of municipal, company and independent operators that could be seen in West and East Yorkshire sixty years ago. Vehicle variety of the time is highlighted by twenty different makes of bus, trolleybus and coach displayed among the 180 images.