Böcker av Malcolm Batten

On 11 August 1968 BR bade farewell to standard gauge steam with the famous Fifteen Guinea Special. A steam ban was placed barring all steam trains from running over BR metals. The main line steam ban was soon to come to an end. In October 1971 King class 6000 King George V passed through Kensington Olympia with the Bulmers Cider Pullman coaches as part of an eight-day trial tour. A list of approved routes for steam-hauled excursion trains was drawn up. This was to comprise less busy provincial lines, where any such operations were less likely to disrupt normal traffic. Gradually, the routes available to working steam were extended. On 1 March 1979 King George V hauled a special train from London Paddington to Didcot, but the main breakthrough year was 1985. This was when regular steam excursions began running from Marylebone to Stratford on Avon. There are now steam excursions from London almost every week of the year, and this wonderful collection of images documents the story since that fateful day in August 1968.

The larger bus operators, whether municipal or company owned, have traditionally trained their own new drivers. Normally older vehicles from the fleet were retained and adapted for training, adorned with 'L' plates. In earlier days they would usually just retain fleet livery. Sometimes they might receive a separate livery, to warn other road users. When the National Bus Company introduced corporate liveries of red or green for its fleets, many of their constituent companies used yellow for their training and service vehicles. Then, as recruitment became more difficult from around the 1980s, colourful liveries with invitational recruitment slogans tended to appear and this has continued since. Rather surprisingly, companies often bought in buses for training from other companies rather than converting their own, and these might be types not otherwise represented in their fleet. This book looks at a variety of training vehicles from around the country over the last fifty years, including examples that have survived into preservation.

Rare and previously unpublished images of the Wessex bus scene. This, the second in a pair of books, covers the local authority fleets, independent companies, and the Isle of Wight.

Previously unpublished photos showing the variety of shipping seen along the River Thames since the turn of the century.

With rare and previously unpublished images of the mainland national bus company fleets around Wessex.

This book takes the freight routes around London geographically. A fascinating selection of images documenting freight in the years after BR Blue.

Britain's railways in the early 1970s looked to be in terminal decline. The Beeching cuts of the 1960s had slashed much of the network, but still lines were closing and underinvestment left much of the rest in a sorry state. Since then, there has been privatisation and transformation (although whether these are cause and effect are debatable) to a situation now where passenger travel is booming. Nowhere has change been more pronounced than in East London. The redevelopment of the former docks into Docklands led to the construction of the Docklands Light Railway in the late 1980s, and the rejuvenation of other lines. The Millennium Dome celebrations and the award of the Olympic Games to Stratford each justified investment in new lines and facilities. But most of all, London's growing population has required transport, and particularly rail investment, to keep the city moving. Crossrail is the largest single investment, linking east and south-east London through the City and West End to Heathrow and Reading in the west. This book charts the changes to East London's railways from the 1970s to the forthcoming opening of Crossrail.

Malcolm Batten explores the variety of variant liveries carried by the buses of London Transport and its successors since 1969.

With previously unpublished photographs, this book documents the variety offered by the local railway scene.

This book examines the various operators that have catered for tourists in the heart of our capital since 1970 and the vehicles that they have used.