Kirjahaku

In the early 1980s Potteries Motor Traction was part of the state-owned National Bus Company with all vehicles in standard NBC poppy red livery. This would change with the sale of the company to its management following a government policy to sell off the National Bus Company piecemeal before deregulation. A management buyout introduced a bright red and yellow livery, and PMT then began a policy of expansion by acquiring local independents before purchasing the Chester and Wirral operations of Crosville from Drawlane and later Pennine Blue of Denton, Greater Manchester. Following the sale of PMT to Badgerline in 1994 and the subsequent merger with GRT to form First Bus, PMT was again under the control of a big group and would go on to adopt a standard First Group livery. The area covered would start to contract as outstations were closed or transferred to neighbouring First Group operators. Today they have just a solitary garage at Adderley Green. This book aims to show the variety of vehicles and liveries from 1980 until 2020 and includes photos of the home fleet as well as the Red Rider Crosville and Pennine Blue operations while under PMT control.

In this book, Cliff Beeton looks at the plethora of independent operators that have, alongside PMT, provided bus services in and around Stoke. Operators featured here include Berresfords, Stoniers and Turners, who were later swallowed up by the ever-expanding PMT, and the likes of Procters, Pooles Coachways and Stevensons, who eventually fell by the wayside or were sold to larger groups. Local coach operators like Bakers of Biddulph, Copelands, Scraggs, Ladyline and Stanways expanded into buses after deregulation, alongside new starters like Knotty Bus, Wardle Transport, D&G Bus, RML Travel, Midland Classic, Stantons of Stoke, and Select Bus Services. These all added further variety to the local bus scene. With previously unpublished images throughout, this book celebrates the variety of buses in and around the city.

Few people would have envisaged that when the fledgling D&G Bus commenced operations in April 1998 with four vehicles that twenty-five years later it would become larger than its neighbour, First Potteries. Its journey has seen expansion through acquisitions of other local bus operators and an increase in tendered services following the collapse of other firms. Rationalisation by Arriva in Cannock, Macclesfield and Winsford provided more opportunities for further growth outside the existing area. Although becoming part of Centrebus in 2019, D&G Bus continues to be run as a separate entity with its two-tone red livery only recently being replaced with a red, blue and yellow scheme applied in the Centrebus style. Over the years the fleet has been diversified, initially with van-derived minibuses followed by Dennis Darts with various bodywork and Optare and Alexander Dennis vehicles, many purchased new. In this book Cliff Beeton’s fine selection of photographs illustrates the rich and varied story of D&G Bus over the last twenty-five years.

The railways around Stoke-on-Trent have always tended to be overlooked by enthusiasts as they turned their attention to the more glamorous and much busier activities around neighbouring Crewe, but interesting traffic can still be found in the area. Freight has always played its part with the local collieries supplying coal to the power stations and the Shelton Iron & Steel works receiving and dispatching finished products. The local pottery industry also received china clay by rail. Passenger trains were found in the form of local trains to Derby and Crewe and expresses to London, Manchester and the Midlands and the West Country, supplemented at holiday times by specials to Blackpool and North Wales. In the last few decades freight traffic has declined, but with the new Land Recovery site at Pinnox Sidings and the Electromotive locomotive repair works at the former Railfreight depot at Longport the variety has recently increased again. Privatisation has brought a multitude of different liveries to the local rail scene too. This book takes a look at the changes in the area over the last forty years.

With rare and previously unpublished images, explore a nostalgic look back at this popular stoke bus operator.

In the early 1980s Crosville was one of the largest subsidiaries of the National Bus Company, but this was to change from 1986 as the government of the day declared that Crosville would be split into separate English and Welsh subsidiaries as a prelude to privatisation and deregulation. Then in 1988 Crosville was sold to ATL Holdings, which proceeded to sell off all the newest coaches and some prime properties. Later the company sold Crosville to Drawlane, which divided the bulk of it up amongst fellow Drawlane subsidiaries before selling the remainder on to PMT. In this book Cliff Beeton examines the fortunes of the South Cheshire depots at Crewe, Etruria, Congleton, Macclesfield and Northwich. He goes on to document how they fared under separate Drawlane companies before being put back together again as Arriva, which would ultimately pull the plug and abandon the whole area in April 2023.