Thames Valley Traction
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Thames Valley Traction
Thames Valley Traction Company Limited was a major bus company operating services to and from Reading, Bracknell, Maidenhead, Newbury, High Wycombe and Oxford and surrounding areas for 52 years in the 20th century. For many years it ran the "Reading A" and "Reading B" limited-stop services between London's Victoria Coach Station and Reading via two differing sets of intermediate stops. British Automotive Traction In 1905 British Electric Traction (BET) founded a subsidiary, British Automotive Developments (BAD), to develop and operate motor buses. In 1912 BAD was renamed British Automobile Traction (BAT). In March 1915 BAT established a Reading Branch to operate buses in the area. By January 1920 it had been renamed the Thames Valley Branch, and in July 1920 it was constituted as a subsidiary company, Thames Valley Traction, with BAT holding 86% of the shares. The remaining 14% was initially held by Britain's other large bus operating group, Thomas Tilling, as in the 1920s there ...
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Bristol Commercial Vehicles
Bristol Commercial Vehicles was a vehicle manufacturer located in Bristol, England. Most production was of buses but trucks and railbus chassis were also built. The Bristol Tramways and Carriage Company started to build buses for its own use in 1908 and soon started building vehicles for other companies. In 1955 this part of the business was separated out as Bristol Commercial Vehicles Limited. It closed in 1983 when production was moved to its then parent company Leyland. History The first trams of the Bristol Tramways Company ran in 1875, and in 1906 the company started to operate motor buses to bring extra passengers to their trams. In 1908 the company decided to build bus chassis for its own use, the first one entering service on 12 May. The Motor Department was initially based at the tram depot in Brislington, on the road that leads east from Bristol to Bath. The Car Building Works there had been responsible for erecting electric trams and had gone on to build horse-draw ...
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Red & White Services
Red & White Services was a bus company operating in south east Wales and Gloucestershire, England between 1929 and 1978. Red & White evolved into Red & White United Transport Ltd, formed in 1937, which owned bus and road freight companies in the United Kingdom and Southern Africa. When the group's UK bus interests were sold to the British Transport Commission in 1950, the group changed its name to United Transport Company. Early history In 1921, John Watts of Lydney, Gloucestershire, started two bus companies. One, Gloucestershire Transport, ran local bus services around Lydney. The other, The Valleys Motor Bus Services, ran buses around Tredegar in South Wales. Both companies expanded rapidly by acquiring nearby operators. In 1926, the Lydney business adopted the name Gloster (Red & White) Services. By 1928, the companies were operating buses between Gloucester, Hereford and South Wales. In 1929, John Watts formed Red & White Services Ltd to bring together the various bus c ...
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Birch Brothers
Birch Brothers was a bus and coach operator in south east England. History William Birch started running horse-drawn cabs in London in 1837. After his death in 1846 his widow, Elizabeth, took over the business and in 1847 extended it to include the running of omnibuses, operating a service between Pimlico and Mansion House. The company was divided between her two sons on her death in 1874. Four years later the two sons parted company and ran separate businesses, John Manley operating buses and mail vans (having obtained a substantial contract with the Post Office), and William Samuel operating buses and cabs. In 1885 William Samuel's son, William Henry, joined his father, but thirteen years later started his own omnibus business. In 1887, John Manley inaugurated the London–Brighton horse drawn night parcel mail and in 1891 the London–Oxford mail which was operated until 1908. In 1889 the two brothers again joined forces and formed the private company of Birch Bros., Limi ...
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Armistice Of 11 November 1918
The Armistice of 11 November 1918 was the armistice signed at Le Francport near Compiègne that ended fighting on land, sea, and air in World War I between the Entente and their last remaining opponent, Germany. Previous armistices had been agreed with Bulgaria, the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary. It was concluded after the German government sent a message to American president Woodrow Wilson to negotiate terms on the basis of a recent speech of his and the earlier declared "Fourteen Points", which later became the basis of the German surrender at the Paris Peace Conference, which took place the following year. Also known as the Armistice of Compiègne (french: Armistice de Compiègne, german: Waffenstillstand von Compiègne) from the place where it was officially signed at 5:45 a.m. by the Allied Supreme Commander, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch, it came into force at 11:00 a.m. Central European Time (CET) on 11 November 1918 and marked a vi ...
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Belsize Motors
Established in 1901, Belsize Motors was based in Clayton, Manchester, England. The company was founded by Marshall & Company and took its name from their Belsize works, where they had built bicycles. Marshall & Company Marshall & Company of Clayton Lane, probably Manchester's first automobile manufacturer, built its first car in 1897. The cars were very similar to the French Hurtu, itself a Benz replica, and were sold badged as Marshalls. Agencies were established in London and Dublin and the car gained a Gold Medal for efficiency at the 1899 London exhibition. A new more modern four-seat model appeared in 1901 with twin-cylinder engine made by Buchet and was the first to carry the Belsize name as the "Marshall Belsize". In 1903 the company name was changed to Belsize Motors and Engineering. In 1906 this changed again to Belsize Motors Ltd. Before the First World War they were a major player in the United Kingdom's motor industry, employing 1200 people and making up to 50 ...
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Brush Traction
Brush Traction is a manufacturer and maintainer of railway locomotives in Loughborough, England. It is a subsidiary of Wabtec. History Hughes's Locomotive & Tramway Engine Works Henry Hughes had been operating at the Falcon Works since the 1850s, producing items such as brass and iron cast parts for portable engines and thrashing machines. In 1860 Henry Hughes announced he had entered into a partnership with William March who had extensive experience in the timber trade, and this would be added to the existing business of "engineers and manufacturers of railway plant", with the business to be called Hughes and March. In March 1863, Hughes announced it was making a steam locomotive designed for contractors and mineral railways. This was an 0-4-0 saddle tank with a 200 psi boiler pressure and cylinders of 10 inch bore and 15 inch stroke. In 1866, Hughes announced a sale of timber and associated equipment from the "Falcon Railway Plant Works" as he had decided to close down ...
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Barnsley And District Tramway
The Barnsley and District Electric Traction Co was an electric tramway network serving the town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire. The tramway was a subsidiary of the British Electric Traction and services begun on 31 October 1902. In early 1898, three companies had applied for local tramway systems, the Barnsley Corporation applied in 1900 for a larger network than it finally built. In 1913, the company began to run motor buses to Hoyland and other points, Electric was dropped form the company name in 1919. the Barnsley company changed its name to Yorkshire Traction Co. in 1928 and abandoned tramway operation in 1930. Ignoring Oxford and Bristol, YTC is the largest bus operator to have originated from a tramway company in England. The network The Barnsley electric tramway was a standard gauge line, running from Smithies (near Monk Bretton Colliery) to the south of Barnsley, 2 miles south of the town centre to two termini, at Worsbrough Bridge and Worsbough Dale with a junction ...
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Leyland Motors
Leyland Motors Limited (later known as the Leyland Motor Corporation) was a British vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. The company diversified into car manufacturing with its acquisitions of Triumph and Rover in 1960 and 1967, respectively. It gave its name to the British Leyland Motor Corporation, formed when it merged with British Motor Holdings in 1968, to become British Leyland after being nationalised. British Leyland later changed its name to simply BL, then in 1986 to Rover Group. After the various vehicle manufacturing businesses of BL and its successors went defunct or were divested, the following marques survived: Jaguar and Land Rover, now built by Jaguar Land Rover owned by TATA Motors; MG, now built by MG Motor, and Mini, now built by BMW. The truck building operation survived largely intact as Leyland Trucks, a subsidiary of Paccar. History Beginning Leyland Motors has a long history dating from 1896, when the Sumner and Spurrier fa ...
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War Department (United Kingdom)
The War Department was the United Kingdom government department responsible for the supply of equipment to the armed forces of the United Kingdom and the pursuance of military activity. In 1857, it became the War Office. Within the War Office, the name 'War Department' remained in use to describe the military transport services of the War Department Fleet and the War Department Railways. History In 1794, the position of Secretary of State for War was created. The Secretary's department was at first unofficially known as the War Department. Colonial affairs were later added and it became the Colony Department. After the outbreak of war with revolutionary France it became Colony and War Department and on the restoration of peace in 1815 the Colonial Department. In February 1855, the offices of the Secretary of State for War, and Secretary at War were merged and the new department and became the War Department once again until 1857 when it became the War Office. In 1964, the depar ...
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World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fighting occurring throughout Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, and parts of Asia. An estimated 9 million soldiers were killed in combat, plus another 23 million wounded, while 5 million civilians died as a result of military action, hunger, and disease. Millions more died in genocides within the Ottoman Empire and in the 1918 influenza pandemic, which was exacerbated by the movement of combatants during the war. Prior to 1914, the European great powers were divided between the Triple Entente (comprising France, Russia, and Britain) and the Triple Alliance (containing Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy). Tensions in the Balkans came to a head on 28 June 1914, following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdin ...
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Thornycroft
Thornycroft was an English vehicle manufacturer which built coaches, buses, and trucks from 1896 until 1977. History In 1896, naval engineer John Isaac Thornycroft formed the Thornycroft Steam Carriage and Van Company which built its first steam van. This was exhibited at the Crystal Palace Show, and could carry a load of 1 ton. It was fitted with a Thornycroft marine launch-type boiler (Thornycroft announced a new boiler designed for its steam carriages in October 1897). The engine was a twin-cylinder compound engine arranged so that high-pressure steam could be admitted to the low-pressure cylinder to give extra power for hill-climbing. A modified version of the steam wagon with a 6-cubic-yard tipper body was developed for Chiswick council in 1896 and went into service as a very early self-propelled dust-cart. While the original 1896 wagon had front-wheel drive with rear-wheel steering, the tipper dust-cart had rear-wheel drive and front-wheel steering. The Thornycrof ...
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National Bus Company UK
The National Bus Company (NBC) was a nationalised bus company that operated in England and Wales between 1969 and 1988. NBC did not run buses itself, but was the owner of a number of regional subsidiary bus operating companies. History Background Following the Labour Party victory at the 1966 General Election, Barbara Castle was appointed Minister for Transport. Castle immediately ordered a review of public transport, with a view to formulating a new transport policy. Among the issues to be tackled were the ownership and operation of bus services, which were rapidly losing patronage and profitability due to increased prevalence of private motor cars. The state owned a considerable proportion of scheduled bus operators outside the major cities, having obtained the Tilling Group companies in 1948 as a byproduct of nationalising the railways. The Tilling Group was subsequently placed under the ownership of the nationalised Transport Holding Company (THC). London Transport wa ...
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