Title: Fleet Histories Lanarkshire Part 1: A to Li, Part 2: Lo to Y Author: Richard Gadsby Publisher: Bus & Coach Research Group
Specification: 210mm x 150mm, 260pp each, softback Price: £36 (£18 each)
This pair of fleet histories, in the style of those of the PSV Circle, represents over 40 years of research into all known bus service operators — other than Alexander, Central SMT, Western SMT, Scottish Motor Traction and Glasgow Corporation — that traded in Lanarkshire and the city of Glasgow before 1940.
Some are businesses that prospered well into the postwar years, like Baxter’s of Airdrie, Hutchison’s of Overtown, Laurie of Hamilton, Lowland Motorways and Cotter’s Tours of Glasgow, Stokes of Carstairs, Wilson’s of Carnwath and the Irvine’s businesses based in Salsburgh and Law, while others disappeared long ago. Those early departees include the Stewart & McDonald and JW&R Torrance businesses absorbed into the newly formed Central SMT and many of the small traders that were part of the A1 Lanarkshire Bus Owners Association, a cooperative that lasted only from 1925 to 1931 but inspired others to create the better-remembered A1 Service in Ayrshire which survived until 1995. Both cho…
