Flying Boats & Buses
From flying boats to 1950s buses. How post-war shortages forced a maritime aircraft builder to engineer the world’s lightest aluminum bus bodies.
Oddities
The Coach That Got Bigger
A fascinating case of transformation. Built as a single-decker luxury coach in 1950, it was converted in 1958 into a double-decker bus.
Double-Decker Diner
Fancy tea and scones on board a Routemaster while sightseeing in Glasgow or Edinburgh? It’s good to see these fine old buses having a new lease of life.
The Electric Routemaster
The famous Routemasters are becoming scarce and the skills to service these fine buses is gradually being lost. Is the Electric Routemaster the answer?
The Car Built By Ladies
Dorothée Pullinger and the Galloway Car marks the centenary of the Women’s Engineering Society (WES), which Pullinger co-founded. (23 June 1919/2019)
The Wooden Car
Now here is an oddity - a wooden car. With parts taken from an Austin Maxi, an Austin Allegro and other bits. This eccentric vehicle has six wheels.
No Engine
It is late September in 1959 and a small boy age seven is staring in disbelief at the front of a large red double-decker bus.‘Where’s the engine?’
Bus Stop
Standing at a bus stop in the UK can be a chilly and wet experience, especially in Scotland. It certainly helps if bus shelter is provided.
George Bennie Railplane
The Railplane was an experimental, propeller-driven suspended monorail invented by George Bennie from Glasgow, with a claimed speed of 120mph.
Gunfight On The Auchenshuggle Express
A little boy had just been given a new toy gun. Chaos erupts on the Number 9 tramcar to Auchenshuggle as he and his mother head home.