Other Transport

Routemaster Bus - Green Line Livery. The AEC Routemaster is a front-engined double-decker bus that was designed by London Transport and built by the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) and Park Royal Vehicles. The first prototype was completed in September 1954 and the last one was delivered in 1968. The layout of the vehicle was conventional for the time, with a half-cab, front-mounted engine and open rear platform, although the coach version was fitted with rear platform doors. Forward entrance vehicles with platform doors were also produced as was a unique front-entrance prototype with the engine mounted transversely at the rear. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Routemaster

1937 London Trolley Bus - London's first 60 trolleybuses were introduced by London United Tramways (LUT), operating from Fulwell bus garage in South-West London. They were nicknamed "Diddlers" and commenced running on 16 May 1931. In 1948, a new batch of 77 trolleybuses replaced the Diddlers, and those which had been destroyed by enemy action. A further 50 new trolleybuses were delivered in 1952 to replace the oldest vehicles, which were then 16 years old. In 1954, it was announced that all trolleybuses were to be replaced by diesel buses, the Routemasters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trolleybuses_in_London.

In the late 1920s, railway companies were looking for a suitable vehicle to use on their town parcels delivery traffic, which was predominately horse-drawn. The London Midland & Scottish Railway experimented with various ideas and in late 1930 announced, jointly with Karrier Motors, a tractor unit for this purpose. The vehicle, the Karrier Cob, was powered by a twin-cylinder Jowett engine and utilised a mechanism to couple existing horse trailers to the tractor units. Meanwhile the London & North Eastern Railway had approached Napier, the quality car and aero-engine makers, for an answer to the same problem. They came up with some ideas, but did not wish to develop the concept and sold the project to Scammell Lorries of Watford. Their designer, O. D. North, refined and further developed the concept of the three-wheel tractor unit which automatically coupled and un-coupled trailers and in 1934 announced the introduction of the Mechanical Horse. The Scammell Mechanical Horse, with its very 'square' wooden cab and steel chassis, remained largely unchanged until the late 1940s when the tractor section was redesigned, creating the Scammell Scarab, which featured the same successful automatic coupling from the original but now used the Scammell 2,090 cc side-valve engine in both the three- and six-ton versions. A diesel version was also introduced with a Perkins engine. The Scarab's cab was more rounded and made from steel including roof and windscreen panels pressed from steel tools obtained from Bedford that made up the roof of the 'O' type lorry.[2] With the engine being mounted lower and more centrally than in the Mechanical Horse, the Scarab was much more stable. The railways for which this style of vehicle was originally designed continued to be a primary customer, although there were many other users, the manoeuvrability proving popular for companies operating in city environments.