This lively and idiosyncratic history of the charabanc or pleasure-bus takes the story to the end of World War II with archive photos, timetables, magazine articles, cartoons, advertisements, anecdotes and much more. An 1890 photograph of a four-horse charabanc trip sets the scene, with well-dressed ladies and gentlemen, all in hats, crammed onto its five benches. Advertisements for the Great Western Railway show that it provided omnibuses to and from Paddington station, while postcards from the Lake District of the same period focus on the hilarious aspects of runaway horses on steep inclines. A timetable of twopenny fares from Cardiff in 1878 is evidence of a public horse-drawn service running every three and half hours. Motor buses established themselves in the early 20th century, with an archive photo of the Clarkson Steamer at Pulborough station in 1904 providing a typical early example. The Cambridge Motor Bus Company was initially unable to compete with the horsedrawn trams, but the march of progress was unstoppable and a cartoon shows the two modes of transport facing off. A charabanc outing to Margate in the 1920s features a stylish group of passengers, both men and women, adopting poses for the snap, while the Hereford Journal of a similar date covers a court case in which a charabanc forced a motor car off the road. In his defence the motorist insisted he always sounded his horn before taking corners, which hardly inspires confidence in his innocence. The South Wales double-deckers of the mid-20s are full of women in fashionable cloche hats, and meanwhile the newly formed Wallace Arnold tours were doing roaring business. Moving on to the War, a morale-boosting poster shows a lone bus struggling up a hill with its destination board inscribed "Victory via Effort". 224pp, softback, hundreds of archive photos, drawings and diagrams.

After the 'unsinkable' RMS Titanic - a White Star liner - struck an iceberg during her maiden voyage over the Atlantic on 14 April 1912, the ship sank with 1,503 people losing their lives. This companion includes fascinating archive illustrations, of which some have not previously been published, and facts about the fateful ship including why it was built and the events which led to the tragedy. Discover how, when Titanic was launched for the first time, an estimated 100,000 gathered at Belfast to see her enter the water and that there were 3,000 tons of coal in readiness for the ship's trial on Monday 1 April with bunkers which would smoulder from then until the hull was submerged in the Atlantic ocean on 13 April. Learn the particulars of the ship itself, including how there were four passenger lifts aboard the ship (some of the first afloat), stained glass in the Smoking Room was used to conceal the uptake to the fourth funnel, which was used as a vent, and the swimming pool was filled with heated salt water and First-Class passengers paid 4s for its use. The book doesn't shy away from the truth, acknowledging that, despite stories of the time, the £1.5 million Titanic travelled at a speed that was insufficient to break the North Atlantic speed record. There are also brilliant photos and images included, from images of the exterior and interior of the ship such as a shot of the framework surrounding the Titanic in the shipway as it was built, a photo of the Titanic in all its glory as the fourth (and last) funnel was erected, and a glimpse into a First Class suite decorated in the Empire style, to photographs of people on the ship, such as film star Dorothy Gibson who was a passenger, Mabel Evina Martin who was the second cashier in the elite restaurant, and the two Marconi operators 'Jack' Phillips, first wireless operator and Harold Bride, the second operator. This is a thorough companion that offers insight and detail into how the ship was built and how it came to sink. 7.3" x 4.9", black and white and colour photos and images, 128pp.

The top ten motor bestsellers of the 60s included minis and saloons, luxury cars and sports cars. The 70s saw the oiling of the wheels of change with saloon cars and larger family cars; the 80s the rise of the super car and SUVs; the 90s incorporated cameras and culture, more luxurious SUVs and MPVs and the 2000s bestselling small family cars. Congestion charging was given the green light, and we saw new electric and hybrid cars, sports cars, SUVs, MPVs and cars of today and tomorrow. On huge glossy white pages are hundreds of spectacular colour photographs, contemporary advertising, happy families and dogs piling into their shiny new set of wheels, hatchbacks and soft tops, compact executive cars like the BMW 02-Series, stats and facts and a beauty pageant of our favourites like the Jaguar E-Type, AC Cobra, Triumph TR6, Aston Martin DB4, Ferrari 250 GTO, Mini Cooper S, and Porsche 911. A truly glamorous and nostalgic gallery including some racing scenes, off road, snow, motor shows and high-tech technology with massive powered, four-wheel drive and lightweight body shell construction.

A Haynes Owners' Workshop Manual covering HAS Mk.2, Mk.3 and HMA Mk.8 models, here is an insight into the design, construction, operation and maintenance of the Royal Navy's multi-role ship-borne helicopter. The design originated in the early 1960s initially for an Army battlefield helicopter. The Westland Lynx first entered service with the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm in 1976 ahead of its Army counterpart. Seeing action in major operations such as the Falklands War of 1982 and the Gulf War of 1991, the Lynx proved itself a versatile and capable all-rounder. The final Rolls Royce gem-powered version in the maritime role, the HMA Mk.8 is the focus of this book. It has achieved significant success in counter-narcotics, counter-piracy and humanitarian assistance roles in recent years. Having assumed the lead in developing the helicopter anti-submarine and anti-surface warfare concepts during WW2, the Royal Navy blazed a trail that other navies have followed. Many countries' frigates and destroyers are now equipped with variants of the ubiquitous Westland Lynx. Fascinating on the technical detail, the anatomy, the systems and weaponry, operation, maintenance and design features, the book is packed with more than 300 colour photographs and technical drawings. 164 very large pages.

Beginner level for ages eight to adult and with real tools inside, the 120 pieces which are Mecanno-style and compatible are easy to assemble. Illustrations and assembly instructions are included, the parts are made from sturdy metal plate, shiny silver and with red, green and yellow plastic screws, a blue pilot?s seat. Develop your problem solving skills and learn basic engineering concepts. Look out for more in the series.

Captain of HMS Endurance during the Falklands conflict of 1982, Nick Barker made his first visit to the islands in December 1980. Endurance, or Red Plum as she was always called, had joined the Royal Navy in 1968 and was a listening station which assisted the work of the British Antarctic Survey. A former merchant ship, she attracted little attention in spite of carrying guns and two helicopters, but with just one propeller she was not an easy ship to control and the plan was to pay her off in 1982. The Argentinians had been laying claim to the Falklands during the 1970s and with only a frigate left to monitor the region they now saw the Endurance's decommissioning as the last remaining obstacle to recapturing the Malvinas. An appeal to the prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, for Endurance's reprieve met with a refusal, but everything changed when war broke out. Information was scarce and those on the ground were often the last to hear of Argentine manoeuvres, but at the dead of night Barker daringly captained the Plum out of South Georgia through the narrow Merton Passage to reach the Falklands in a force-10 gale, only to be ordered back to South Georgia. Barker's first-hand account of the conflict has the immediacy of someone in the thick of it subjected to contradictory orders with a strong sense that everything was going disastrously wrong. Endurance contributed to the British victory, but Barker's efforts to save the ship after the war came to nothing. 254pp, paperback, maps, photos.

From the elegant prototype Model-40 biplane of 1925 which was adapted to carry mail between Chicago and San Francisco, to the 787 "Dreamliner" with its glass-fibre structure, this neat fact file tells you everything you wanted to know about Boeing aircraft and a whole lot more besides. Making its name as a supplier of military aircraft in WWI, in 1933 the Boeing company diversified into the passenger market with the 247, which combined aerodynamic form and excellent flying performance with space for 10 passengers and their luggage, a potential distance of 1200 km and a cruising speed of 304 km per hour. This cantilevered low-wing monoplane was ordered in such large numbers that new assembly techniques had to be developed. By 1949 the 377b Stratocruiser prioritised comfort over speed in the era of expanding leisure flights, incorporating a lounge and bar on the lower deck. At the same time Boeing was in the forefront of the jet aircraft speed revolution, with Pan-American launching its London-New York passenger service in 1958 using a Boeing 707, soon to be superseded by the 727 with its three turbofans and a T-tailplane. In 1968 both Lufthansa and United put the new 737 into service. 1969 saw the first take-off of the 747 "Jumbo" Jet2, which by 1970 was in regular transatlantic service with Pan-Am. In the 21st century Boeing suffered setbacks but a comeback has been based on its global reach, employing over 150,000 workers in 67 countries. 111pp, softback, 39 featured aircraft with history, specifications and colour photos.

The British have had an affair with Bugatti sports cars for decades, and perhaps Prescott Hill-Climb in Gloucestershire is the place where that relationship has reached its highlights. Prescott is about people, home to classic Bugatti metal, and also to Edwardian and 1920s-30s mechanical magic of vintage sporting character and their clan of owners. With whirring crankshafts, popping valves, howling superchargers, wailing induction, and the magic of magnetos, in this volume we find a vintage home for classic car obsession. This collection of photographic images set in the wonderful natural amphitheatre of the Cotswolds celebrates in over 200 photographs much of the master works of Molshein captured in action and at rest. Here is a Brescia Bugatti, two 1926 Bugattis showing off the essential Ettore design language, a rare twin-cam supercharged Type 50 B ready to pounce in a striking royal blue, the Club's Chairman in his Type 37 Chassis 37282, rare archive shots for example of the Scuderia Lemon Burton and one of the Bugaires in May 1955, the rare Geodetic Type, glazed coupé hard top, and club members named and photographed beside their gleaming short and longer wheel base nimble Bugattis, from behind the wheel, under the hood and outside the clubhouse. Page after page of big glamorous colour photographs, happy smiling drivers, and great vintage. Nice book. Great cars. 192 very large pages in landscape format.
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The man who became the Chief Engineer responsible for planning and building the Great Western Railway line was Isambard Kingdom Brunel who at only 27 years was quite happy to ignore precedents and the notions of more experienced engineers. He came up with the broad gauge of seven foot to lay out his track. When criticised that travellers would not survive a journey through his proposed tunnel at Box, he ignored that and was proved right. When other engineers declared that the flat brick arches across the Thames at Maidenhead couldn't possibly stand, he built it anyway, and it still survives to this day. Yet his own notions about locomotive construction were incorrect, and fortunately he had enough sense to hire a brilliant young man called David Gooch who at once put the Great Western at the forefront of development. A few of Brunel's decisions like extending the route westward to Exeter were a failure, but such was his reputation and charisma that he was simply allowed to replace the system with a conventional railway and continue his work of extending the Great Western Railway empire which spread from London westward to the tip of Cornwall, up into South Wales and north towards the Midlands. When other railways were grouped together into four main line companies in 1923, the GWR was the only one to retain its identity. Even after nationalisation when it lost its noble title, its character lived on, particularly in its fine fleet of locomotives. It attracted engineers of great imagination such as George Jackson Churchward and Charles Benjamin Collett and was leading the way in the introduction of the electric telegraph and recorded the first locomotive travelling at over 100 miles per hour with City of Truro in 1904, even if some railway historians have questioned whether it actually happened. There is always something new for railway enthusiasts to admire on the Great Western. Colour posters, photographs of stations and tracks, archive images, extensive appendices, the book tells the story of one of Britain's most successful heritage railway projects. Formed in 1960, the Great Western Society was founded by a group of schoolboys who wanted to save a Great Western Tank locomotive and an auto trailer. Today that original project has blossomed into the best collection of Great Western rolling stock and locomotives in the world. This is the story of the Society and its members. 205 large glossy pages, colour.

With extended interviews from the BBC film, here is the tragic, dramatic and unmissable story of Formula One's killer years when the sport was out of control. In the 1960s and early 1970s mechanical failure, lethal track design, fire and incompetence led to dozens of brave young drivers losing their lives, with the grisly spectacle often televised for millions to see. With boycotts of the prestigious Belgian and German Grands Prix, drivers fought to get their voices heard, but it would be a long and painful time before conditions changed. Featuring many famous drivers including three World Champions Emerson Fittipaldi, Sir Jackie Stewart and John Surtees OBE, renowned filmmaker John L. Matthews goes to the heart of those deadly years, telling the story in the words of the men who were there. On Jochen's accident at Monza: 'Jochen said he refused to change to the Lotus 72 which was the new car and that was when he had the accident.' 'He was not, of course, but they would not let me into the ambulance and he was taken away, to work on him. There was a hospital transporter, but the law didn't allow that to be used. He had to be taken into hospital, which was ridiculous. Maybe he could have been saved.' Jochen became the first posthumous World Champion. 160pp, paperback.