Motor bus

A horse bus overtakes the first motorbus service opened in the West End. This early Daimler only ran for just over a year, taken in Charing Cross, 1900.

A reliable motorbus that could cope with London's traffic conditions did not exist in 1900. Horses still worked better than any of the early motor vehicles. Buses with petrol engines, paraffin-fired steam power and even hybrid petrol-electrics all appeared on the streets, but most of them did not last long.

Horse buses at the main terminus for routes down Edgware Road, 1905. The centre of interest on the right is a new motorbus

A Straker-Squire motorbus on the Great Eastern service of the London Motor Omnibus Company in Upton Park, circa 1907.

Thomas Tilling ran a large fleet of petrol-electric buses in London. This was the most successful early alternative to a standard petrol engine, in Croydon Garage, circa 1916.

The X-type bus, forerunner of the B-type, developed by Frank Searle for the LGOC, 1909.

The London General Omnibus Company (LGOC), still the main bus operator, merged in 1907 with two rival companies that were developing new motorbus designs. Frank Searle, the LGOC's Chief Engineer, came up with a winner in 1910 by incorporating all the best features from the various experimental types in service. This was the famous B-type bus.

New B-type buses ready for service on route 1, in Cricklewood Garage, 1911.

B-type buses outside Mortlake Garage, formerly a horse bus depot, circa 1912. The driver is wearing his white summer dustcoat.

Three B-type buses outside the Swan & Edgar department store at Piccadilly Circus, circa 1914. What do all the numbers mean? This is B-type bus number B1642 (bonnet number) in the LGOC fleet, registration number LF-8422 (front right). X7 on the side means it is based at the LGOC's Middle Row garage, North Kensington (X) and today has garage running number 7. It is on route 32 from Ladbroke Grove to Charing Cross. This service number (32) is the only one that passengers needed to know.

B-type chassis and engine units were built at the rate of 20 per week, Walthamstow, circa 1912.

The B-type was the bus equivalent of Henry Ford's Model T automobile. It was a simple, reliable design suitable for mass production. Chassis and engine units were assembled at a works in Walthamstow which became known as AEC, the Associated Equipment Company. The 34-seat wooden bodies were fitted at the LGOC's Islington coachworks, hand-built in the same way as horse buses. In just over 18 months, the LGOC was able to replace its entire fleet with motors.

The bodybuilders: some of the skilled craftsmen who constructed and repaired the wooden bodywork of the B-type buses, LGOC coach factory, North Road, Islington, 1919.

Women overhaul a B-type bus chassis at an LGOC engineering shop during the First World War, circa 1917.

Preparing a B-type bus for service at Willesden Garage: an all-female wartime cleaning team gets to work, circa 1917.