Coaching in the Fifites

The 1950s were the best years for the coaching business in Britian. During the austeritry years new cars were hard to come by but with full employment there was more disposable income available to spend on holidays so the coach tour business blossemed. Some operators, notably Southdown (which by the end of the 1950s was the UK's biggest coach operator with a fleet of over 400 coaches) even started offering tours in Europe. The pictures here were taken by Ron Craigen while shooting travelogues for British Transport Films.

>Northern Duple bodied Guy Arab III outside the Kirkstone Pass Inn
(July 1957)


A tight squeeze on an English Lakeland road
Brown's of Ambleside CFV66 (Bedofrd OB) waits for a Commer Comando to pass. (July 1956)


A corner of the coach park at Haverthwaite
with a Leyland Tiger PS1 (FBU 973), an AEC Regal III, a Guy Arab and bedford OB in view.

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