Of course before the railways was the highly uncomfortable and dangerous stage coaches, that had to negoitiate dreadful deep rut filled roads and the ocassional highwayman!
This is an example of one during Jane Austens time, with the last one officially running in 1840, with the train taking just hours to complete a relatively smooth journey, instead of days in a stage coach:
By then the streets of all major British cities were filled with horse drawn buses, or "omnibus" The first "omnibus" ran from Paddington Green to the Bank, on 4th July 1829 and introduced a new type of vehicle to the roads of Britain. This date is generally regarded as the start of omnibus history in Great Britain. They generally appeared like this:
A late 19c Omnibus:
This is an early 20th century picture of an omnibus with an unidentified railway scene in the background:
This is an omnibus of 1926/7:
Riding the rear of an omnibus:
Although the horse drawn omnibus continued to be used in many cities, the last London Omnibus actually ran on the London Bridge to Moorgate route on the 25th October 1911:
After that the London omnibus became combustion engined driven and a plain "bus":
This example is an "S" type of 1928:
On the 13th June1931 the last urban horse drawn bus ran on it's routeof Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Gateshead
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Topic: Bus nostalgia (Read 277688 times)