British PTEs 1 Strathclyde

There are transport books about glamorous express trains, heroic locomotives and magnificent journeys through sweeping countryside. British PTEs 1: Strathclyde takes the rather more practical view that civilisation also depends upon getting somebody from Paisley to Glasgow on a wet Tuesday morning without undue drama. Alan Millar’s affectionate and detailed look at the Strathclyde Passenger Transport Executive celebrates the buses, trains, underground services and assorted machinery that quietly kept a sizeable chunk of western Scotland moving while everyone else was busy complaining that the bus was three minutes late.

Published by Ian Allan in 1985, this is a wonderfully period piece from the age when public transport had proper liveries, proper destination blinds and interiors designed in shades that modern decorators would describe as either "heritage" or "a cry for help." Strathclyde’s distinctive orange became an unmistakable feature of the region, turning buses and trains into something approaching a mobile corporate identity long before anyone thought to describe such things in marketing jargon.

The book examines the operations of one of Britain’s major Passenger Transport Executives, created to bring some sort of order to the complicated business of moving millions of people around a sprawling urban region. Naturally, bringing order to British public transport is an ambition approximately equivalent to controlling the weather, but Strathclyde certainly gave it a determined go.

Millar provides the sort of coverage Ian Allan readers appreciate: vehicles, routes, infrastructure, organisation and the changing transport landscape, all accompanied by photographs that now possess an accidental historical fascination. What was once simply "the current bus fleet" has become a parade of wonderfully nostalgic machinery, while ordinary street scenes contain vanished shops, cars and buildings that transport enthusiasts inevitably spend almost as much time examining as the buses themselves.

There’s something particularly appealing about books like this because they preserve everyday history—the things almost nobody thought were historic while they were actually happening. Nobody standing at a bus stop in 1985 was saying, "I really must appreciate this Leyland properly because one day people will become strangely excited about photographs of it." They were probably wondering where it was and whether they had enough change for the fare.

For enthusiasts of Scottish transport history, the attraction is obvious. Strathclyde possessed one of Britain’s most distinctive public transport networks, covering Glasgow and the surrounding region with an extraordinary mixture of suburban railways, buses and the famously compact Glasgow Underground. The system developed its own character, and British PTEs 1: Strathclyde catches it at a fascinating point in its history.

For everyone else, the book offers an unexpectedly evocative journey into mid-1980s Britain. Public transport books are secretly social-history books wearing an anorak. Behind every photograph lies a streetscape, a workforce, a commuting pattern and an entire vanished world of everyday routines. Look closely enough and you’re not merely studying vehicles; you’re watching a city go about its business nearly half a century ago.

And of course this was Volume 1, demonstrating impressive confidence that Britain’s Passenger Transport Executives could sustain an entire series. Quite rightly too. Some people collect books about kings and battles; others understand that the really important historical question is exactly which bus fleet was operating out of which depot in 1985.

This Near Fine copy, offered by Crappy Old Books, has survived remarkably well—certainly better than many of the vehicles pictured inside it. It remains clean, smart and beautifully presentable, with only the lightest evidence of its forty-odd years in existence. No used bus tickets have been discovered serving as bookmarks, no timetables have been amended in biro, and nobody has written "SERVICE CANCELLED" across the contents page. An excellent copy for the transport enthusiast, Glasgow nostalgist or anyone who understands that orange buses can be a perfectly respectable subject for serious historical study.

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