{"title":"Stephen Dowle","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"bristol-a-portrait-1970-82-book-stephen-dowle-9781445690445","title":"Bristol A Portrait 1970-82","description":"Stephen Dowle first started taking photographs using a pre-war Coronet Cub given to him by his father. He spent the 1970s and the early 1980s documenting his home city and the lives of the inhabitants who resided there. The photographs in this book are atmospheric and evocative, revealing poignant scenes that have changed significantly over the following years.With over 140 unique images, each accompanied by Stephen's informative, often wry, descriptions, Bristol: A Portrait 1970-82 is a significant work that documents the recent past, capturing the city during a period of great change and bringing it to life again. A nostalgic read for Bristolians and a historical account for others, this book is a must-have for residents of this great city.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49732601217297,"sku":"NGR9781445690445","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51104806469905,"sku":"GOR011026075","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51400315044113,"sku":"GOR010915324","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52782786380049,"sku":"GOR014620407","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1445690446.jpg?v=1777714659"},{"product_id":"bristol-a-portrait-1970-82-book-stephen-dowle-9781445649559","title":"Bristol A Portrait 1970-82","description":"Stephen Dowle first started taking photographs using a pre-war Coronet Cub given to him by his father. He spent the 1970s and the early 1980s documenting his home city and the lives of the inhabitants who resided there. The photographs taken are atmospheric and evocative, revealing poignant scenes that have changed significantly over the following years.With over 100 unique images, each accompanied by Stephen's informative, often wry, descriptions, Bristol: A Portrait 1970-82 is a significant work that documents the recent past, capturing the city during a period of great change and bringing it to life again. A nostalgic read for Bristolians and a historical account for others, this book is a must-have for residents of this great city, old and young.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49777908875537,"sku":"GOR009092713","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53052152512785,"sku":"GOR014716504","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1445649551.jpg?v=1777715272"},{"product_id":"national-bus-company-book-stephen-dowle-9781445664842","title":"The National Bus Company","description":"The National Bus Company was the creation of the 1968 Transport Act, which merged the bus operations of the Tilling Group and the British Electric Traction Company. In 1970 it was enlarged to include the former country area of London Transport, and the new state-owned company thus provided most of the bus services in England and Wales outside major cities and large towns. Deregulation and privatisation in 1986 led to its dissolution.The National Bus Company: The Middle Years gives a portrait of the company in its mature years and covers an interesting period when the industry was in steep decline. It was a time of virtually full employment and driver-only operation was rapidly being introduced to alleviate a shortage of staff and to reduce costs. A corporate identity had been established and, although measures had been put in place to standardise the fleet, the company's subsidiaries still operated an interesting variety of older vehicles serving out their final years. The author, who worked for an NBC subsidiary from shortly after the company's inception until after its demise, presents here a selection from his personal collection of photographs.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50569940730129,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50569940992273,"sku":"GOR008866528","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1445664844.jpg?v=1761299847"},{"product_id":"world-snowboard-guide-book-stephen-dowle-9780954801403","title":"World Snowboard Guide","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50748362162449,"sku":"GOR003592178","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51613184459025,"sku":"GOR014346323","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52495084650769,"sku":"GOR005879344","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0954801407.jpg?v=1751427997"},{"product_id":"bristol-lodekkas-book-stephen-dowle-9781445664637","title":"Bristol Lodekkas","description":"The Bristol Lodekka derived from a prototype of 1949. It offered the solution to a problem familiar to almost every bus operator: low railway bridges. An ingenious re-design of the transmission in which the propeller shaft was offset to the side and drove a drop-centre, double-reduction rear axle eliminated the conventional step up from the platform to the lower saloon, allowing a flat floor and reducing the overall height of a double-decker by a foot. The production vehicle, known as the LD-type, began to appear from 1953. All Lodekkas were bodied by Eastern Coach Works of Lowestoft, who embraced the post-war fashion for enclosing the engine in a rounded 'cowl'. The result was rather inelegant, but subsequent refinements of the design and the relaxation of the Construction and Use regulations to permit buses 30 feet long, made the final form of the Lodekka - the FLF-type - a handsome and imposing vehicle.By the period covered here, the LD was down to a handful of survivors south of the border, but considerable numbers still ran in the fleet of the Eastern Scottish company. Later variants were still to be found in large numbers, but production had ceased in 1968 and even the last examples were approaching the ends of their lives. The author, who was for twenty years a busman, developed a considerable partiality for the Lodekka and took pains to build up a collection of photographs which depict the type at a time when it was still, just, a familiar sight the length and breadth of Britain.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50767626862865,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50767627223313,"sku":"GOR008954748","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1445664631.jpg?v=1761299616"},{"product_id":"class-52-westerns-the-twilight-years-book-stephen-dowle-9781445648989","title":"Class 52 Westerns The Twilight Years","description":"The seventy-four Class 52 diesel-hydraulics were built between 1961 and 1964 for British Railways' Western Region as high-powered locomotives to haul inter-city services. Given two-word names that began with 'Western', they inevitably became known as the Westerns. Although the Westerns could be seen on most routes in the Western Region, they were mostly seen on London to South Wales, London to Birmingham and London to Paignton, Plymouth and Penzance services. The charismatic and stylish-looking Westerns were among the first diesel locomotives to enjoy a cult following among railway enthusiasts and as the Westerns were withdrawn from service between 1973 and 1977 enthusiasts would congregate to photograph and travel on services hauled by one. Platform ends throughout the Western Region were thronged and few weekends passed without the running of an organised enthusiasts' special. The final, region-wide tour ran on 26 February 1977.This collection of photographs by Class 52 enthusiast Stephen Dowle was taken during the Westerns' last years in service and shows something of their appeal through the eyes of one enthusiast.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50980944249105,"sku":"GOR009081230","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53333533491473,"sku":"GOR014854101","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1445648989.jpg?v=1763225655"},{"product_id":"bristol-omnibus-company-book-stephen-dowle-9781445673424","title":"Bristol Omnibus Company","description":"A number of books have chronicled the history and vehicles of the Bristol Omnibus Co. It was one of the largest and greatest of British bus operators and - with a nod in the direction of Midland Red - unique in that, as well as operating buses, it also constructed them and supplied them to the entire industry. This book is a little different.The author spent two decades working for the company as a conductor and driver. A devotee of buses and keen amateur photographer, for several years during the late 1970s he kept a record on film of the company's vehicles and operations as he experienced them. He visited the extremities of the company's territory and sometimes even took his camera to work with him to snap his own bus on little-known services at obscure locations. On Saturdays, when maintenance staff only worked a half day and he had the place to himself in the afternoons, he strolled around the yard of the company's main depot and Central Repair Works at Lawrence Hill, where 'time-expired' buses awaiting disposal to dealers and their spanking-new, freshly delivered replacements were to be found. Oddities not normally seen on the roads, or vehicles from the fascinating ancillary fleet, were usually present.This wonderful collection of photos is of particular poignancy in that it records a period on the very eve of this famous company's demise. Within a few years it had been broken up into 'operating units' in readiness for the privatisation apocalypse of 1986 and the deregulation of the industry. These were its Twilight Years.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51317128724753,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51317129838865,"sku":"GOR009759704","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53452708118801,"sku":"GOR014928831","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1445673428.jpg?v=1777714725"},{"product_id":"british-buses-and-coaches-in-the-late-1970s-book-stephen-dowle-9781445681351","title":"British Buses and Coaches in the Late 1970s","description":"Stephen Dowle offers up a terrific selection of previously unpublished photographs documenting the British bus and coach scene of the late 1970s.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53349027414289,"sku":"GOR010956693","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53642055778577,"sku":"GOR009532351","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781445681351.jpg?v=1774629632"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-stephen-dowle.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}