NEW FEBRUARY 2021. As bus companies recovered from the Second World War, they became formidable competitors to the railways in their core passenger market: long-distance travel. Here you are offered the 380-page ABC Coach Guide for the summer of 1958, and you can see how far they have progressed by then. The tables run from 1 to 627. What they do not reveal is the number of duplicates which ran - on a summer Saturday at the time, if you wanted to catch a coach from Victoria Coach Station in London to Norwich on a summer Saturday, for example, the service vehicle would be an Eastern Counties one. This would be supplemented by perhaps three or four reliefs provided by independents from Norfolk, each displaying 'On hire to Eastern Counties' in its windscreen.

Coaches were generally slower than railways, of course, and there were no motorways then. Moreover it was necessary to book for a particular service in advance. They were significantly cheaper, though, and as lines closed the nearest railhead often became more distant - quite a problem for a family with heavy suitcases and no car. Some people preferred the coaches anyway: "in a bus you see a lot more of each town you pass though".

This guide covers all of England, Wales and Scotland. Every timetabled coach service is fully dealt with, and in addition local bus operators get a mention - there is a list of their main services with time taken and approximate frequency, often acompanied by a map of their routes. The index of locations for the coaches incorporates specimen fares from many of the larger starting points.

The guide also gives Continental coach and coach-air services, as well as the principal Europabus and Trans-European bus lines. It includes detailed information about British and Continental coach touring holidays which were available.

There are many period advertisements, and a supplement gives details of party catering facilities on offer all over Britain.

You will download two files: the main one is the timetable book, the other comprises two maps which were folded into it at the back. One shows coach routes, the other indicates the areas served by local bus operators.

The main file has bookmarks to its various sections. Both files will be available to download as soon as payment has been made. You go to your account and click on ‘Downloads’. New customers create an account as they place their order.