NEW JANUARY 2021. To fully understand the railways of the twentieth century, you need to know about the world in which they were operating. The bus services of East Anglia formed a significant part of that: sometimes the buses were in competition with the railways, and sometimes they were co-operating. In 1949 there seemed to be a state of equilibrium between them - the branch lines generally did not appear to be unduly threatened, and the pattern of the bus services was the one which had been in place for two decades or more.

Here you can see the summer timetables commencing 5 June 1949 for the Eastern Area of the Eastern Counties Omnibus Company, covering all Norfolk and Suffolk. The services were operated from their bases at Kings Lynn, Cromer, Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Saxmundham, Felixstowe, Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds and Newmarket.

Probably one of the very earliest replacement bus services for any closed railway was route 8. Since 1929 it had run from Southwold, passing through Blythburgh and Wenhaston to Halesworth. Not content with that, it continued to Laxfield where it met up with the terminus of the Mid-Suffolk Light Railway (covering a stretch of the line which couldn't be closed because it had never got built!).

This 332-page book includes the regulations for passengers to observe, details of the parcels service the Company offered, a list of all the parcels agents, information about the Harwich, Felixstowe and Shotley ferry and some period advertisements. The long-distance services that were beginning to build up again after the war were listed, but you were told to ask for separate leaflets (not present here) for their times and fares. You will download two files: the main one is the timetable book, the other is the map of the whole of the Company's routes, which was folded into it at the back.

The main file has bookmarks to its main 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.