Model of a London omnibus

London General Omnibus Company 'B' type motor omnibus, model (scale 1:5).

This is a model, scale 1:5, of a 'B' type motor omnibus used by the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC). Motor buses first appeared in London in 1905, but none of the early vehicles could cope with stop-start driving and were soon plagued by breakdowns. Learning from this, the LGOC developed its own design of motor bus in 1909 and, in the following year, the improved 'B' type bus took to the road. This was the first really reliable and commercially successful motor bus. The company were soon producing hundreds of them at their works at Walthamstow, making it the first design of bus to be produced in great quantity. The 'B' type bus had a rugged yet quiet transmission and strong chassis. It could carry 34 passengers at the legal maximum speed of 12 miles per hour. This was such an improvement on the performance of the contemporary horse-drawn omnibus that LGOC were able to withdraw their last horse-drawn bus from service in 1911.