Title Charltonian Author John Dobson & Philip Battersby Price £4.75 Binding Paperback Description The major bus operators in part owed their predominance to the acquisition os small, pioneering one-man bands that opened up services to remote communities and thus, in many cases, became literally a lifeline. That the small men were then unable to withstand competition from the bigger fleets and more often than not succumbed to tempting offers to sell their businesses is a fact of public transport life of the 1920s and 1930s. One such pioneer was John Dobson, a North Yorkshireman who established services in the Middlesbrough and Guisborough area later to be incorporated into the vast United Automobile Services empire. Dobson was more than just a bus operator. Like many of his contemporaries, he embraced most aspects of transport from horse-drawn conveyances to sophisticated, pneumatic-tyred motor vehicles. His descendant, another John Dobson, with assistance from transport writer Philip Battersby, has put together the story of a remarkable man and a fascinating operation. The book is to the same format as, and builds upon the popular success of, Venture's earlier publication One and Two Halves to the Clock, which took a look at United's operations in Redcar.