yb281 said:
Great job Syd. I find all those old posters fascinating. Interesting that they were hand painted onto the buses.
Things changed in later years I suspect as the production cost of painting onto the sides must have been very high and only suitable for long term local advertising contracts. Paper posters became the norm, much cheaper when produced in volume, until these were ousted by vinyl film - either self adhesive or stretched and backlit within a panel.
We ran some trials with SW Division and 3M at Wimbledon regarding self adhesive panels on trains. Ostensibly these were also for advertising, but 3M were not silly - they could see (as could I!) the potential for relivering trains with vinyl once privatisation came around the corner. The costs and downtime for relivering a train in wrap were significantly (and that's a very big significantly!) less than a painted job - and the train could be returned to its' lessee at the end of any lease term in exactly the same condition as it had been delivered - simply by removing the wrap.