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Birmingham buses
- Thread starter ragga
- Start date
W
Wendy
Guest
Great picture ragga..........total gridlock.
Lloyd
master brummie
New Street
This great view is one of several taken one November morning in 1962 (at ten to nine - see the clock nearly halfway up the left hand side!) to show the volume of traffic in the city. I have another in a book (taken at 9:08 by the same clock!) showing more of the distance, stationary buses and cars right back to Victoria Square.
I think they were taken because the City Council was in the early stages of considering the closure of city centre roads to traffic, as has now happened.
There are a lot of archived pictures like this, showing heavy (rush hour) traffic before a road scheme came into operation, and corresponding ones showing little or no traffic (taken at an off-peak time, or even Sunday!) afterwards.
Presumably the pictures proved the schemes worked!
This great view is one of several taken one November morning in 1962 (at ten to nine - see the clock nearly halfway up the left hand side!) to show the volume of traffic in the city. I have another in a book (taken at 9:08 by the same clock!) showing more of the distance, stationary buses and cars right back to Victoria Square.
I think they were taken because the City Council was in the early stages of considering the closure of city centre roads to traffic, as has now happened.
There are a lot of archived pictures like this, showing heavy (rush hour) traffic before a road scheme came into operation, and corresponding ones showing little or no traffic (taken at an off-peak time, or even Sunday!) afterwards.
Presumably the pictures proved the schemes worked!
H
harborne
Guest
I remember the buses cream and Dark blue and their licence numbers always began with JOJ or HOV. We used to go to school on an ticket for eightpence, I think it was.
Harborne
Harborne
mw0njm.
A Brummie Dude
YER great, in the 60s i lived in phillip st,my friend was a fitter at miller st
depot he checked the buses as they come in.wash them and park them up,od and evens i dont know what that meant,any how he learnt me to drive a pre select box.how wierd,but great fun.
depot he checked the buses as they come in.wash them and park them up,od and evens i dont know what that meant,any how he learnt me to drive a pre select box.how wierd,but great fun.
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Lloyd
master brummie
"Odds and Evens" - half the garage's fleet was washed every night, odd numbered ones one day, even numbered ones the next.
Some of the wartime Guy 'Arab' buses were converted to special training vehicles after they were withdrawn, having an instructor's seat inside behind the cab with steering and brake controls, as most new drivers didn't have cars and couldn't drive before they started. They were 'crash' gearboxes in those days, requiring 'double declutching' to change gear.
BCT had gone over to Daimler preselect gears in the 30s, but in wartime had to take what buses they were given by the ministry of supply, (mostly Guys, Daimlers and a few Leylands) so crash boxes came back. Postwar Leyland and Crossley buses were similar, and until the rear engined buses came drivers had to push heavy clutches (or for the Daimlers, gearchange pedals) for every gearchange they did.
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Lloyd
master brummie
LLOYD....
Smashing photo of fop-383.
where was the location this photo was shot ???
ragga
Outside of Quinton Garage.
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Busses
I Used To Go To Icknield Stret Hockley Brook On The Bus,s
Around On The No,8 From Aston Cross In Rocky Lane
We Was So Poor Mom Got A Load Of Plastic Tokens From The Education Dept , Some Was Grren And Some Was Red Ones
And They Was Thevalue Of 1 Penny Other Wise We Couldnt Get To School And Also Old Man Kitchener Wouldappearat The Front Door
Asking Why Ain,t We Are In School
Blimy They Was The Days
Diid Any Body Else Get These Tokens ,? .
Best Wishes Astonian ,;;
I Used To Go To Icknield Stret Hockley Brook On The Bus,s
Around On The No,8 From Aston Cross In Rocky Lane
We Was So Poor Mom Got A Load Of Plastic Tokens From The Education Dept , Some Was Grren And Some Was Red Ones
And They Was Thevalue Of 1 Penny Other Wise We Couldnt Get To School And Also Old Man Kitchener Wouldappearat The Front Door
Asking Why Ain,t We Are In School
Blimy They Was The Days
Diid Any Body Else Get These Tokens ,? .
Best Wishes Astonian ,;;
Lloyd
master brummie
14 Route
Lea Hall garage and in particular the 14 route was used to try out several 'demonstration' buses either bought by or loaned to the Corporation in order to decide what the next fleet was going to be. Stan Palmer and Bill Godden were the regular 'test' drivers, as before the advent of the rear-engined bus there were several designs on trial. I'll put a few photos on for you.
Lea Hall garage and in particular the 14 route was used to try out several 'demonstration' buses either bought by or loaned to the Corporation in order to decide what the next fleet was going to be. Stan Palmer and Bill Godden were the regular 'test' drivers, as before the advent of the rear-engined bus there were several designs on trial. I'll put a few photos on for you.
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W
Wendy
Guest
My husbands cousin Carol Partridge was a conductress at Lee Hall does anyone remember her?
Lloyd
master brummie
Haha, not quite! It was a Daimler demonstration bus, on hire from 23rd June to 22nd July 1958. Although it looked similar to the standard BCT bus, it was a bit longer and seated 19 more!
9 JML was a 71 seat AEC Bridgemaster which was loaned from February 1957 until being bought in November the same year, and it ran a full life for BCT.
2211 MK was also an AEC Bridgemaster, a 72 seater but with a forward entrance and despite being in BCT livery was only on loan from 14th June 1960 to 2nd May 1961.
Stratford blue was owned by Midland Red, but kept a separate identity, and livery, and with only two exceptions during the war never used Midland Red's 'home made' buses. They did run a couple of journeys on Midland Red routes, though, including a Saturday trip on the 159 Coventry route, which did confuse the passengers! Here's a nice pic of a Leyland decker at Stratford.
9 JML was a 71 seat AEC Bridgemaster which was loaned from February 1957 until being bought in November the same year, and it ran a full life for BCT.
2211 MK was also an AEC Bridgemaster, a 72 seater but with a forward entrance and despite being in BCT livery was only on loan from 14th June 1960 to 2nd May 1961.
Stratford blue was owned by Midland Red, but kept a separate identity, and livery, and with only two exceptions during the war never used Midland Red's 'home made' buses. They did run a couple of journeys on Midland Red routes, though, including a Saturday trip on the 159 Coventry route, which did confuse the passengers! Here's a nice pic of a Leyland decker at Stratford.
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Lloyd
master brummie
City bus terminals
The Corporation buses mainly used the New St, Corporation St, Bull St, Colmore Row loop - at first before the one way ("Gyratory") system was introduced in the 30s, in either direction, alternate buses on each route going clockwise or anticlockwise round the loop (there was a board over the forward facing window on the platform and at the front of both saloons saying 'via New St' or 'via Colmore Row' to tell you which way that particular bus was going). When the buses replaced the Dudley Road tram services they used the same terminus as the trams had, Edmund St, between the two halves of the Council house, and the Bristol and Pershore Road services likewise used the old tram terminals in Navigation St. Some others used Dale End and Martineau St or Carrs Lane, or Station St (the whole of the station side of Station St seemed to be a glass-roofed shelter), and Old Square.
Midland Red buses came to the Bull Ring and circled St. Martins church, in fact there was a tea cabin for the crews built just inside the churchyard at the top of Digbeth. All of that area was lost with the original Bull ring redevelopment, in fact Spiceal St became just a public footpath, so the buses were given a station in the new shopping centre.
I've put a few pics on - the last-numbered trolleybus, no. 90, on an enthusiast's tour in Station St - A view of two-way traffic in New St in the 20's - a Midland Red decker leaving it's stop at the Worcester St end of Station St, which was another main terminal for them (and the site of the later Bull ring Bus Station) - and an early solid tyred bus loading at St. Martin's.
The Corporation buses mainly used the New St, Corporation St, Bull St, Colmore Row loop - at first before the one way ("Gyratory") system was introduced in the 30s, in either direction, alternate buses on each route going clockwise or anticlockwise round the loop (there was a board over the forward facing window on the platform and at the front of both saloons saying 'via New St' or 'via Colmore Row' to tell you which way that particular bus was going). When the buses replaced the Dudley Road tram services they used the same terminus as the trams had, Edmund St, between the two halves of the Council house, and the Bristol and Pershore Road services likewise used the old tram terminals in Navigation St. Some others used Dale End and Martineau St or Carrs Lane, or Station St (the whole of the station side of Station St seemed to be a glass-roofed shelter), and Old Square.
Midland Red buses came to the Bull Ring and circled St. Martins church, in fact there was a tea cabin for the crews built just inside the churchyard at the top of Digbeth. All of that area was lost with the original Bull ring redevelopment, in fact Spiceal St became just a public footpath, so the buses were given a station in the new shopping centre.
I've put a few pics on - the last-numbered trolleybus, no. 90, on an enthusiast's tour in Station St - A view of two-way traffic in New St in the 20's - a Midland Red decker leaving it's stop at the Worcester St end of Station St, which was another main terminal for them (and the site of the later Bull ring Bus Station) - and an early solid tyred bus loading at St. Martin's.
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Peter Walker
gone but not forgotten
Some lovely pics there, Lloyd. I'm trying to remember where the Midland Red buses turned round in Town in the 30s and 40s. There were certainly several places - as I remember, buses from the Coventry Road, Stratford Road and Warwick Roads used the Bull Ring, from the Pershore Road and Bristol Roads they used the top of Worcester St as in your pic of the MHA bus, and I think the Alcester Road buses terminated there too, coming via Moseley Village and Edgbaston Road, Cannon Hill. Birchfield Road, Lichfield Road and Washwood Heath Road buses looped from Corporation St via Bull St, High St, New Street (terminus), Corporation St and Steelhouse Lane. What I can'tr recall is how the Hagley Road buses turned. Was it via Edmund St, Congreve Street and Paradise St (terminus), or tuning left into Congreve St and right into Gt Charles St? - I think that was a late wartime economy measure, like when the Sutton and Walsall buses were cut short to terminate just off Loveday St in Lench Street. The other Midland Red terminus after September 1939 of course was in Edmund Street for the Dudley Road tramway replacements.
The dreadful underground bus station built for Midland Red in the early 1960s was off a part of what had been Edgbaston Street. I'm glad it's gone, as it was an awful place.
Peter
The dreadful underground bus station built for Midland Red in the early 1960s was off a part of what had been Edgbaston Street. I'm glad it's gone, as it was an awful place.
Peter
Lloyd
master brummie
Hagley Road and western area City buses used the New St - Corporation St - Bull St - Colmore Row loop, I lived on Hagley Rd and used the 9. There was another Hagley Rd bus, 34, which worked cross-city with some of the peak time 33s, but was only a rush hour service when I knew it.
The Bull Ring bus station was much criticised, but at the time it opened it gave a covered area to interchange buses or go to and from the shopping centre and was a great improvement over waiting on cold wet pavements blocking the way of passers by. Unfortunately the facilities soon wore out, the fume extraction plant gave up for months at a time and the decor wasn't kept up as it should have been. Do you remember that when it opened, a penny went on the (Midland Red) fares to pay for it?
I worked there in the late 80s and early 90s, and it was a devil of a job keeping it useable. The premises were rented from the city, but they weren't interested in doing repairs. Where Smallbrook Queensway ran over the top, rain water was for ever pouring in, and extra support piers had to be installed to keep the roadway from collapsing in (see the pic I'm going to provide). The wiring was in atrocious condition and we were amazed that the lights stayed on (we daren't turn them off at night, did so once and only about a third of them came back on next day!)
We did all we could to keep it decent, drivers would come in on rest days (paid of course) and over a few months painted all the pillars and walls to brighten it up, but we were fighting a losing battle against the elements, decaying concrete, litter louts and druggies who would soil the place in ways you couldn't dream of. We had to keep the toilets locked in the end because of what went on in them.
I walked round whilst the rag market was temporarily re-sited in there during the rebuilding, the stallholders all moaned about the water leaking in, even on dry days!
The picture shows the place after we'd closed it. All the route information boards are down from the stands, lanes 2 and 3 are barriered off in the distance and scaffolding erected where the roadway leaking, and the water corroding the concrete and its steel reinforcing. But with public and buses missing, our white painted walls and pillars, and most of the lights working, it doesn't look too bad.
The Bull Ring bus station was much criticised, but at the time it opened it gave a covered area to interchange buses or go to and from the shopping centre and was a great improvement over waiting on cold wet pavements blocking the way of passers by. Unfortunately the facilities soon wore out, the fume extraction plant gave up for months at a time and the decor wasn't kept up as it should have been. Do you remember that when it opened, a penny went on the (Midland Red) fares to pay for it?
I worked there in the late 80s and early 90s, and it was a devil of a job keeping it useable. The premises were rented from the city, but they weren't interested in doing repairs. Where Smallbrook Queensway ran over the top, rain water was for ever pouring in, and extra support piers had to be installed to keep the roadway from collapsing in (see the pic I'm going to provide). The wiring was in atrocious condition and we were amazed that the lights stayed on (we daren't turn them off at night, did so once and only about a third of them came back on next day!)
We did all we could to keep it decent, drivers would come in on rest days (paid of course) and over a few months painted all the pillars and walls to brighten it up, but we were fighting a losing battle against the elements, decaying concrete, litter louts and druggies who would soil the place in ways you couldn't dream of. We had to keep the toilets locked in the end because of what went on in them.
I walked round whilst the rag market was temporarily re-sited in there during the rebuilding, the stallholders all moaned about the water leaking in, even on dry days!
The picture shows the place after we'd closed it. All the route information boards are down from the stands, lanes 2 and 3 are barriered off in the distance and scaffolding erected where the roadway leaking, and the water corroding the concrete and its steel reinforcing. But with public and buses missing, our white painted walls and pillars, and most of the lights working, it doesn't look too bad.
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WINSTON
master brummie
Found this site with drawings of buses.some birmingham. and commercial vehicles.
https://www.transportartist.co.uk/bus images.html
https://www.transportartist.co.uk/bus images.html
