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A bit of fun

T

tardebigge

BCT Fan
Here is a picture of OV 4491 taken in 1947, parked at a BCT garage.
OK then, which garage??
Let's see how many guesses it takes before someone gets it right.
ONE guess per person please....
Sorry no prizes available...:)
 
Cotteridge, tardebigge. The brick wall behind the bus is the Municipal bank, and the tree visible over the lower wall to the left is in the former Methodist Churchyard.
 
wherever it was.....it must have had narrow doors.....judging by the number of dents and gouges on the bus...:D
 
Lloyd is as usual correct. Have to ban him from answering any Cotteridge related questions!
This bus built in 1931, entered service in 1932 and was withdrawn in 1947. Sold to Everell,Wolverhampton March 1948, probably used by them as basis for re-built coaches to AEC Royal Specifications.
 
Tardebigge, I'm quite surprised you say that pic of Regent OV 4491 was taken at Cotteridge. For one thing, this depot was quite small, capacity only 30 trams, although at that time 31 were based there, the last one being parked on the track 'fan' in the forecourt, if one wasn't away in the works. I have no recollection of buses ever being kept there until the conversion in 1952. For another thing, I don't think the entry was wide enough to get the whole length of the side flat-on. Further there seem to be no tram tracks in the paving.
Anyway it's a lovely picture, taken shortly before the bus was scrapped.
Peter.
 
Perhaps it was just parked up in Cotteridge depot yard while the crew had a break? The destination is the old Birmingham favourite, "Service extra" and the radiator board says "Cotteridge" (which rather gives the location away!).
It certainly does look battered, although the deep gash near the rear wheels is on the photograph negative rather than the bus, I think.
OV 4486 from the same batch was found in Herefordshire many years ago having been someone's retirement home - it is now at Wythall museum awaiting time and funds to be found for its restoration.
 
Peter, I can only report what was written on the back of the picture. Don't know who took it, and since I was only 3 years old at the time, don't think I could have made it up to Cotteridge garage anyway!
 
I remember 486 at Wellhead Lane very well, working the 33 route with a gas producer trailer in 1943-44. Incidentally, why did BCT pick that route to run this feeble and 'iffy' experiment, when there were quieter routes without such hills north of Perry Barr?
Peter
 
Er...I do hate to correct an expert, but 486 never was converted to gas, 480/1/3/4 were, in fact 484 was the subject of the official photographs of the conversion.
486 was withdrawn in 1944 with an engine defect, when it was found the cylinder head and all ancillaries were missing (obviously reuseable) and the block corroded beyond recovery. It's removal was the first job done, as the aluminium crankcase was part of the 'purchase price' to the travellers who were going to scrap it before we moved in.

Why did they choose odd routes to run gas buses? Probably because they wanted the idea to fail. Only a small percentage of the number of conversions the Government wanted were done, the resultant buses were slow, powerless and engine wear was much higher than when using petrol as a fuel. There was a strong reluctance across the industry for the idea, and eventually the conversions were stopped and fuel supplies made available.

Two pictures of 484 and one of a Midland Red as gas converted buses. The engineer's face says it all!
 
Thanks Lloyd, I've been thinking for 65 years that 486 was one of the bus converted for gas production, but I'm prepared to accept your word [I certainly remember it before and after 'rebodying' by Brush]. I agree BCT had no wish to get involved in the 'experimental' use of gas producers and, to be fair, the idea had not been tested - in times of war many odd thingsd are done in desperation.
The bus companies seem to have been more willing. I can remember old IM6s running with gas trailers, especially on the 165 to Coleshill, and the 148 to Evesham. Also BHA 9407 on the 159 - and sometimes I seem to remember, on the 118. I understand Banbury garage had several too.
I went to Bournemouth in 1943, and spent hours hanging around the parking space at the back of the H&D bus station, where the gas buses were victualled and serviced. They were mostly old TD1s or TD3s, I believe, some with a 'new' utility body, but my treat was to see the hourly Wilts and Dorset bus from Salisbury, always looking very exhausted after that long trip.
Peter
 
I should have added, it was one of the ones that was loaned to London Transport in 1940. Strangely, a London AEC Regent that has survived into preservation, ST 922, was one of the number that came to Birmingham on hire a couple of years later, and ran from Midland Red's Digbeth garage.
 
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