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Birmingham buses

DavidGrain said:
It was the 125 which was my bus to school and I thought that the Guys were Dudley based.

In one job I had to go into Dudley and always borrowed my boss's company car. I think it was on the hills of Dudley that I burnt out his clutch, my own car was an automatic and I never had that trouble.
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The Dudley hills were the reason these buses were based there it seems.
 
Haven't been to Dudley for many years. Another place on my To Do list. Yes the bus station was on a steep hill and there have been a few runaways. Most of the starts were uphill. It would perhaps have been better to reverse the main direction but that would have caused conflicting movements between buses arriving and buses departing. I have not seen the bus station since the last rebuild.
 
Since starting this conversation with you guys about buses, I have found a piece of trivia that I became engrossed in. When I worked at Sutton garage, we were a Midland Red garage, then as the years of 76/77 progressed we were taken over by the WMPTE, and we received some buses from Oldbury garage, Ailsa Volvo's. I was instructed on one of these turbo engined buses, and quickly learned that they were 14 feet high not 12 feet. The bus that was driving that first day was fleet number 4772. Now, to my point. I looked at the the bus and wondered what happened to it, and discovered a few pictures of this bus in different liveries, from London Transport to Private companies. Boring I know, but fascinating ....to me anyway. I will try to find some of these photographs. If your bored with me waffling on about a bus, then I apologize.4624600703_951dfaf674_b.jpg
 
OK, on my journey following JOV 4772 Ex- WMPTE Volvo Ailsa. Here she is with Black Prince Coaches, in Leeds, having arrived from London Transport, and then to a Coach operator in Glasshoughton. Here she sits with her sister Ex-WMPTE Ailsa's. Sort of re-united.VOLVO.jpgSorry for the poor images, but you can see how she has changed from the sleek motor she was when we had her. Thanks. Gerry
 
Gerry Cannell said:
and finally....I promise. Here is our bus traveling the London area for London Transport. All done, sorry about my obsession with the wonderful JOV 4772. Volvo Ailsa. Remind me to tell you about Christmas 1977, and the council decorations! Byeee. Gerry View attachment 136471
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I was long gone before the Ailsas arrived and on visits back although I dragged the family on train and bus, never caught one even though i knew Sutton garage had them tried 107 into City from New Oscott and a bus from City back to Sutton and then a 107 back to Beggars Bush, saw one or two but wrong direction. What were they like to drive. You write as if you enjoyed them
Bob
 
Bob Davis said:
I was long gone before the Ailsas arrived and on visits back although I dragged the family on train and bus, never caught one even though i knew Sutton garage had them tried 107 into City from New Oscott and a bus from City back to Sutton and then a 107 back to Beggars Bush, saw one or two but wrong direction. What were they like to drive. You write as if you enjoyed them
Bob
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I think you are right mate, I did enjoy driving them. Coming from the old D9, and then when we were taken over by WMPTE I had to drive all kinds of stuff, MCW's, Nationals, you name it; then along came the Ailsa's, like a shot in the arm, ultra smooth ride, very fast pull away, and so easy to push around Brum. The only snag I recall, was because they were so damn quick, you really couldn't use them (as you wanted to) or you would always be running early. 4772 had a plexiglass cab shield, which kept us out of harms way on late nights into and especially out of, the city. Yes, a lovely bus, and one I have always had an affection for, as you might tell from my pictures. I still love the old D9 just as much though, that bus had character. Thanks. Gerry.
 
My brother late of Midland Red, later in life was bus driving in Brisbane, I asked him if they used Mercedes buses like some around here, his answer "No we don't have any of that s**t we have Volvos, they're head and shoulders better than anything else available here."
Brisbane had some dedicated bus roads separate from the main carriageway, one of which went under a tunnel with a tight bend in the middle, very interesting when he took me on a ride in one of these.
 
Another National Express West Midlands bus in heritage livery. This one as West Bromwich Corporation (although I thought I saw Walsall Corporation).

Seen at St Chad's Circus.





Then at Colmore Circus



I also saw it on Colmore Row, but it pulled out before I could get to it for another photo.
 
No unfortunately I didn't take it, There are loads on the net, I may have taken one at Wythall of it.
Here's another one taken by Roger Capel on FlickrTaken by Roger Capel on flickr.jpg
sandrada said:
Yes, thats the one!!! Amazing. Did you take this pic RobT? I was cross coz a local company on a Tuesday runs the route just five minutes before this classic, and I hope it is still viable if Ridlers nick some passengers.
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These saloon Leyland PS2's were usually to be found, when introduced, on the 23, Northfield and Cotteridge areas. Their use on the route lasted until 1952 when the 61 and 27 took its place. The 61 was part of the the routes replacing the Bristol Road trams. The 27 was Kings Heath to West Heath and the very low bridge near the Cadbury factory meant it was a single deck route. There were letter suffixes at a later date and they were used for one-man ops. The 26 used them as a short working of the 2B. A new route 35 to Pool Farm commenced in the 1960's, later to be route 4, I believe, which used them until replaced by newer buses. This route was used for newer type tickets experiments. The only information on the 28A - a short working of the 28 - was a loaned bus, in BCT livery, which experimented with Pay As You Enter and the standee' concept. The 28 was usually double decked at it was a cross city route.
When fairly new Midland Red apparently hired some of these PS2's for their private hire work and they could be seen in London, Blackpool and Birmingham-on-Sea. As this was at week-ends, when passenger use was low, it was possible.
The foregoing reflects, as far as I know, on BCT and not the PTE operations.
 
JohnJames said:
I believe that JOJ 257 was on the number 28 route. This route always used single deckers.
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I used 28 bus from 1959 to 1966 and unfortunately missed it being on that route then as I always got on double decker. Bet it was on there from new in 1950 . Its a shame I missed it running in Birmingham as it would have been great to go from here to Lynmouth on same bus.
 
The 28 was double decked except when the single deck standee came in on demo sometime in the fifties, I will look up all the details, but one day I had just come out of the Pavilion cinema and about to walk along Chester Road home, when this odd looking single decker came around the corner from Chester Road into Gravelly Lane. Immediately the anorak in me said 'catch it', which I did and rod it to College Road at The Crossways from whence I caught the 5a home. I will look up all the etails, although Alan will probably beat me to it. It ran in BCT livery and as far as I know was only ever used on the 28.

Bob
 
Bob Davis said:
The 28 was double decked except when the single deck standee came in on demo sometime in the fifties, I will look up all the details, but one day I had just come out of the Pavilion cinema and about to walk along Chester Road home, when this odd looking single decker came around the corner from Chester Road into Gravelly Lane. Immediately the anorak in me said 'catch it', which I did and rod it to College Road at The Crossways from whence I caught the 5a home. I will look up all the etails, although Alan will probably beat me to it. It ran in BCT livery and as far as I know was only ever used on the 28.

Bob
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I would change to 5a after getting off 28 to go to school!
 
Bob Davis said:
The 28 was double decked except when the single deck standee came in on demo sometime in the fifties, I will look up all the details, but one day I had just come out of the Pavilion cinema and about to walk along Chester Road home, when this odd looking single decker came around the corner from Chester Road into Gravelly Lane. Immediately the anorak in me said 'catch it', which I did and rod it to College Road at The Crossways from whence I caught the 5a home. I will look up all the etails, although Alan will probably beat me to it. It ran in BCT livery and as far as I know was only ever used on the 28.

Bob
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The single deck standee was a Daimler Freeline LRW 377 given fleet number 99, it arrived in 1952. It was on demonstration only, in another book I have a note of how long it stayed (come on Alan help me out) There is a picture of it in the Birmingham City Transport book published by The Transport Pubĺishing Company. Which garages supplied the buses for the 28 route? The reason I ask is that I also once caught an EOG Leyland on the 28. As an aside, in the book also 1008 (our mystery Inner Circle 8 bus) is pictured in New Street on the 3a Harborne route iñ 1950. The film was High Noon or The Big Sky.

Bob
 
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