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Brum traffic images from 1960s onwards ?

I bought my first car in the 1960s and had fun driving through scenes like this. The police look on hoping it will sort itself out - it usually did eventually !
I've added it to the picture gallery in post #48
Traffic_Jam__1960s.jpg
 
Line of traffic, front, Hillman Husky, Vauxhall Cresta , Rover 90, Vauxhall Cresta , Austin A35, Mk1 Cortina Estate, Morris Minor 1000, Hillman Minx. right/wrong been many years!!! paul
 
Hi Paul, I think you are right. I was thinking how highly polished the cars look, but we used to wash and polish them every Sunday morning. Then one day you would notice a little bubble on the paint work and each month it would get larger with rust coming through from the inside. So it was off to Halfords for metal gauze, filler, wet and dry, and a can of spray paint ....
Phil
 
I had a Ford100e at this time Phil, and I thought it the finest in the land, these cars were prized then, and you are right we did use to polish and vacuum them weekly.Paul
 
I had a 1962 A40 Farina Grey with white roof, cars certainly suffered more from rust then, and I think less reliable mechanic wise than the modern car. Eric
 
My 1960s car which I drove in those traffic jams was an Hillman Imp. I saw one the other day on the M62 and it looked so fragile with thin little tyres. I can't believe that I once got 84mph out of mine ... happy days
 
It seems impossible now Phil but I sold "NATO Tax Free cars", in the mid 70's to service men posted mainly to Germany, in 1976 a Hillman Imp Californian, cost £380 brand new , with £25 extra for carpets!!!!!!!.paul
 
paul stacey said:
I had a Ford100e at this time Phil, and I thought it the finest in the land, these cars were prized then, and you are right we did use to polish and vacuum them weekly.Paul
Click to expand...
Also had a 100e in 63. Took my Mother to Manchester on the M6 starting at Gailey roundabout, had to keep stopping to top up the engine oil as No 3 piston had blown, Mother not very impressed especially as she paid for the car.
 
funny you should say that nick, mine had a dodgy half shaft bearing, and I was for ever under it with a grease gun.paul
 
paul stacey said:
Line of traffic, front, Hillman Husky, Vauxhall Cresta , Rover 90, Vauxhall Cresta , Austin A35, Mk1 Cortina Estate, Morris Minor 1000, Hillman Minx. right/wrong been many years!!! paul
Click to expand...
I think your Vauxhall Crestas are in fact Vauxhall Victor Mk IIs Paul. Probably correct on the Rover as it has a larger rear screen than the early P75 I took over from my Dad.


Victor MkII.jpg
 
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Looking at this nice forum pic of Suffolk Street and John Bright Street 1956, I can see an advert for 'Super National Benzole' petrol, which I used to put in my Hillman Imp, more mpg, and the engine ran cooler, acceleration was good - well we used to believe the adverts back then ...:friendly_wink:

 
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BernardR said:
I think your Vauxhall Crestas are in fact Vauxhall Victor Mk IIs Paul. Probably correct on the Rover as it has a larger rear screen than the early P75 I took over from my Dad.


View attachment 89980
Click to expand...
Ryland Garage, where I started work in 1960, were Vauxhall agents and the FB victor was first introduced in 1961, the later updated version had a aluminium oil pump which suffered from premature failure, changing for a cast iron/steel version, the later version of the FB also had the check type front grill rather the the earlier slatted version.
 
paul stacey said:
Line of traffic, front, Hillman Husky, Vauxhall Cresta , Rover 90, Vauxhall Cresta , Austin A35, Mk1 Cortina Estate, Morris Minor 1000, Hillman Minx. right/wrong been many years!!! paul
Click to expand...

....................and IMHO the A35 is an A30 (small rear window!)
 
oldMohawk said:
A gallery of mini pics of Birmingham traffic mainly in the 1960s onward but some earlier traffic photos show signs of what was to come in later years.
Many of these photos were full size in the posts in this thread, but were lost in the hack attack. Some of the mini photos have Go To Post links to previous posts where the original comments can be read. Also many of the photos will enlarge if clicked upon.
Heavy traffic into town on Birchfield Rd near Trinity Road
GoTo Post
 Buses and Cars
 Guard a parking space with boxes ! Hurst St maybe...
cBoxes_in_the_Road_s~0.jpg
A busy scene in Jamaica Row ​GoTo Post
 A snowy rush hour past C&A Modes Corporation Street.
 Heavy traffic in Corporation Street GoTo Post
Five Ways – Hagley Road tangle GoTo Post
 No lane discipline
 Lane Discipline gets better
No traffic jam but I always liked to watch trams under that bridge
where did the poles go ? GoTo Post
 More rush hour snow
 Heavy traffic merging. ​GoTo Post
Congested New Street in the 1960's
 40 years before 1960's but sign of things to come, look at the solid tyres on that Midland Red Bus.
nNew_St_in_the_1920s.jpg

Another old traffic jam but sign of things to come. Is that a man in the back of the lorry ?
New Street again, but you could still park a car. Go To Post
 Livery Street GoTo Post
uLiverySt.jpg


Rush Hour..A 118 to Walsall bus in view...
 New Street April 1951



Busy Bull Street in 1947
wBull_St_Traffic_1947.jpg
Rainy Rush Hour is it Brookvale Road ? those railings....
 Another snowy rush hour
Traffic heading north on Birchfield Road
Lancaster Place 1965 - spot the policeman.
Bull Ring Traffic
New Spagetti Junction
Looking towards the city - maybe an underpass is needed.
Looking north towards Walsall Rd - could do with an underpass
The Underpass has arrived - it is efficient but not pretty !
The Lord Mayor is about to try it.
It's 1929 but again signs of things to come. People nipping on to a bus held up in traffic in Bull Street.
It's 1947 in Corporation Street which is a one way street except for trams.
The police look on hoping it will sort itself out
Lancaster Place 1960s
Many of the photos will enlarge or Go To Posts if clicked upon. Some of the mini photos have Go To Post links to previous posts where the original comments can be read.
Click to expand...

There's plenty there to feast your eyes on!
 
Harbornite76 said:
There's plenty there to feast your eyes on!
Click to expand...
Hi Harbornite - Yes way back in Oct 2011 some 'russian' hacked the forum and all the photos were compromised and could not be used. So many of us started to put them back on but you can't put them back into other member's posts so I put some in a gallery as you have found. Another gallery of Lyn's interesting old evening mail pics here https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=21690&p=422536#post422536
oldmohawk
 
Thanks for publishing those threads "Harborneite76", takes me right back to my childhood, and those bleak Birmingham winters, with no central heating or double glazing, sitting on the bus with its bright lights and frost and steam on the windows. I can now smell the fog and see all the people tucked into there coats walking by, the drivers of cars peering through misty windscreens at the traffic, and the acre's of traffic we seemed to have in those far off days, the misty bleary shop-windows peeking out at the winter, and the smell of cigarette and pipe, and the odd cigar, smoke upstairs. I sold Hillman Imps in the mid seventy's to the UK Military going to NATO service, the "Hillman Imp Californian" was £380, tax free with NATO discount on top in 1975. Looking at all those pictures I could tell nearly all the makes and models still to day.Paul
 
paul stacey said:
Thanks for publishing those threads "Harborneite76", takes me right back to my childhood, and those bleak Birmingham winters, with no central heating or double glazing, sitting on the bus with its bright lights and frost and steam on the windows. I can now smell the fog and see all the people tucked into there coats walking by, the drivers of cars peering through misty windscreens at the traffic, and the acre's of traffic we seemed to have in those far off days, the misty bleary shop-windows peeking out at the winter, and the smell of cigarette and pipe, and the odd cigar, smoke upstairs. I sold Hillman Imps in the mid seventy's to the UK Military going to NATO service, the "Hillman Imp Californian" was £380, tax free with NATO discount on top in 1975. Looking at all those pictures I could tell nearly all the makes and models still to day.Paul
Click to expand...

They were actually posted by oldMohawk. Those pictures are evocative though, and it's nice that the have brought back memories. When people in the future see pictures taken today, they will reminisce as well. It must have been an interesting time to grow up in, sadly I wasn't around then.
 
I had a job at the Linwood plant wen i first moved up here in 1977. Too late for the Hillman's, but worked on the track making Avengers & Sunbeam's. Unfortunately was made redundant in 1980, but have never forgot my time there. Just work along the road at Glasgow Airport now, for the past 19 years.
 
I worked for Chrysler in the mid seventy's and sold a lot of Hillmans, as they had brought out that company in76, along with Simca France, and Talbot, my first company car was a Hillman Avenger estate GL, in peppermint green metallic, thought I was the bee's knee's.Paul
 
Hmmm, in some of those pictures the problem appears to be a case of too many buses! Of course, today they have reduced the number of lanes and due to the amount of traffic they didn't need to add sleeping policemen! They could try reducing the population!

Maurice
 
hi smithy if you go to post 48 it explains why you cant see the images and how you can now view them

lyn
 
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