• Welcome to this forum . We are a worldwide group with a common interest in Birmingham and its history. While here, please follow a few simple rules. We ask that you respect other members, thank those who have helped you and please keep your contributions on-topic with the thread.

    We do hope you enjoy your visit. BHF Admin Team

Bus transport during WW2

dennis

master brummie
I wonder if any of our mature friends
can remeber the buse's propelled by gas,
it was on'a tender mounted behind the bus
in a corrugated cylinder,I know they were fitted
to the 33 & 29 & 29a,and didn't they struggle to climb
the Kingstanding road by the "Golden Hind" pub
 
Yes Postie,
very much like that, the gas containers
were of corrugated metal, good picture,
once again you come up trumps, nice one O0
 
Buses running on producer gas during WW2

Just seen the piece on buses running on gas producer trailers. That was a subject very close to my heart, although I wasn't quite ten years old when the story starts. So at the risk of boring everyone's pants off, here goes.
It was on that last wartime visit in Easter 1943 to my dad, who was stationed in Bourne­mouth on RAF entertainments duties, that I first saw buses running with gas-producer trailers. Our hotel (next-door to the one where my dad was billeted) was only three minute's walk from the parking space behind the bus station. I spent countless hours there, watching the vehicles being serviced. Bags of coke were dropped into the top of a vertical drum of corrugated iron, to roast over the fire at the bottom, which of course had to be lit a long time before use. The gases which were released passed through a number of mysterious shaped filters and through a hose to the engine at the front of the bus. Staff at the termini had to load the coke and in extreme cases exchange the whole trailer. They were far from reliable, and it was frequently necessary for the driver to stop en route to raise enough gas to continue the journey. The green Hants & Dorset buses ran on the quieter suburban routes, but the red Wilts & Dorset buses came all the way from Salisbury, I believe.
Only days later in Birmingham, my nan took me to Coleshill, on a Midland Red No 165 bus. This bus (HA 8297 I believe) also ran on producer gas. Inside the bus was an advertisement showing a smiling sailor pointing backwards over his shoulder at the back of a bus with a gas-producer trailer. Below was the doggerel which I remember as:
"It runs on producer, does this bus,
A little bit slow, but not much fuss.
It pleases our seamen, so please don't cuss.
It runs on producer gas, does this bus."
In July 1943 my mother bought me a bicycle, and, at school lunch times I would cycle down to the 33 bus terminus in Finchley Road, where Birmingham Corporation AEC Regents were also running on producer gas at that time, and had to be serviced there.
On one occasion I remember a gas bus once came to us. Our neighbour Mr Checketts was a driving instructor at Perry Barr bus depot, and he would sometimes let a trainee driver bring the bus up Hill Crest Grove, when they would pop indoors for a cup of tea. It was usually the dual-control Regent in which the instructor sat behind the driver but was able to override his actions. On one occasion he brought one of Regents with its gas trailer. His trainee driver had difficulty turning at the banjo-head at the end of the road, and had to reverse, a tricky operation with a two-wheel trailer.
So much for my memories. Since those days, records have come to light which turn memories into factual history. It was in 1943 that he Ministry of War Transport gave instructions that, in order to save on valuable petrol, 10% of all bus fleets of over 100 vehicles were to be equipped to operate with producer gas, using a special trailer with a coke stove, gas washers and condensers. It seems that Midland Red responded in good faith, and equipped 30 of its older buses, and ran them on a number of routes. Staff were needed to rake out the furnace of each trailer and refuel it, and with luck the bus could complete its journey without further attention. But the flow of combustible gas was too sparse and too irregular for consistent performance, and hills were a nightmare for drivers and passengers. Moreover the exhaust gases emitted from the long flue pipe were lethal as well as being offensive - the odour of hydrogen sulphide was like rotten eggs. In early 1944 the association of bus operators demanded that they be required to use gas producers on only 5% of their fleet and finally in September 1944, the Ministry formally sanctioned the abandonment of the practice, but in effect it had ceased months earlier.
Birmingham Corporation made a grudging response by converting one of its oldest buses, AEC Regent No 484  and running it experimentally from Liverpool Street garage. Although they were far from impressed, they reluctantly converted another 15 buses (in effect 1.4% of the total fleet), and put them all on the hilly Kingstanding 33 route. Staff were provided at the Finchley Road terminus to rake out the furnace of each trailer and refuel it, and with luck it would complete a return journey without further attention. In early 1944 the required number of use gas producers was halved and finally in September 1944, the Ministry announced that "sufficient experience in the operation of producer gas-powered vehicles had been obtained," officially condoning the abandonment of the practice. (It is the writer's recollection that they had all but disappeared several months earlier, and that this was merely a rubber-stamp job by Sir Humphrey).
The pics below: Front and rear view of Corporation bus 484, the first to run on producer gas from Liverpool Street garage. Corporation bus 475 at Finchley Road, Kingstanding on 31.07.43, and Midland Red HA 9407, probably on route 159 (where I remember it running most of the time).
Peter
 
Far from boring Peter a great piece O0

By the way do you remember buses with the stairs to the top deck on the outside or it could have been a Tram :-\
 
Re: Open-staircase buses

Alf, thanks for you kind comment.
Yes I sort of remember Birmingham Corporation buses with open stairs, but they last ran in 1937 when I was just 4, but there was a scrap dealer next to the railway in Wellington Road, where three of them stood derelict all through the war and I used to see them from upstairs on an Outer Circle bus. a picture below, but it doesn't show the stairs very well.
But I do remember some London Transport ex-Tilling ST type buses temporarily 7 working in Birmingham on the 107 Midland Red route for a few months in 1942 - GJ 2026 was the number of one which I still remember. I think I once got a ride on one, but it may have been one of the enclosed-stair ex London General STL type. At about the same time Harper Brothers of HeathHayes were loaned one to carry workers from the Brownhills area to GEC or Kynoch works at Witton, and it made a daily trip past the bottom of our road.
 
Back again, this time with a pic of one of the London buses which ran on Midland Red routes in 1941-42. You can read a bit more about it on this site:
https://www.lbpt.org/st922.html
The marvellous thing is that this bus is still around!
But I'm surprised what they say about the London bus not being returned until 1946, as I never saw them on the road after the new Guy 'utility' buses arrived from late 1942 or early 43.
Peter
 
Peter what a great Photo of Tyburn works it hadn't changed that much when I worked there in the late 50s. Started off stripping engines then on to Fitters Mate, then Shunter & Delivery Driver I passed my Test while there. I might drag out a couple of Photos later
 
Good one Cromwell my job was to put Buses on those Pits at the back for the Fitters. How old is the Book.
 
I moved to Aldridge 1959/60 and having no transport of my own I had to use the bus at this time Birmingham Corperation buses terminated at Kingstanding circle, which meant disbarking and walking over the road to catch a bus to Aldrige this being Harpers Omnibus run from Aldridge garage in the village, running one an hour none on Sundays, these buses were the ones Peter mentioned they had a passage way on the right and you had to climb a step to gain access to a bench seat. Peter mentioning Harpers brought back many memory's of our early days in Aldridge thank you Peter
 
i moved to aldridge about the same time john and remember those buses i lived in sussex ave at the end of northgate
 
Back
Top