• 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
  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
    Luckily i create an offsite backup once a week! this has now been restored so we have lost a few days posts.
    im still fixing things at the moment so bear with me and im still working on all images 90% are fine the others im working on now
    we are now using a backup solution

Guided buses Tracline 65

Yep, what a waste! The idea looked good on paper but in practice a non starter. Tracline 65 I think it was called. I remember a young lady I knew at the time asking me what the little guide wheels on the front of some buses where for, I told her "The bus company was going to employ blind drivers and the wheels sounded a buzzer in the cab when they bumped into a kerb." She said "That will never work, how will the driver know if the passengers put the correct fare into the box.":D
 
Excuse my stupidity but what exactly is going on in the picture?:confused2:
 
Thanks Dave M,

I think i,ve got the gist of what was happening.

Unusual for the E.U. to use us as an experiment & mess things up:)
 
Bob, tracline 65 was a guided bus project that never got off the ground, the bus was automatically steered by two guide wheels on the front corners of the bus and ran in a kerbed track system.
 
Starting service this month is a guided busway down Cambridge way using the trackbed of a disused railway. A bus trial along it is shown here.
 
spaceout.gif
spaceout.gif
spaceout.gif
spaceout.gif
spaceout.gif
spaceout.gif
spaceout.gif
spaceout.gif

2537246890_b67affa437.jpg
spaceball.gif


2964 (WVP104A) started life with West Midlands PTE as 8104 in June 1984. This bus was one of a batch of MCW Metrobuses (8101-8114, A101WVP-A114WVP) allocated to Miller Street Garage that had been especially adapted by Metro Cammell Weymann to run along a 600 yard section of ‘Guided bus rail’ constructed on the 65 route at Short Heath in Birmingham.

Known as ‘Tracline-65’, the experimental guided-bus route was quite revolutionary at the time and is believed to have been instrumental in WMPTE’s/Centro’s eventual development of the Midland Metro. The experimental Tracline-65 proved that high capacity buses on mainline routes could run along reserved sections of narrow roadway, guided by rails thus avoiding traffic congestion, which was considered a big step forward in resurrecting trams in the west Midlands.

After the demise of Tracline-65, these ‘guided’ Metrobuses were demoted to normal bus work and received standard bus livery, receiving fleet numbers 2961-2974. However, the unique destination blind layout fitted to these vehicles would always give away their Tracline-65 origin.

Sadly, 2964 was destroyed in a fire at Hockley Garage in July 1994 and was subsequently sold for scrap. In accordance with WMT’s policy of that time, badly damaged buses were generally moved from garage to garage at night to minimise any adverse publicity. 2964 is pictured after being moved from Hockley to the rear of the former Tyburn Road Works, Birmingham and awaiting collection by Barnsley based scrap dealers, Wigley of Carlton, who bought the bus in November 1994 and broke her up. What a waste of money. Len.
 
Yes, it was a not a very clever idea, but too typical of the 60s and 70s. Every mode of transport was out of date except for the motor car and the aeroplane. They could do no wrong, but something was desperately needed to replace trains, trams and buses.
We had monorails, some hanging from one rail, and some actually supported on up to three rails,or with maglev, which still had to have a steerance rail either side of the main rail.
it would be nice to think that this is all a thing of the past, although I must admit we don't seem to be much wiser today. The Midland Metro from Brum to Wolverhampton became a wasted opportunity which has set the West Midlands back for generations (despite it's many potential advantages). And it's only a bit better in other British towns. But go to towns in France, USA, German (not to mention further East), and you will see a very different story.
We are still hidebound by our motor cars. How other people have to travel isn't our business.
Peter
 
The opening of the cambridge guided bus has been delayed because contrators painting signs on the road to warn drivers "buses only" have painted the letter N backwards, no doubt specialists brought in from abroad.It could only happen in england!
 
lencops said:
spaceout.gif
spaceout.gif
spaceout.gif
spaceout.gif
spaceout.gif
spaceout.gif
spaceout.gif
spaceout.gif

2537246890_b67affa437.jpg
spaceball.gif


2964 (WVP104A) started life with West Midlands PTE as 8104 in June 1984. This bus was one of a batch of MCW Metrobuses (8101-8114, A101WVP-A114WVP) allocated to Miller Street Garage that had been especially adapted by Metro Cammell Weymann to run along a 600 yard section of ‘Guided bus rail’ constructed on the 65 route at Short Heath in Birmingham.

Known as ‘Tracline-65’, the experimental guided-bus route was quite revolutionary at the time and is believed to have been instrumental in WMPTE’s/Centro’s eventual development of the Midland Metro. The experimental Tracline-65 proved that high capacity buses on mainline routes could run along reserved sections of narrow roadway, guided by rails thus avoiding traffic congestion, which was considered a big step forward in resurrecting trams in the west Midlands.

After the demise of Tracline-65, these ‘guided’ Metrobuses were demoted to normal bus work and received standard bus livery, receiving fleet numbers 2961-2974. However, the unique destination blind layout fitted to these vehicles would always give away their Tracline-65 origin.

Sadly, 2964 was destroyed in a fire at Hockley Garage in July 1994 and was subsequently sold for scrap. In accordance with WMT’s policy of that time, badly damaged buses were generally moved from garage to garage at night to minimise any adverse publicity. 2964 is pictured after being moved from Hockley to the rear of the former Tyburn Road Works, Birmingham and awaiting collection by Barnsley based scrap dealers, Wigley of Carlton, who bought the bus in November 1994 and broke her up. What a waste of money. Len.
Click to expand...
I know this is a old Post and sadly the OP has left us,. So maybe another can help what on Earth was on that bus that could burn and further more are others able to catch fire
I have never given it a lot of thought but I assume non combustible materials were used when ever possible
 
There's a lot that can catch fire, often through faulty electrics/electronics. The most obvious is fuel, but there are also oil deposits, plastic sheathed components and plastic covered wiring, plastics used i the interior and of course the upholstery. I recall quite a few salon and coach type buses - often on school runs - catching fire. Rarely does the vehicle get used again.
 
Radiorails said:
There's a lot that can catch fire, often through faulty electrics/electronics. The most obvious is fuel, but there are also oil deposits, plastic sheathed components and plastic covered wiring, plastics used i the interior and of course the upholstery. I recall quite a few salon and coach type buses - often on school runs - catching fire. Rarely does the vehicle get used again.
Click to expand...
I am in complete agreement, the bus shown in the picture burnt good and hot in the middle, good enough to melt the structure and sheet metal, I wonder if it was loaded with test equipment. .
Now I have not been on a bus in a very long time but as I recall they were in fact a little short on fabric, most of the interior was almost industrial as to stand up to the every day use and abuse
I am sad to say I have had my share of fire and autos, I had a driver very badly burnt a few years ago also my wife's car burnt to the ground 3 years ago and the way the plastic caught fire was scary.
I would have thought a bus was built using as much flame retardnt material as possible.
 
Tracline 65 at Short Heath and some info about the line. Viv.2844CC9D-ADA9-41E4-8322-EB9262AF1250.jpeg
 

Attachments

  • 595B8D84-6AD0-453A-88A5-386795F72509.jpeg
    595B8D84-6AD0-453A-88A5-386795F72509.jpeg
    189.2 KB · Views: 14
This was in my opinion one of those vanity projects. I am unable to understand what benefits it held over conventional buses or trams. If I recall correctly, was quite expensive to build and it did not last long. It was all removed a few years later.

They still have one in Cambridge, but what this one does better than an ordinary bus, still eludes me.
 
I've often wondered in these modern days why a signal carrying cable cannot be laid just under the road surface and vehicle with suitable receivers detecting the cable could be exactly guided along the road. It would be somewhat like 'driverless' cars only with more exact lower cost guidance.

Think of a Metro trams having wheels with tyres having the cable detection receiver underneath being exactly guided along Brum's roads. No expensive track laying (taking years) required, just overhead power wiring. Guidance receivers would be needed on each part of the tram to keep it on the 'invisible' track

I've just had a last minute thought that a cheap metal strip on the surface would be needed to provide electrical ground .... :grinning:
 
I read about this at the time. It seemed a wasteful fiasco as the guided trackway was only just over a third of a mile in length. It was doomed from the beginning. Experiments of that nature should have been done in private areas and roads and then, if found viable, and worthwhille, put into full scale route practice.
 
This project seems to have been at least 20 years to soon, computing power was still in the dark ages, and all the tech that goes with that today
Having made that statement I had no knowledge of a guided bus system ever being tried untill this thread
 
Probably the first trial run for the Tracline bus, before the track was even finished, mind you I suppose it was a good excuse for a lunch and a drink or two to discuss the test. No doubt all paid for by the council (sorry ratepayers). I note that back then it was still a mans world as I only can just about see one female and I suppose she was someones secretary taken along to take notes. I also note what looks like another bus parked up at the rear, which I assume was used to transport those observing the test, just one question why couldn't they have used the Tracline bus?

phil01.jpg
 
Phil said:
Probably the first trial run for the Tracline bus, before the track was even finished, mind you I suppose it was a good excuse for a lunch and a drink or two to discuss the test. No doubt all paid for by the council (sorry ratepayers). I note that back then it was still a mans world as I only can just about see one female and I suppose she was someones secretary taken along to take notes. I also note what looks like another bus parked up at the rear, which I assume was used to transport those observing the test, just one question why couldn't they have used the Tracline bus?

View attachment 137140
Click to expand...

This is a demonstration run for members of the Council and journalists, not on Streetley Road (note No 1930s council houses in the background) but possibly at the Road Research Laboratory facility near Nuneaton. The bus in the background transported them to the site, as the Trackline bus wasn't licenced yet - some legislation had to be altered as the 'steering arms' projected beyond the maximum permitted bus width.
 
Phil said:
Probably the first trial run for the Tracline bus, before the track was even finished, mind you I suppose it was a good excuse for a lunch and a drink or two to discuss the test. No doubt all paid for by the council (sorry ratepayers). I note that back then it was still a mans world as I only can just about see one female and I suppose she was someones secretary taken along to take notes. I also note what looks like another bus parked up at the rear, which I assume was used to transport those observing the test, just one question why couldn't they have used the Tracline bus?

View attachment 137140
Click to expand...
Once again Phil great picture, with all this folks there you would have thought one may have said this is a bad idea.
I see the driver getting some last minute instructions "keep it between the rails mate" or is he saying this will never work
This whole idea with a guided rail system reminds me of kiddies rides at Blackpool where you sit in and the steering wheel does nought
 
The central reservation along Streetly Road had lovely trees that were all cut down to put that stupid tracline in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top