Meb Van

[jennyann]

Replacement image from Daily Mail archives. Original image was lost.

Re the photo of the MEB Van. Haven't seen one for decades. In l952 my Father, who was stationed at Bournville Power Station supplying power to factories throughout the area, was called to the head office of MEB which was located in Dale End. He was told that he was being made mobile and had to learn to drive as soon as possible. He took his first course of driving lessons and failed his first test. We were all
worried that he might fail the next test but thankfully he passed. Our family was certainly happy about that.
So came into our lives one of the vans portrayed in the photo. I can still remember the licence plate number HWP 548. My two brothers and myself were never allowed to have a ride in the van due to
insurance restrictions however, we did have a chance to sit in the van
and carry out a very important task.

In his new capacity as a Switching Engineer, my father's base was at Chester Street and his area was Aston and Erdington. He would check the power being supplied by the Electricity Board to the big factories like Fort Dunlop, Fisher and Ludlow, Ansells, HP, ICI and GEC etc. to make sure they had enough on stream to complete the production shifts in these factories. When he was on shift sometimes he would come home for a cooked mealand one of us children had to sit in the van, which had a two way radio installed in it, to listen for any messages that were directed to my Father whilst in was parked in front of our house. All Switching Engineers in the field in Brum had special code numbers and whenever my Father's code was read out we had to run into the house and fetch him as quickly as possible.

It was exciting being in that van outside especially at night with the glow of the radio, waiting to hear Dad's code come over the radio and then race into the house mostly shouting that there was a special message. In later years the MEB replaced the small vans with much large ones with side sliding doors. I liked the cosiness of the small vans. It's lovely to see the van again.