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Midland Red Around Birmingham.

I have been told, but I haven't seen them' that First have painted two buses in Midland Red livery to celebrate 100 years of Service 144 to Worcester.
First Kernow have one Bristol VR painted in Western National livery and a single decker painted in GWR brown and cream livery. Must be nice to see the Midland red livery again it would certainly bring back memmories of my journeys to visit my Mother at Blackwell convalescence home back in the early sixties.
 
That explains why I saw a Midland red single decker bus in Worcester a week ago. I was quite surprised , but,as i'm not very knowledgeable about buses. thought I was just wrong when I thought they had disappeared.
 
Yes mike
These buses have been coming back and forth to droitwich and Worcesters city to mark the centuryian of the Maggie red as kids we called
Trying to catch the red numbers especial the trolley reds meaning the single decker coming from town
And along the Lichfield road it was a new phase we meaning all the kids up cromwell terrace
And there would have been at Least ten kids. We was all armed with pencil and exercise books bought from old diggers news agents
On Lichfield road when we seen red in the distance as far as Aston cross coming we would all charge along to old mattys radio shop
And stand there as the red used to stop just short of mattys radio and television shop but more often than that they would surge passed us
One or the other of us would shout did any body got the number eventually we packed that up and went train s
Rotting down at Aston Station, but even that was short lived as our parents did not want us to walk down there to the station
But by then conker season.came around and Mrs ilesley from the shop at the bottom of the terrace gave us all a tin of conkers from her posh garden in harbourne
It was very rare went on that Miggi. Red bus mainly on the trams after the change over we traveled on the old BCT cream busses
For half penny fare then it went up to 1 Penny fare did you get the coloured tokens for travelling on the busses for school kids we're did we're have all colours
Best wishes and a merry christmas and a happy. And healthy and prosperous new year to you and one and all Alan,,,Astonian,,,,
 
I have been told, but I haven't seen them' that First have painted two buses in Midland Red livery to celebrate 100 years of Service 144 to Worcester.

Hi, I'm not sure if I have this in the right context, but I saw this a couple of weeks ago in Sheldon, I was so pleased that I managed to get my phone out in time to take the shot. It brought back many memories of travelling too and from my Nan and Grandads in Rubery many years ago.

misplaced 144 March 2015 copy.jpg
 
I see that Midland Red D9 (fleet number 5415 - EHA415D). has been sold and will reside in Liverpool I am not certain if it will stay in preservation does anyone have more information ?
 
Yes that and the Leyland PD2 pretending to be a Stratford Blue have gone to an 'operator' (who does not have an operators licence) as "wedding buses". £18k for the D9, £15k for the PD, both + 20% VAT. I see the D9 having a short life, or becoming an open topper.
 
Yes that and the Leyland PD2 pretending to be a Stratford Blue have gone to an 'operator' (who does not have an operators licence) as "wedding buses". £18k for the D9, £15k for the PD, both + 20% VAT. I see the D9 having a short life, or becoming an open topper.

Once again financial gain put before the long term welfare of an historic bus, even if the current owner decided he wants shut of it the asking price will be out of reach of enthusiasts and preservationists.
 
Seen today on Bargain Hunt a pair of 1930s(?) Brass or Bronze Chocks bearing the name Midland Red. Apologies for quality I had to grab it off the TV.



Midland Red Chocks.jpg
 
Most of these are post WW2, and are usually quite tarnished. There are some "new" copies of poor quality, slightly smaller than the originals and the left hand one (at least) seems to be one of those. Was a value given? Genuine ones fetch typically £40-55, although some appear on e-bay at higher prices and (sometimes) sell.
 
Seeing those metal chocks reminds me of the wooden ones we bought every year as they all dissapeared over the winter, no doubt used as firewood. I would hate to think how often we would have had to replace brass/phosphor bronze ones as they would have certainly been weighed in.
 
I put the post below in the Birmingham Buses thread but maybe it also deserves a place here...
When I was a young child most of my bus journeys started on a No 188 Midland Red FEDD just like this one, I might have even travelled on it at sometime. The bus is turning out of Thornbridge Avenue into Beeches Road by the Cottage Stores which used to be the old terminus. The photo was taken late August 1957 and in the distance can be seen houses in Sandy Lane. The M6 motorway would block the view today.
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August 1957 must have been right at the end of the life of this bus. I do remember occasionally travelling on FEDDs to and from school in the late 1950s. I think that 188 was a route which the Midland Red operated on behalf of BCT and it was taken over by BCT soon after this photo was taken.
 
The registration is indistinct but the bus is one of those registered EHA or FHA. They were built in 1938, rebuilt by Aero & Engineering (Merseyside) between 1949 and 1951 and withdrawn between 1956 and 1960. Some of the earlier withdrawals were used for driver training and staff transport. In my view they were the most elegant of the pre-WW2 buses that the B&MMO had. Some their earlier double deck vehicle were peculiar in their appearance. One thing I recall about FEDD's was the fuel aroma often associated with them due to the location beneath the drivers seat of the fuel tank. I mentioned this in another thread.
**PS: Based on the details of registration in the following post I note that this was one of the last of these type buses to be withdrawn in November 1960.
 
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The reg of the bus in post#115 is FHA 840. The bus below EHA 253 is being used for driver training. It must have been a cold day because the supervisors have the doors shut. The date is possibly early 1960s.
NavigationSt1963.JPG
 
In the summer of 1964 whilst attending Lyndon High school in Daylesford Road, off Lyndon road ,I went on holiday to Barcelona in Spain with the Lyndon youth club based at the school. This was in an ex Midland Red single decker.
It was one of the ones built in Edgbaston not sure of its vintage. It got all the way there and back, with just one repair in northern France on the way there. It had problems with the rear axle drive. Once fixed it was OK.
3 days there and 3 back with a stop in Paris.
Ahh happy days.
 
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