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Midland Red at Digbeth

good afternoon all
i have just read with interest your midland red stories looked at the pictures of buses and i was wondering if there are any photos available of the 160 bus route that my family used to use when we lived on kingshurst iused to catch this bus every morning to get me to work to meet up at the gate at saltley so that i could get the no 8 to newtons that was my place of work , and the buses were always packed.
phil
Heres one Phil.
 
Hi. Mike. Just found a photo of 4086, getting close.
Many thanks John, I'm guessing that might be a Banbury D7 because of the City of Oxford saloon sharing the picture, but can't place the location. The City of Oxford saloon looks to be going to Bicester but not sure of that either. Seeing the bloke in the uniform with shoulder flashes reminds me of the letter we received with our first uniform on joining the Red in BMMO days.
Mike
 
hi john
just seen your reply to my post about the 160 many happy hours where spent on the bus before lambrettas and cars took over my travelling mode, looking at the regs of the buses it would have been about 1967 and i would not have been using them so much them but i remember when front loading buses came on route i always tried to catch them, i remember it used to terminate at the mountford pub ,then fordbridge road then finally the kingshurst pub after that i used to walk / cycle to my aunts at shard end and catch the 55 , because it was cheaper ! happy days
phil
 
Mike / Lloyd. Just spoken to Vic Wilson and told him about this site. He was very interested and is going to check it out. Watch this space. John
 
Hi Lads, my wife Enid and I were married on the 28 August 1954, on the
Sunday afterwards my brother took us down to Digbeth Coach Station to
get the coach to St Ives in Cornwall for our honeymoon. Cant quite remember but I think it took ten hours! would that be about right for those
days, ? Its a good job we had a lot to talk about, what we didnt know at the time was that our love affair was to last 54 and a half years. cheers
Bernard
 
Well it was known as the Friendly Midland Red in those days Bernard (or did you maybe travel in some other company's coach?). Ten hours would certainly have been about right. It used to take 5 hours to get to London before the M1 opened.
 
Mike / Lloyd. Just spoken to Vic Wilson and told him about this site. He was very interested and is going to check it out. Watch this space. John

Thanks for that jfc. Nice to hear from you - hope you are well, you haven't been on here lately
Mike
 
Hi Lads, my wife Enid and I were married on the 28 August 1954, on the
Sunday afterwards my brother took us down to Digbeth Coach Station to
get the coach to St Ives in Cornwall for our honeymoon. Cant quite remember but I think it took ten hours! would that be about right for those
days, ? Its a good job we had a lot to talk about, what we didnt know at the time was that our love affair was to last 54 and a half years. cheers
Bernard
It used to take 8 hrs plus to get from Stockland Green to Torquay in the middle sixties and this was overnight. A38 most of the way with two stops, one at Gloucester and the other near Wellington. Used to love watching the sunrise on the way down but hated the jams on the Exeter bypass on the way back. Also remember crawling up Redhill in our Bedford Vals whilst other companies Leylands etc flew past.
 
Hi Mike, yes I am almost sure we went by Midland Red coach to Cornwall all
those years ago the Midland staff were always more friendly than the BCT, the ex/bus men seem to have found a forum within a forum on this
site, it must great to talk over old times with so many of your old mates.
I can remember the first week I did on afternoons at the Post Office, it was 1pm til 9 six day week, on Saturday lunchtime you collected a padlock
key, and walked to the Bull Ring to meet the, Midland Red from Sutton Coldfield the driver would have a bag of mail behind his seat with a chain
and padlock, you gave him the key to undo the bag, and then walked to
the sorting office, This was a way give Sutton a later collection on Sat;
Oh Happy Days, where,oh where have all the years gone??? cheers now
Bernard
 
Great memories Bernard. I remember in the early 1960's we used to take a bag of mail from the Bull Ring out to Marston Green Tavern weekday mornings. The postman used to put the bag on front nearside seat and chain and padlock it to the seatframe. On arrival at the Tavern another postman was waiting with a key to take the bag off us.
Mike
 
Right up to the mid 80s we used to pick up the Nottingham evening papers, They were put on the 14.35 X99 from Nottingham Victoria and they were collected at Breedon Post Office. In those days, I used to swap duties to drive the X99. Friday's to Monday's we used to have to "dupe" most trips through Nottingham from Birmingham and Coalvile used to "dupe" the route from Nottingnam. Nowadays the service, I believe, has been abandoned.
 
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Thanks for all the lovely memories and pictures folks! My Midland Red days began in 1954 when we were living in Droitwich and I used to travel on the 144 to Fernhill Heath primary school. I can remember being afraid of losing my return ticket (I probably did so once or twice but I'm sure the kindly conductor let me off). Later we moved to Birmingham and lived at Sparkbrook and Yardley and later at Sutton Coldfield where I commuted to and from school on the 107. By this time I was an avid bus spotter and occasionally took advantage of the Day Anywhere ticket for a long day's outing. The ticket cost 5 shillings for juniors in those days. I used to deliver newspapers from the newsagent at New Oscott (twice a day six days a week AND Sunday morning all for 15 shillings a week!)
 
hello Thylacine i used to drive buses from Sutton in the 50s and 60s i did the 107 route a lot so you could have travelled on my bus i now live in Queensland
 
G'day gibbo2005! What a small world! Are you enjoying our hot summer while our stay-at-home Brummie friends are freezing?

Am I right in remembering that the occasional FEDD was used on the 107 in the 1961-1964 period?
 
View attachment 45682Hi, Just found the site and the Pic of 4035 - thought I recognised 'the old girl' from my early days with MR! Found my log of training days - wonder if anyone remembers any of these instructors?
 
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hi all
What was it about the Midland Red was it because the 50's were in the main so drab they added colour to the landscape and were never forgotten and possibly because I only took one when on an outing or holiday.
paul
 
hi guys
what about the old midland red social club is it still n use at digbeth
did they move as well or is it completley closed down for ever
just like the rest or should i say most social clubs have folded
best wishes astonian ;;;
 
The Midland Red Club building in Digbeth still stands but has been an Irish Bar for some years now.

Here is one of the last coaches I drove for Midland Red before I finished at Digbeth soon after the takeover of Midland Red Coaches by Midland Red West. It had a Leyland Royal Tiger chassis fitted with a Duple body in the livery of National Holidays whose tours we did under contract until Shearings bought them out. The location here is on the parking patch in Rea Street that was originally a row of houses that were back to back with the garage wall next to the Ford Fiesta. Behind the second coach is the side wall of the Anchor pub on the corner of Bradford Street.
 
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HI Mike
manythanks for than info;i have not been in digbeth for years
i ran an irish bar in digbeth many many years ago but the red was the red
best wishes astonian ;;
 
Thylacine, belated welcome to the Forum, there's quite a few ex Red men here. Did you know Dai Morgan the mad Welshman at Sutton or Dave Oughton on the engineering side?
Mike
 
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