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Birmingham buses

Summer riding maybe ,we had some bad winters then did,nt we?
i wish my car would do mpg like the comet though.
i think this is a cool picture ?
regards dereklcg.
 
Nice image Derek ..... I got this piccy on print , trouble is the bus is
going the wrong way .......ragga :)
 
hello Birmingham bus collectors.
i found an interesting pic on the web,
is it fact or fiction did it happen ?
and i bet there are a few faces people know or knew on this pic?
regards dereklcg
 
ragga said:
Nice image Derek ..... I got this piccy on print , trouble is the bus is
going the wrong way .......ragga :)
Click to expand...

Don't forget that in the pre WMPTE days, Corporation buses always showed the outer destination in both directions - confusing for a tourist, who wasn't to know!
Also 'Birmingham' was never on the destination blinds, only the vague 'City'.
 
Cheeers Lloyd , Thanks for the extra info :)
Did the no 56 have Newport road on their destination
at some point ???
ragga:)
 
As Lloyd says BCT buses always showed the outer destination because direction of travel was shown on the bus stop plates i.e. TO CITY or FROM CITY. Apart from out to Dudley via Oldbury or West Bromwich most BCT buses were already within Birmingham. Showing City was only needed if the bus was changing over to another outward route, running 'Special' to take up service at some point along a route or direct back to garage. Later front loaders were fitted with a small To/From City blind below the main destination display. In WMPTE days this allowed the PTE to put up their standard format bus stop plates showing only service numbers as they gradually replaced the old BCT plates.
 
dereklcg said:
hello Birmingham bus collectors.
i found an interesting pic on the web,
is it fact or fiction did it happen ?
and i bet there are a few faces people know or knew on this pic?
regards dereklcg
Click to expand...


The shot on the left is mock up or a cock up depending on your point of view the one on the right is a part of a birmingham tradition
https://my.bus.photos.fotopic.net/c1022350.html

is of a couple of years back at Acocks Green garage, now as far as I know only brum does this when someone retires there may be other operator who do this
 
Saltley Viaduct #331 is heading into Birmingham I think and the road leading off to the right would be old Mill Lane. If you look to the left of the bus above the wisp of smoke you can see a row of houses curving away up a hill. I think that would be Havealock Road...possibly Phillimore. In the distance there seems to be an inner circle 8 bus turning out of Adderley but it does not seem far enough back. I seem to remember a row of shops before the corner. A vets and fishing tackle shop was there. Otherwise it is all very familiar.
 
Rupert said:
Saltley Viaduct #331 is heading into Birmingham I think and the road leading off to the right would be old Mill Lane. If you look to the left of the bus above the wisp of smoke you can see a row of houses curving away up a hill. I think that would be Havealock Road...possibly Phillimore. In the distance there seems to be an inner circle 8 bus turning out of Adderley but it does not seem far enough back. I seem to remember a row of shops before the corner. A vets and fishing tackle shop was there. Otherwise it is all very familiar.
Click to expand...

Hi ,

The Bus is facing into city, and the road that the motorcycle has just passed is Crawford Street with the London Tavern on the corner. The next right hand turning is Hereford Square (a small 'L' shaped cul de sac)
with the Midland Bank on the corner. I dont remember the vet, but the
fishing tackle (and junk shop) was Jimmy Chaplain's, just a couple of doors from the corner of Adderley Park Road. He also had a small
shop on the Alum Rock Road on the left just before you get to the Ward End Tavern. A bit difficult to tell whether the smoke is coming from the Metropolitan Cammell Works or the houses beyond . Definitely 'this' side of the Washwood Heath Road though (with reference to the position of Adderley Park Road), so possibly Clayton Road.

Kind regards

Dave
 
Thanks. I only have the 1890 survey map on line to look at and the road on the right...Crawford is it... is on that as well as the pub and culdesac. The only name that I can see on the first road is Mill Lane...leading to Duddeston Mill or maybe a lower one I suppose but the end of it that joins High Street has a bend in it so it may have been Crawford for that part back then. Or maybe the name changed over time. The picture is so very familiar for some reason and I did not have to look at the title.
 
Rupert said:
Thanks. I only have the 1890 survey map on line to look at and the road on the right...Crawford is it... is on that as well as the pub and culdesac. The only name that I can see on the first road is Mill Lane...leading to Duddeston Mill or maybe a lower one I suppose but the end of it that joins High Street has a bend in it so it may have been Crawford for that part back then. Or maybe the name changed over time. The picture is so very familiar for some reason and I did not have to look at the title.
Click to expand...

Hi there

Crawford Street 'cuts the corner' and finishes in Adderley Road not far from Duddeston Mill Road, so it may well have been called Mill Lane in earlier times. It's a great picture, and I can remember it looking exactly like this. Would be interesting to know what year its from. One point
about the bus though. It's carrying 56A rather than 56. If there was a suffix letter it usually meant it wasn't going the full route so maybe this one would have turned round at Gosta Green? Anyone remember?

Kind regards

Dave
 
Just to confirm that the road called mill lane in the 1890 map was Crawford street by 1902
mike
 
There was another mill between Duddeston Mill and High Street Saltley. It probably dissapeared when the canal was built. Mill lane went past it also.
 
Mike and Lloyd, I know it is horse drawn, but it is a bus and I did not know where else to post it. I have no information with the picture other than what you can see.
 
The emblem on the side is the BET (British Electric Traction) 'Wheel and Magnet' indicating that the horse bus was operated by one of the tramway companies in this area. Eventually all of these BET bus operations were combined when they considered going over to motor buses into a new BET subsidiary company, the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Co Ltd. You know it as Midland Red.
 
Birmingham Express Motor bus. A Milnes Daimler outside the Birmingham Council House. 1904.
 
There were six of these 16/20 hp Milnes Daimlers, registered O 264-9, new in 1904. As you say, they were new to the Birmingham Motor Express company, one of the BET group companies later amalgamated to form the Midland 'Red'.
The Milnes Car Co. was the bodymaker, a tramcar manufacturer with factories at Birkenhead and Hadley, near Wellington, Shropshire (now part of Telford New Town) - the latter later became Sankeys foundry, making steel baths amogst other things!
They also built motor vehicles - or imported them (Daimler from Canstatt, Germany) and Milnes Daimler buses and lorries were fairly common among the few commercial motors around at the time.
They were not particularly reliable, and certainly not quiet - the final transmission, rather than chain drive as other makes used, was a gear-ended shaft which drove gear teeth on the inside face of the rear wheels. Road grit soon got into these exposed gears and wore them, there survive reports of constables ordering buses off the road for 'excessive noise'!
O 268 became a lorry in 1905, then a charabanc with registration O 1514.
O 264/7 became charabancs in 1907, registered O 2619/20.
All were withdrawn and sold later in 1907.

There were nine 24 hp Milnes Daimlers, too (O 1270-8) - slightly more reliable, but they went in 1907 as well. Here's one.
 
Wendy i remember Carol Partridge used to live near the Glebe, new her, her husband and her 2 boys.
 
Once again Lloyd, thank you for a very informative rundown on that picture. As with the other thread just outside Birmingham I am not trying to 'catch anyone out'. I have the pictures but very little if any information with them.
 
Stitcher said:
I am not trying to 'catch anyone out'. I have the pictures but very little if any information with them.
Click to expand...

Glad to share the information I have, if anyone is interested. It's an aspect of history I find fascinating, and have learnt a lot about over the decades!
 
Lloyd said:
The emblem on the side is the BET (British Electric Traction) 'Wheel and Magnet' indicating that the horse bus was operated by one of the tramway companies in this area. Eventually all of these BET bus operations were combined when they considered going over to motor buses into a new BET subsidiary company, the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Co Ltd. You know it as Midland Red.
Click to expand...

The Midland Red revived the Wheel & Magnet emblem on this bus specially painted to mark the 75th Anniversary of the company in 1979.
 
How we (in the know) scoffed when that 75 year anniversary bus came out. Where did they dream up the livery? It was only the standard red, with a bit of lining out and 'Wheel and Magnet' emblems. Had they asked the enthusiasts, we could have told them:
.Buses carrying the BET wheel & magnet were pre-Midland Red, and were Green and Cream.
.The first Midland Red (open top) double deckers had a red lower deck and black upper deck panels. Later, when roofed 'deckers came in, they were red with two cream bands and a silver roof.
.The only vehicles to have cream window surrounds were the 1933-5 LRR type saloon coaches.
Still, at least they did something to celebrate 75 years.

When West Midlands painted a bus for each garage in 'heritage' liveries (including Walsall, West Brom, Wolverhampton and Coventry as well as Birmingham), they came to Wythall and asked. We were able to give accurate livery descriptions, colour samples, and side panel name examples for them to recreate an accurate replica of the old colour schemes. Very smart they looked too!
 
Interestingly, the Acocks Green Heritage bus outlived the others in BCT livery and ended up looking down at heel and carrying advertisements. Any photos of it with the ads on out there please?
I suspect LLoyd left out the Birmingham Central Garage Heritage bus it has appeared earlier in posting #341. It was unusual for being a Scania/Alexander used mainly on the 50 route. For most people the BCT livery didn't suit the Scania as much as it did the Metrobuses.
 
In posting #230 we had a montage of photos of BCT Leyland No. 296. Have just turned up what must be one of the first photos ever taken of 296, an official Leyland Motors view prior to delivery. Unfortunately I've had to blow it up a bit from an old Leyland magazine pic so it's not a good clear image. Note the shine on the roof.
 
motorman-mike said:
In posting #230 we had a montage of photos of BCT Leyland No. 296. Have just turned up what must be one of the first photos ever taken of 296, an official Leyland Motors view prior to delivery. Unfortunately I've had to blow it up a bit from an old Leyland magazine pic so it's not a good clear image. Note the shine on the roof.
Click to expand...

Nice to see a photo of 296 before delivery Mike, John 70
 
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