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Birmingham buses

I think that the dark grey is the wrong colour for a bus. I used to have a car that colour and I lost count of the number of times other cars ran into me. When I am waiting for a bus at my local bus stop the only way that I can see it coming in the distance is because it has the brightest destination board display of any bus.
 
DavidGrain said:
In fact it has not changed since September 1939 when it was extended from Handsworth Wood to Hamstead
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When at school at Soho College on Soho Hill, in the 1950s, I used to catch the 16 from Hamstead Road ( just round the corner from the Roebuck Pub) every Friday to go to play hockey at the sports field, which might have belonged to Dennisons Watch Case Co. Think it was in Perry Barr.
 
Platinum buses are grey have comfy leather seats and you feel like you don't want to get off. Also has audio announcements as well as those on the on board bus monitors.

"The next stop is Camp Hill Middleway". (when the 50 is turning from Highgate Middleway onto Moseley Road).
 
Bob Davis said:
They are blue, red and.....GREEN!!!!! Why GR .........I cannot say it Harpers returned?
Bob
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The green bus was a special Wolverhampton bus used on the open day last autumn at the Yardley Wood Bus Garage 80th anniversary open day. Trips around the suburbs. Was also a blue one for Walsall.

 
Gerry Cannell said:
The 50 is the bus that I would catch from the back of Digbeth, and get off at Glenavon Road, Kings Heath. My Grandad and Nan lived in a self built wooden bungalow on the right hand side of Glenavon Road. That would be around 1948. No one can recall it. The 50 was an adventure for me, as I was only 8 years old and traveled from Great Barr on the 119, or the 118 if one came along, into town. Happy memories thanks guys.
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There were bungalows, maybe four of them, at the bottom of Glenavon rd, just before it started to climb again. There was a footpath there that used to come out in Sladepool Farm Rd, we called it The Gulley.
 
maypolebaz said:
There were bungalows, maybe four of them, at the bottom of Glenavon rd, just before it started to climb again. There was a footpath there that used to come out in Sladepool Farm Rd, we called it The Gulley.
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Hi! This was a green wooden building, NOT what you might call a bungalow, it was built by Grandad, and stood alone, on the bank on the right side of Glenavon, it was up a bit of a bank. I cannot find anyone that remembers it. Thanks anyway.
 
Not a museum quality model but nice all the same. I wonder why they chose a short lived WW2 production bus, and not a Midland Red home grown' one? Midland Red were famously known for their own products
The model represents 2583 HHA 60, a Guy Arab II, built by Park Royal in 1944. Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton Corporations had similar vehicle all with wooden slatted seats when delivered. Not comfortable I can assure you and BCT, being ware of the high standards given to and expected by their citizens soon got rid of their buses. Conventional seating was fitted during 1945 - 1947. This bus operated from Sutton Coldfield garage.
The Midland Red ones were re-bodied in 1951 which gave then another four to five years life with Midland Red.
 
Radiorails said:
Not a museum quality model but nice all the same. I wonder why they chose a short lived WW2 production bus, and not a Midland Red home grown' one? Midland Red were famously known for their own products
The model represents 2583 HHA 60, a Guy Arab II, built by Park Royal in 1944. Birmingham, Coventry and Wolverhampton Corporations had similar vehicle all with wooden slatted seats when delivered. Not comfortable I can assure you and BCT, being ware of the high standards given to and expected by their citizens soon got rid of their buses. Conventional seating was fitted during 1945 - 1947. This bus operated from Sutton Coldfield garage.
The Midland Red ones were re-bodied in 1951 which gave then another four to five years life with Midland Red.
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Hi! I am old enough to remember going to Birmingham on one of these. Slatted seats and all. Yes, I do know that this is certainly NOT a collectors model, but it does sit nicely with my WMPTE Aisla Volvo, that I have. As I mentioned earlier somewhere on these pages, I started at Sutton Garage in 1956, and left to become a full time soldier, returning to the same garage in 1976/7 the very hot summer included! At that time we had the D.9's and I really enjoyed driving them. Some drivers didn't, and that is understandable, they were not everyone's cup of tea. Then, we were slowly becoming part of the WMPTE and our buses were being repainted, slowly we became like every other garage on the system. A few weeks ago, I visited the museum at Aldridge, and what made my day was meeting up with a D.9 again. One of the men there (there were very few visitors that day) mentioned that he too was at Sutton, so we had a good old discussion about our years with the Red.
 
Interesting post Gerry.
My experience was with the wooden slatted principally was with BCT versions, not the Red's, however many ran to destinations north of the city but there were some which went to the south. Most of which got proper seating by 1946. These Park Royal bodies were not quite a severe in appearance as previous wartime manufactured bus bodies. Relaxations by the government were in hand. Basically wartime built buses were of a standard decided by the Ministry of War Transport and applicable all operators and they were allocated by their choice and not the operator. BCT received just under 150 of these buses between the end of 1942 and February 1946 all were register FOP.
The Red, on the other hand, got 91 buses, a mix of AEC, Daimler and Guy. But their bodywork was poor and getting worse so the Red had them rebuilt. They were registered in the GHA and HHA series. They lasted until 1955/57 with the Red.
 
I cannot supply a photo, as I gave the item away to a cousin (whose father made the model) when I was about 14 after having it for about six years.
Knowing my keen interest in buses, an uncle made a tin double deck Midland Red bus similar to the one in post 1633, by Gerry. Being angular in style I guess it was easier to make than say a FEDD. My uncle worked for the Midland Red at the time. I was delighted; I overlooked it shortcomings, no glazing to the windows, no destination boxes, no MidlanD name on the sides and the wheels made out of boot polish tins, soldered to keep the two parts together. :)
But. to an enthusiastic youngster, names and destinations could easily be glued in place and my rose tinted glasses overlooked the window and wheel matters. Eventually, I expect, my then young cousin grew up and I hope passed it on - if he had a son of course.

PS: I did not post this in the childhood toys thread as having no photo it would be better here, I believe.
 
From your knowledgeable posts I can tell you are an avid bus fan. My Dad had a butchers shop in Hall Street, Dudley for a while, and I would sometimes travel over to Dudley with him. Right opposite the butchers, was a milk bar (don't ask, they were something we had back in those days) and the son of the owner had a fleet of dinky buses, from every colour they made, and he even painted some into colours of corporations long gone. They were lined up on his window sill. I remember it like yesterday.
 
Yes I have mentioned Milk Bars, of the late forties and early fifties on BHF. Good places, no fights, drugs or any real problems usually, just the odd young lovers tiff. :laughing:
 
If you was at Sutton on those dates Gerry you must have met my brother Allen and the garage foreman Wyn, Allen went to Australia in1970 but Wyn continued there until retirement I think, they remained in touch until Allen died
 
Eric Gibson said:
If you was at Sutton on those dates Gerry you must have met my brother Allen and the garage foreman Wyn, Allen went to Australia in1970 but Wyn continued there until retirement I think, they remained in touch until Allen died
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I would have I guess mate. The names from those days that still stick in my mind are The union bloke Ted Smart. Drivers, Tony Shorthouse and his Dad, The boss, Mr. Comelio. It really was a happy place to work, while we were Midland red, very family like.
 
I remember the Midland Red Guy Arabs when I was going to school in the early 1950s although not with slatted seats.

The model makers would have used a bus that was in general use rather than a 'home made' BMMO as they could paint it in different liveries for different areas of the country.

A brewery in German had a D9 open top painted up in their colours and were selling models of the bus. I bought one on line and when it arrived I saw that is was actually a model Routemaster.
 
DavidGrain said:
I remember the Midland Red Guy Arabs when I was going to school in the early 1950s although not with slatted seats.

The model makers would have used a bus that was in general use rather than a 'home made' BMMO as they could paint it in different liveries for different areas of the country.

A brewery in German had a D9 open top painted up in their colours and were selling models of the bus. I bought one on line and when it arrived I saw that is was actually a model Routemaster.
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Bit of a shock when it arrived eh. I had a mate, who was a very well known artists. He specialised in paintings for post cards, a lot were of Birmingham and the areas around. Several featured a Guy Arab bus. Registration: HHA 60, the same as my model. there is one card of it passing the Clifton Cinema, Great Barr, on the 118 service, and another of it leaving Sutton Parade on the 107 service. His name was Allan Preece.
 
DavidGrain said:
I remember the Midland Red Guy Arabs when I was going to school in the early 1950s although not with slatted seats.

The model makers would have used a bus that was in general use rather than a 'home made' BMMO as they could paint it in different liveries for different areas of the country.

A brewery in German had a D9 open top painted up in their colours and were selling models of the bus. I bought one on line and when it arrived I saw that is was actually a model Routemaster.
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There were twenty post war Guy Arab III's, MHA 57 - MHA 76 (3557 - 3576) classified as GD6 (Guy Double Deck). They were the last 7'6" wide and exposed radiator buses for the Midland Red and has powerful Meadows (local people) engines. They entered service n 1949 and served the Dudley area and parts of the Black Country. They could be seen on the 125 and 140 services to Birmingham. They spent most of their lives based at Dudley, however due to subsidence and poor road surfaces in that area some had to be rebuilt in the mid 1950's. Most survived until 1962.
 

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It was the 125 which was my bus to school and I thought that the Guys were Dudley based.

In one job I had to go into Dudley and always borrowed my boss's company car. I think it was on the hills of Dudley that I burnt out his clutch, my own car was an automatic and I never had that trouble.
 
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