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Birmingham buses

Dave M said:
Smile May 2010
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This looks like 3002 - LOG 302.
One of a pair of lightweight buses Daimler CLG5's with MCCW bodies - only two of this classification made - the other being PMT REH 500. It had rubber mounted windows rather than the usual wooden framed ones, that why the front upper deck looks more like an Atlantean. It was built in late October 1954 and lasted until July 1972. The bus always worked from Acocks Green garage.
 
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Radiorails said:
This looks like 3002 - LOG 302.
One of a pair of lightweight buses Daimler CLG5's with MCCW bodies - only two of this classification made - the other being PMT REH 500. It had rubber mounted windows rather than the usual wooden framed ones, that why the front upper deck looks more like an Atlantean. It was built in late October 1954 and lasted until July 1972. The bus always worked from Acocks Green garage.
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Thanks Alan
Bob
 
Radiorails said:
They are usually bright yellow. I think they are bright yellow so that other large vehicles can see them. Not just on Birmingham's buses, they are also elsewhere.
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Its more of a health and safety issue to the public than to be seen by other large vehicles, because the mirror arms mainly on the near side stick out further than they use to, believe it or not , a few taller members of the public have bumped their heads on these when they were just black, which sometimes they were hard to see when the light isn't very good, therefore we had to buy the yellow mirrors which can be seen when the light isn't very good.....
 
Richard McNeill said:
What software do you use for colourising photos?
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I use the free open source GIMP 2.10.10. It works on Windows and Linux operating systems. It is a big file at 1Gb and can do pretty well anything Photoshop can do but is not so user-friendly. Type Gimp into Google or Bing search. Look in the Hobbies thread and see me learning how to use it ... :)
ps edit ... the pic in #1395 is colourised and I thought I had the 'primrose' yellow a bit pale.

Hobbies 2015 - 2019

I have just started making the Xmas cards, the first one is for an elderly lady friend who came to England years ago from Graz in Austria. I get images from the internet and use glossy photo card for the front and back and thick plain paper for pages 2 + 3. The paper is in landscape mode and...
birminghamhistory.co.uk birminghamhistory.co.uk
 
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I am not quite where to post this, either Buses or Computer Help. I am looking for a bus app that shows the buses on a map. I have the Nat Express WM one that shows maps with bus stops and your location and bus times, but it does not show the bus on the map. I am sure there is an app out there but can’t find it. Many thenks
 
I looked for a national one but could not find one. There is a local one for me in Reading, but that is not much good to you
 
I have the Network WM app. Shows you the bus map as well as rail and metro. Also NetNav which shows you the closest bus stops on GPS. As well as the NX West Midlands app (they had a new app but it failed so they continued to update the old app).
 
OC 504 (504) was a Morris-Commercial "Imperial". It was the first of three 504- 506 each having different bodywork. This bus was bodied by Brush of Loughborough and has petrol engines. It entered service but was withdrawn by April 1942 die, it is thought that major mechanical repairs were needed. A further 47 of these Morris-Commercials were bought OC 507 - OC 553. Many were stored during WW2 but some lasted until 1947. They were not one of the cities most successful types, which had been ordered with the view that Morris-Commercial, being a local company, was a good idea. There is more detail elsewhere on the Forum as far as I remember.
One of the 47 batch, OC 527, is at Wythall awaiting restoration.
 
ellbrown said:
I have the Network WM app. Shows you the bus map as well as rail and metro. Also NetNav which shows you the closest bus stops on GPS. As well as the NX West Midlands app (they had a new app but it failed so they continued to update the old app).
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I have just found a bus tracker on bustimes.org. Not many buses being tracked but maybe it will get better with time.
 
Not all timetabled buses turn up, usually only the real time buses. And it's not always accurate on the NXWM app. Some days get to my bus stop and only have to wait a few minutes. Other days, something like 10 to 15 minutes!
 
Don't know what happens in the Birmingham area but the major bus route stops here in Cornwall have visual displays which gives you real time info. First bus also have a Facebook page that gives info regards any problems with delayed buses, in my opinion not a good thing as just shows how unreliable the service is.
 
1568717050010.pngThis was the 94 route that I remember, no bangers then. Interesting that the 94 bus photo posted by Ell says Chelmsley Wood which, I suppose, is a natural extension to the old trolley route.
 
Radiorails said:
View attachment 137497This was the 94 route that I remember, no bangers then. Interesting that the 94 bus photo posted by Ell says Chelmsley Wood which, I suppose, is a natural extension to the old trolley route.
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No, Allan, the 94 Trolley Bus was one of the Coventry Road services which was replaced by motor bus route 58 in July 1951. The Chelmsley Wood services would take a different route out of Birmingham.
 
Thanks for the clarification David. Chelmsley Wood, was just that, when I lived in Solihull, not large housing estates. I was riding on the trolleys on the last day. I Only made short trips in and out of the city in order to ride on as many different ones as I could. I always had a preference for the fifty 6 wheelers (OC 1117 - OC 1166), I guess the six wheels made them somewhat different.
 
ellbrown said:
Just saw it again as the 65 on The Priory Queensway. Didn't take a new photo of it. But was 4780. The 65 goes to Perry Common via Aston Station and Short Heath.
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On a recent visit home, 2 to 3 years ago, I did the nostalgia thing on the buses, caught the 7 to Perry Common, Court Lane, but went back to town on the 65 which apparently now also terminates there. But this was not a WM bus, but a black single decker of uncertain vintage, but I am sure 20 to 30 years old, dirty, rattley and driven at madcap speed, however we did not pick up a passenger and drove past most of the stops. The bus did carry a front destination route number of 65 and was waiting at the Court Lane terminus. Unfortunately like most of the buses nowadays, it carried no makers name, either chassis or body. Why do modern buses no longer show their origin?

Bob
 
Bob, If it was black it would have been operated by Diamond a subsidiary of Rotala.
Diamond operated a policy of branding their vehicles by colour for different areas so Black Diamond was for the Black Country, Blue Diamond was for Birmingham and Red Diamond was for Reditich but now they seem to operate anything anywhere. I have seen Wessex liveried buses in my local area.
 
Lloyd said:
"I want the one at the back first!"
A line up of 24 of the 1934 batch of 70 Daimler COG5's - the first big delivery of diesel engined buses for the Corporation - which must have taken a while to arrange. It has been suggested that the location is Holford Drive, Perry Barr - could anyone confirm or deny that please? (I now know it was taken at the University, from the clock tower.)
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military parking. lol
 
Goffy said:
I remember the Birmingham Corporation buses with their open platform at the back, you could run after the bus after it had left the stop and jump on, and how many times did you wait for the bus to stop before you got off. I used to get travel sick as a child and spent a lot of time on that platform. but am I right in saying that the Midland Red had concertina doors across that platform or was that much later?
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that brought back memories, running and jumping on, some times missing the step,and running like mad before loosing the bar and ending up lying in the road.:sob:
 
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