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Birmingham buses

hi Alf, really enjoying the bus site you found
keep you busy for a bit,lot,s of interesting buses
and the like cheers mate regards dereklcg
 
john70 said:
Hi. Leanderpoole. Heres another photo of Daimler 2847, which is still around in preservation, and one of 3859, similar to 3858 you asked about.
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Hi Lloyd and John

Thanks for posting the pics. One of my friends in Scotland an ex Coventry driver showed me a pic of her driving 3849 when it was at Perry Barr as a training vehicle back in the mid 1980's. Don't know whether I can get her to upload though it as she is very ill in hospital at the moment.

Didn't know the 3800's were called Jumbos. I thought that honour went to the 3900 series which if I remember correctly were the cause of threatened industrial action due to their additional seating capacity.

Regards

Leo
 
John70,ta for pic,they looked a solid bus,were they made that way,or were they mods from d/deckers do you know?
pete
 
The post war Leyland Tiger PS2 (Passenger Single deck chassis, type 2) buses had bodies similar to Birmingham's pre-war Daimler COG5's and were constructed to the Metro-Cammell patent design, but at the Weymann factory at Addlestone, Surrey and were thus classed as 'Weymann' bodies. Metro-Cammell and Weymann were associated companies at the time, and used the MCW (Metro-Cammell-Weymann) name in place of the former title MCCW (Metropolitan Cammell Carriage and Wagon company).
Here's one of those pre-war Daimlers for you.75 AOP 75.jpg78 AOP 78 .jpg
 
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john70 said:
Hi. Mike. I dont remember any of of those PD2s at the Wood, the only one I do recall is 296 which I think had a Leyland body on it, thanks for the info. John.
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Here is 296 for you John, seen at the old 24 terminus at Warstock. This was a lively bus to drive. Two things I remember well about it are the half turn staircase used to finish one tread from the platform edge so anyone galloping down the stairs were likely to go straight off the bus, (not good when it was still moving!). The other thing was for the front blind to be changed, the handle was in the driver's cab but there was no way to read the blind from inside so on short workings the conductor had to keep coming round to the front outside to read the blind for the driver. This meant most conductors set up the famous Brum destination "SERVICE EXTRA" and left it at that. Without a service number showing, folks at the bus stops hadn't a clue where 296 was going so very few were picked up!
 
Hi. Mike. I would have loved to have driven 296, thanks for the photo, that is going to be one of my favourites, I used to catch the 24 to work every morning at the Warstock terminus in the 50s,, the Leylands and in particular 296 were allways great. Did you go to Whythall last Sunday for Midland Red day?, expect you did, nearly went up in my 1100 for the classic car show there, but couldn,t make it, thats me not the 1100. Cheers Mike. John.:)
 
Mike, thanks for the reminder of 296.
As I remember, it was a one-off sample PD 2/1 in 1947, which was followed by the Brush-bodied batch 1656-1755 in 1948-49, Leyland bodied 2131-2180 in 1949 and Park Royal bodied 2181 - 2230 a few months later. Only the Brush bodies conformed to Birmingham's standards, following the prototype body put on pre-war Daimler 1235 in 1946, having the dog-leg staircase. which gave you little standing space on the platform, but gave you 2 extra seats downstairs. The Park Royals had a different cranked staircase which gave you only one extra seat, but left more standing room on the platform.
The Leyland bodies were very similar to the standard Leyland pre-war TD4c batch 964-968 of 1937, which had the Lysholm-Smith Torque convertor one-pedal control with a four-position gear lever ('convertor' position for starting off, 'direct' for over 20 mph, 'neutral' and 'reverse'), which the Corporation seemed to prefer to Daimlers immediately before the war, presumably because tram drivers found them easier to drive. The batch 211 - 295 for the Soho Road tram replacements had 'standard' pattern bodies by Met Cammell with a specially developed TD6c chassis, followed by the very handsome Leyland bodied batch 1270 - 1319, which moreorless conformed to Corporation standard.
Then during the war we had 'unfrozen' Leyland 1324 - 1326 and 1329-1331 with crash gearbox and Leyland bodies with the cranked staircase as the 964 batch, and also 1327 (Park Royal body) and 1328 (Northern Coachbuilders body).
I was always fond of the Leyland standard body. It was rather severe in design, but very sleek-looking, based on a design developed by the tramways staff at London Transport for the large batches of new trolleybuses to replace their elderly trams. Both Leyland and Met Cammell built hundreds of these bodies, but Leyland filched the design, and produced a shorter four wheel version which they offered as their standard bus body from 1937, and also offered a low-bridge version. At first they had a single tapered window on the rear top deck, but after producing the batch of 50 bodies with two rear windows for Birmingham 1270 - 1319, they incorporated this pattern on all their later standard bodies, including the wartime batch for Birmingham.
Oddly, after the war the Corporation abandoned the double window for the tapered single window on all subsequent buses built to their specification.
Peter
 
john70 said:
Was this the Yardley Wood bank bus in these days Lloyd?.
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Hi John, Here is the Yardley Wood bank bus 95 outside the Midland Bank in Kings Heath High Street. The engine had to be kept running (no starter motor) so the driver got out of carrying the cash baskets to stay with the bus. When driving 'the bank' I often sat in the instructor's seat whilst waiting so this could have been me in this photo - there is someone there in the instructor's seat.
Mike
 
Hi. Mike. Thanks for the photo and info. the pic. you put on here of 296 earlier this week I have made it my screensaver, hope you dont mind, am away for a week now, up to Berwick on Tweed with our kid, show him thier buses. LOL. John.
 
Especially for John, here a 5 more pictures of 296, courtesy of photos received from the late Kevin Saunders.
Pictures1,2 and 4 are copyrighted by 2489 group and A.B.Cross
 
fantastic pics tardibridge.
you can,t beat the old buses they had
style,and they,re still there looked after
with TLC. regards dereklcg (CRABBS CROSS)
 
Degsy168 said:
Other BCT vehicles in the fleet with the illuminated advert panel to my knowledge were 2762, 3080 and 3102.
2762 was the only Daimler whereas the others were all Guy Arabs.
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I believe 2645 preceeded 2762 with an illuminated panel. 2762 followed I believe after 2645's withdrawal. Apparently 3056 followed 2762's withdrawal. (Malcolm Keeleys book West Midlands page 29)
 
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tardebigge said:
Especially for John, here a 5 more pictures of 296, courtesy of photos received from the late Kevin Saunders.
Pictures1,2 and 4 are copyrighted by 2489 group and A.B.Cross
Click to expand...

Thankyou Tardibigge for the great photo,s thats very good of you, sorry for the delay in replying, I have been away for a week, 296 was a favourite bus for me. Kind Regards. John 70.
 
Alf said:
I tavelled to school for a Half Penny and some of us drove those Buses see other posts I'm not sure where they are on the Forum:)
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Alf, I aso can remember travelling for a half-penny on some of those old busses. I can also remember seeing - and travelling on - some of those old busses that had no enclosed drivers cab, the driver sat in the open - just covered by a waterproof cover. The stairs to the top deck were also open to the elements. I have in mind the outer Circle No.2 route.
 
The picture of 126 on the tipper has me fascinated, as it is oviously very new, and in its pre-October 1939 livery with a cream roof. It was not built until 1938, and Hockley Garage was not usable by buses until well after the trams had finished service there on 1 April 1939 (some four months later than originally planned), and the wires and electricals were not fully removed until 18 May that year.
So they would have had much time to install the tilting gear, and under five months to take that picture. And why was a non-Hockley bus being tilted there anyway? All the double-deckers based there were the new double-deck Leylands in the EOG 200- series, it being already the policy to use buses with two-pedal control on tram replacement routes, and Hockley was essentially a running shed, although they still had the ticket unit there, I believe.
A fascinating picture, anyway.
Peter
 
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