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Midland Red Early Days

Anorak.

So what exactly is an anorak? Try Wikipedia on anorak (the garment), and on anorak (the enthusiast). I'm somewhat dismayed by the statement: "Although the term is often used synonymously with geek, it suggests a greater degree of social awkwardness, isolation, and obsessiveness, and may be associated by some with Asperger's Syndrome. The Japanese term otaku or the American term fanboy are probably closer synonyms."

Oh well, it was always more a term for train spotters anyway! ;)

Here is a website which seems to be true to the "offshore radio enthusiast" tradition. And here is one for anorak anoraks .

Actually I rather like the look of anorak the garment and may actually buy one. It looks perfect for the Tasmanian winter. (I'm quite safe, the slang word isn't used down here - wouldn't want to be mistaken for a "hoodie" though! :D)
 
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Re: A Midland Red One!

Thylacine said:
And a nice one of Midland Red 4503 (reg XHA503 1956 BMMO D7 with Metro-Cammell H37/26R body number BB4560 withdrawn 1970). It is seen outside the Midland Red booking office in Shrewsbury in the "1950s" on service X35.
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Hmmm, sorry, no. It's Hereford bus station office. The station was built on the site of a former prison and this building had been the Govenor's house. See Midland Red part 2, p 182. Here, as you now expect, is the building today.
 
Re- Anorak: Those of us who were 'spotters' in the days before the popularity of that garment wore these instead as a symbol of their often rail-based transport numerology interests.
 
Lloyd said:
Re- Anorak: Those of us who were 'spotters' in the days before the popularity of that garment wore these instead as a symbol of their often rail-based transport numerology interests.
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Ah the duffle coat (I remember it well, but I can't remember owning one: I think my Mom thought they were a bit "common"! :rolleyes:). Excellent picture!
 
re post #839, the West Brom buses are:
216 (UEA 216) Daimler CVG6-30 no 30013, Metro-Cammell H41/32R in Paradise St. West Bromwich - as is the rear view of Daimler single decker 156 (complete with "Scottish" style rear entrance) below. 214-9 were the first 30' long double deckers in the fleet, and the chassis no. tells it was the 13th of that length Daimlers built (other than single deckers).
138 (CEA 738) Daimler CVD6 no 14358, Metro Cammell H30/26R in Constitution Hill, Birmingham (note the municipal bank in the background).
Both these sites have now gone under redevelopment, thankfully single decker 156 is preserved and undergoing a (very lengthy) restoration.
 
Thanks for that memory on horse buses Mike, the use of extra horse power for ascending hills was fairly common, not just for buses either. I think they were called 'trace horses'.
 
mikejee said:
Concerning the earlier posts about horse buses ...
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Mike, thanks indeed for this valuable snippet. With your permission, I'll post the text of Doris Holt's remarks about horse buses and Harborne Hill. I suspect that it was not uncommon in the horse era for passengers to have to "get out and walk" or even "get out and push". The phenomenon probably extended into the motor era for a year or two! Great find of a first-hand account of the situation! :thumbsup:
 
Lloyd said:
re post #839, the West Brom buses are ...
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Thanks Lloyd for the West Brom notes and pic :thumbsup:: I'll correct / complete my picture captions. It's good to see a West Brom survivor in 156. I used to love West Bromwich, though I probably knew the bus garage precinct best of all! Though strictly a secondary interest to Midland Red, I was quite a follower of the "Three Ws" municipal fleets (had the fleet books and everything). Wolverhampton was very interesting, and we had lots of family there so we often visited. But with West Brom and Walsall (which were probably easier to get to on the bus from Sutton), I actually did the full anorak act (anoract?): lurking around the garage, pestering the staff with questions, and (later) taking Kodak "Brownie" pictures (none of which have survived, sadly). I always found the garage staff very anorak-friendly, as long as you didn't become a nuisance. Clearly many of the staff were anorakish too! Of the three, I liked Walsall livery best, bold bright blue with minimal trim (and gold fleet numbers!). The trolleybuses in Walsall and Wolverhampton were just the icing on the cake, especially as these two continued with trolleybuses for long after Birmingham gave them up. I believe Walsall only de-commissioned its trolleybuses on joining WMPTE (am I right?). When did Wolverhampton give them up? I've forgotten all my "Three Ws" fleet knowledge (the head can only hold so much!) and lost the books, but the memory of those fleets is still fond! ;)
 
Here is another snippet from a Mr G.V.Mathews from Birm Post 1972. in which he recalls a journey just pre 1900 which most transport enthusiasts would drool over , involving (including return) 6 types of transport. I feel a bit sorry for the poor carthorse. Health & safety would have a field day today
Mike
 
Yes the WMPTE didn't want the trolleys, the infrastructure was well past its 'best by' date and the wire and feeder cables needed replacing. The last General Manager, Ronald Edgley Cox, had planned to acquire the last Bournemouth trolleybuses (which had a modern front entrance as well as the old fashioned rear platform) and run them, then convert them to rear-engined motor buse to replace themselves as it were. The PTE dropped that idea, and the one Bournemouth trolley already delivered was scrapped.
The trolleys never carried 'West Midlands' fleet names, and were replaced by buses (including ex Birmingham ones as had happened previously in Wolverhampton) as soon as they could.
Here's a nice nostalgic bit of film of them.

[video=youtube;_r8Z3LzvLmM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r8Z3LzvLmM[/video]
 
In the days when Guy and Sunbeam trolleybuses were still made in Wolverhampton, you could occasionally see a foreign one or a test chassis out under the corporation's wires for a test run, like this one.
 
mikejee said:
Here is another snippet ... which most transport enthusiasts would drool over ...
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Mike, I read it and drooled! :tongue2: Thanks for that delighfully apt account of 1898 public transport options. Again I might transcribe the text, if its OK with you.
 
Lloyd said:
... Here's a nice nostalgic bit of film of them ...
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Lloyd, what a glorious movie of Walsall starring the trolleybus fleet! High production values, overflowing with public transport interest (and a movie with anorakitude!). I drooled :hoteyes: and wept :crying: over that one! Thanks!
 
Lloyd said:
In the days when Guy and Sunbeam trolleybuses were still made in Wolverhampton, you could occasionally see a foreign one or a test chassis out under the corporation's wires for a test run, like this one.
Click to expand...

Wolverhampton too! :grin2: Fascinating picture Lloyd.
 
The 'Lorain' surface (stud) current collection syatem was used by Wolverhampton Corporation, and as the memory states they used a form of internal electromagnet to energise the surface contact stud - and yes, they did jam and horses were electrocuted. A number of studs were lifted when Cleveland Road depot was demolished for rebuilding, and taken to the National Tramway Museum at Crich, Derbyshire. Most of them still worked wjhen voltage was applied to them! Several have been laid (unenergised) in a section of track to show them in their righful surroundings.
 
Another nice one, Lloyd. Do you know who else used the Lorain system apart from Wolverhampton? Was it a British invention?
 
The Lorain system was rare here - most other surface contact lines used the Dolter stud system (which was largely similar).
Pierre Adolphe Lorain was French, as was Henri Dolter.
 
1890s Public Transport Memories.

[Thanks to Mike (mikejee) for drawing our attention to these fascinating snippets (slightly edited and with my emphasis). What remarkable memories, especially when we reflect that the authors were in their seventies or eighties. :)]

Memories of 1890s Public Transport.
[Two cuttings from the Birmingham Post (1972).]

[1] A Journey in the 1890s (March).

Sir, — A cousin sent me the page on Snow Hill Station (Post 4 March). The pictures of Colmore Row with the cable trams reminded me of an incredible journey I made (accompanied by my nurse) in or about 1898. I thought it might possibly interest you, particularly as a very few years later it would have been impossible. We lived at the upper end of Augustus Road, Erdington, and the following was the itinerary: — Horse bus from Hagley Road to the Town Hall; cable tram from outside Snow Hill Station to Handsworth (New Inns); steam tram for several miles from the end of the cable tram; and a peculiar kind of electric tram from the terminus of the steam tram to (I think) Dudley. The current was supplied to this tram via studs set at regular intervals midway between the rails. There was an insulated bar under the length of the tram, which, when directly over one or more studs, caused them to lift — presumably by magnetism — and make contact with the bar under the tram. The return current was via the rails. Some years or so later, I heard that a carthorse had put its foot on a stud and another on the tram rail. I think it was electrocuted. The system was changed very soon after that! The return to Birmingham was made by ordinary electric tram with an overhead wire, and we went from New Street Station to Hagley Road Station by the "Harborne Express".

G V Matthews.

[What a remarkable journey: horse bus, four kinds of tramway, and steam railway. I hope Mr Matthews hung on to the tickets! ;)]


[2] Memories (4 May).

Sir, — I was interested to learn about the planned precinct at Harborne. When I lived in Station Road from May 1898 to August 1952. Shopping precincts may be very pleasant in some ways, but they can entail a lot of walking for not-so-fit people who need to do their shopping by car. Certainly High Street on a Saturday afternoon had become very much past a joke for pedestrians, and the side roads, such as Station Road, very unpleasant with cars parked on both sides, but I suppose it reflected the prosperity of the village and its trade with the surrounding roads and developments. In my day it was quite a frequent thing for the men passengers to be asked by the conductor to get off the bus at the bottom of Harborne Hill and walk up: they usually got behind and pushed. The buses were drawn by three horses and in really bad weather, when the roads were icy, there was usually an extra horse waiting at Brook Road to be hitched on to help up the hill. High Street was a pleasant place to shop in those days, though some of the shops were better than others. There were two bakers' shops where the bakers made their own bread and cakes — Clarke's and Ward's, I think. They were on the left-hand side looking towards the Junction and my favourite was the second one, where they made and sold the most delicious cream buns. They cost twopence each and we would have them as a special treat sometimes when we had visitors. I did not know that Oliver Cromwell had his cannon in War Lane. War Lane for us was the beginning of the country and blackberrying expeditions.

Doris M Holt.
Abberley,
Worcester.

[Thanks Mrs Holt, for those wonderful memories, beautifully expressed. And valuable evidence about horse buses and hills!]
 
The Black Country Living Museum (quite appropriately) operates ex-Walsall trolleybus 862 (reg TDH912) and ex-Wolverhampton trolleybus 433 (reg DUK833). Pictured below are Walsall 862 and Wolverhampton 433 in all their modern glory.

As a matter of interest here are the dates for the four most recent trolleybus closures: Bradford 20 March 1972; Teeside 4 April 1971; Walsall 3 October 1970; Cardiff 11 January 1970. [Thanks to "Lady Wulfrun" on Flickr for that information.] So Walsall was the third last UK trolleybus system to close.
 
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Trolleybus Links.

There are three BHF threads continaing "trolleybus(es)" in their titles (all worth a look):

Birmingham Trolley Bus No 50.
Trolley Bus.
Trolleybuses.

Other more general bus threads contain the odd post on the subject (just do a "search thread" for "trolleybus" or "trolleybuses" or "trolley bus" or "trolley buses"):

Birmingham Buses.
Buses.

Other internet links:

Under2Wires (by Wolverhampton-born Pete Baggett; contains start and end dates for all 50 UK trolleybus systems, lots of Midlands information including a page on BMMO!).
The Trolleybus Museum (Sandtoft).
Trolleybus (Wikipedia).
British Trolleybus History.
A page on trolleybuses by Malcolm Keeley on The Transport Museum (Wythall) website.
The Trolleybus in Britain 1911-1972 (by Peter Gould).
Birmingham Corporation Trolleybuses 1922-1951 (by Peter Gould).
Birmingham corporation Trolleybus Fleet List (by Peter Gould).
Wolverhampton Corporation Fleet History 1900-1969 (by Peter Gould).
Wolverhampton Corporation Trolleybus Fleet List (by Peter Gould).
 
I think I'm going to make you a bit jealous (again?) here, Thylacine.
I was for a time a volunteer at the Black Country Living Museum, as a member of the transport group and as well as driving their vehicles was responsible for their maintenance - so I know the two above trolleybuses probably more 'intimately' then most. The group has besides those two been responsible for the restoration of Wolverhampton tramcar no79, BMMO D9 5342 and the current project, West Bromwich 174 (GEA 174). They are also the current custodians of SOS REDD HA 8047.
Sadly life, the universe and everything (mostly work and Wythall) took its toll and the BCLM is one of a few things I had to give up.
 
Now that's what I call a driver's licence, Lloyd! Wonderful outfit the BCMTG: I'm looking forward to seeing HA8047 back on the road one day. The trouble is, there are just not enough active (and skilled) preservationists for the available projects. We need an apprenticeship scheme (I suppose there already is one, informally at least). If I was over there I could volunteer (I could make the tea or hand out the oranges! :D).
 
Lloyd, re G V Matthews's "multi-media" journey (post #864). He spent part of his journey on a "surface contact" tramway to Dudley, which sounds from his description like the Wolverhampton Lorain tramway. But the Wolverhampton electric tramway didn't open until 1902 (according to Pete Baggett). So Mr Matthews's journey couldn't have taken place in 1898. Or is it a different tramway? :rolleyes:
 
This page confirms the 1902 electrification date. I think Mr Matthews' memory must have been playing tricks! Peter Walker's excellent Handsworth Transport history gives the dates of the cable trams, and the subesquent conversions to electric traction in 1911 and motor bus in 1939.
Incidentally the 'delay' in converting the Birmingham - West Bromwich - Dudley and - Wednesbury routes was the original desire to operate trolleybuses as tram replacements, West Bromwich's Oak Lane depot (still in use by travel West Midlands) being constructed high enough for the necessary overhead wiring. A proposed tax on the electricity used by trolleybuses (which never happened) and the extra expenditure required for overhead power supplies eventually turned the decision towards diesel buses, Leyland TD6's for Birmingham and Daimler COG6's for West Bromwich, one of which is pictured below.
 
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