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Midland Red Vacancies 1952

  • Thread starter Thread starter Wendy
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Wendy

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I copied this from an old Birmingham Weekly Post dated Friday February 15th 1952. I thought it might be interesting.:)
 
Interesting Wendy that then conductresses recieved same as men (if that's really true !) . No mention of women drivers though.
mike
 
Nice one wendy. Although I am not/was not a busman other than doing it for a living, I remeber being able to go into a shop like Tandy or similar and filling out a form and getting instant credit with a store card with no credit check. The theory behind this was that if you were good enough to work for the BMMO then you were good enough to have credit.
I enjoyed the same luxury when I was a Hackney Carriage drver in Birmingham in the days of the brass lapel badge.
Although you would'nt get fat on it, almost £6 per week was not bad money when you take free travel and uniform into account.
 
Thanks for posting that for us Wendy, I shall add it to my collection of what my wife regularly keeps on informing me is more and more bus rubbish (It's got worse since I retired but I think she loves me really).
Mike
 
Mike, I know this is off thread but its not the fact you have bus bits. Its a womans thing do you see, they complain about whatever your hobby is at the time. If you have no hobbies at all, they tell you to find something to do like other men.
 
Stitcher said:
Nice one wendy. Although I am not/was not a busman other than doing it for a living, I remeber being able to go into a shop like Tandy or similar and filling out a form and getting instant credit with a store card with no credit check. The theory behind this was that if you were good enough to work for the BMMO then you were good enough to have credit.
I enjoyed the same luxury when I was a Hackney Carriage drver in Birmingham in the days of the brass lapel badge.
Although you would'nt get fat on it, almost £6 per week was not bad money when you take free travel and uniform into account.
Click to expand...

Trevor, this has got to stop. You keep telling us you weren't a busman but sorry mate, you stayed at it for more than your first week so you earned the title of busman. Having worked alongside you I can say your humour, banter and escapades were worthy of busmen who spent a working lifetime on the buses. Look on yourself as a busman who moved on. There thats told you. Pity Freds Caff has gone out there at Acocks Green, you still owe me a tea. That's one place you never got instant credit, Midland Red uniform or no Midland Red uniform LOL!:D
 
I really do wish you stop mentioning Freds Cafe. I fitted in with Fred and his clientele, I was happy in there because his bacon sarnies were good and his cuppas were always just right. The thing is, memories of Freds also triggers memories of the track and those poxy Blossomfields where I could'nt get a cuppa. There, you have done it again. I am all morose and pining for times past.
 
LOL! Watch out Trevor, sit around the house looking morose and the light of your life will tell you to do something useful or get yourself a hobby:wave:
Mike
 
Yes, the wages were the same for conductors and conductoresses. The use of women drivers during the world wars ended as soldiers were demobbed and came looking for work, the women had to go back 'on the platform' or take other jobs 'more suited to women'. Until the late Doreen Barnett at Oldbury garage got onto the union committee and started what she under-described as 'A hard battle' to get women back as drivers, you didn't see women behind the wheel.
Doreen was for a while on my union committee at Digbeth, until she retired and with her husband (who had been bus station inspector at West Bromwich for the WMPTE) ran a shop in Marsh Hill, Erdington.
 
During 1975/6 I did a twelve month spell as a Midland Red driver at Stratford upon Avon Garage. Then, in such a small garage there were no less than three women drivers, all having originally been Stratford Blue conductresses. Their number reduced to two when one of them put her skills to driving a cattle truck and was caught with a gang rustling cattle from a farm the other side of Stratford, as a result of which the Red dispensed with her services.
Shades of the Wild West on our doorstep!.:RopingCowboy:


The only other female driver I encountered was later on coaches at Digbeth, who came from driving at Whittles Coaches down Kidderminster way. She was so much "one of the boys" that when working, if answering the call of nature involved a queue for the Ladies, she would calmly walk into the Gents and avail herself of the stalls there and calmly walk back out! I daresay Lloyd can recall as well.
 
Hi,all this talk of Midland Red brings back some memories.I used to live in Summer Lane,and if we were late for school,my dad used to give me the extra money to go by Midland Red.They charged more than BCT,but my overwhelming memory is about the speed they used to drive at! They seemed to have only one speed--flat out.Then they had those lovely new buses with shutting doors, but the best were the old FEDD (front entrance double decker) dating from pre-war days.They were really antwacky even in the mid '50's.I remember they had a cord running along the ceiling to ring the bell, no new-fangled electrics for them! Looking back,great days-but I suppose you only remember the good times, cheers, Mal.
 
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