Miller St the last bus to depart was...

[Mark Tooze]

HI Radiorails - I had already noticed a lack of info on these images, with many which have labels that are incorrect and quite a few with no labels at all. Most are also in low resolution - scanned around 14 years ago. It can be a interesting puzzle to work out the locations and the approximate date by looking for clues in the photos.
Having said that - if you search the archive from end to start rather than the other way round, you will find that the more recent images are scanned in much higher quality - there are even some genuine colour images in there. So it is a little pot of gold!
Luckily Miller St is very recognisable.

I mention this, in all good faith, but BHF is a primarily a history of Birmingham and the founders of BHF, which I am not, do try to keep it that way - even if it is a very loose reign.

 

[Radiorails]

It is a large inventory to be sure. I do not have the advantage of living in Birmingham, Solihull was often my home and I did work in the city for 18 months when I first left school. I moved to Devon when I was sixteen and a half so I not always familiar with landmarks in the city. I did spend a lot of my time, from age 10 onwards checking out the BCT, B&MMO, BCN canals and GWR. However much of what I saw has stayed with me. For the record I take little or no interest in WMPTE and it successors.
Anyway I will leave to your judgement and give details to the photographs if necessary.
I am not sure whether there is much interest, on BHF, in Birmingham former trams system. After all it ceased 70 years ago. But there is a great deal of information, much of it technical, available by people who worked on the trams maintenance at 'the lake'. I make little comment on the modern system, it is a poor outfit compared to most European cities.

 

[Mark Tooze]

Accidently drove past Miller St yard again the other day - unexpected vehicle on the yard - an 50+ year old preserved Midland Red Leyland National which looks in need of a bit of TLC:-






It even has its old Setright ticket machine in-situ:-



As you can see from Midlandred.net this bus has had many owners (and many repaints!!!!) - hopefully one of NEWM / Wythall BM / Aldridge BM will ensure it has a good future:-

 

[Mark Tooze]

I was passing Miller St the other day and accidently took the wrong turning....
Here is the old admin building that butts onto the Miller St permanent way yard:-
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Note the circled area - in close up:-
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Question folks:-
a) Could this be a remnant of the tram system overhead wiring?
b) If yes - could this be the last remaining remnant to survive in the city?

I've been going through my tram photos to find an old view to compare - this shows the very wall - unfortunately someone parked a tram right in front of the bit I wanted to look at........
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There is also another possibly remnant on the barbed wire protecting the roof pretty much directly opposite:-
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And some pipes (without cable) on the side of the building:-
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Some vintage signage still extant too:-
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I re-visited Miller St over the Xmas hols armed with my trusty 150-600mm lens, so was able to get some better closeups of the tram wires, etc:-








However - Percy the Pigeon seems to have found a nice home in one of the end windows:-

 

[Lloyd]

I re-visited Miller St over the Xmas hols armed with my trusty 150-600mm lens, so was able to get some better closeups of the tram wires, etc:-
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Amazing to think that some of those fittings may date back to the earliest days of the Corporation Tramways in 1904 = over 120 years ago!