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!

 

[daimlerman]

What a fantastic history of Miller Street.
The bus garage was my first workplace on leaving school in August 1969. I was a trainee fitter, and proud to be wearing my blue boiler suit. I still remember vividly the garage, the fitters and foreman. Most of the buses were the old half cab Guys, a withdrawn Daimler from 1948 with a snow plough fitted underneath, and the old Ex RAF AEC Matador breakdown truck.
I do also remember when the first WMPT fleetline came into the garage with the Birmingham coat of arms gone, and the new logo on the side. The fitters were muttering about the change over from BCT.