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the Moseley Tram Depot

K

kathleen1234

proper brummie kid
Hello, does anyone have any information about the Moseley Tram Depot? I am quite interested in the Tram building itself rather than the front office building. I understand it was used until 1975 or so but don't know what happened to it after that. Any information at all would be appreciated.
K
 
Moseley Road Tram Depot also known as Trafalgar Road ,was opened 1st Jan. 1907, it had a capacity of 77 cars and was used for buses from 2nd Oct 1949. Sure I've got more will look later.

Colin
 
This photo of the interior of Trafalgar Rd Tram Depot was taken in 1939. There was an unusual layout to the track inside the depot, as there were two connections to the main line in the street. This formed a single loop line inside the yard and all the shed lines branched off that,

Phil

TrafalgarRdDepot2.jpg
 
In late 1975, it was known as Trafalger Road, and seemed to be used as a storage facility - I had the task of going there to record all the adverts inside & out when part of British Rail (Commercial Advertising) - British Transport Advertising - took over the commercial advertising of WMPTE - they already had BMMO (Midland Red) & most National Bus Coys.

It was semi derelict, cold, leaking & looking very sorry for itself!
 
slight change of thread does any one know what happened to the Harborne Bus depot and where exactly it was, and is it still open, I seem to remember it was near an old cinema not the royalty. My mom was a part time clippy in the early 50's.
 
Harborne was between Lonsdale Rd and Serpentine Rd, behind the Duke of York pub.
Never a tram depot, it opened as the first purpose-built bus depot for the Corporation in October 1926 and had a capacity of 100 buses.
As with many of the city's old buildings, it has been replaced with housing and similar new property now.

Here's bus 203 (OP 232) leaving Serpentine Rd exit.
 
Before present use and whilst still owned by West Midlands Travel it was for a while rented as an indoor Go Kart Stadium with the track formed by piles of worn out vehicle tyres. It closed down without notice leaving WMT with a bill running into thousands of pounds to get the tyres removed. Originally a Birmingham City Transport tram depot it became a bus garage and passed to the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive in 1969 who then closed it. In December 1973 it reopened to accomodate Midland Red buses taken over with routes formerly operated by Midland Red at Digbeth Garage. In November 1975 it was closed again to be converted to the PTE then WMT 'Transkil' Engineering Skills Training Centre until final closure and eventual sell off.
 
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thank you everyone!

I’m interested, Key Hill Brian, to know more about the advertisements you had to record. I’ve never heard of such a thing.

And, Chris, yes it is Creation Climbing Centre and Creation Skate Park now. I would appreciate any photos you have.

Motorman Mike, thank you, do you know who purchased the Old Tram Depot after the Training Centre closed? And (forgive me, I’m Canadian!) what is PTE?

K
 
WMPTE - to be correct is or was QWest Midlands Passenger Transport Executive, they ran the buses when the 'West Midlands' was created as an entity, previously it had been Birmingham City Transport, Wolverhamptom, Walsall, West Bromwich & Coventry Councils, with Midland Red (Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Coy BMMO) doing mostly rural routes.

Whilst working for British Rail in the Signalling Dept, I was successfully promoted to a rare & little known Dept called BTA - British Transport Advertising - staffed & ran by BR, it covered Commercial Advertising on British rail Stns, forecourts, Bridge sides, Sealink Ferry Quays & The National Bus Companies. Divided into 4 areas, London, Birmingham, Manchester & Glasgow, we covered a line from the Humber to Aberystwyth down to a line the Wash to the Severn. We had road side hoardings on Railway property, Brisge sides & on platforms & forecourts available for rental to Companies. We also had bus Companies such as Lincs Road transport, Western Welsh, BMMO, United Counties. We successfuly bid for & obtained the contract to run the commercial advertising on WMPTE - and my job was created esoecially to manage the records of that.
In the pre computer days, every bus had a card with it's number on, maintained in a wheelie bin storage system by garage, which showed what advert was on the Left hand side, Right hand side, Upper Rear, Lower Rear, and interior bulkheads.
Our posting staff were based in the old Waterworks Road depot. The biggest advertisers were the Pools Companies (pre lottery), and the tobacco companies. Many poster campaigns ran for a short period and had to than be removed or changed, so it was a fiddly recording. We also had to know how many spaces were available at each depot for sale. Buses of course, often changed depots to balance the mileage they wre doing, or often were de-licensed - taken out of service if they were undergoing long repairs or big services.

Often when a bus had had a new poster pasted on the side, it would go through the cleaner which would take it off - and than be reposted by another billposter with a differant advert! - we had many 3 sided buses on paper!
When we took over the contract we all had to go and check every bus for every advert - stocktake! - to create then database as we had poor records passed to us.

I was fortunate enough once to have to deliver some pics of the first 'Painted bus' to the WMPTE offices in Summer Lane, they had a pic of almost every type of bus they had on the wall in the corridor - looked superb. They also used to have an arrangement with the DVLA that their buses , which had a 4 digit 'fleet No' had blocks of Registyration No. so the last 3 digits of the fleet no. was the same as the Reg no.

They obviuosly cannot do that now they have the new style reg no.s

I gather that now there are only a fraction of the bus depots left - Hiockley, Selly Oak, Cotteridge etc all gone - amoingst many others
 
hi all
I remember as a boy the bus's that ran from colmore row to handsworth along soho road towards west brom and hockley were light blue and cream not BCC transport colours, why??
 
The Birmingham - West Bromwich - Dudley or Wednesbury services were jointly operated by West Bromwich and Birmingham Corporation buses, after the tramways along these routes closed. West Bromwich Corporation never ran trams, the services were operated by Birmingham and a levy of the fares taken in the borough were paid to West Bromwich.
When the buses were running, the journey was 'split' at the boundary, near to the Albion football ground, and the conductor would go round again for fares in the other borough.
 
Thanks so much for the great photos Chris, Astonite and Journey Brummie. And to Key Hill Brian for the interesting information about the advertisements.

More photos welcome!

K
 
thanks again to all for the photos: Phil, Journeyman Brummie, Chris, Colin, Grandmaster Brummie, Lloyd and Bammot. These are fantastic. I’d be interested in using some for a project I’m planning and wonder if anyone knows of source material for them.

K
 
i worked for wmpte from 1980 to 1988 and have fond memories of Moseley Rd
i did some courses there and remember in about 1989 'assisting' witth an edition of Challenge Anneka which was filmed there ,doing up a number of buses to send abroad i think
the con was half the work was already done before arrival
 
Zircon, do you think there was film footage of the interior or exterior of the Old Tram Depot for the Challenge Anneka show?

K
 
hi all
what very short sighted people we did have in charge then, can you imagine how clean and better run our towns and city's would be on electric power as they are all over Europe and Dublin.
 
That's right Paul but it was the motoring organisations and the motor industry that wanted rid of the trams more than anybody. Same happened in the USA but trams are making a big comeback there now.
For more on West Bromwich buses go to the the thread 'Who remember these' in the Buses Section.
 
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