| In May 2004 Club members put their
lives in the hands of Rotarian Alan King who took us
to the Transport Museum at Wythall.
Here you can see Alan in his full conductors
uniform and yes he really did issue us with genuine
tickets but at 2004 prices.
The Bus we travelled on (5073 HA) is owned by The Birmingham
& Midland Motor Omnibus Trust, a Registered Charity
No. 507191.
The similarity of the name of the Trust to that of
the now defunct old “Midland Red” Company
(The Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Company
Ltd.) is no coincidence as a number of ex-Midland Red
buses are displayed and the museum collection policy
is to show vehicles with a Midlands connection.
Midland Red built their own bus chassis
& engines from 1923 until January 1970 and in many
cases they built the bodywork as well.
5073 HA was built at Carlyle Road Works,
Edgbaston in 1962 and entered service from the Shrewsbury
garage. 48 similar buses were built in this batch (5045
HA to 5092 HA) and known as type S15. 46 of the 48 were
withdrawn from service and sold during 1972/73 but 5073
and sister bus 5055 were retained for a contract with
British Rail before being withdrawn in late 1974.
Together with an earlier batch, 98 - S15 type 40 seaters
were built and 30 years on from the date the last 2
were withdrawn, those same 2 vehicles (mentioned above)
survive in preservation (5055 is with a private owner).
5073 completed 418,000 miles in its 12 years with “the
Red” and when it passed to “The Birmingham
Omnibus Preservation Society, (predecessors of the Trust)
in January 1977 it was in need of a major mechanical
and body overhaul. The vehicle was stored until 1988
when rebuilding of the engine, transmission and the
unique rear suspension system (rubber bushes in torsion)
together with total replacement of the brake system
began. In 1989, a Government sponsored Employee Training
Scheme enabled a complete body overhaul, thereby bringing
the bus up to the high standard required by the M.o
T. for passenger service.
TECHNICAL DETAILS: The bus is powered by a Midland
Red (own design) ‘KL’ type horizontal (underfloor)
8.028 litre diesel engine driving through a David Brown
4 speed constant mesh gearbox (made by Midland Red under
licence). The 4.44 : 1 ratio hypoid bevel rear axle
and 900 x 20 tyres give a top speed of about 50 m.p.h.
Here are a few other buses we saw:
This bus is seen with one of our guests, he actually
drove this one many years ago!
If
you have any photos from this evening, why not email
them to us.
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