Midland Red BBC article today.

Midland Red bus memories kept alive at transport museum

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-59827695

 

Have many memories of Midland Red when I lived in Birmingham. Route 125/126 was my regular route to Central Birmingham and 208 was my way of getting to school. They were more comfortable than Birmingham Corporation buses, but were also more expensive.
There’s one that regularly runs around the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley:

 

The BCLM's 6342 HA, Midland Red 5342, was based at Stourbridge Garage so I must have used it to get to school on many occasions.

The Wythall Transport Museum collection (which is well worth a visit by the way) includes two buses which used to be resident on the Severn Valley Railway in the early days of preservation. UHA 255, a single deck Midland Red S14 built in 1955, was acquired by Bob Sim in 1971. JOJ 707, a Metro-Cammell bodied double decker ex-Birmingham Corporation Transport no 2707, also arrived on the SVR in 1971 under the custodianship of Maurice Newman. Some details and pictures on the SVR Wiki.

https://www.svrwiki.com/Heritage_buses_and_other_vehicles

 

That brought back some memories! As a youngster in Stafford in the early sixties I used them daily.

Stafford garage had the usual allocation of D7 and later, D9 double deckers. Both were superb vehicles and whilst I was growing up, the two pioneer underfloor engined double decker D10s 4943 and 4944 spent several years there, so I travelled on both a good few times.

They manufactured some quality single deck buses too, which I saw mainly on the service to Wolverhampton or Brum.

My earliest memories were going to infant and junior school on the older double deckers, no rear doors, but the conductor had some kind of leather strap which he hooked across the platform, not that it would have stopped a youngster jumping off if he wanted

Still remember the fare was three 'apence...

 

I only ever remember the white leather-covered chain being deployed across the platform on out-of-service buses in Sheffield.


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