Midland Red Bus Photo Charter

Last Thursday I went on a TimeLines photo charter that started at the Transport Museum at Wythall. We had a couple of trips out into the Cotswolds using S16 No.6545 and in the afternoon with D9 No.5399.
A good and leisurely day out.
If you are interested in seeing my photos of the day they can be seen here https://paulgildersleve.smugmug.com/Wythall-Transport-Museum/

Regards,

Paul

 

A most enjoyable set of 'photos Paul: great to see the B&MMO buses and of course the lovely Cotswolds.
Much appreciated by a BAMMOT member.

 

Many thanks and I'm pleased that you enjoyed them, Alan.

Best wishes,

Paul

 

Those pictures took me back to my school days, D7s, D9s, the D10s and a host of "S"s whose numbers I now forget.

Great buses and great memories. Thanks for rekindling them!

 

I'm glad you enjoyed them.

Best wishes,

Paul

 

Most of my college lecturers were ex Midland Red employees and had all been apprenticed there (I did an apprenticeship in PSV engineering and the college I attended was in the Midlands). All of the apprentices started off on the build line, so that helped gain a full and proper understanding of the vehicles they were to work on later. They even used to make their own batteries in house!

 

Very nice set of photos that brought back many happy memories of the BMMO. My father was a driver at Shrewsbury garage from 1930's to the 1960's.

 

Well you will know the answer to my question
What running gear (engine, gear box, rear axle was in those D9's/10's) I seem to recall all Midland Red motors were a bit "lively". What were those things they ran on the M1 It's motorway service, they could "nip on" a bit with an enthusiastic driver? It's just curiosity on my part.

Nice pics Paul, thanks for posting them.

 

Not sure if the D9s and D10s were especially lively, though the D9s in particular, certainly were no slouches. They spent most of their time on stage work so didn't get much opportunity to stretch their legs. The two D10s were quite experimental, with underfloor engines and several other innovations which I can't now remember. At least one of them had two sets of doors and two staircases if I remember correctly, though when I travelled on them in Stafford in the 1960s I only recall one set. A bit of a dead end in design, I think, in that soon after this they started buying buses; weren't their DD11s just Daimlers or some such? Then didn't they just become part of the National system so the bus building ceased?

I know they built some coaches specifically for the motorway work, which didn't tend to get used on stage services, they could certainly move a bit from what I've read!

 

The D10 pair - (the two door version reverted to one front entrance as per the other in 1962) whilst acclaimed by the industry as very advanced were not taken up at that time and became a disappointment. Looking at the features of recent bus trends I would suggest that they had not bee forgotten. It was probably the time when one man ops.were being introduced that their suitability was not foreseen.
The CMT5 and CMT6 motorway coaches were fantastic runners giving great turns of speed. The CMT6, which had 44 seats (CMT5 had 34) also had toilets and a more sleeker appearance.

 

Thanks for sharing this info about the buses. Interesting stuff.

Cheers,

Paul

 

Thanks for the info. Were they all manual gearboxes?

 

Don't quote me on this, as it's going from memories of forty odd years ago, but as I recall, most of the later ones, (ie D9s, D10s) had either a semi automatic or preselected type arrangement.
I seem to recall a dinky little gear selector lever, certainly not a huge stick coming through the floor

 

Thanks, back in the day when I did a bit of part timing for National Express we had the Leyland semi auto (), no clutch pedal but driver changed gear manually. I thought they were great bits of kit IF they were used correctly, a lot of drivers abused them (just kept the loud pedal hard down and snatch the next gear). That's not the way to handle a gear box. They were especially good/suited to city centre traffic, you could make good time out of Victoria Coach station up to the M1 at Brents Cross.