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There was a maroon and yellow liveried double-decker about 10 vehicles in front of me this lunchtime travelling down Queslett Road towards the roundabout by the Asda.  As it went round the roundabout, I noted it was sign-written for Black Prince, which according to Wiki ceased operation in Leeds around 2005.  I couldn't tell from the rear of it what it was, but it might have been a Scania.

I've found a Yorkshire Evening Post article which indeed suggests there's a Black Prince vehicle preserved in the Birmingham area.  Does anyone know what it is?

A mate has recently sent me an old photograph dating from September 1974.  It's featuring Midland Red D9, EHA444D which is in WMPTE livery (I think it was 5444) on route 140, and it's correctly displaying Dudley via Blackheath.  The location of the photo however is unusual - it's at a north-bound bus stop on the Wolverhampton Road, opposite Brandhall Road, which we've confirmed via Streetview.

Did the 140 ever go up the Wolverhampton Road?  I don't think so - didn't it always go via Quinton then up Long Lane?  Can any oldtimers recall?  :D

(It's difficult to tell, but there doesn't seem to be anyone in the cab, driver / conductor possibly standing by the rear door, so we're speculating it's probably come off service, returning to either Oldbury or Dudley garage and / or it's broken down ....)

Around the start of last May, I think it was, Arrive Tamworth stopped issuing tickets ("Free Travel Receipts") on the 110 to us English National Concession holders.
"Wastes too much paper!", I was told!  :D

However, Wednesfield still seem to be happily issuing them.  Just a local initiative from Tamworth, or what do other depots do?

Noted a 2 x 2 car ATW formation while passing through Birmingham International on Sunday afternoon about 14:00, (presumably the 14:07 to Aberystwyth).   Nothing unusual in that - except that the lead unit was 150 242 !  The other unit was one of the usual 158s, which I couldn't identify as it was tucked behind the platform buildings.

Now I can't recall ever seeing a 150 on the Birmingham - Aberystwyths before - has anyone else seen one?

Running as 054V Newport Docks to Doncaster Depot, I saw this travelling south down the Sutton Park Lane at 15:25, more or less on time.

66706 "Nene Valley" (+ headboard I couldn't read in the gloom!) hauling 66769/68/72/71/70/67/66.

I think one was supposed to be going to Stourbridge Junction sidings for noise testing this week?

Has anyone seen it yet?

Now that the Rectory Road railway bridge in Sutton Coldfield has been totally rebuilt (without the road-narrowing arches), wouldn't it be an idea to relieve the awful congestion in Riland Road by diverting at least the 904 from Good Hope up the hill, then down into Sutton Parade from the Lichfield Road (the old 119 route)? 

Riland Road is getting beyond a joke these days - it took outward-bound 4938 on the 914 a good couple of minutes to inch past an inward-bound 2122 on the 71 last Tuesday, late morning, and I do mean inch .... I was on the lower deck of 4938 and I reckon the clearance at one stage was little more than 6 inches.  Very skillful driving.  Additionally, there was a 904 Falcon Lodge in front of us, and a 75 coming in from Coleshill behind 2122 ........

This was one of the old AMPM double deckers.  I don't know if it went to Thandi or not when AMPM finished, but Flikr shows it with a firm in Preston in 2013.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisbell50000/9417015867/

However, it was travelling up the Lichfield Road in Erdington yesterday!  Does anyone know if it's back with a local operator?

... 'cos according to a cab-radio message I overheard about 1/2 hour ago - it appears to have gone missing!!!  ;D ;D ;D

I'm sure there's a rational explanation ....

I saw, in the twilight last Saturday, on the A5 somewhere around Dordon, what I recorded at the time as WX12FKO - which I now think after googling was WX12EKO, a MAN CitySmart demonstrator - it was black and white with a sort of wavy brown livery ...... 

Now I think it was displaying route 75, which could have been Wood End - Atherstone, which would fit the location, and would make it on loan to De Courcey?

Can anyone confirm it's De Courcey, please?

[but no, let's throw some more buses onto the Sutton - Birmingham road to run behind each other virtually empty]

Running the 71A, combined with the changes that had to be made to the 66 and 966, and the resulting overcrowding of the 451 between Oscott and Sutton have probably created cost not too far short of running the 68, which I feel could have been rescued with some frequency and route alterations...but no, let's throw some more buses onto the Sutton - Birmingham road to run behind each other virtually empty.....

Andy posted this on another thread and it rather chimed in with something I was going to post anyway - is the 915 (Birmingham - expressway - Sutton - Falcon Lodge) really necessary?

The route is duplicated by others with high frequency virtually throughout, except for a small stretch in Falcon Lodge estate.

Falcon Lodge already has two links to central Birmingham which arguably are more direct - the 914 (via Expressway) and 115 (through Aston) which give a combined 15m frequency, and it also linked to Sutton via Good Hope by Blue Diamond's 119 (amongst others) again on a 15m frequency.

So is there really any need for the 915?

And are there any other routes you can think of that are effectively "overkill"?

There's a couple of smart card readers installed at Stourbridge Town station - they seem to be operational but are they used at all, and if so, what for?  There's invariably a ticket check by the second man on the Parry People Mover .......

I'm not aware of any other similar readers installed at stations elsewhere - unless you know differently, of course!  ;D

Saturday 07/04/12:

2080 was noted on the 241 (Dudley - Halesowen) this afternoon.  Do these PE B7RLE's stray away often from the Birmingham-bound routes?

The 244 (Dudley - Hasbury), which in my experience is usually run by early Volvo B6LE, seemed to be wall-to-wall Merc O405's today, I rode 1593 into Halesowen, and we passed two others including 1665.

And 1404 was operating on the 67 Castle Vale this evening!

I saw 4265 in Dudley Bus Station last Saturday and noticed there's a dedication on the side to "Alan Brookes", a bus enthusiast?  (You can see it just behind the front wheel arch on Tony's site photo).  How did that come about?  ;D

And looking at the photos of that batch, did 4268 have a similar dedication before repaint?  Are there / were there any others???