Some of you grizzly old-timers might help out with this one...
When I was a small child, one of my earliest memories was being flung from the back-seat of a very old double-decker down the aisle, when it braked suddenly. Was there an old route 43, that ran from Nechells to Londonderry, via Smethwick, or did I imagine it all?
I'm not sure I should answer this having been called a grizzly old timer. ;)
There was a 43. In the early days of WMPTE, it ran from Nechells to City Centre, but by 1979 it had been extended over the old 95 route via Bath Row, Five Ways and Icknield Park Road to Soho. It was still operating this route in 1988.
I think it was superceded by the 66/66A services. However, I have no recollection of it ever going to Smethwick or Londonderry although it may have done at some time.
Yes Stu, your memory is good. The 43 did run Nechells - Londonderry for a number of years from around 1980. The route between the City Centre and Smethwick was via Five Ways, Ladywood, Heath Street and Soho (which was its terminus before being extended to Soho as a result of Sandwell area revisions).
Probably being on an MK1 on the 11A from Handsworth to Bearwood, they were beauties.
Quote from: Justin Tyme on April 02, 2012, 09:59:04 PM
Yes Stu, your memory is good. The 43 did run Nechells - Londonderry for a number of years from around 1980. The route between the City Centre and Smethwick was via Five Ways, Ladywood, Heath Street and Soho (which was its terminus before being extended to Soho as a result of Sandwell area revisions).
I must be a real old-timer because I remember going on the 43 in 1962 when it had the first Fleetlines and Atlanteans - they seemed marvellous then, buses with the engine where the platform should be...
Oh yes, I remember that too .... there was initially a demonstrator, wasn't there? I think it was 3230 and it plied its trade on route 96 - City (back of the Council House) to Lodge Road?
Yes - 3230 (460 MTE) was the demonstrator and worked with Atlanteans 3231 - 3240 on the 96 from Congreve Street, just outside Birmingham City Transport HQ in the Council House extension, to the middle of nowhere next to Soho junctions. Then the Fleetlines 3241-3250 came in 1962 and half came onto the 96, replacing half of the Atlanteans to the 43 with the other half of the Fleetlines. Happy days!
Back in the halcyon days of the joj & Mof they (usually) carried a notice at the front of the top deck. these were "no standing on the upper deck" and "NO SPITTING ALLOWED" . what I find amusing is the word Vandalism never got a look in! I mean, Its almost as though a good old fashioned "gob fight" between consenting schoolboys was more anti-social than carving your name on the back seats!!? :) :) :)
This was before I was born, but I would love to have been able to see things like this at work
http://wmbusphotos.com/Trains/other/10201.html
My earliest memories....When I was a toddler there were still rear platforms of some sort running past Warley Woods on the 129..by the time I was old enough to travel on buses with my nan it was Ailsas and once I remember catching one of the rare Titans on it and nearly being thrown through the windscreen when the driver stood on the brakes at Paradise Circus!
My other nan lived at Kingstanding so it was Fleetlines on the 33. I remember letting the newer ones go so that I could travel on an earlier example as I preferred the interiors...Finchley Rd was the terminus at that time so I could stand there and take my pick of whatever was on the stand and simply wait for it!
Also remember going to work with my Mom and having to sit in the office with her while she worked as a Secretary...I would be staring out of the window intently for hours at Oldbury bus garage which was next door.
Most buses in the old days had a notice saying NO SPITTING ALLOWED................I always wondered whether you could spit quietly.
My earliest memories would be of catching routes 131 & 132 from the Bull Ring bus station back to Hasbury, Liverpool Street garage used to serve Hasbury with the Limited Stop 902 route to/from Birmingham in the peaks. I think we also used to have a 242 & possibly a 297 serve the estate. Further up the estate we also had the 415 which linked Hayley Green - Oldbury with Volvo Alisa's and their distinctive sound.........
I can remember passing Selly Oak garage in WMPTE day's on route to Cotteridge passing on the number 11, passing Oldbury garage on route to Savacentre shopping & also remember Stourbridge garage
Ahhh the Bull Ring Bus Station. Even now every time I get a sniff of diesel or exhaust fumes in a confined space I remember that place. Awful lighting and ventilation, horrible toilets and one wall in a foul yellow colour for Midland Express.
Yet many happy memories of catching the 120 or 140 to visit either set of grandparents or or catching the X20 back to Stratford with my parents to where we used to live at the time!
My earliest memories are of buses starting on the 96 Lodge Road route. They took over from the trams on the same route in 1947.
The tram route number was 32. The first buses used were usually pre-war Daimler COG5's, but in 1949 about 65 new Leyland Titans
PD2/1's were delivered to Hockley and all appeared on the 96. They were superb buses, the last 15 had Park Royal bodies.
my earliest memories are 246's and 245's running together along Brierley hill high street a mix of Fleetlines, Metro buses and the odd Leyland National all in different livery! Oh how the times have changed ???
I'm probably more grizzled than most on this board .....
Early memories include Harborne garage in the late 1950's, mainly Crossley H30/24R working routes 11, 12 (Bartley Green), 21 (Weoley Castle). The Crossley vehicles lasted until around 1969.
And once I'd started secondary school, trying to catch one of Rosebery Street's distinctive Leyland PD2's, which had a morning rush-hour working from the Ivy Bush to Selly Oak (route 2, if I recall correctly) via the QE. It arrived at the Ivy Bush around 08:15 from the Inner Circle, and returned from Selly Oak as an 11E back to the depot (Winson Green). The drivers on this working took no prisoners, the object appeared to be to get round the "circuit" and back to the home depot at the speed of light.
If you held out your hand, and got really lucky, it stopped for you. Usually, it just reduced speed to walking pace, allowing you to catch the rear entrance pole and swing yourself on board, before accelerating away. Quite often, you just got ignored ..... ;D
Invariably, I was the only passenger - just me and the conductor! 8)
And later on, I remember when the first OMO Fleetlines got allocated to Quinton and Harborne - so different from the standard rear-entrance double deckers. I recall adopting 3438 (QN) as "my" bus ....... :-[
Will always remember as a toddler in the early nintys lynxes on the 120 and 88 and metros on the 128/9 and thinking for ages they were the only buses on the road, I did love the lynxes right up until they left the fleet
Blimey! With one or two exceptions the memories on here make me feel old.
My earliest memories of black country bus travel was the Midland Red 882/885 working the Stourbridge (Kidderminster 885) to Wolverhampton on the fabulous D9`s.I was always fascinated by the electrical closing doors.My other memories would be catching the 130 to Birmingham.Midland Red buses had seperate bus stops going into both Wolves and Brum as i remember.The 882/5 also went straight through to Wolverhampton without the fifteen minute detour around Wombourne. Happy days.....
Long before the b'ham bus station existed most of the warwick/stratford buses ran from a stand in front of St Martins church. If I missed my D7 (or was it a D9) Midland Red service 150 to Henley in Arden I would Walk up The 'slope' between the church and Dale end and be Fascinated by an escapologist. his assistants would fleece their onlookers for pennies at least 20 mins before finaly emerging from a grubby padlocked sack and the process would start again.Happy days.
Being on a metrobus on the 82, top deck, pretending to drive it using the rails ahead of the front seats, tying to look down the driver's reflector on the right hand side
I remember when the outer circle was operated by all the metrobuses, MK1, 2, 2A, now that was heaven. How I miss the Mk1s, best metrobuses ever. What I'd do to ride one of those again
Green bus run 1 or 2 metros on the 64 from harborne-QE-selly oak-university-northfield-rubery parkway (morrisons forecourt)
My earliest memories were of the fleetlines on the Bristol Rd routes (6597 - 6600)
I have a memory of getting on 4207 at Holly Hill shops too.
I remember the Mk1 Metros on the Bristol Rd (2001 - 2015) and seeing the brand new Mk2s (2550 - 2560).
Also I remember seeing the dual door Fleetlines on the Pershore Rd routes (37XX and 38XX) I'm sure I remember a route 41 which came into town via Bristol St.
I often travelled on the 7 to Newtown and remember getting on the 2275 upwards Metros, but I'm sure of catching 4554 a few times.
My best memory though is of being a young bus fan in the early 80s and encouaging my Mom to take me down to Miller St garage which she did (probably so I'd stop going on about it!). We went to the garage on a sunny afternoon and there was just one bus in the yard, and cheekily I walked in and sat in the drivers seat, I still remember the fleet number to this day - 4172. Just wish I had a camera at the time!
Quote from: Bham Central Driver on May 13, 2012, 03:51:42 PM
Also I remember seeing the dual door Fleetlines on the Pershore Rd routes (37XX and 38XX) I'm sure I remember a route 41 which came into town via Bristol St.
Yes, in the 70's, the Pershore Road routes were 41 to Sunbury Road, 45 to West Heath and 47 to Groveley Lane. They came from Pershore Road via what is now the Middle Ringway, then along Bristol Street, Horsefair, Suffolk Street, Navigation Street and terminated at the top of John Bright Street.