Birmingham Corporation Bus

OK I know this is slightly off topic but it does concern modelling. With my other modelling head on I am building a Birmingham Corporation double decker bus for someone.

Does anyone have any detail interior photos of one?? Particularly at the rear where the stairs are.

I was on hol in the Midlands a couple of months back and was going to go and see and photograph the tram at Thinktank but I ran out of time and didn't get there.

Google "Birmingham Corporation double decker bus" Images

Yeah I have, but theres no internal shots

Wolfie, one of my late wife's cousins has been obsessed with buses all his life. There seems to be a secret society of bus fans, because he has sold more copies than might be expected of his book on the buses of the Azores, where he went for bus-themed holidays when he was MD of the Portuguese subsidiary of a UK bus operator. He's back in the UK now, running a regional operation for the same company. Must be nice to combine business with pleasure!

I can ask if he has any interior pics - what type and vintage is the one you are modelling?

Andy

PS I was at Birmingham University in the '60s and travelled on their buses a lot,, but I can't remember anything about the interiors.

Edited By Andyf on 18/08/2012 00:56:30

It doesn't matter what type Andy, its the colour scheme I'm after.

I'm building a Routemaster and I don't think Birmingham used them anyway. But its the only bus kit available.

This might help?

If you search this group there are some interiors, including the one above.

Upstairs showing red seats.

Looking forward on top deck, & next one in stream is looking back

if you scan the comments and search the streams there are plenty of pics of interiors of different buses, maybe something there that helps? There is one srteam dedicated to Public Transport interiors. or maybe 'ask the question' on one of the comments sections??

Regards, Phil

Edited By Weary on 18/08/2012 09:56:46

Edited By Weary on 18/08/2012 09:57:17

I'm building a Routemaster and I don't think Birmingham used them anyway. But its the only bus kit available

------

I think they used routemasters pretty much everywhere

When I went from Edinburgh to visit my grandparents in Birmingham in the late 60s the bus wasn't much different from our own

rear alighting, luggage under the stairs and the 3 person sitting fore and aft seats just inside the back

My main memory is of my Dad trying to get the foreign bus conductor to accept a scottish pound note as legal tender for the bus fare!

I would suggest that you trawl youtube for old film clips

on the busses

michael caine type films from the 1960s which were shot on Britains streets

old books like time-life stuff with lots of glossy pictures

gl

edit

plenty of books out there

Birmingham Glory Days

Birmingham Bus Routes

Edited By David Clark 1 on 19/08/2012 10:28:00

Youtube

**LINK**

**LINK**

**LINK**

Searching for "Birmingham bus garage"

Walsall 1955 - 1

Walsall 1955 - 2

"Birmingham bus depot" will probbly give you more stuff

Edited By David Clark 1 on 19/08/2012 10:29:48

Wolfie

Try the Birminham Central Library and Central museam are bound to hold archive of photos

Bob

Wolfie,

There is always the Crich Tramway Museum in Derbyshire. There should be an anorak or two who could point you in the right direction even though they are primarily tram people. Is there anyone at the Black Country Museum at Dudley who might help? There might be a resident bus on the site.

You will probably need to specify the coachbuilder, that depended on whose chassis was preferred in the particular era that you are modelling. Looking at Google photos I seem to recognise Daimler , AEC and Leyland in their fleet

Further afield, if you can identify the coachbuilder, Beamish Museum have buses that run on site and the British commercial vehicle museum at Leyland Lancs has several buses but obviously biased towards Leyland chassis

Good Luck

Bob D

Nice to see the return of the old "message hidden under the adverts" problem.

MichaelG.

We had a fun trip on the top of a Birmingham Electric Trolleybus at the Black Country Museum - we had it all to ourselves.

It brought back memories of the old Western Welsh buses from when I was a kid - I could almost smell the stale >too much information<...

Neil

Got it for you Wolfie but you would have to join ths forum. http://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=13584

The ones where enter and get off back of bus without stopping?

Cant quite recall red seats, maybe maroon or black or brown plastic. Wearrys red seat link piccy was late or West Mids Transport, ceiling and surrounds correct.

In case anyone else needs to know I hope the following might be useful:

Birmingham Corporation never used Routemaster buses. They had always developed their own designs and had them made by chassis manufacturers (Daimler, Leyland, AEC, Crossley, Guy) and bodybuilders (Park Royal, Weymann, etc). The style was known as the "Birmingham Standard" after 1953.

There are some excellent surviving examples at the BAMMOT museum in Wythall.

The best commercially available models of the Birmingham Standard are those made by Forward Models (**LINK**). Nobody else to date has produced a decent model of the unique front end / grille.

Hope this helps.