There are now a large
number of preserved buses and coaches from the West Midlands of the United
Kingdom. These vehicles are owned and
taken care of in a number of ways.
Usually either by private individuals, enthusiast groups or
museums. The midlands are well
represented for transport museums. On
this DVD programme, featuring preserved buses, we pay a visit to ‘The Transport
Museum’ at Wythall in the West Midlands.
The programme is divided into three parts.
In the first part we feature an event
organised by The Transport Museum at Wythall to celebrate 30 years of bus
deregulation that took place on the 26th October 1986. The event was held at the museum on Sunday 9th
October 2016, where around 40 buses were operated on a special route from the
museum to the Maypole and then shuttling between Maypole and Becketts Island on
Alcester Road. Our cameras began the day
at the museum and boarded Birmingham Corporation 2976 (JOJ 976), a beautifully
restored Guy Arab IV with Metro-Cammell bodywork on route 750 to Birmingham
city centre. We travel to the city on
the lower deck to hear the sounds of the Gardner engine with pre-selector
gearbox providing the ‘music’, and return to the Maypole on the upper deck
reliving the days of a bygone era.
Alighting at the Maypole we record the action! The event was segmented into a different
transport ‘Happy Hour’ as the
organisers put it! The first was the ‘Corporation’ hour celebrating the
undertakings that formed the West Midlands PTE in 1969.
The second hour was the 1970/1980s with the vehicles
that were operated by WMPTE across Birmingham, Black Country and Coventry.
The third was the post deregulation area,
were we see vehicles in Travel West Midlands liveries, and finally into the
late 1990s with the introduction of low floor buses and the red and white
livery. During this intense running activity
we travel back to the Museum onboard former Walsall Corporation 116 (XDH 116G),
a ‘short’ Daimler Fleetline CRG6 with Northern Counties bodywork for a couple
of ‘shuttle’ runs passing the other vehicles of the same service. From the Museum we travel back to the Maypole
on WMPTE 4738 (JOV 738P), a Volvo-Ailsa with Alexander bodywork to continue
filming the action. We conclude the day
with some footage at Alcester Road, Wythall and at the Museum as the vehicles
are parked up or leave for their respective homes.
The second part of this programme feature two
former Coventry Transport preserved buses at the ‘Buses’ magazine event at the British Motor Museum at Gaydon,
Warwickshire in August 2016. They are
double decker 334 (334 CRW), a Daimler CVG6 with Metro-Cammell bodywork and
single decker 244 (EVC 244), a Daimler COG5/40 with Park Royal bodywork. We travel on both vehicles on the Kineton
‘Circle’ route from the museum along the roads and lanes of Warwickshire
providing beautiful views and excellent sounds!
The third and final part to this DVD programme is on board a ‘Wythall’
owned vehicle. A Midland Red D9 double
decker, 5399 (BHA 399C) on a circular journey from the museum to
Henley-in-Arden and back. Filmed in
March 2016 we can savour the lovely sounds and beautiful views as we travel on
this interesting bus.