Midland Red

History

Origins

In 1899, British Electric Traction (BET) acquired the assets of the Birmingham General Omnibus Company, which had been formed three years earlier to acquire a number of horse-drawn omnibus operations in Birmingham. When the BET ordered new buses for Birmingham the next year, they were painted red to make them stand out. In 1902, the BET acquired the City of Birmingham Tramways Company, which operated omnibuses as well as trams.

The Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Company (BMMO) was formed by local businessmen in November 1904 to operate motor bus services in Birmingham. When the directors failed to attract sufficient investors, the BET acquired control of the new company, and in 1905 transferred its local omnibus operations to it. The company also acquired a motor bus company which had started in 1903. BMMO started operations under its own name in July 1905. However, the company experienced problems with its motor buses, and in 1907, reverted all its motor bus services to omnibus operation.

In 1912, the company purchased some Tilling-Stevens petrol-electric buses. Further motor buses followed, and by June 1913, only 17 horse-drawn omnibus remained. The company adopted for its motor buses the red livery used by Birmingham General, and the buses carried the fleetname "Midland". They soon acquired the nickname Midland Red.

Expansion outside Birmingham

By 1912, the Birmingham Corporation Tramways had used its statutory powers to acquire the city's tramways which it did not already own, and wanted to consolidate the operation of bus and tram operations in the city. Since it was going to be difficult for BMMO to expand in the city, it reached agreement with the corporation to operate services from outside Birmingham into the city and transfer its services within the city to the corporation. The company then expanded outside Birmingham, and moved its headquarters to Bearwood in Smethwick.

During World War I, the company took over BET operations in Worcester and elsewhere, and after the war opened depots in Walsall, Coventry, Wolverhampton, Hereford, Stafford, Banbury, Bromsgrove, Shrewsbury, Nuneaton, Leamington Spa and Leicester. Starting with the replacement of services in Worcester in June 1928, during the late 1920s, the tramways owned by BET in the Black Country were gradually replaced by Midland Red buses.

In 1930, the Great Western Railway and the London Midland & Scottish Railway together acquired 50% of the company. The few GWR bus services in the area were transferred to Midland Red.

Coach services

Midland Red started express coach services in 1921 with routes to Weston-super-Mare and Llandudno. Coach services expanded, and after the acquisition of long-distance Cheltenham coach operator Black and White Motorways Ltd in 1930, in 1934, Midland Red became a founder member of the Associated Motorways consortium.

Coach services were heavily reduced during World War II, but expanded again after the war. When the M1 motorway opened in 1959, Midland Red started non-stop express services between Birmingham and London, and later between Coventry and London. For the service, the company developed Britain's first high-speed motor-coach. A fleet of ten, capable of speeds of up to 85 miles per hour (140 km/h), were built at the company's workshops at Edgbaston. The opening of the M5 motorway enabled the operation of express services between Birmingham and Worcester.

In 1912, the company bought its first Tilling-Stevens petrol-electric vehicles. Tilling-Stevens became the main supplier of bus chassis to the company which, under its Chief Engineer LG Wyndham Shire, adapted and developed the designs to its own requirements, finally designing a vehicle it intended to construct itself.

Between 1923 and 1969, the BMMO built most of the buses it operated: up to 1940 these were called SOS (rumoured to stand for Superior Omnibus Specification), and some models were supplied to other bus companies associated within the British Electric Traction (BET) group, namely Trent, PMT and Northern General. After 1940, the vehicles were identified by the company's initials, BMMO, and supplied solely for the BMMO company's own use. Codes later used for buses were FEDD (Front Entrance Double Decker), REDD (Rear Entrance Double Decker), Coaches were initially classified "ONC", but later used a prefix of "C" – or "CM" for Motorway coaches.

Single-deck models after the war were numbered S6, then S8 through S23, while double decker models were numbered D1 through D10. AD2, GD6 and LD8 were exceptions to the normal designation system – these codes referred to batches of respectively AEC, Guy and Leyland vehicles acquired when the manufacturing operation could not meet the heavy demand. Individual buses were numbered from around 2000 to 5900 – registrations usually incorporated the last three numbers of the serial, and a letter prefix of three letters ending in "HA", a Smethwick registration code. This relationship did not apply to the limited number of buses gained as a result of acquisition of other operators.

Bus manufacture, overhaul and accident repair was carried out at Carlyle Works, adjacent to the Rotton Park Reservoir in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Nearby to the works was BMMO's head office in Vernon Road, Edgbaston. After the production of buses ceased in 1970, the last four BMMO-manufactured single-deck buses were withdrawn by Midland Red in 1981.