LETTER TO OMNIBUS
Reports in past issues of “Omnibus” of tours around the Midlands undertaken with preserved BaMMOT vehicles emphasise how you strive to achieve authentic destination displays at photo stops en route. I admit that I hadn’t seen the Museum’s brochure until the 2004 edition arrived with my copy of “Omnibus” 156, and I was surprised to see the BMMO D9 displaying a totally unauthentic destination display. Let me explain.
When BMMO and BCT jointly took over the operation of the Dudley Road trams in 1939, BMMO insisted that they could not countenance any wholly numeric service number of less than three digits, and that therefore the 80-88 series of “new” numbers must be prefixed by the letter “B” (to denote a Birmingham local service). BCT went along with this for their share of the Dudley Road services.
In turn BMMO went along with BCT’s convention of not changing destination displays at each terminus, and both operators showed both termini, with a common “via Dudley Road” for all except the Soho route (which Arthur Whitehouse confirms showed “via Heath Street”). Buses running through to and from Dudley would thus show the stencils for “B87” and the blind showing “Birmingham - Dudley via Dudley Road”. This format continued on post-war buses equipped with numeral blinds and separate destination and “via” blinds.
When D9s started to come on the scene they were barred from the Dudley Road joint services. On the one hand the Midland Red unions would not stand for working (at a lower rate of pay) 72-seaters alongside the Corporation’s 54-seaters, and on the other hand BCT objected to the ability of such buses to earn more than their own per mile.
In 1968, when BCT’s Rosebery Street garage closed, the Soho and Bearwood routes redeployed to Hockley and Quinton garages respectively, and revised destination blinds were thus needed at those garages. By then, the Midland Red management was more relaxed about service numbers, and both operators agreed to drop the “B” prefix. Being in my “parish” I recall quite clearly sending out the Staff Notice informing everyone of the change, sending out new running-cards, and reprinting the public timetables, all with the “B” expunged. It was some time after then that BCT converted their operations to big buses, thus paving the way for Midland Red’s D9s.
So a D9 would never have been seen displaying “B87”. Even on the plain “87” the destination display would still have read “Birmingham-Dudley via Dudley Road” (the Midland Red practice of showing where buses were actually going to had to wait until WMPTE days).
Now, if your D9 had been photographed showing “120” instead of “B87” I would have had no cause to write this letter!
Stan Letts (Nitpicker extraordinaire)
Oldbury
Malcolm Keeley replies:-
Thanks to Stan and, no, it’s not nitpicking. The leaflet picture was not taken on one of our route tours, which, despite the length of their itineraries, manage to finish in daylight! It was, in fact, a quickie shot after a photo call for the
excellent transport photographer John Robinson. Stan may also have noted that the picture is not even on the B87 route but Small Heath Bridge, which John particularly wanted as a backdrop. I think it was John who asked on the day for the B87 display. Even as I wound it up, I felt it didn’t look right but, being a BCT rather than a BMMO man, couldn’t put my finger on what was wrong until I got home and got the old photos out! The blind fitted evidently dates from 1973 because it does not include the displays Stan mentions. I was also surprised that the lack of a driver’s uniform showed up on a night scene; all lessons learned for the future.
Despite these faults, I have never seen a better picture of a BaMMOT bus in the shape required for the leaflet cover and was delighted when John kindly gave permission for its use. The artwork is now in its third season and around 20,000 copies must have been circulated. Lots of people have commented favourably on the picture but, until now, no-one has mentioned that it is incorrect so I believe we made the right decision to use it! We shall want new artwork in the near future and readers are invited to submit suitable pictures - ideally they should be ‘atmospheric’ and very sharp, and don’t forget the shape of that cover shot which has to include space for clear text at top and bottom.
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