Birmingham City Transport Morris Dictator - OV 4090

1930s LOCALLY-BUILT BIRMINGHAM SINGLE-DECK BUS

Full size buses by Morris-Commercial always were rare so preserved ones are even rarer! The decision by Birmingham Corporation to buy their buses at the height of the depression in 1931-3 was no doubt influenced by them being made locally, just over the city boundary in Smethwick. The bodies were also locally built by Metro-Cammell, at Washwood Heath in Birmingham, then new to bus building but offering an excellent all-metal structure.

The first ten were Dictator single-deckers, a model name which went out of fashion a couple of years later, courtesy A.Hitler. The design incorporated a detachable front sub-frame on which gearbox and six-cylinder petrol engine and could roll away on the front axle, after the removal of a few bolts.

OV 4090 entered service as bus 90 on Armistice Day 11 November 1931. Most of its early life was from Tennant Street, Edgbaston, garage. On 4 October 1939 it was reallocated to Yardley Wood garage, and was finally withdrawn in December 1945. It was sold to a scrap dealer in 1946 but escaped the torch, and was immediately re-sold. Vehicles of any kind were hard to obtain just after the war so 90 became the unusual choice of the General Manager of the Metro-Cammell bus building division for conversion to a mobile home. Some body refurbishment took place around 1950, including the style of glazing now carried. After many years in its new role it was, by the mid-1960s, disused at the back of Metro-Cammell's Elmdon works. Remarkably the veteran was purchased by a farmer, who at one stage hired it out as a mobile mess room for a self-build housing project in Droitwich, then later used it as a store shed.

Preservation

Thankfully 90 passed into preservation in 1971 and became one of Wythall's original vehicles. 90 was repainted into BCT colours in 1974 to attend the '50 Years of Morris-Commercial' celebrations. It had been returned to running order and astounded those present by running under its own power, a performance subsequently repeated on necessarily very rare occasions here at Wythall! Also, it is believed to be have the oldest surviving steel-framed bus body in the country.