PRE-WAR MIDLAND RED DOUBLE-DECK BUS


Between 1923 and 1970 Midland Red designed and built its own buses and this is the only surviving double-deck example from before the Second World War.

By 1928 Midland Red had concluded that single-deck buses should be used everywhere. This did cause overcrowding at very busy times. The Road Traffic Act, 1930, brought regulation to bus services and safety initiatives, including a limit on the number of standing passengers. Rather than buy extra single-deck buses, requiring additional drivers and conductors, Midland Red designed and reintroduced double-deckers in 1932. This bus is one of the first production series and seated 52, later increased to 55. They were firstly used in the Black Country but, with the arrival of newer buses, later mostly ran from Leicester.

Preservation

HA 8047's service career ended in 1951 and the bus disappeared, only to be discovered many years later by the Oxford Bus Museum. It spent some time at the Black Country Living Museum and was kindly passed, still basically unrestored, to this museum in 2011.