Book review – Midland Red – Evolution or Revolution

In his fourth lavish volume on Midland Red (the trading name of the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company – BMMO), Ashley Wakelin poses the question as to whether Midland Red’s activities were evolutionary or revolutionary but leaves the reader to make up their own mind on the evidence provided. This includes the recollections of many who worked for Midland Red in its heyday up to the NBC years of the 1970s covering engineering, operations and an in-depth look at the extensive training that was undertaken to meet the high standards expected.

The technical development of the company’s vehicles is followed from the unreliable petrol buses of its formative years to the end of BMMO production in 1970. Much of this course is evolutionary as vehicles grew larger and more powerful but at times revolution was the order of the day, not always totally successful. Among the latter were the first rear-engined buses in the 1930s, based on American practice, a concept looked at twice again in the 1960s but not progressed. Revolutionary but perhaps too advanced for the UK, the 1930s vehicles were rebuilt to underfloor engine configuration in the 1940s, heralding what then became a nationwide shift in single-deck bus design. Midland Red experimented with double-deckers of a similar layout, managing to stay within the prescribed height limits without resorting to a side gangway upstairs layout. Many consider the development of the company’s motorway coach fleet a significant revolution, producing two generations of vehicles capable of cruising well above the current speed limits.

Other chapters include a look at the company’s involvement in Associated Motorways, the impact of nationalisation in 1969 and an overview of serious accidents and fires that the company’s vehicles were involved in. Nowadays, vehicle fires seem to make the headlines on a regular basis yet Ashley quotes that there were only 11 such formally reported incidents between 1945 and 1980, one involving the previously immaculate D9 shown on the front cover. While most vehicles involved were complete write-offs, one involved in an event in Bromsgrove in 1969 proved capable of rebuilding, the company’s ingenious engineers using body parts from the final BMMO vehicle build then under way to give it a unique appearance

Like its predecessors, this volume features a host of mainly unseen images, the majority in colour with some of the older views expertly colourised. In all, a highly attractive publication bringing back memories of the ‘red’ era, recommended.

Book review by David Cole.

Midland Red – Evolution or Revolution? by Ashley Wakelin is self-published by the Author at £35. ISBN 978-1-7391593-5-1

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