Throughout their existence from 1904 until 1981, the Birmingham &
Midland Motor Omnibus Co. was an idiosyncratic operator whose
operational area ranged from the Welsh Marches and Shropshire in the
west to Northamptonshire and Rutland in the east; and from Oxfordshire
and Gloucestershire in the south to Staffordshire and Derbyshire in the
north. Much of their area was distinctly rural but, in Birmingham and
the Black Country, Worcester and Hereford, Stafford and Leicester,
intense urban services were operated mainly by double-decker buses and
it is these buses that this volume examines. For most of its operational
life, BMMO constructed their own chassis fitted with proprietary bodies
to their own often novel and frequently advanced designs. During the
1930s around 400 double-deck, rear-entrance REDDs and front-entrance
FEDDs were built, plus others for both Trent and Potteries Motor
Traction. During the Second World War double-deck buses were allocated
to the company by the Ministry of War Transport but, after the end of
hostilities, bus production resumed until economic pressures caused the
cessation of double-deck manufacture at Carlyle Road Works in 1966.
Shortages of buses did result in the purchase of twenty Guy Arab IIIs
and 100 Leyland Titan PD2/12s between 1849 and 1954 but, from the 1960s
until the company was split up, the rear-entrance Daimler Fleetline was
the chassis of choice. This book examines each type of double-decker
with a history of the model, a brief technical specification and
captioned photographs taken during the type's period in service.
