Birmingham Buses After Withdrawal

David Harvey explores, with the help of illustrations, what happened to Birmingham buses after withdrawal from service.

---

From the mid-1930s, many of the Birmingham City Transport bus fleet were stored pending disposal. Once sold, many were taken to scrapyards and broken up while some of the better ones were sold for further use. In this book, author David Harvey looks at these three scenarios up until the 1980s, though the main period was between 1947 until 1965 when there was still a large market for second-hand Birmingham buses that were generally still in excellent condition. Many of the photographs have never been seen before – especially those taken in the huge vehicle ‘dump’ at Holford Drive, Perry Barr.

Breaking-up locations such as scrap merchants at Oldbury, Great Barr and Stratford are a sad reminder of the way unwanted buses were unceremoniously broken up. A happier end result is seen with the buses that escaped, with many going to independent operators in Scotland while some were even exported to Cyprus.