| |
|
Welcome to
WHEELS / MIDLAND RED COACHES!
|
|
To see our range of
Midland Red buses and coaches...
go directly to the
Our Vehicles page, or
go directly to the COACH HIRE pages.
Do have a good look around our website and enjoy some of the
articles.
You can even contribute - write in with your stories, nostagic
Midland Red memories, or about our Wedding Day Transport. We might print your article too.
We are
looking for ex-Midland Red employees, ex members of the Midland
Red Orchestra or Choir, and Midland Red experienced Engineers
too. We need your memories to record for the future
-please get in touch - or get a relative or friend to contact
us.
For all your Charabanc,
Bus and Coach Hire Enquiries
its always best to email us anytime: buses@wheels.co.uk giving
us full details of the itinerary with location addresses, times and
other full requirements, we will then respond with our
comprehensive costing document - something you can rely on to be
provided in style.
|
THE BIGGEST
RANGE of
Vehicles For Hire -
for your Special Occasions |
|
Top Photo:
D9 "best remembered" double decker bus on a
Private Hire running between Bosworth Hall Hotel to
local railway stations after a conference with foreign
nationals. The red double decker - a great British
icon.
Above Photo: One of our smart new Leyland Royal Tiger
Doyen Coaches on tour in Worcestershire.
|
WHEELS
Museum of Transport Heritage project operates the classic
buses and coaches which represent Midland
Red.
We bring you the biggest range of vehicles for just
about any special occasion. Anything from our most popular bus
the unique vintage
Charabanc, and our very smart Midland Red D9 red
double decker, to our "Wheels Pioneer" single
decker coach which is in the Red and Black traditional Midland
Red coach livery too. We also have examples of traditional
Leyland Titan PD2 double decker - in the livery of the old
Stratford Blue Motor Services - itself owned by Midland Red
since the 1930's. Leyland Leopard coaches (one with Wheelchair Lift) and
two modern looking Leyland Royal Tiger coaches which you will often see
operating our Heritage Day Trip programme and Private Hire
duties - these examples are rapidly becoming "modern"
classics.
All
are available for Hire in the Midlands, for your group day trips with
experienced, professional and uniformed Drivers to help your
day out go well.
|
| Vintage
Buses & Coaches for Hire ! |
 WHEELS
/ Midland Red Coaches have a number of unique buses
and coaches available for Hire for Special Occasions.
A Big Red Double
Decker
FOR HIRE in the Midlands !
See the COACH HIRE
pages for full details of this and other vehicles Wheelchair Accessible coaches and our unique
vintage Midland Red Charabanc
|
| More about
us.... |
| Wheels is a transport themed specialist bus & coach company
For information on
our vintage and specialist BUSES & COACHES visit out Coach
Hire pages. Also see Our Vehicles
for photos and details of our fleet of unique and unusual vehicles.
We are experts in our
field of bus and coach operation and have many years
experience in the people moving business.
Our business is
inextricably linked with transport nostalgia, and our Wheels
Museum of Transport looks after the vintage fleet and
has a large collection of transport memorabilia which has been
collected over many years and strongly reflects the history of
Midland Red. We have also just secured TWO brand new
1940 Midland Red uniforms and we now have a Mannequin model
dressed as a 1940's Conductress too! We are looking for ANY
Midland Red memorabilia, photo's or films. Please contact us
if you can help.
|
|
The Midland Red
Concert Orchestra
|
| We are urgently looking for any information on The Midland Red Concert
Orchestra. This part of the Midland Red history is not
well documented, and while our colleague David Grayburn Hale
of DAVIDEO has some clips of film, we are anxious to have
details of the Orchestra make-up, and any photographs or
memories that anyone may have.
The orchestra
performed in various places such as Town Halls, and especially around
the time of the Midland Red Tour Brochure launches. The
Company would visit towns and Cities in the area, present a film
show of the latest tours, and the Midland Red Concert
Orchestra would provide the musical entertainment.
We would like to
recreate The Midland Red Concert Orchestra - any help or ideas
would be welcomed.
Please contact us by
email buses@wheels.co.uk, |
| Midland Red
Centenary Print |
 WHEELS
/ Midland Red Coaches have produced a special run of
just 500
Limited Edition Centenary Prints. These
special large A2 sized canvas laid 170gsm paper prints show ten
famous Midland Red buses and the men who made them. The print
is
provided in a strong card postal tube - either collect from
our shop or by post. £24.99
See our shop page for further details
|
|
NWTA LOCAL
TOURISM SUPPORT GROUP -
Northern Warwickshire Tourism
Association
|
|
Midland Red
are among the founder members of the Northern
Warwickshire Tourism Association, a group made up of
local businesses including Accommodation providers,
Attractions, Museums, Restaurants, Shops and specialist
businesses.
Midland Red Coaches are always pleased to help and
participate in the group's aims and projects and urge
anyone who does business within a 20 mile area of
Nuneaton to make enquiries to join us.
We are in good
company too - local members include Bedworth Civic Hall,
Bosworth Battlefield,
Leathermill Grange, Hoar Park shopping and craft village,
Polesworth Abbey, Middleton Hall, Dobbies, Planters, Griff
House Hotel, George
Eliot Fellowship, Sketchley Grange Hotel and a host of high
quality accommodation providers. There's also a Brewery, quality
pubs and places to eat. We have the support of the area's
mayors and Town Centre Partnerships too.
Membership of the Association costs less than a single
advert in a local paper - yet you have access to and are
part of the Association's very popular website, with a
link to members' own website. You also have a photograph and
write-up in a super biannual tourist information
handbook with 30,000 copies distributed; and there
are meetings
which are great for networking with other members and
with occasional guest speakers. And recently we have been on
mobile meetings on our buses which have enlightened our
members to the delights of our area and its attractions. Our Press Officer Vince Taylor
of Bedworth Parsonage project regularly promotes our
attractions and special events on local radio and in the
press - and all at no extra cost to members!
Membership of the Northern Warwickshire Tourism
Association costs just £50, and if you are in business
locally you will know just what you can get for such a
little amount of money these days.
It surely represents outstanding
value with networking meetings, entry in the popular
tourism association guide, and website entry too.
Come to one of
our meetings and join us.
See the NWTA website at www.visitnorthernwarwickshire.com
|
|
|
|
 Wheels/Midland
Red Coaches are proud to support the UK Bus Awards 2011.
This is the second year of our involvement in providing Bus
Driver Experience Days and our Limited Edition Midland Red
Centenary prints.
Transaid, the
international UK development charity who benefit from their
involvement with the awards help to improve Bus Driving
standards in Africa and the developing world.
|
|
Check Out these Latest Updates!
|
Recent updates of
this web site:
updated: 4th April
2012
| COACH HIRE
pages: |
- NEW Bus Driver
Experience Dates for June-December 2012 Announced.
See how its going! Latest
News and Driver
Experience pages.
- See our New Midland Red Calendars and Mugs.
- BBC "Inside Out" use Midland Red coach
for Stately Home visit.
- Making a difference -
a birthday special experience. See our Buses
for Pleasure page.
- New Slideshow of
latest Weddings and
Civil Parnerships
- Another
"New" British thoroughbred Royal Tiger
coach
comes to
Midland Red Coaches
- see our vehicles page
and latest news page
- Midland Red TV
appearance -
Priceless Antiques Roadshow
- Highway to Heaven - Double Decker on Funeral Run.
- Corporate Visitors from Europe
- see
buses for business page.
- Midland Red Booking Agents -
Leamington Pump Rooms TIC - Nuneaton Library,
CoOp Travel Bedworth, TIC Tamworth.
-
Advertise
on
our BIG Red Double-Decker Bus.
- We can Talk to your Group
all about the fascinating
history of the once empire-like Midland Red - "Bigger
than you ever imagined".
|
| BUSES FOR
PLEASURE pages: |
- Something
very different - Our Bus Driver Experience Day
Available all year round.
- A
Birthday dream for David -
a Leicester bus
Enthusiast
|
| LATEST NEWS
pages: |
- Bus Driver Experience Days.
-
Midland Red Day Trips - now from Leamington Spa
and Tamworth too!
- NWTA
Northern Warwickshire Tourism Association helping
promote our local tourism. Join us - see bottom of this page.
|
|
|
WEDDING
TRANSPORT - Our speciality
!
|
|
Days
to Remember.
Of course we
operate a wide and diverse range of bus and coach hire
work, especially Heritage and Nostalgia based, but
our Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are often taken up
operating meticulously planned transport for
Weddings.
Fridays and Sundays are now seen as alternative days for
Celebrations, sometimes more convenient, but often a lower cost alternative - yet still
enjoying the same facilities and services as more
traditional Saturday Celebrations.
See our Weddings and
Partnerships page for more pictures of our Wedding and Civil Partnership
ceremonies.
Email your Wedding and Civil Partnership transport
enquiries together with any ideas you have which you
would like to include on your special day
buses@wheels.co.uk
|
|
|
|
More HERITAGE DAY TRIPS!
|
|
 We
always have a new selection of destinations in our DAY TRIP
leaflet.
Our current season of Tours
lists some exciting new trips (plus some of the old favourites too), however we
are always pleased to hear from you with suggestions for
destinations for our
new tours in the future.
Midland Red Day Trips are friendly days out by Heritage Bus or
Coach; and as we have done for many a year, the Driver takes the Sweets around
to each passenger on every departure. We have knee rugs
available in the winter months too.
|
|
|
Britain in
Bloom - The City of Birmingham!
|
| Midland Red is a
name very close to the hearts of many people in and
around Birmingham - after all, Midland Red's 'proper'
name was The Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus
Company.
We are proud to
be involved with the Second City in the tours we
operate in Birmingham, but especially at Britain in
Bloom time, when our unique Charabanc is often used to
transport the Judges around the floral sites of this
great City.
It is wonderful
to see so many admirers when we bring our classic
vehicles to Birmingham, and especially enjoyable
to talk to the many ex-Midland Red employees who so
often come to tell us a story from "the good old
days"
Photos: The Chara dressed perfectly for
the occasion! / Birmingham's ambassadors check everything is
ready / Two of the Judges pose by the Chara during a
break from judging.
|
|
|
|
Bye-Bye Digbeth
!
|
 Saturday
17th November 2007 was a sad day for all Midland Red
enthusiasts as yet another ex Midland Red depot
disappears. Digbeth Coach Station closure was a media event
with live music, speeches and fireworks, and a display of
classic buses and coaches.
See our photo
slideshow of this special event, and a fuller story on our
Latest
News page.
|
|
Phone and
Messages
|
TO BOOK Classic
Coach Day Trips - call us on 077 3388 4914,
or 02476 633624
(0930-1730hrs
Monday to Saturday).
(do
bear in mind that we are all out most Saturdays so the phone
may not always be manned).
Our
Fax Number is 02476 354900
To
Hire one of our vintage buses and coaches for a special
occasion, please email us with full details of date, times
and places to buses@wheels.co.uk
If
you leave a message, please leave your name, address and
telephone number and of course a message with the reason
you have called us.
See our COACH HIRE pages for additional details
|
| SPECIALIST VEHICLES for
SPECIAL OCCASIONS
|
 Antique Telephones
For Sale
A
range of unusual and collectable telephones -some
original railway items!
We also have railway
oil paintings and other memorabilia.
|
|
Coach Hire and Advice
|
|
Our exciting and
unique vintage and specialist fleet of buses and coaches cover
most of the Midlands area and are available for selected Private Hire
duties.
If you have a special occasion - a Wedding, Civil Partnership,
a special Birthday or Anniversary, or want to organise a special day out
or a Mystery Tour - email us.
We can help with planning itineraries, all styles of Wedding
and even Funeral Transport arrangements too.
Just email us at buses@wheels.co.uk
|
|
|
Photos:
D9 bus in the Old Market Place, Bedworth /
NWTA members Trip to Atherstone and Polesworth departs from Bedworth Civic Hall /
Tour stopping at Middleton Hall near Tamworth.