Old Reviews and Leaflets - Page 3 of 4
This page is a reprint of a historical document, and should therefore be read in a historical context. For present-day details about “Wheels”, click here.

I was wondering what a com­bined model railway shop, coffee bar, and restaurant would look like. I had not previously heard of such an establishment, but the place known as “Wheels” is all that and more.

I found parking easy, close by the shop, which from the outside looks like others in this old Georgian street, although this one has trains in one window and a table in the other. Inside is the usual shop counter but over it is a railway station platform awning. At one end of the counter, coaches and buses can be booked, part of the "Coaching at Wheels” operation.

The customer area is lit by station lamps, under which are tables and chairs where snacks and sand­wiches are served. The coffee bar is decorated in the red, black and gold livery, which is the old coach colour scheme of the BMMO Midland Red Company, whose history is depicted round the walls of this area, in the form of oil paintings, posters, and items of memorabilia.

Wheels is well worth a visit for bus enthusiasts, in fact they are producing a video film of the history of the Birmingham and Midland Motor Bus Company, (Midland Red).

On the walls, glass cabinets hold trains for collectors. All the regular names are stocked plus a wealth of secondhand, and gauges normally held are N, TT, 00 and 0. On the day of my visit there were some fine-scale gauge “0” locos which included an MR 0-4-4 well tank, an MR 4-4-2 tank, a GW pannier and a GW 0-4-2 tank. Secondhand commercial items included a Triang “Davy Crockett”, a number of streamlined LMS “Coronations” and an old Hornby “2710”.

Behind the shop is the “Master Cutler” res­taurant, named after the famous train which ran on LNER Great Central rails from Sheffield to London. A little licence has been taken with the choice of decor for it is in the maroon and cream of the LMS, and this railway style dining room, complete with wooden panelled and brick (retaining style) walls is equipped with yet more memorabilia and railwayana.

The whole enterprise, which opened last August, is the brainchild of two partners, Ashley Wakelin and Richard Paramor.

Ashley was previously employed in the field of buses and coaches, working as depot supervisor with the Midland Red Bus Com­pany and as development manager with a smaller independent operator, while his partner is a travel agent whose office is now part of the Wheels complex. The idea of the present establishment was born when the two partners used to take their vintage BMMO bus to rallies, and talked of opening a transport memorabilia shop. One property they viewed was an ironmongers shop with extensive rooms attached, and they hit on the idea of combining a model railway shop with a restaurant.

The catering side of the business is in the excellent care of the catering manager/chef, John Davis and his team.

Dishes in both parts of the house show consider­able ingenuity, for example the sandwich list is divided into “interesting” and “boring” varieties. Extracts from the former are trout and horseradish and chicken and mango.

The restaurant menu in­cludes such delights as mushroom buffers, chop and change, train whistle pie and great westerns, the latter three being lamb cut­lets, game pie and profiteroles. There is also an extensive wine list.

The evening meal at Wheels is quite an occasion. There is just one sitting at 7.45pm when “passengers” assemble for complimentary wine. They are then shown to their named (not numbered) tables, and the service “terminates” at approximately 10.15pm.

	Old Reviews and Leaflets - Page 3 of 4
This page is a reprint of a historical document, and should therefore be read in a historical context. For present-day details about “Wheels”, click here.

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