BMMO and Midland Red - Engineering Excellence

The Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company (BMMO) played a pre-eminent part in bus and coach design and new technology. Their bus and coach operations were based in the Midlands, and with their bright red livery their mission was to "Paint the Midlands Red" with their fleet. And so they became colloquially known as "Midland Red".

If you are based outside the UK you may not have heard of "Midland Red", so perhaps you would like to know just a little about this remarkable company who were leading players in operations and vehicle development.

BMMO was more than just a bus company. They were the only company in the hey-day of British bus transport to design and build their own prototype and production vehicles from the ground up. BMMO which operated under the name "Midland Red" was probably the most significant engineering bus company in the history of British road transport!

Their designs were innovative, creative and exemplary - they were quite simply years ahead of their time. They had a small expert group of engineers working in large engineering workshops with highly specialised testing facilities. Many of their developments were taken up years later by mainstream bus and coach designers/builders (e.g. chassis-less construction).

The output of these workshops was exclusive to BMMO (apart from runs of pre-war buses released to a small number of associated companies).

And now at last, to commemorate the engineering accomplishments of BMMO "The Midland Red Collection" of model buses in 1:50 scale is now available as a series of special limited editions exclusively from "Wheels" of Nuneaton.

Here's a few bullets from the history of BMMO and Midland Red:  It does include a brief selection of information from our Midland Red Coaches operation - but you can find full details by clicking the COACH HIRE button at the top of this page, from there you can go to all the sections of the buses and coaches.

	1904	Formation of BMMO operating early motorbuses.
	1907	Reverted to horsebuses.
	1912	Return of motorbuses.
	1914-1920	Rapid Spread of services outside Birmingham to "Paint the Midlands Red" with so many buses!
	1923	First Production run of own-brand buses, SOS 'S' type - one of the first British buses to have pnuematic tyres.
	mid 1920s onwards	Development of long-distant coach routes using charabancs.
	1927	QL bus produced, the first Midland Red bus to have brakes on all wheels.
	1930s	Development of petrol and diesel engines
	1940s	Experiments with underfloor-engined single decker.
	1950s	Experiments and developments of chassisless construction, independent front suspension, air suspension, rubber suspension, glass fibre (one piece roof) construction, disc brakes.
	1958	Introduction of D9, a double decker incorporating most of the successful features developed in the 1950s
	1959	The first of the two unique D10 underfloor-engined double decker appeared - very advanced!  Also the introduction of the CM5T, an 85+ mile per hour coach for non-stop motorway services
	1960s	Larger motorway coach introduced, the CM6T between 1963-6. Later the wind down of vehicle production.
	1970s	Winding-down of vehicle production.  Last Midland Red bus produced, the S23 (in 1970).  Split up of the operating area - West Midlands PTE take the Birmingham area garages, buses and staff.
	1980s	Midland Red split into 5 independent operating companies and an engineering company.  Privatisation and buy-outs.
	1990s	Take over by the current large organisations.  In 1992 "Wheels" buses return a D9 to commercial PSV service (the last BMMO in commercial PSV use).
	1997	Introduction of the Midland Red Collection of BMMO/SOS models for the serious collector.
	2003	Midland Red Coaches re-introduced as a Trading name by WHEELS who bought the registered Company Midland Red Coaches.
	2004	Purchase by Midland Red Coaches of ex-Midland Red Charabanc 25 seater coach - formerly with Midland Red North..
	2005	WHEELS purchase D9 5415  (previously operated by Wheels in the 1990's -see above).  This special vehicle was purchased from preservation and is in full Midland Red livery.  Now re-upholstered it is available for selective private hire and wedding duties.

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