Midland Red
 

As a few of you know this year is an important milestone for Midland Red, 50th Anniversary of the D9 and the 50th Anniversary of the worlds first Motorway Express coach the C5MT.
Do any of you have memories of either of the above?
Or of the Opening of the M1?
There must be some interesting stories you could tell us.
John

I can recall (back in 1965) when you could drive along the M1 near Luton and not see another vehicle . . .

(and I don't just mean in the middle of the night).

Used to drive up to Newport Pagnell to get a coffee (and it wasn't much better than a transport caff in those days).

Those were the days, I used to work at the Ace Cafe at Weedon, Northants in the early 1980's cooking and dishing out sam and ella to mostly Fords drivers.
Good days now, but not at the time.

Midland Red D9
 

Having had what I consider a privilege to have a 50 minute ride today around the Worcestershire/Warwickshire borders in a D9 and to have my faith reconfirmed that this bus although a fifty year-old design, was years ahead of its time. The 10.5 litre BMMO engine pulled without complaint, a near full bus at speeds in excess of 55mph when on a straight stretch of road. The ride quality was very good (in fact far better than a lot of todays offerings)

See my comments on the 'other' thread:- http://www.truckandbusforum.com/gall...=3955#post3955

Ah, the C5 motorway coaches eh. Well, there was an unopened section of the M1 handy at the time and the first coach was speed tested on that. Still painted in its Grey primer paint. At that time the Police were using Jaguars as high speed patrol cars in that area. It took them all their time to pass it and stop it ... It was moving like i mean moving LOL
I got this story from Carlisle works in B'ham

I believe that at a later date the turbo chargers were removed to tame them down a bit. Anyone confirm that?

Believe the turbo and the toilets were removed when they were downgraded to normal bus work.

Turbochargers on CM5
 

Yes the turbochargers were removed on downgrading to service and tour coach duties, after the 36ft CM6's were introduced from the mid-sixties. As for other detail differences, there has built up an aura of mystique over just what was changed on which coach and when. An attempt was made to standardise the specification on de-classification from motorway work, but never succeeded. As the works were not undertaken by the Central works but by individual Midland Red garages, it becomes easier to understand why.

There is to be a Run from Birmingham to London on November 2 this year of (I hope!!) Both C5's and the CM6, to celerbrate the opening of the M1.
What the Route is and the start time I will try to let you all know when I find out.

DAViedo was talking to Carl Chinn on BBC WM today about Midland Red.
You can still listen to it at
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p002v12s
But you will need to download Real Player First.
It will be on the site for 7 days from 26/4/09 so get in there fast!

D9 double decker
 

On Easter Monday, both John (redd9) and myself travelled on preserved D9 BHA399C on a circular route from Wythall to Henley in Arden and back. We were both astonished by the pulling power of the bus, judging it was carrying around seventy passengers. It is easy to look at these vehicles through rose-tinted glasses, but I think that most of todays buses would find it very hard to keep up. At many times on the journey it was travelling at over 50mph and John witnessed between 55 and 60mph being attained by the old girl on one occasion.

Certainly a great piece of kit the D9's.
Light steering, no Clutch to pump all day and plenty of power. I was always a happy bunny if i got a shift on a D9.

Thanks for that Billyboy, that 10.5 litre diesel still feels powerful. The ride quality is still up there with the best as well - very comfortable to travel on as a passenger and it is easy to see why they were employed on many of the longer distance services. I am interested to hear about your views on the brakes? - described by some as the vehicles 'achilles heel'.

The longest runs i ever did outside of Leamington was to coventry or Stratford. They did have a habit if you sat at the lights with them in gear they could jump forward a bit at times. You always had to use the handbrake. I never experienced brake fade with them although they could have done with a tad more breaking power. However, driven correctly they were fun to drive. I actualy prefered them to the D12's and D13's

The D9 50th at the Black Country Museum was very good, We have a few video Clips on our you tube page.
http://www.youtube.com/user/Rugbytransport
More to follow:)