LETTERS TO OMNIBUS
I was very intrigued by the reference to Bundy clocks. I have always been fascinated by these and am always surprised at the number which are still to be seen in various places. There was some correspondence in the Wolverhampton Express & Star on the topic earlier in the year which went some way to explain to younger readers the function of these devices.
I am enclosing two photographs of these once common place structures. The first was taken outside the shopping centre in Chelmsley Wood where I was amazed to find that it was virtually intact - I should point out that this was a few years ago but the second was taken earlier this year in Spon Lane, West Bromwich where it had obviously been only recently repainted in a very elaborate way.
Lets hope that more on the topic ensues - whoops, I may have started a Bundy Clock preservation Society !
Bernard Minton
Willenhall
Interestingly, the Bundy Clock photographed by Bernard Minton at Chelmsley Wood has ‘BCT’ cast onto its fascia, yet this terminus was originally served by Midland Red, never by Birmingham City Transport. It was not until 1974 that West Midlands PTE absorbed the various routes to Chelmsley Wood, therefore the installation of a Bundy Clock there is unlikely to have been earlier than that date. More probably it was relocated some time later from an erstwhile BCT terminus that was abandoned when former BCT and BMMO routes were rationalised. Perhaps it was moved when the 56 (BCT to Newport Road), 160 (BMMO to Castle Bromwich) and 194 (BMMO to Chelmsley Wood) - all via Washwood Heath - were combined into WMPTE’s 93 and 94.
Further information about Bundy Clocks would be welcome. Who - or what - was Bundy? Which other operators used the system? And with which other time recording systems did it compete?
The Bundy tradename appears on an entirely different product, a type of reinforced (double walled) copper tubing produced originally by the Yorkshire Copper Works (latterly part of Imperial Metal Industries). Is there a connection? Possibly, though sometimes the same tradename occurs on quite diverse products from the same manufacturers.
Outside the West Midlands area, Bundy Clocks were used by Leeds City Tramways (The Yorkshire connection again?) That operator installed its first example in June 1906, then several more from May 1911 onwards, though all were removed c.1930-1. The cost of ten new clocks in January 1907 was £68. 5s 0d (That’s £6.83 each!)
There were competing devices. Nottingham City Transport, for instance, used a clock card system not dissimilar to those used in factories for recording employees’ attendance. Unlike Birmingham’s network of clocks, Nottingham’s were to be found only at intermediate points on some of the longer routes.
Nowadays there are more high-tech solutions. Some thirty years ago Leicester City Transport was a pioneer of closed-circuit television to track buses through the city centre. Various operators now use radio tracking devices, often linked to real-time information displays at bus stops, thus serving the public directly as well as indirectly through the traffic department’s statistics. Some of these systems use radio transceivers at principal bus stops, while others employ GPS (global positioning system) based on navigational satellites. Trent Buses use the latter on their Nottingham - Bingham services.
But this is a long way from Bundy Clocks. The good news is that the Committee has agreed (at its 30 January meeting) to purchase another Bundy Clock from Centro for the museum. GPS will take a while longer, we suspect.
ed
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