...AND NOW A GRANT FOR THE DRAWINGS ARCHIVE
BaMMOT has just been awarded a grant from MLA West Midlands (the regional Council for Museums Libraries and Archives) to purchase a large scanner to enable us to scan and digitise our technical drawing archive. The grant is for a maximum of £2000.
One of BaMMOT's long-term objectives is to conserve its collection of archives and relics that complement the vehicle collection at the Museum. Part of this archive is the collection of technical drawings, which has been assembled over many years. The majority of this collection comprises of drawings acquired following the closure of Midland Red's Central Works at Carlyle Road, and the Metro-Cammell collection obtained at the end of bus construction at Washwood Heath.
On my retirement from business last year I wished to play an active part at BaMMOT. I was asked catalogue these drawings, starting with the Metro-Cammell collection (I had worked at "The Met's" Elmdon plant for a couple of years or so in the late fifties/early
sixties in their estimating office).
Whilst it is important to catalogue these drawings (so that we know what we have), it was felt equally important to attempt to put these records in to digital form, in order for easy accessibility in the future, both for the use restoration projects, and also historical purposes, and for those interested in research such as model makers.
It was decided to apply to the MLA for grant aid to purchase a scanner, which will almost certainly be a second hand, or if we are lucky, an ex-demonstration model (new scanners start at around £4000), and were fortunate to be awarded this grant.
Cataloguing has been a personal voyage of discovery for me. It has unearthed some interesting drawings for vehicles that might have been! There is an interesting drawing of an early lowbridge body for Chesterfield, circa 1931 in which the gangway 'trough' is over the third seats (from nearside), with a single row of seats in the upper saloon at the offside. There is a drawing for a coach body for Black & White Motorways, which is very similar to those built by Willowbrook on Guy Arab chassis, and not a million miles away from Midland Red's C3 and C4 bodies. There is a drawing for a splendid single deck bus for West Bromwich Corporation in 1938, although the contract went to Jenson. I have just recently located a drawing of a BMMO bus with an AD2 style body, to be mounted on Daimler and Guy chassis, which would seem to suggest that prior to the rebuilding programme for wartime utilities, there might have been plans to rebody these chassis.
There are many drawings for export market vehicles, and it is easy to forget what a large export trade was carried on by this industry (particularly when so many vehicles are imported these days). There are drawings for quite small vehicles on Leyland (ex Standard) chassis, up to the many large Olympics sold in Latin America. Some unusual vehicles which were produced for South African Railways were for freight/passenger vehicles, for which the drawings state, in order of priority; compartments for:- front Europeans, middle freight, rear natives! Fortunately we have moved on since those times, but this serves as a reminder. We have drawings for an 8-wheel front entrance trolleybus, an Orion bodied trolleybus, and much much more. Apart from these more exotic designs we have some drawings for the prototype integral Atlantean, plus a few for its predecessor, the rear entrance, rear engine Lowloader (which still exists), plus all the drawings for the Birmingham 'Standards'.
Earlier this year and prior to our grant bid, we had around 150 drawings scanned commercially on a trial basis. These included all the drawings for the S6, which I assume is high on the restoration list. I also had scanned the drawings from my own collection, which included the original general arrangement of 486, general arrangements of the only Met-Cam SOS IM4, Birmingham trolleybus and Leyland TD6c. I intend to digitally enhance some of these drawings, and print them in 4mm scale for sale in the shop. In fact four of these are already on sale currently, they are BMMO D7 and IM4, Birmingham trolley, and LGOC Dennis circa 1930 (ST type body).
Whilst the main purpose of the Museum is to conserve and preserve the vehicle collection, I am glad that members had the foresight to save these important drawings, and hope that in a digitised form they will enable the museum to source information more easily for both restoration and research purposes.
We have, by the way, a set of drawings for the AD2, anyone fancy building a replica?
John Rollings
John has done a splendid job in obtaining this grant. Our thanks go to him for undertaking this valuable work.
Dave Taylor
Chapel Lane, Wythall, Worcs B47 6JX
Tel : 01564 826471 e-mail us
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