LETTERS TO OMNIBUS
Crossley Or Star Double Decker
Several months ago I mentioned to your long standing member, Dr Nigel Hall, that my brother and I had observed two 'puzzle' buses in the West Midlands about 1940, and as one of the buses concerned was a red double deck vehicle, Dr Hall kindly sent me a copy of the June 2002 issue of Omnibus in which there is an enquiry about a Crossley depicted in a jigsaw puzzle.
The bus was observed in the Darlaston area, and both my brother and I believed at the time that it was an elderly 'Star'. However, I am now told that the Star company made single deck chassis only, and that the star emblem was not displayed on the radiators of vehicles built after 1929. This particular bus could well have dated from around 1929, as it happened; certainly we considered it to be quite old. (Until November 1938, by the way, when the family moved to Wolverhampton, we had lived in Birmingham where most of the City Transport buses were looked upon as being modern, and they were, of course, remarkably well kept. Some of the Wolverhampton buses, by comparison, were quite ancient looking, and the early trolley buses then in use, dating from 1929, looked older than they really were. They were very heavily used, and inclined to be battered and shabby, and they rode very badly; they really were 'bone shakers'.)
It has now been suggested to me that the bus we saw at Darlaston was a Crossley, one of ten loaned to Walsall Corporation by Manchester Corporation; certainly the red livery was brighter than that used on 'Midland Red' buses, indeed at first we thought that the vehicle had strayed from London. At the time my brother and I were twelve and nine years old respectively, and we would not then have known of the Maltese Cross, so it is quite possible that we mistook the emblem for a star, especially if the bus was in motion, which I believe it was.
Did Walsall Corporation run a service along the Bearwood Road, and could the bus observed by Mr Letts be one of the same batch that we saw at Darlaston?
I presume that the B&MMO Trust concerns itself only with the B&MMO, so I will not risk boring you by mentioning other bus reminiscences!
F.W. ("Tim") Shuttleworth
Ludlow
Readers will remember that this enquiry started with a jigsaw puzzle. Quite appropriately, there seem to be several pieces still to fit together. Mr.Shuttleworth has maybe answered the sighting of a Manchester Crossley, although if it was on loan to Walsall, what was it doing on Bearwood Road?
But the original picture of the “Midland Red” bus showed a Crossley with a Burnley registration number. So was there really a 1932 Crossley Condor with the registration number CW3226 in the Burnley area? And why should it be on a Stourbridge – Bromsgrove service? Or was there an East Lancashire destination that could be mistaken for Bromsgrove? An enquiry via Keith Turner brought the following response:-
Not so much an answer more an addition to the puzzle.
Firstly the letters CW were only issued from January 1904 to March 1930 so would be unlikely to appear on a 1932 vehicle. Burnley certainly had two Crossley Condors with Brush centre entrance bodies new in 1932 as fleet numbers 50 and 51, but they were registered HG1226 and HG1227.
As for Bromsgrove, well in Alan Catlow's book "Burnley, Colne and Nelson Joint Transport" there is a photograph of HG1227 on the route to Rosegrove. It is quite possible that a photo exists of HG1226 on the same route.
So CW3226 or HG1226, and Bromsgrove or Rosegrove?
Just to add a further confusion the chassis of both the Crossleys went to Rochdale Corporation in 1936 and the bodies were transferred to AEC Regent chassis as 50 and 51 registered numbers HG4812 and HG4813.
Make of that what you will.
Harry Hatcher
Preston
However, subsequent to all these enquiries, Brian Dicks brought the jigsaw puzzle along to a recent Leicester meeting. What the picture actually shows is a front end view of either a REDD, or maybe an early FEDD with the square radiator, but instead of “Midland” on the radiator badge, the name “Crossley” has been substituted. Why? Well we have to presume a mixture of artistic licence and an unfamiliarity with BMMO products. Stan Letts has offered a plausible explanation for the route number. But as for the Burnley registration – who knows?
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