User:Petecollier/sandbox

Birmingham Corporation Tramways Dept.
(1904-1927)

Birmingham Corporation Tramway & Omnibus Dept.
(1927-1937)

Birmingham City Transport
(1937-1969)

Formation	4 January 1904
Type	Local government department
Purpose	Public transport
Headquarters	Council House, Birmingham
Region served	The City of Birmingham and environs
General Manager	A. Baker (1904-1928) A.C. Baker (1928-1950) W.H. Smith (1950-1962) W.G. Copestake (1962-1969)
Parent organization	County Borough of Birmingham

Birmingham City Transport was the municipal passenger transport undertaking in Birmingham from 1904 until its absorption into the West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive on 1 October 1969. Originally known as the Birmingham Corporation Tramways Department, it was renamed as the Birmingham Corporation Tramway & Omnibus Department in 1927, before finally adopting the operating name of Birmingham City Transport in 1937.

Historical Overview

A tramway in Birmingham was first proposed in 1860, although the scheme never came to fruition. However, by the early 1870s Birmingham Corporation was overseeing the creation of a tram network within the city, which it controlled by constructing the lines itself before leasing them to independent tram operating companies.

By the beginning of the 20th century there was an established network of tramlines in and around Birmingham. The Corporation now resolved to obtain the powers to operate the tramways directly and so, as the leases on its lines expired, they were not renewed and the Corporation began to operate its own services over the lines instead. This process began in January 1904 when, following the expiry of the lease on a section of the former Birmingham and Aston Tramways system between Steelhouse Lane and the city boundary, the Corporation took over the line, electrified it, and began operating its own service. Over the next eight years the Birmingham Corporation Tramways system gradually expanded, both as the various leases of the City of Birmingham Tramways Company (CBTC) expired and as the city itself grew, absorbing the tramway lines and operations of the neighbouring former authorities swallowed up by the city. CBTC's final operating rights expired on 1 January 1912 (1912-01-01) and the last remaining lengths of track reverted to the Corporation, which also acquired a number of the Company's trams.

In addition to using its statutory powers to acquire the tramways in the city which it did not already own and operate, Birmingham Corporation had also determined to consolidate bus operations within the city. It already had some limited powers under the Birmingham Corporation Act of 1903 to run motor buses during the construction or repair of a tramway, or as an extension to tramway route, and in July 1913 it began running its first buses on an extension of the Bristol Road tramway between Selly Oak and Rednal. Two more routes were opened by the end of the year, one between Five Ways and the General Hospital, the other between Selly Oak and Rubery.

The Birmingham Corporation Act of 1914 gave the Corporation wider powers to operate motor buses, but its planned services conflicted with those of the Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company ("Midland Red"), which was already operating services to destinations within the city. The Corporation, wishing to consolidate public transport within the city boundaries, and BMMO, which recognised that expansion within the city was going to be difficult, reached an agreement in February 1914 to prevent a wasteful duplication of services. The agreement permitted the Company to operate services into Birmingham from places outside the city boundaries, subject to protective fares being charged. The Corporation for its part would restrict its operations to within the city boundaries. As part of the agreement, BMMO's Tennant Street garage and 30 vehicles were transferred to Birmingham Corporation. BMMO subsequently concentrated its efforts on expansion in the wider Midlands area, ultimately becoming one of the largest English bus companies.

By 1921 the condition of the tramway to Nechells was deteriorating, and trolleybuses were seen as a potential replacement. A delegation from the Transport Committee visited Bradford, where two experimental double-deck trolleybuses were being operated. Impressed by Bradford’s vehicles, the decision was taken to convert the Nechells route to trolleybus operation using twelve top-covered double-deck trolleybuses.

Birmingham Corporation was also keen to expand its network of motor bus services, but objections were raised by the Public Works Committee in 1922 because of the damage caused to the roads by the buses’ solid tyres. The Transport Committee therefore agreed that all new buses would be fitted with pneumatic tyres. In addition, following the success of the top-covered trolleybuses introduced the previous year, and thanks to new powers granted by the Birmingham Corporation Act of 1922, all future orders for double-deck motor buses would specify top covers. This was a pioneering step, as up until this point the Board of Trade had been reluctant to allow double-deck motor buses to be top-covered. General Manager Alfred Baker was proud to have what he claimed to be the first top-covered, double-deck motor bus to operate anywhere in the UK when it entered service on 24 July 1924 (1924-07-24). More than 200 similar vehicles were in operation by the end of the decade, and various bus garages were opened across the city to house them. This large growth in the bus fleet also led to the Department being renamed from the Birmingham Corporation Tramways Department to the Birmingham Corporation Tramway and Omnibus Department in 1927.

The city was continuing to grow (Perry Barr Urban District was absorbed in 1928, followed by parts of Castle Bromwich and Sheldon in 1931). Some bus routes to the new housing estates mushrooming all over the city ran alongside existing tram lines, and it was found that the public were increasingly favouring buses, which saw great advances in design in the late 1920s and early 1930s that did not reflect well on the now ageing trams. Consequently, some tram routes were becoming uneconomical and this fall in revenue, coming at the very time the system was in increasing need of investment and renewal, led the Corporation to a decision to phase out its tramway operations in favour either of buses or trolleybuses.

Timeline

Date	Event
4 January 1904 (1904-01-04)	Tram operation begins with the takeover of a section of the Birmingham and Aston Tramways system.
1 January 1907 (1907-01-01)	Takeover of some CBTC routes.
1 July 1911 (1911-07-01)	Takeover of the former cable tramway to Handsworth.
9 November 1911 (1911-11-09)	The Greater Birmingham Act expands the city's boundaries. Birmingham aquires the lines owned by the erstwhile Aston Manor Municipal Borough and Erdington, Handsworth, and King's Norton & Northfield Urban Districts.
1 January 1912 (1912-01-01)	Takeover of the remaining CBTC routes.
19 July 1913 (1913-07-19)	Bus operation begins.
February 1914 (1914-02)	Agreement with Midland Red to prevent a duplication of services.
1914 (1914)	The outbreak of World War I sees the Corporation's first 10 bus chassis commandeered by the War Ministry. A further six vehicles are commandeered in 1916.
27 November 1922 (1922-11-27)	Trolleybus operation begins.
1 April 1924 (1924-04-01)	Takeover of the West Bromwich Corporation-owned lines previously leased to the South Staffordshire Tramways Company.
24 July 1924 (1924-07-24)	"UK's first" top-covered, double-deck motor bus enters service.
1 April 1928 (1928-04-01)	Takeover of the Birmingham and District Power and Traction Company main line to Dudley.
1928 (1928)	Arthur Baker succeeds Alfred Baker as General Manager.
18 October 1927 (1927-10-18)	Name changed to Birmingham Corporation Tramway and Omnibus Department.
9 November 1937 (1937-11-09)	Name changed to Birmingham City Transport.
19 November 1940 (1940-11-19)	Bus 814 is badly damaged when it is blown over during an air raid. All the buses in nearby Highgate Road garage lose their windows in the blast.
22 November 1940 (1940-11-22)	Hockley bus garage is bombed. 88 buses are damaged and 23 buses are burned out - 17 of them totally. By the end of the war BCT has lost 41 trams, 20 buses and 111 of its employees have been killed in military service.
1950 (1950)	Wilfred Smith succeeds Arthur Baker as General Manager.
30 June 1951 (1951-06-30)	Trolleybus operation ends.
4 July 1953 (1953-07-04)	Tram operation ends. Before the war intervened, the system had originally been scheduled to close by 1944.
1 October 1954 (1954-10-01)	The last "new-look" standard halfcab buses enter service. A massive post-war investment in new buses means BCT has been able to replace all of its trams and trolleybuses, as well as virtually of its pre-war bus fleet.
1960 (1960)	BCT institutes a turban ban on all employees, leading to a strike by its Sikh employees. The ban was lifted in 1962.
1962 (1962)	W.G. Copestake succeeds W.H. Smith as General Manager.
30 September 1969 (1969-09-30)	Bus operation ends. BCT is absorbed by the newly formed WMPTE the following day.

Vehicles

Trams

Birmingham operated the largest narrow-gauge tramway network in the UK, its 1,067 mm (3 ft 6 in) gauge having been inherited from the former steam tramways. It was also the UK's fourth largest tramway network of any gauge after London, Glasgow and Manchester. Birmingham was a pioneer in the development of reserved trackways, which served the suburban areas as the city grew in the 1920s and 1930s.

A CBTC tram from pre-Corporation-tram days outside the tram shed in Dawlish Road, Bournbrook

The first line in the city, a horse-drawn route between the city centre and Hockley Brook, opened to the public on 11 September 1873, with a second (to Bournbrook) opening on 17 June 1876. Mechanical traction, originally in the guise of steam-hauled trams, was authorised from 1879. Several lines were built and leased during the 1880s

Birmingham City Transport's very origins lay in the operation of the city's tramway network. Since the network's beginnings in 1872, Birmingham's tram services had been provided by various lease-holding private companies running horse, steam and electric cars over the corporation-owned lines. From 1904 however, as the various leases expired, the Corporation assumed responsibility for running its own services and Birmingham City Transport – or the Birmingham Corporation Tramways Department as it was then known – was born.

By 1912 the Corporation had full control of the tramway within the city, and the system continued to expand after World War I as a comprehensive network of routes radiating in all directions from the city centre to its boundary was developed. There were also links to neighbouring undertakings at various points, such as BET's Black Country network at Ladywood and the South Staffordshire Company at Handsworth.

BCT's first tramcars comprised 20 open-topped, 56-seat cars. After a few years' service a change to Board of Trade regulations enabled the cars, which were supplied in 1904, to be fitted with top-covers. Covered cars were popular with the passengers and increased ridership. A large proportion of this first batch of cars fell victim to bombing raids during World War II - ten were destroyed and four were badly damaged, seeing no further service. The remaining six cars lasted until they were withdrawn when the Perry Barr route closed in 1949. By that time each remaining car had completed over a million miles in service.

In 1905 the Corporation signed a contract with Dick, Kerr & Co. for the supply of 200 cars - fifty for delivery by March 1906, with 150 cars to follow. The first fifty cars seated 48 and, like Birmingham's first trams, were originally open-topped, being fitted with top-covers after a few years' service. The remaining 150 cars, which seated 52, were delivered after the Board of Trade's decision to allow top-covered narrow-gauage cars and so operated with top-covers from new. Advantageous terms prompted BCT to place two further orders on Dick, Kerr & Co., one in 1906 (for fifty cars), and one in 1907 (for thirty cars). These cars were identical to the first fifty of the 1905 order.

Birmingham's expansion in July 1911 would mean BCT would be absorbing the tramway routes in Handsworth, Selly Oak, and Kings Norton. In anticipation of this growth, BCT ordered sixty 52-seat cars in 1910; the contract again being won by Dick, Kerr & Co. The order was extended by a further forty cars when it was realised many of the cars that would be accquired from CBTC were in very poor condition and unlikely to prove reliable.

A further fifty new cars were ordered from Dick, Kerr & Co. in 1912. Growth in service demand meant these new cars were necessary despite the addition of 122 former CBTC cars following the expansion of the city in 1911. General Manager Alfred Baker emphasised the phenomenal growth of the Corporation tramways in February 1913 when a further 75 slighty larger, 62-seat cars were ordered. He noted at the time that there had been a 20 percent increase in receipts compared to the previous year.

Following the initial rapid expansion there followed a seven-year lull in orders, not least due to the First World War. However, by 1920 there was a demand for new rolling-stock once more and fifty new 62-seat cars were ordered. Further new cars were ordered in 1923 (25 cars), 1924 (40 cars), 1925 (30 cars), and 1926 (30 cars).

Ultimately, however, Birmingham Corporation felt the future of public transport in Birmingham was to be track-free. Trolleybuses replaced trams on the Nechells route from 27 November 1922 (1922-11-27), marking the start of the decline that was to accelerate during the 1930s. The route to Bolton Road was abandoned in May 1930 (1930-05), quickly followed by the Hagley Road route (August 1930 (1930-08)). By 1939 the Lozells, Yardley, Stratford Road to Acocks Green, West Bromwich, and Dudley routes had all been replaced.

BCT's original plans envisioned complete closure of the tram system by 1944. However, World War II imposed a reprieve as a lack of availability of new buses and the need to transport many thousands of workers to vital industries across the city meant that the the bulk of the system remained in use throughout the war years. Finally in 1947 the wholesale closure of the system began, and on 4 July 1953 (1953-07-04) the last three routes to Short Heath, Pype Hayes and Erdington closed simultaneously, bringing over 70 years of tramway operations in Birmingham to an end.

In all, Birmingham City Transport ran some 843 trams during the 49 years it had operated the system. At its peak, 825 cars from 20 depots ran over 133 km (83 mi) of track on 45 main routes.

Revenue (Trams)

Period	No. of cars	Route mileage	No. of passengers	Revenue
1904–1905	20	428 932 km	4 709 798	£19 103
1913–1914	551	22 962 513 km	146 930 986	£635 471
1923–1924	658	28 198 509 km	214 338 365	£1 337 093
1933–1934	762	27 951 452 km	201 442 970	£1 171 481
1943–1944	499	18 035 432 km	130 665 152	£1 088 824
1953–1954	120	5 458 219 km	35 554 412	£398 122

Trolleybuses

Birmingham's trolleybus network opened on 27 November 1922 (1922-11-27).

By the standards of the various now-defunct trolleybus systems in the United Kingdom, the Birmingham system was a medium-sized one, even though Birmingham was then, and still is, the most populous British city outside London. With a total of only five routes, and a maximum fleet of 78 trolleybuses, it was closed relatively early, on 30 June 1951 (1951-06-30).

Buses

1107

2245

3225

3472 and 3474

3796

Routes

Trams

Map of Birmingham's tram routes in 1930

Route	Description	Closed	Short workings
2	Steelhouse Lane to Erdington	4 June 1953	59 Steelhouse Lane to Gravelly Hill, 60 Steelhouse Lane to Aston Cross, 64 Steelhouse Lane to High Street, Erdington
3	Martineau Street to Witton via Six Ways	11 September 1939
3x	Martineau Street to Witton via Aston Cross	31 December 1949
4	Station Street to Stoney Lane	5 January 1937
5	Lozells to Gravelly Hill	30 September 1950
6	Martineau Street to Perry Barr	21 December 1949
7	Martineau Street to Nechells
8	Martineau Street to Alum Rock	30 September 1950	61 Martineau Street via the Gate Inn, Saltley to Pelham Arms (Sladefield Road)
10	Martineau Street to Washwood Heath	30 September 1950	9 Martineau Street to Ward End Fox & Goose Pub, 62 inward working of route 10
15	High Street to South Yardley	2 October 1948	13 High Street to Small Heath Park, 56 High Street to Hay Mills
16	Station Street to South Yardley	6 January 1934	14 Station Street to Small Heath Park, 57 Station Street to Hay Mills
17	High Street to Stratford Road (College Road)	5 January 1937	19 High Street to Stratford Road (St. John's Street), 58 High Street to Stoney Lane/Stratford Road, 82 High Street to Stratford Road (Fox Hollies Road/Highfields Road)
18	Station Street to Stratford Road	5 January 1937	21 Station Street to Stratford Road (College Road)
20	Station Street to Stratford Road (St. John's Road)
22	Station Street to Bolton Road	4 February 1930
23	Colmore Row to Handsworth	1 April 1939	28 Colmore Row to New Inns, Crocketts Lane, Handsworth
24	Colmore Row to Lozells via Wheeler Street (clockwise 25)	1 April 1939
25	Colmore Row to Lozells via Wheeler Street (anticlockwise 24)	7 August 1933
26	Colmore Row to Oxhill Road	1 April 1939	27 Colmore Row to Stafford Road, Soho Road, Handsworth
29	City to Bearwood via Dudley Road	30 September 1939	30 Edmund Street to Windmill Lane, Cape Hill, Smethwick, 55 Edmund Street to Dudley Road/Grove Lane
31	Edmund Street to Soho	30 September 1939
32	Edmund Street to Lodge Road	29 March 1947
33	Navigation Street to Ladywood	30 August 1947
34	Navigation Street to Bearwood via Hagley Road	9 August 1930
36	City to Cotteridge	5 May 1952	46 Navigation Street to Stirchley
37	City to Cannon Hill Park	1 October 1949
39	City to Alcester Lanes End	1 October 1949	38 Hill Street to High Street/Vicarage Road, Kings Heath via Balsall Heath, 49 Navigation Street to Mary Street/Park Road, Balsall Heath, 52 Hill Street to Station Road, Kings Heath via Balsall Heath, 66 Hill Street to Moseley via Balsall Heath
42	City to Alcester Lanes End	1 October 1949	43 High Street to Station Road, Kings Heath via Moseley Road, 48 High Street to High Street/Vicarage Road, Kings Heath, 67 Dale End to Moseley via Bradford Street
44	Dale End/Albert Street to Acocks Green	5 January 1937	91 High Street to Warwick Road, Tyseley
45	Dale End/Albert Street to Sparkbrook	5 January 1937
50	High Street to Moseley Road depot	1 October 1949	41 Navigation Street to Moseley Road Depot
51	Hill Street to Alcester Lane End	1 October 1949	40 Hill Street to High Street/Vicarage Road, Kings Heath via Leopold Street, 65 Hill Street to Moseley via Leopold Street
53	Navigation Street to Dogpool Lane
63	Steelhouse Lane to Fort Dunlop	4 July 1953
68	Villa Road to Soho Road, Lozells, Gravelly Hill and Erdington (Sundays only)	1923
70	Navigation Street to Rednal	5 July 1952	35 Navigation Street to Selly Oak, 54 Navigation Street to Pebble Mill Road, 69 Navigation Street to Northfield, 72 Navigation Street to Longbridge
71	Navigation Street to Rubery	5 July 1952
74	City to Dudley	1 April 1939	74 Livery Street to Carters Green, West Bromwich, 76 Colmore Road to Great Bridge, 77 Colmore Row to Spon Lane/High Street, West Bromwich
75	City to Wednesbury	1 April 1939
78	Steelhouse Lane to Short Heath	4 July 1953	1 Steelhouse Lane to Stockland Green
79	Steelhouse Lane to Pype Hayes Park	4 July 1953	63 Steelhouse Lane to Holly Lane/Tyburn Road
81	Villa Road to Soho Road, Lozells to Pype Hayes (Sundays only)	1930
84	City to Stechford	2 October 1948	12 High Street to Bordesley Green (Blake Street) via Deritend and Coventry Road
87	City to Dudley	30 September 1939	85 Edmund Street to Spon Lane, West Bromwich via Smethwick, 86 Edmund Street to Oldbury via Smethwick, 88 Windmill Lane to Spon Lane, West Bromwich via Smethwick
90	City to Stechford	2 October 1948	11 High Street to Bordesley Green (Blake Lane) via Fazeley Street

Garages, works, and infrastructure

Garages

Birmingham City Transport operated from the following garages and depots. Many of these premises continued in use long after BCT had been adsorbed into the West Midlands PTE. While some of these buildings no longer survive, several are still in use as bus garages to this day, and a few have been put to alternative use.

The former Selly Oak tram depot and bus garage

Witton tram depot

Garage		First used (BCT)		Final closure*		Notes
Miller Street**		1904		-		BCT's first and last tram depot. Garaged buses from 1953.
Coventry Road** (Arthur St/Kingston Hill)		1906		-		Built as a tram depot, trams were housed here until replaced by buses in 1948, as were trolleybuses from 1934 until 1951.
Rosebery Street		1906		1968		Built as a tram depot, trams were housed here until replaced by buses in 1947.
Moseley Road (Trafalgar Rd)		1907		-		Built as a tram depot,converted to bus operation in 1949.
Washwood Heath		1907		-		Built as a tram depot, trams were housed here until 1948, as were trolleybuses from 1922 until 1940. Garaged buses 1922-1925, and from 1946
Albion		1911		1912		Tram depot acquired from Handsworth UDC.
Birchfield Road		1911		1966		Tram depot acquired from Handsworth UDC. Buses only from 1924. Closed 1932-1935 and 1936-1940.
Cotteridge		1911		-		Tram depot acquired from Kings Norton & Northfield UDC. Converted to bus operation in 1952.
Hockley		1911		-		Tram depot acquired from Handsworth UDC. Extended to house buses in 1939. Heavy bomb damage during World War II.
Bournbrook		1912		1927		Tram depot acquired from CBTC; also garaged buses from 1913.
Witton		1912		1953		Tram depot acquired from Aston Manor MBC. Functioned as an outstation of Miller Street garage from 1952. Latterly home to the Aston Manor Road Transport Museum.
Highgate Raod		1913		1962		Built as a tram depot. Converted to a bus garage January 1937
Tennant Street		1914		1939		Acquired from BMMO; Closed 1926-1930.
Barford Street		1925		1955
Harborne		1926		-		BCT's first purpose-built bus garage.
Selly Oak		1927		-		Replaced Bournbrook. Housed trams (until 1952) and buses.
Acocks Green**		1928		-		BCT's first purpose-built bus garage
Perry Barr**		1932		-		BCT's largest bus garage
Liverpool Street**		1936		-
Yardley Wood**		1938		-
Quinton		1949		-
Lea Hall**		1955		-		Last garage to be opened by BCT. Replaced Barford Street.

*Where no date is shown, the premises passed to WMPTE after continuing in use until BCT ceased operating in 1969.
**Still in use with BCT's ultimate successor, National Express West Midlands.

Infrastructure

A typical BCT bus stop plate of the post-war era

A former BCT Bundy Clock

A typical pre-war BCT bus stop plate

Beyond its former bus garages, little today remains of BCT's once extensive infrastructure. A few examples of it's once ubiquitous post-war design circular bus stop plates could still be found as late as the early to mid-1980s, but have since all disappeared.

BCT's final design of curved bus shelter survived longer - a few isolated examples can still be found - but by and large these too have since been replaced by newer types.

Another item of street furniture now disappeared from Birmingham are the Bundy clocks utilised by Birmingham City Transport at its route termini, or at specific timing points on circular routes, to provide a reliable time keeping record.

The timepiece visible at the top of the Bundy clock was sychronised via a drive mechanism with a paper tape printer inside the central box. Drivers were provided with coded keys which they inserted into a slot in the central box. On turning the key, the printer printed the driver's key number and the time onto the paper tape.

Of Birmingham's once vast tramway network there is now virtually no trace. A small section of track alongside the Council House in Brimingham City Centre was preserved, as was a section at the former tram terminus in Birmingham's southwestern suburb of Rednal. One of the tram stop shelters was acquired and preserved by the National Tramway Museum in Crich, Derbyshire and put to use at its Crich Town End terminus.

Remains of tram track at the former Rednal terminus			Remains of tram track in the city centre			Former Birmingham tram shelter preserved at the National Tramway Museum, Crich

See also

• Transport in Birmingham
• Trolleybuses in Birmingham
• List of town tramway systems in the United Kingdom
• History of Birmingham
• List of bus operators of the United Kingdom
• List of trolleybus systems in the United Kingdom
• The Transport Museum, Wythall

Further reading

• Armstrong, Eric (2003). Seeing Birmingham by tram. Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 0752427873.
• Bett, Wingate H.; Gillham, John C. (1944). Great British Tramway Networks. London: Light Railway Transport League. ISBN 0000000000.
• Birmingham Transport Committee (1954). 'City of Birmingham Transport Department. 1904-1954: Brochure to commemorate the undertaking's jubilee. Birmingham: Birmingham Transport Committee. ISBN 0000000000.
• Camwell, William A. (1950). The ABC of Birmingham City transport. Parts 1 & 2. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0000000000.
• Collins, Paul (1999). Birmingham Corporation Transport, 1904-39. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0711026270.
• Collins, Paul (1999). Birmingham Corporation Transport, 1939-69. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0711026564.
• Coxon, R. T. (1979). Roads & Rails of Birmingham 1900-1939. Shepperton: Ian Allan. ISBN 0711009139.
• Hardy, Peter Laurence (1971). Short review of Birmingham Corporation tramways. H.J. Publications. ISBN 0950203505.
• Harvey, David (1988). Memories of Birmingham Transport. Solihull: Birmingham Transport Historical Group. ISBN 0905103092.
• Harvey, David (1993). A Nostalgic Look at Birmingham Trams, 1933-53: Vol. 1 - The Northern Routes. Kettering: Silver Link. ISBN 1857940148.
• Harvey, David (1994). A Nostalgic Look at Birmingham Trams, 1933-53: Vol. 2 - The Southern Routes. Kettering: Silver Link. ISBN 1857940210.
• Harvey, David (1995). A Nostalgic Look at Birmingham Trams, 1933-53: Vol. 3 - The Eastern and Western Routes. Kettering: Silver Link. ISBN 1857940377.
• Harvey, David (2005). Birmingham: In the Age of the Trolleybus. Kettering: Silver Link. ISBN 9781857942026.
• Harvey, David (2007). Birmingham Trolleybuses. Midhurst: Middleton Press. ISBN 9781906008192.
• Hitches, Mike (1999). Birmingham Transport (Sutton's Photographic History of Transport). Stroud: Sutton Publishing. ISBN 0750916702.
• Jensen, Alec G. (1978). Birmingham Transport. Solihull: Birmingham Transport Historical Group. ISBN 0905103009.
• Marks, John (1992). Birmingham Trams on Old Picture Postcards. Nottingham: Reflections of a Bygone Age. ISBN 0946245533.
• Potter, D. F. (1988). Birmingham in the Electric Tramway Era. Solihull: Birmingham Transport Historical Group. ISBN 0905103106.
• Tennant, Ray; Lyndon, Jim (1984). Last Tram Down the Village and Other Memories of Yesterday's Birmingham. Birmingham: BiginInk. ISBN 0948025018.
• Turner, Keith (1998). Birmingham Transport (Archive Photographs: Images of England). Stroud: The History Press. ISBN 0752415549.
• Wiseman, R.J.S (1972). British Tramways in Pictures; 3: Birmingham. Huddersfield: Advertiser Press. ISBN 0900028114.
• York, F W (1971). The Trolleybuses of Birmingham. Reading: British Trolleybus Society. ISBN 0901792012.

External links

Media related to Trolleybuses in Birmingham at Wikimedia Commons

• SCT'61 website - photos and descriptions of early Birmingham motorbuses
• National Trolleybus Archive
• British Trolleybus Society, based in Reading
• National Trolleybus Association, based in London

Category:Transport in Birmingham, West Midlands Category:Former bus operators in England Category:Tram transport in England Category:Narrow gauge railways in the United Kingdom Category:3ft 6in gauge railways Category:Railway companies established in 1904 Category:Railway companies disestablished in 1953