Oldbury Depot
Birchley Crossing, Wolverhampton New Road, Oldbury.
- Brick built garage with two large bays of differing length, purpose built by Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company Limited (BMMO—Midland “Red” Motor Services) on a corner site, with an initial capacity for 70 vehicles. A flat-roofed office block with a curved frontage, and a large slender clock tower was built at the front.
- Site opened on Monday 12th April 1937, with an initial allocation of forty double-deck and twelve single-deck buses.
- Depot allocated all 50 examples of the final batch of SOS “FEDD” double-deck buses, for use on the Service B87 group of Dudley Road tram replacement routes. These services started operation on Sunday 1st October 1939, and it is possible the depot was originally planned with these routes in mind.
- Fitted with an automatic vehicle washing machine in 1949, becoming the first BMMO depot thus equipped.
- Clock tower demolished in 1968.
- Full control of the depot, along with all staff and vehicles, passed to West Midland Passenger Transport Executive (WMPTE) on Monday 3rd December 1973, as part of the transfer of services in the West Midlands County.
See the “Transfer of BMMO Services and Assets to the West Midlands PTE” page in the “History” section of this website for further details of the transfer.
- Depot closed on Saturday 25th January 1986, and was later demolished.
- Site is a petrol station, a pub ("One and two halves") and a hotel (adjacent to the M5, junction 2)