Book your Historic Bus Tour – now!

Tickets are selling fast for our 2013 Historic Bus Tours.

2976 at Wythall on 11-11-11

2976 at Wythall on 11-11-11

Join us on one of our Outer Circle Tours and sample the history of the outer reaches of the Second City – there are two planned for this year in September using our favourite Birmingham City double deck bus 2976.

In July we are following the old 1A bus route from Acocks Green, through Moseley and Edgbaston to the city centre, then taking in guided tours of  the Museum of the Jewellery Quarter and Winterbourne Garden.

Midland Red 5545

Midland Red 5545

Then we are using a Midland Red single deck bus, no 5545 to go on a journey through the Cotswolds to ride on a steam train & see the tallest fountain in Britain. The tour on the 18th of June is sold out, but we will run another one on the 25th of June.

On all our tours you will have an audio commentary and we will be raising money for three local charities.

Here are the dates and prices for our Historic Bus Tours for 2013 – so make a date!

18th June – “Cotswolds”  – SOLD OUT

25th June – “Cotswolds”  – £31.00

3rd July – The old 1A bus route then on to The Museum of the Jewellery Quarter and Winterbourne House & Garden – £28.00

20th September – Outer Circle – £17.00

27th September – Outer Circle – £17.00

The prices include entry to the locations, train fares etc:

To reserve your place on any of the above tours please get in touch by emailing us outercirclebus@gmx.co.uk or calling/texting 07405 849192.

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What ever happened to our libraries?

Once upon a time the library was a key part of our locality. From our recollections Birmingham had wonderful libraries, probably the envy of many other local authorities. But our experience this week has highlighted how much this vital part of our lives has diminished.

Click HERE to read about our experience in our local libraries.

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Enjoy our 11-11-11 Tour from your armchair

We have started work on a photo blog that covers our 11-11-11 tour on the Outer Circle.

CLICK HERE to see how we are progressing.

This is work in progress and covers the tour which started at Sarehole Mill. We have included information from the Audio Guide, photos taken on the 11-11-11 as well as some photos that we’ve not used before.

Anyone who came along on 11-11-11 or our Outer Circle Tours in 2012 will find the page interesting, and hopefully it will spark a few memories of the great days out that we enjoyed on the Outer Circle.

We hope to have news about our 2013 tours by week commencing 20th November. Keep visiting this site to see what we have planned, or get in touch to get on our e-mail list.

Get in touch with us at: CONTACTS

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Our Charity Donations for 2012

As our Historic Bus Tours for 2012 have been completed we’ve made our final donation to charity.

During the year, with the generous help of our passengers, we first gave £40.00 to St Mary’s Hospice in Birmingham, who were our chosen charity for our original 11-11-11 Tour. This was from collections during our Outer Circle Tour in April.

Then in June, when we went on our tour of the Cotswolds, which included a visit to Broadway and a ride on the Gloucestershire & Warwickshire Steam Railway we donated £45.00 to the fund to help rebuild Broadway Station, which was demolished when the railway was closed in 1976.

Then in September we ran two more Outer Circle Tours and really upped our charitable giving with the help of our passengers who bought tickets from the conductor and paid princely sums to ride in the coveted front seats upstairs. The special map that we gave out during the tours featured photographs of Birmingham taken by DJ Norton who sadly died from an asthma attack in 1965. Our charitable donation from these tours went to Asthma UK and totaled £115.00.

Finally from all our tours in 2012 we were able to donate £400.00 to the Wythall Transport Museum which is an educational charity and provides the buses that we use for our tours.

David & Pam Humphries handing over the cheque for £400.00 to Wythall Museum trustee Malcolm Keeley at Wythall’s Midland Red Extravaganza on the 14th of October 2012 in front of newly restored Midland Red SON bus no 2418

We are now working to plan our Historic Bus Tours for 2013. We expect to have more information with the routes and dates by mid-November. If you are not already on our mailing list and want to be kept informed send a email with your details to outercirclebus@gmx.co.uk

 As an aside, and as a treat for anyone who has an interest in steam trains, here is a little story about the weekend of the 13th/14th October. Historic Tour organiser David had a significant birthday on the 15th and as a treat Pam booked for them to go on the non-stop steam hauled train from Moor Street to Marylebone behind GWR Castle 5043 Earl of Mount Edgecombe on the Saturday. However the excursion was cancelled due to a fault with the water carrier that would have enabled the run to be non-stop. As compensation, here is a video taken in April when 5043 is hauling the Cornishman which started the day in Birmingham, with the steam leg from Bristol to Plymouth and return. The first clip is taken on the ascent to Whiteball, at Beam Bridge. The second clip is on the climb to Rattery at Tigley. The third clip is on the return at Hemerdon. Click HERE and enjoy.

In the meantime keep coming back here to see what we are planning for 2013, and we hope to see you next year!!!!!

Posted in Cotswold Bus Trips, Historic Bus Tours, Outer Circle Bus Trips, Steam Railway, Uncategorized, Vintage Bus trips in 2012, Wythall Transport Museum | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Getting in touch

The details on our contact page have changed, but if you’ve got some older information, please make a note:

Our email address is now: outercirclebus@gmx.co.uk

Our phone number remains the same 07405 849192

Our old email address is still working (sort of). Apologies if you’ve sent an email message recently and not received a reply, please get in touch again using our new email address.

We look forward to hearing from you soon!

David & Pam

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Our last Outer Circle Tour for this year – AH!

Yes, we’re afraid that we have taken our last Historic Bus Tour around Birmingham’s famous Outer Circle Bus Route for 2012.

We almost had a bus full, just fell short due to a few potential passengers being “indisposed”. However we are sure that they will join us next year when our tours resume.

Driver Mike Holloway, orgainsers Pam & David Humphries and Museum Trustee Malcolm Keeley with 2976 outside the Transport Museum at Wythall on 28th Sept 2012

We had a good bunch of passengers including eight ladies wearing Red Hats who created a splash of colour and a lot of chat on the top deck. Colin Grice and John Field dipped into their pockets to win the auction for the coveted front seats upstairs. Well done to everyone on the bus who stumped up a total of £100.00 which will be donated to our chosen charities, Asthma UK and the Wythall Transport Museum. We must give a special thank-you to passenger Chris Alcott who very kindly gave a bunch of flowers to Pam as a mark of appreciation for her day out.

But now it’s time for our trusty (that’s trusty not RUSTY!) bus no 2976 to be tucked up for the winter and undergo a thorough overhaul. So Pam & myself are now setting about planning our Historic Bus Tours for 2013.

We will be contacting everyone who is on our mailing list later this year with our plans for 2013 and anyone else reading this who wants to come along with us next year should place a comment on this site, emailing us at outercirclebus@gmx.co.uk or call us on 07405 849192.

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Another great journey around the Outer Circle

2976 at Tesco in Witton on the 21st of September

The 21st of September saw us on another great tour of Birmingham’s famous Outer Circle Bus route. As usual we set off from the bus Museum at Wythall with a virtually full bus and picked up a couple of extra intrepid travellers at the start of our tour at Sarehole Mill.

With our usual driver Mike and Eddie our conductor for the day we followed our usual format and set of in an anticlockwise direction at 11 am. Not much changes; David gives his guided tour over the PA system and it rained. But nothing was going to spoil the day – our passengers change for every tour (except stalwart Phil – twice now!) and this is what makes each tour so different and so special – the folk on the bus!

They were an excellent crowd – all there with their maps, guide books and their own memories of Birmingham and the Outer Circle.

As usual we raised money for our chosen charities, Wythall Transport Museum and Asthma UK by selling real 6p tickets from the conductor’s machine, auctioning the lucrative front seats upstairs and relieving everyone of their loose change before we let them off the bus. This time we raised £120.00 – a record – so let’s see if we can do better next week when we do our tour again on the 28th!

We were, as always, given a warm welcome by the staff of the cafe at Tesco in Witton so that our circumnavigators could refresh themselves ready for the next half of the tour.

Thanks as well to the staff at Wythall Museum who prepared our bus – it looked wonderful (look at the shine on it in the photo above – to be fair it was WET!) and opened up the museum and shop so our travellers could get a taste of what Wythall has to offer. Please go back and take a closer look. On the 14th of October the Museum will celebrate the centenary of the motorbuses’ successful reintroduction by the Midland Red. There will be lots of opportunities for bus rides but you don’t have to be a Midland Red fan to enjoy the day – other types will be running too. Click here for more info.

Make sure that you revisit this site to see what we have planned for 2013 – we will be off round the Outer Circle again as well as going on some interesting tours further afield – all on Historic Buses.

Finally if any of our passengers from the 21st have any photographs that they would care to share with us we would be most grateful for the opportunity to display them here on our site. Get in touch on our contact us page.

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