Bus Manufacture
In 1912 the company bought its first Tilling-Stevens petrol-electric vehicles. Tilling-Stevens became the main supplier of bus chassis to the company which, under its Chief Engineer L.G. Wyndham Shire, adapted and developed the designs to its own requirements, finally designing a vehicle it intended to construct itself.
Between 1923 and 1969, the BMMO built most of the buses it operated: up to 1940 these were called 'SOS', and some models were supplied to other bus companies associated within the British Electric Traction (BET) group. After 1940, the vehicles were identified by the company's initials, BMMO, and supplied solely for the BMMO company's own use. Codes later used for buses were FEDD (Front Entrance Double Decker), REDD (Rear Entrance Double Decker), Coaches were initially classified "ONC", but later used a prefix of "C" - or "CM" for Motorway coaches. Single Decker models were numbered from S1 through S23, Double Decker models D1 through D10. The D10 was, in some opinions, the pinnacle of BMMO bus design - a double decker with front entrance/rear exit and an underfloor engine. GD6 and LD8 were exceptions to the normal designation system - these codes referred to batches of respectively Guy and Leyland vehicles acquired when the manufacturing operation could not meet the heavy demand. Individual buses were numbered from (around) 2000 to 5900 - registrations (usually) incorporated the last three numbers of the serial, and a letter prefix of three letters ending in "HA" ( a Smethwick origin registration mark). This relationship did not apply to the limited number of buses gained as a result of acquisition of other operators. Bus manufacture, overhaul and accident repair was carried out at Carlyle Road Works, adjacent to the reservoir in Edgbaston, Birmingham. Nearby to the works was BMMO's head office, in Vernon Road, Edgbaston.
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