A BIG thank you to 9teen48 and Phil 47 for your kind response to my message.
Yes Phil, it is Wellhead Lane Depot with HOV 845 (fleet no. 1845?) featured. Strange to think that Dad and I might well have spent many hours on her.
If I remember rightly, when Wellhead Lane garage was built, it was the largest single span roof garage in Britain.
The photo must have been taken during the 1960s or 1970s because until the early sixties, BCT buses carried no adverts on the outside of the buses, during its heyday, the BCT was the largest municipal bus operater in Europe.
The bell rings were always; 1 to stop, 2 to go, 3 was a 3-bell load which told the driver that the bus was full and not to stop until requested to do so by the conducter.
Certainly the 5a or 7 would take you near to witton Lakes, a place that I shed much blood from scraged knees.
I recall many hours at perry common ring collecting used bus tickets, always on the lookout for the strange and rare like workmans returns. such a wasted childhood.
I have mentioned this on another thread some time ago but I recall the Wellhead Lane buses being parked along College Road between Moor Lane and the canal bridge near Kingstanding Road during the war. After all, one direct hit on the garage would wipe out that areas entire fleet. I am sure other brum garages had a similiar arrangement.
I mentioned one or two names in my previous missive, Mrs Barker, the snooker wiz was a conductress and it was the habit of a driver named Atkins to shout out of his cab to waiting passengers standing in the cold and wet , Tommy Trinder's catchphrase 'YOU LUCKY PEOPLE!'
Incidently, my grandfather was a conductor on the Birmingham trams. I have a photo of him in his uniform taken in 1917. He operated out of Hockley tram depot on the route from Snow Hill to the Hawthorns.