Midland Red
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The Birmingham and Midland Motor Omnibus Company (BMMO) played a pre-eminent part in bus and coach design and new technology. Their bus and coach operations were based in the Midlands, and with their bright red livery their mission was to "Paint the Midlands Red" with their fleet. And so they became colloquially known as Midland Red.
BMMO was more than just a bus company. They were the only company in the hey-day of British bus transport to design and build their own prototype and production vehicles from the ground up. BMMO, which operated under the name "Midland Red", was probably the most significant engineering bus company in the history of British road transport!
Their designs were innovative, creative and exemplary - they were quite simply years ahead of their time. They had a small expert group of engineers working in large engineering workshops with highly specialised testing facilities. Many of their developments were taken up years later by mainstream bus and coach designers/builders (e.g. chassis-less construction).
The output of these workshops was exclusive to BMMO (apart from runs of pre-war buses released to a small number of associated companies).