Transport Museum Wythall Midland Red D7 restoration programme

Published: 07/03/2022

Transport Museum Wythall takes on a new challenge, the restoration of Midland Red D7 double decker number 4482, the only existing D7 with a viable restoration opportunity. The 350 D7s could be found throughout Midland Red’s large territory and were very much a ‘work horse’, especially in the Black Country.  

Having received a cosmetic restoration for ‘Midland Red 100’ and since, been on display in the museum looking ready for the road, 4482 is hiding significant ‘under the skin’ structural issues, beyond our ability to fund from current museum resources and therefore preventing its return to regular use on our free bus services.

The plan is in place for a full restoration to running condition, offering public rides from our base at Wythall and joining our recently restored LD8 and other icons from the Midland Red fleet. This appeal for funding will speed up the restoration programme, enabling this interesting Birmingham-built vehicle to delight enthusiasts and families alike, out on the road. 

Contributions can be made via the Transport Museum Wythall website (see below). All donations are welcome but the names of those contributing over £100 will be carried on a commemorative plaque carried inside the vehicle. Those contributing £500 and above will be allocated a special seat on its ‘first public appearance’ run – we plan to invite a celebrity to join us.

We estimate that c£75,000 will complete the restoration, most of which is attributed to the remanufacture of the body structure (which will require a complete body strip) and its refinishing. Fortunately the vehicle is in good mechanical condition and will require only a ‘light’ overhaul along with some retrimming.

Donating is easy, just go to www.wythall.org.uk/d7 - yes it really is that easy and we will be most grateful.

Once the restoration commences there will be regular updates on the Wythall website and in the enthusiast press.

4482 History
Midland Red was unusual in designing and assembling its own buses and coaches, many important parts being manufactured for the company in Birmingham and the Black Country, such as chassis members by Rubery Owen.  Indeed, the engines were unique in that they were designed and manufactured ‘in house’. One of its major suppliers of bodywork at the time was Metropolitan-Cammell of Birmingham. Most of the opportunities for weight saving lay in the bus bodies, simpler construction methods being combined with plainer interiors.  Metropolitan-Cammell was the clear leader in the introduction of lightweight bus bodies and launched its ‘Orion’ body at the 1952 Commercial Motor Show.  The first production bodies were supplied to bus operators in the late summer of 1953.  Among them were Midland Red D7 class buses with bodies built on ‘Orion’ principles but with Midland Red’s own and unique styling ideas.  Midland Red was arguably the most enthusiastic early supporter of lightweight bodies, immediately declaring an intention to construct 373 D7 buses (in practice only 350 were built).   
The D7s defied critics of lightweight bodies by lasting as long as their heavier predecessors, a life of 15 years being typical, although life extension beyond that was arguably optimistic. The final withdrawal of the type came in 1973 with our particular example which had operated from a range of Midland Red garages both ‘city’ and ‘rural’ from 1956 to 1971. 

After a variety of private owners, including Aston Martin, it arrived in a somewhat tired condition at the Transport Museum Wythall in 1979. There it was used lightly to attend rallies but was taken out of use in 1982 principally because of its poor body structure condition. It received a cosmetic restoration in 2004 to enable it to be statically displayed in the museum. 

Only a handful of D7’s survived in to preservation, the greater majority have now fallen by the wayside and XHA 482 is now the only one capable of economic restoration. If restoration is delayed much longer, many of the generation who grew up with them will not be around to enjoy riding on one in service again.