Corgi Toys 1120; BMMO Midland Red Motor Express Coach

Corgi was as ever being topical and springing surprises. Motorways were very new in 1961 - the first stretch of the M1 from St Albans to Birmingham had only opened 14 months before the release of this model while we in the north were enjoying the no-speed-limit Preston By-Pass which later became the M6. Of course this bus is in Birmingham's Midland Red livery and would have been seen on the new M1 speeding between the Midlands and London.

The detail of this model is nice and is worth looking at closely. The interior is well detailed with a loo cubicle at the back, the windscreen is well done too. This Corgi is probably the first to have chassis detail cast into the base plate.

The bus anoraks among you will know that this is a model of the BMMO CM5T, of which there is a bit of information on the Internet, I always want to know a bit more about the vehicles upon which the models are based. BMMO was effectively the manufacturing arm of the Midland Red Bus Company who built their own buses back in the day, as did Alexander in Scotland. While neither company runs buses any more Alexander still makes buses as part of Alexander Dennis who make a good many of the double-deckers you see around.

The Midland Red Motorway Coach was released in 1961 and was produced for two years before being deleted in 1963, it is always red with a black roof and there are no listed variations.

This Corgi Toys was sourced before January 2004 from eBay