TRANSPORT Museum Wythall has unveiled a bumper season of events to take visitors on plenty of journeys back through time during 2023.
A variety of get-togethers are planned, including several anniversary celebrations and special gatherings and the now well-established Twilight event to conclude the season.
The venue enjoyed a record 2022 with a 50 per cent increase of visitors to 15,000 throughout the year.
Last year also saw the launch of the award winning AEC Regent restoration.
People will be able to get on board with the first event taking place on April 1.
Over the Easter bank holiday weekend, from April 9 to 10, two buses will debut in the fleet and there will be a host of static displays.
The Harrington Gathering – the first one the museum will have hosted since 2016 – will take place on May 21.
The highly-respected coach-builder made beautiful and classic passenger vehicles and there will be some fine examples on show.
On the spring bank holiday on May 29, the 90th anniversary of Guy Arab will be celebrated with special runs on visiting examples of the iconic vehicles alongside some from the museum’s own fleet.
The ever popular Model Bus Federation Gathering will also be at the event with a range of models and dioramas.
London will come to Wythall when the Routemaster Association partners with the museum to bring classic buses from the Capital to a Midlands audience.
A celebration of Coventry’s Daimler buses will be part of the Wythall Busfest@Gaydon with many of the vehicles from across the decades on show.
The event will mark the 50th anniversary of the last Daimler bus leaving the Radford works.
The 45th anniversary of the MCW Metrobus will also be toasted.
And, by special request, the museum will be hosting the Bristol Gathering on July 8 and 9 as 2023 marks 40 years since the closure of the Brislington works and 75 years of manufacturing Bristols in Brislington.
Another 75th transport anniversary this year is that of the Birmingham trams – the last one ran in 1948. The museum will show displays of the BCT tram in models and photographs.
On the August bank holiday – August 27 and 28 – summer comes to Transport Museum Wythall with cream teas and open top bus ride. But the main topic is buses now being ‘Step-Free’ for 25 years.
The first step-free buses entered service in 1998 and the Optare Spectra and 2002 Dennis Trident 2 will lead this display of these now familiar vehicles from an era that feels like it started yesterday.
On September 10 will be the Birmingham Bus Bash with the National Express Historic Society, will bring today and yesterday together.
Rear-engine buses will be celebrated on Autumn Running Day on October 1.
Rear-engine buses and vehicles began in the UK in the early 1960s and tributes will be paid to the ‘workhorses’, including Atlanteans, Fleetlines, Olympians, Metrobuses and more.
And the Twilight Running Day will finish the busy year on October 29 where people can take atmospheric bus rides into autumnal darkness.
Visit wythall.org.uk for times, tickets and more information, including where connecting bus and train services will operate to and from.
