WYTHALL Transport Museum’s 1930’s bus has won a prestigious RAC restoration award.
The 1931 Birmingham City Transport AEC Regent 486 double decker bus won the 2022 Royal Automobile Club Historic Awards ceremony in London.
This event, held at the Club’s Headquarters in Pall Mall, recognises excellence and outstanding contributions to the UK’s historic motoring and motorsport industries, highlighting the organisations and individuals responsible for influencing and driving the British historic motoring movement.
TMW is a 100% volunteer run transport museum based in Wythall and houses the history of public road transport in the West Midlands.
Its collection of over 90 vehicles tells the story, through the exhibits, archive and social history, of the wide range of manufacturers that became established across the region.
The restoration of AEC Regent 486 was completed just a few short months ago.
The long story of its life in Birmingham from entry into service in 1931 to its scrapping in 1946 and then its miraculous appearance in a field in Herefordshire in the early 1970’s after being thought long gone is akin to a miracle.
Denis Chick Trustee of Transport Museum Wythall said: “Thanks to thousands of man hours, hundreds of individual donations, corporate sponsorship, much appreciated personal legacies and specific fundraising projects amounting to around c£500,000, 486 is better than new and a tribute to all the men and women involved.
“This prestigious award is dedicated to the whole team, the people who made this reincarnation possible.”
