Carlyle Works was an English builder of bus and coach bodywork based in

Edgbaston Edgbaston () is an affluent suburban area of central Birmingham, England, historically in Warwickshire, and curved around the southwest of the city centre. In the 19th century, the area was under the control of the Gough-Calthorpe family ...

History

In 1920, the Birmingham & Midland Motor Omnibus Company established a bus repair facility on land adjoining Rotton Park Reservoir. It initially performed repair work before chassis construction commenced in 1925. The eight-acre site was redeveloped over a five-year period from 1949.Central Works
MidlandRed.net It derived its name from its address, Carlyle Road. The company was famous for building its own buses and coaches, under the BMMO name. These buses were typically very innovative and were the first to introduce many advanced features. When the development and production of its own vehicles became prohibitive in the late 1960s the central works continued to provide heavy engineering services for the company. On 1 January 1969, Midland Red became part of the National Bus Company, and Carlyle Works provided engineering services for other National Bus Company operators. These services included major vehicle modifications and adaptations. In the mid-1980s, minibuses became very popular for operators, allowing them to provide higher frequency service on routes that could serve areas larger vehicles could not access. Carlyle developed a range of bodywork for minibuses, notably

Ford Transit The Ford Transit is a family of light commercial vehicles manufactured by the Ford Motor Company since 1965, primarily as a cargo van, but also available in other configurations including a large passenger van (marketed as the Ford Tourneo in ...

conversions. On 5 September 1981, Midland Red was divided into five operating companies with the Carlyle Works retained to provide engineering support. On 5 March 1987, Carlyle Works became the 22nd National Bus Company subsidiary to be privatised. It was purchased by Frontsource Limited, a company set up by Robert Beattie to purchase eight former National Bus Company engineering companies. Carlyle set about building upon its minibus expertise, and developed bodywork for the

Freight Rover Freight Rover was a British commercial vehicle manufacturer based in the Washwood Heath area of Birmingham, England. History Freight Rover was created as a division of the Land Rover Group of British Leyland (BL) in 1981, creating a new singl ...

chassis. These sold well, especially to former NBC operators. Designs for

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and Mercedes Benz 700 and 800 series vehicles followed. In 1989, the body designs for the

Duple Dartline The Duple Dartline was a single-decker bus body built on the Dennis Dart chassis by three manufacturers - Duple Coachbuilders of Blackpool, Carlyle Works of Birmingham and Marshall Bus of Cambridge - between 1989 and 1993. Duple The Dartline ...

were acquired from Trinity Holdings. This body was adapted for the Dennis Dart and was available in 8.5m, 9.0m and 9.8m lengths. Carlyle built 140 of an order for the 8.5m vehicles from London Transport. Warrington Borough Transport bought most (13) of the 9.0m versions. The 9.8m version was bought by China Motor Bus (later sold to New World First Bus) and Luton & District. Small numbers of each were bought by other independent operators. New orders became increasingly hard to find, as the minibus vogue had ended and competing bodywork for the Dennis Dart was proving more popular. In October 1991, Carlyle Works was placed in receivership and closed. The rights to the Dartline were sold to bodybuilder

Marshall Bus Marshall Bus was an English builder of bus and coach bodies based in Cambridge. It was owned by the Marshall Group until sold in a management buyout in 2001. History Marshall Bus was established in the 1940s by David Marshall. In 1958 it bou ...

.Marshalls snaps up rights to Dart
''Commercial Motor'' 16 January 1992

References

{{Reflist, 2 Defunct bus manufacturers of the United Kingdom Edgbaston Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1920 Vehicle manufacturing companies disestablished in 1992 1920 establishments in England 1992 disestablishments in England British companies established in 1920 British companies disestablished in 1992