Birmingham Co-operative Society Morrison-Electricar Van

Hard to believe when OOA 655 started life in 1954 as a bakery delivery van with Birmingham Co-operative Society that 41 years later it would find fame as a world record winner!

With the decline of door-to-door bread deliveries, many Birmingham bakery vans were strengthened, upgraded to 72 volts and converted to milk trucks, including OOA 655 around 1972. It was given a new M & M glass fibre cab and body in the 1980s and continued to work from the Hall Green depot until its long career took a most unusual turn in 1995.

By then its owners had merged to become the Midlands Co-operative Society. The workshops decided to enter a battery-electric in the 1995 Beaujolais Run. The idea captured the imagination of many sponsors, recorded in the signwriting of the commemorative paint job on the chosen vehicle, OOA 655. The overhauled veteran was temporarily upgraded to 84 volt format, and converted to a van with large sliding doors each side. OOA 655 was loaded with a substantial number of cases of the young red wine on the return run which averaged over 24 mph despite very poor weather. The French media were keen to talk to the "mad Englishmen in their electric van". It was not the first battery-electric to compete in the run but it broke the existing record, held by Unigate Dairies, by around 10 hours.

Preservation

Back home in Birmingham it reverted to a 72 volt battery and was transferred to this museum. OOA 655 is probably the only museum-based electric vehicle to hold a world record. It was our handy runabout vehicle for many years. Besides its extraordinary Beaujolais excursion, it demonstrates the way many electric vehicles achieved remarkably long service lives.

In 2020 OOA 655 was moved to the picnic area as 'Ernie - The Fastest Milk Float in the West' for kids to enjoy and sit in the cab