Photo © Les Ronan. Please do not re-post without permission.

Midland General 499, 914MRB, a Bristol FS6G with ECW H60RD body, new 1960.
I had to double check that this was in fact a Midland General vehicle as the route number did not have a letter prefix and it is obviously in Derby Bus Station - I would not have associated Midland General with Derby, although they were easily found to the east and the north of the city.
In fact they would not have been seen there on bus service until 29th August 1954 when the 44 was introduced from Derby to Chesterfield via Ripley, Alfreton and Clay Cross. The hourly service was joint with Trent and East Midland and was achieved by linking up the services of the three operators, and was only possible then because East Midland had recently acquired the Clay Cross to Chesterfield service of Heeley of New Tupton. Apparently it was proposed that the joint sevice be numbered O1 so that Midland General could call it O1 and the other two 01 so that everone would be happy. East Midland however objected in case conductors confused service 01 with fare stage 01 - so it became the 1st Midland General route not to have a prefix letter as the 44. There were only ever two more - the 42 and 43 Alfreton to Mansfield services from 1968 also joint with Trent when services between the two towns were rationalised. The service detail from the excellent Robin Hood Publishing books by Alan Oxley and David Bean

Photographer unknown, original negative from Les Ronan Collection, c.1963, Derby Bus Station

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