Hugh Dougherty goes back in time
IF, like me, you're old enough to remember the days when buses had
radiators at the front, carried clippies full of character and patter to
match their hairdos, and rattled and roared like real buses, then taking
a bus ride back along a time-travel route to East Whitburn is for you.
For the West Lothian village is home to the Scottish Vintage Bus
Museum, a collection of 50 of the finest buses to grace Scottish city
streets and country roads over the past 70 years.
The museum opens its gates every Sunday afternoon, from around 1pm, to
let the public see the vintage Leylands, Daimlers, and Bristols that lie
within the former road haulage depot that is now their home.
You'll remember the smells, sights, and sounds of the bus that took
you to school, transported you to your first date, or, like me, provided
student work as conductor, and, after due promotion, as driver, too.
See, once again, those well-remembered letters on the side of all
Glasgow buses of Corporation times: ''ERL Fitzpayne, General Manager.
''Few cities could claim a real ''Earl'', as their bus chief, I always
used to wonder who this gentleman was.
Not that there's any problem about finding out the identities of the
people behind this unique, and fully operational museum.
One of the driving forces, if you'll excuse the pun, is Stirling man,
Jasper Pettie, who owns several of the more prime exhibits parked around
the yard.
''We've been open since 1986,'' said Jasper, as he lovingly washed his
vintage SMT, Leyland double-decker.
''Many folk thought of us as real cranks in those days, but, since
then, owning and restoring old buses has become respectable and people
take us very seriously indeed.''
School parties do visit the museum by special arrangement and Jasper,
one of the museum trustees, and a 48-year-old chartered accountant in
real life, is more than happy for the museum fleet to play its part in
teaching youngsters about the past.
''Many of the vehicles are hired out for film purposes and have
appeared in television series,'' he added. ''We are also recognising
that vintage buses have considerable tourist potential.''
But most of the bus owners at East Whitburn lovingly rebuild and
preserve their buses to recapture the sheer nostalgia of days gone down
the route of time.
Douglas Forbes, a psychology lecturer at Glasgow Caledonian
University, doubles on Sunday afternoons as a living, vintage bus
mechanic.
Visitors are quite convinced that the overall-clad figure, lying under
a Bristol Lodekka of 1967 vintage, must be a real bus mechanic.
''I drove buses just like this one on the Central SMT when I was a
student back in the late sixties,'' explained Douglas. ''I suppose you
could say that I'm restoring my youth as well as the bus.''
And enjoying a real busman's holiday is Dougie King of East Kilbride,
hard at work every Sunday afternoon restoring the very Ailsa-Volvo
Strathclyde bus that he drove in service at Larkfield Depot.
''Yes,'' he admitted. ''I'm a bus driver at Larkfield. I couldn't bear
to see this bus scrapped, so I spend my off-duty Sundays making it as
good as new. Some of the lads at Larkfield think I'm mad. But, I can
tell you this: when AV1's back in full working order, they'll all be
queuing up to drive her.''
Enthusiasm is the name of the game at East Whitburn, tempered, in the
case of Glasgow businessman and bus fan Mike Roulston, with sound
business sense.
He owns a superb mini-fleet of former Glasgow buses, and he's hired
them out for political rallies in George Square, public relations
promotional stunts, and even weddings.
''I garage the buses at the museum and make them available for hire
through my firm, Bus and Coach Developments,'' explained Mike. ''I've
even bought a former London Routemaster and put it into the old Glasgow
livery.''
The Scottish Vintage Bus Museum is the route to instant nostalgia, and
the buses are supplemented by a growing collection of destination
blinds, tickets, ticket machines, and uniforms.
* The Scottish Vintage Bus Museum is open every Sunday afternoon
between 1pm and 5pm. Access is via the M8 Motorway, Junction 4, when
travelling from Glasgow to Edinburgh.
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