Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Former bus driver takes tour through rare photographs
More than 50 years of changes to coach travel
THESE time warp photos of much-loved buses in Arbroath will take readers on a trip down memory lane.
The images were supplied by retired journalist Gordon Cook and show how buses and the main station have changed.
Gordon worked in newspapers for more than half a century and his love of buses gave him an amazing second job in the driver’s cab.
He said: “The bulk of these photographs were going to be dumped, with many others, until I received permission to acquire them.
“The bus pictures are particularly fun to see, as I remember, at the age of about five, being taken by my mother by bus from Banff to visit her old auntie in Fraserburgh.
“The bus was an elderly Alexander double-decker, but we were never let down on our frequent journeys. That started the bus mania.
“Many years – and dreams of buses – later, I was living in Friockheim.
“George and Nan Wishart were crofters at Carmyllie and had bought a minibus to do the school contract at Carmyllie Primary.
“The business expanded beyond their premises at Carmyllie and they brought their small fleet to what had previously been Wilkie’s lorry yard in Friockheim.
“The fleet increased further and, with some trepidation, I timidly asked if they needed another driver. They did and I passed the PSV test.”
As the years passed George and Nan retired and National Express, through its Dundee subsidiary, acquired the yard.
“I got to drive bigger buses, including an Ailsa doubledecker, which I loved dearly, even on the school run when a fight on the top deck tumbled down the stairs to the bottom deck,” said Gordon. “Nobody was hurt. National Express made a corporate decision to sell up and the company was bought by its current owner, Gavin Kinnear.
“I drove happily when required for many years, doing schools, service and private hire, until I decided my 68th birthday was a good time to retire.
“But I didn’t lose my connection with the buses and became the weekend yard man, fuelling and cleaning and generally preparing the vehicles for working.
“This lasted until Covid when the decision was forced on me to retire completely.”
Of the picture above left, Gordon said: “This is a school bus queue at the corner of Hunter Road in April 1987.
“The bus is a Leyland Olympian with Eastern Coach Works 77-seat body, which was originally Northern Scottish NL026.”
The photo, above right, of the old unused buses with abandoned car in front, was taken at Spittalfield in the 1970s.
Gordon said: “There was a time when Mclennan’s bus yard in Spittalfield was like a holiday camp for me, with a visit every time I was passing through the village.”
The main picture is a 1985 photo.
Gordon said: “Rail replacement buses in Arbroath are not unknown, and it looks as if something similar was taking place in September 1985.
“The coach was a Leyland Tiger with a Duple body based on an American style.
“The story goes that three local drivers did rail replacement trips to Stirling so often that they were regarded as regulars in a chip shop near the station.”
The bottom right photo was a famous Arbroath sight.
Gordon said: “This is Matt Kerr of Kerr’s Miniature Railway in April 2004, with his miniature bus, newly painted in the colours of its sponsor, Fishers Tours, Dundee.
The colour photo above is from the 1990s.
Gordon said: “In August 1995, members of Arbroath Arthritis Care set off for an evening trip to Damside Herb Gardens, Johnshaven.
“The G&N Wishart coach had a Duple 320 body, and if I know George Wishart, it would have been on a Bedford chassis.”
Other photos, which can be seen online, include a dramatic 1985 shot of a bus swishing out of the bus station and through a
large puddle on Catherine Street.
Gordon said: “The two Leyland Leopards in the photo with the Alexander Y bodies would have no trouble negotiating the water, when cars might struggle. They are likely both Strathtay buses.”
On another tack, Gordon said: “In October 1995 there was a minor furore among some residents of Charles Avenue in Arbroath, when Strathtay Scottish buses started to use double deckers on that route for operational reasons. Some folk complained that this meant that top-floor passengers would be able to see into their houses.”
Gordon said: “So many high vehicles were striking the rail bridge on the A92 at Inverkeilor, that in January 1999 sensors were installed so that a warning could be flashed on a screen in advance of the hazard.”