Scotland the Brave!

As part of the research for the forthcoming Guy Motors book, I needed to visit a couple of museums and collections. Two are in Scotland and one in St Helens, a town that may be in Lancashire or it may be in Merseyside, depending on which version of local Government reorganisation is currently in effect.

Scotland is a bit far for a day trip or a weekend excursion, so we decided to turn it into a week away with most of the time spent in a Forest Holidays cabin close to Strathyre in the Trossachs.

First stop: The North West Transport Museum in St Helens, the home to the last Guy bus chassis to be built for UK delivery. First registered in 1970, it was also amongst the very last traditional "half cab" bus to be built.

Also resident are a number of Guys previously operated by Lancashire United, another undertaking that purchased products from Guy Motors until they just couldn't buy them any longer; Guy Motors having been swallowed up as part of British Leyland who knew far better than their customers what the market needed.

We stooped for a couple of nights in Dunfermline at an exceptionally nice B&B. You know you've picked a good one when the welcome tray in the room includes a small decanter of malt whisky and Sunday took us to the Scottish Vintage Bus Museum at Lathalmond. The biggest bus museum in the world, it claims and they are undoubtedly correct in that claim. It is HUGE! They are also custodian of several Guy vehicles and had agreed exclusive access for some photography, along with a look in all the sheds once the museum had opened to the public.

A panorama view of the main display hall

A wartime utility Guy Arab 

Sister to the one in the museum at St Helens

Bus travel Hong Kong style. 106 passengers!

Another Arab

Not the most efficient use of space, but at the time, no-one had thought of putting the engine under the floor and the entrance at the front. Arabs were also available as single deck buses

Originally built as a wartime utility for use in London, this one has an interesting history that includes a new body for use in Edinburgh

In the main exhibition hall, we found this 1929 Leyland Lion, now long retired from running around Edinburgh

Much newer, but still following the half cab layout 

Bedford OB with Duple Vista bodywork. Let's all say it together: "Didn't you have one like that once?"

Then a week of doing not really a great deal, just chilling out at one of the Forest Holidays parks between Callander and Strathyre. We'd booked a single bedroom "Gold" cabin, complete with huge wooden decking, a hot tub and a gas barbeque. For Scotland in September... We were lucky with the weather. There isn't a huge amount of stuff to do int he area, which for us was one of the attractions, but we did manage to fit in a session of archery on Wednesday and both lived to tell the tale. Robin Hood has nothing to worry about.

Home for a week - a one bedroom "Gold" Forest Holidays lodge

A couple of trips around the lochs filled two of the days, along with an explorations of some waterfalls. The first being the falls of Leny, very close to where we were staying. It's on all the maps, but it isn't really even a rapid. So on to the Bracklinn Falls. It's about a mile's walk from the parking and quite impressive, especially the footbridge over the falls.

Long exposures with waterfalls creates this unusual effect

This bridge needed to be hand carried a mile before being erected. It replaced an earlier bridge that was swept away in floods

And we also found one of the sites where Red Kites had been reintroduced into Scotland. A local farm has set up a conservancy which includes a hide and scattering of food for the birds. The food is mostly venison offal and is roughly cut before being scattered on the ground, which attracts the birds, but still keeps them wild.

A long term ambition, probably when the next royalty cheque arrives, is to upgrade a couple of my lenses for a single Canon 100 - 400 zoom. It is one of the white lenses in their "L" series where L seems to mean that they are "L ishly" expensive, but all the reviews say that for wildlife and sports photography, this lens and my camera are the ultimate combination. So, I thought, just to check it out, I'd hire one as it is what I have done before prior to purchasing an expensive lens. The only slight problem was that I got the week wrong, so I'll have to think of another excuse. It does mean that the lens used to take the bird pictures might be for sale in the future if anyone has a Canon camera and is looking for a lightly used, well cared for Sigma 170 - 500 mm zoom. As you can see, the images are a bit soft, but it is only one-quarter the price of the Canon. I hope Ann isn't reading this...

Finally, on the way back home, we called in at "Dodds of Troon", a well known and long established bus and coach operator who happen to own a Guy coach that was formerly a company demonstrator. I had asked if I might be able to take a few pictures and permission was granted. The coach has been off the road for a while with a poorly engine, so we were restricted to taking pictures in the shed - but we managed.

The chassis is a Guy Warrior UF and is fitted with a classic "Seagull" body built by Burlingham in Blackpool. Burlingham were shortly after absorbed into Duple and there are just the beginnings of some common design "motifs" with Duple's range of the time. you'll need to buy the book for an explanation of that, though...The "Seagull" model name came about from the first customer for this body style, Seagull Coaches, and the style was fitted to Leyland and AEC chassis as well as to Guys. To my eyes, it is one of the most elegant coach designs created. It is, by all accounts, something of a monster to drive - obviously a manual transmission, but with a "Chinese" gearbox with the gears scattered all over the place, rather than the usual H arrangement, there's no power steering,but it does have full air brakes. For a vehicle that is now 60 years old (just like your writer) it is in remarkable condition (unlike your writer). 

And that's it - until this coming weekend when there is another little trip.