THE SCOTTISH VINTAGE BUS MUSEUM -
STAGECOACH PERTH VINTAGE BUS RUNNING DAY - 2002
Stagecoach Perth organised their second Vintage Bus Running Day for June 1st 2002 - timed to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Once again they requested the assistance of qualified driver- and conductor-members of the SVBM to crew the buses. This year, instead of the vintage buses running as duplicates, they replaced service buses on several routes.
Stagecoach garage their vintage buses at Lathalmond and on
the evening before the event, the buses taking part were washed and fed, ready
for the next day.
Seen
on the left are (l to r) privately owned 1934 Leyland Lion VD 3433 and 1964 BXA 464B, together with BMS
222, HGM 335E, RCS 382 and HDV 639E (Jim
Crichton).
Left: Stagecoach Perth depot
prior to the fun starting (Jim Crichton)
I spent the day driving 1967 ex-Bluebird Bristol MW6G (HDV 639E) between Mill Street and Spittalfield, with Graham Martin-Bates as conductor. Following our second trip to Spittalfield, we had a 40-minute layover after which the bus refused to start. A frantic phone call to Stagecoach resulted in us taking P494 BRS - which lies over at Spittalfield with N211 LTN - for the next round trip, whilst a mechanic was sent out to Spittalfield. (Unexpected bonus for me, getting to drive a 'new' bus).
Right:
HDV 639E in Mill Street
(Jim Crichton)
On the way back to Spittalfield, we met the returning mechanic who informed me that he had been unable to find any fault but had started the engine several times. What he didn't say was that he had left a cheeky note next to the starter button, with an arrow pointing to it, and the words 'STARTER BUTTON'. (I later discovered there was an intermittent fault with the starter).
Left:
HDV 639E in Spittalfield with
P494 BRS (left) and N211 LTN (Jim Crichton)
The 1525 bus only goes as far as Stanley, and the majority of passengers were photographers - probably taking the shorter run after hearing about my driving. After arriving in Stanley, we had to do a local loop followed by a 15-minute layover when the photographers alighted and snapped away to their hearts' content until I made moves to get moving. We did another local loop then it was back to Mill Street. I pinched the photo on the right - and several others on this page - from one of their web sites - Andrew Gronneberg's www.scotbus.co.uk - with his approval of course – thanks
Right:
HDV 639E in Stanley
(Jim Crichton)
Following our return to Mill Street we returned to the depot for a 40-minute layover, before we did our last run - a single journey - to Spittalfield, after which it was straight back to the depot for around 1820. All-in-all a very enjoyable day - especially with the bonus of getting a drive on a newer bus.
1961 Ex-Western
SMT Leyland Titan PD3A/3, RCS 382 waiting at the traffic
lights to cross to Mill Street (left)(Jim Crichton) and in Mill Street (Scotbus)
(Jim
Crichton)
Above: Similar views of 1934 Leyland Lion VD 3433 in Mill Street(Scotbus)
HGM 335E at Scone (Scotbus)
THE START OF A LONG WEEKEND FOR BXA 464B (An excerpt from the SVBM members'
magazine) Eddie Taylor
At the beginning of the year it had been decided that our Bristol Lodekka BXA 464 B, known affectionately as 199, would attend the Tyne Tees Run on 2nd June. This is a Historic Commercial Vehicle Society organised event from Stockton to South Shields, and attracts around 200 historic commercial vehicles of all sorts. However little did we realise then that we would be involved in a weekend jaunt of some 600 miles.
In March we had an approach from Brian Souter (yes Mr Stagecoach!) asking if 199 would be available for the Jubilee Vintage Service. Unfortunately our bus only had a Class 5 MOT which negated its use on service work. This did not deter Stagecoach however, who asked that if we were to obtain a Class 6 MOT at their expense would we be interested. One does not get many offers like that in a lifetime so we wholeheartedly agreed.
The Bus Doctor carried out most of the main engineering work required while the rest of us helped out where we could. Surprisingly, the bus did not need a great deal of upgrade work to be carried out and it passed the Class 6 test at the first attempt.
Below: BXA 464B in Mill Street (Scotbus)
Saturday 1st June
saw the crew of Mike Chapman and Eddie Taylor at the Museum at 6am ready for
the day’s service work. The bus was scheduled to work on Route 1 and 2, a
circular service taking in the west side of Perth through Letham and Tulloch.
Upon arrival at Perth Stagecoach depot the bus was filled with diesel and our
guest driver, none other than Brian Souter himself, took over the controls for
the first three service runs. Despite Brian not haven driven this bus for some
15 years he handled it like he had driven it only the day before, whilst Mike
and Eddie took turns to collect fares using an old Setright ticket machine.
Flat fares of 50p and 25p made life easy. Thereafter Mike and Eddie shared the
driving and conducting. However, keeping to a normal schedule designed for
modern low floor MAN single deckers was not an easy task. Only once was any
great time lost, but this was due to heavy traffic.
The bus performed admirably apart from the
front brakes tending to seize up due to overheating with all the constant stop
starts. This made pulling away from the Bus Station a somewhat embarrassing
task as the bus wanted to stop as soon as neutral was engaged during gear up
changes. It actually got to the never-before-heard-of scenario where Mike and
Eddie were seen arguing about who was NOT going to drive!!
Right: Approaching Mill Street (Jim Crichton)
The shift finished around 6.30pm and upon return to the depot the tank was again filled up, and money collected was tallied and deposited. Upon return to Lathalmond the crew went home for a short clean up and break before part 2 of the adventure weekend - joined by another two of the co-owners, who had been crewing HDV 639 E and HGM 335 E at Perth.