On The

Argyll’s first motor car appeared in 1898 and, by 1906, when the to Machrihanish Railway opened, there were 75 motor-cars registered in the county and, in that same year, MacBrayne’s bought their first motor buses, a 35-seat German-built, rack driven, Daimler , bought second-hand from an Isle of Wight operator and two little 10-seat charàbanc ‘mini-buses’, an and a Commer , by 1927, MacBrayne’s fleet had increased to thirteen buses.

The horse-drawn Campbeltown to Tarbert mail , which had been running in the hands of William Young since 1871, gave way to the chain-driven Commer (SB 485 ) of The Argyllshire Motor Company , founded by the sons of Canon Wakeham, the local Episcopal church minister, as The Motor Company , in 1913. During World War I, vehicles and spares difficult to obtain, the company was reduced to running two 5-seat Ford vans ‘in tandem’, each with mail inside and passengers on top but circumstances eventually forced the company to revert to just a single Ford ‘open-tourer’ and then finally into liquidation, the company’s assets being taken over by Duncan Ramsay & Sons . One of Canon Wakeham’s sons, Gerald Wakeham, would, in the summer of 1917, become the first ‘aviator’ to fly into Kintyre when he landed a plane at the Moy Park.

Even before Duncan Ramsay could restart the service, the Craig Brothers , Jack, the eldest, a former pilot in the Royal Flying Corps, David and William, sons of an Ayrshire family who had come to Kintyre after World War I and, in the early 1920’s, set up their garage business in premises at 95 Longrow, Campbeltown, seized their opportunity and re- opened the Campbeltown to Tarbert service, converting a four-cylinder Albion van into a saloon bus and adapting some ex-army one-ton Ford wagons to carry up to 14 passengers.

The two operators now fought it out on the run till August 1923 when The Post Office invited tenders for a new mail contract on the route and, to the surprise of both operators, the contract was awarded to two farming brothers, A. & P. McConnachie . While Duncan Ramsay now faded into the background, Craig Brothers now re-established themselves and began operating in opposition as ‘West Coast Motors’ and now, with A. & P. McConnachie holding the mail contract, the two firms ran neck and neck from Campbeltown, leaving at 8 a.m., for the Tarbert steamer connection, returning both together into Campbeltown for 4 p.m..

In 1924, to cater for farmers and others doing business in Campbeltown and to cater for tourists, West Coast Motors based a vehicle in Tarbert to give a single daily return to and from Campbeltown. In 1927, the service was extended to begin from each day and in 1929 yet another daily service was added to the route, its departure from Campbeltown at 11 a.m. being better suited for the mail steamer leaving Tarbert at 1.40 p.m.. The bus, as did McConnachie’s, went on to Lochgilphead to connect with the Link Line’s bus service and then returned homewards leaving Tarbert at 3 p.m.. Link Line was acquired by MacBrayne’s in 1932 and about three years later McConnachie’s bought “GE 5439” , an ex-Link Line 30-seat bus-bodied TS from MacBrayne’s .

During this time, McConnachie’s , who had begun with solid-tyred Fiat and Leylands , some being Leyland ‘Leverets’. The first buses having red-painted wheels and green bodywork with, as in the case of their first Leyland (SB 1388 ), ‘Royal Mail’ lettering on their sides, had bought a 1925 20-seat 17 h.p. Delahaye and a 1927 14-seat Chevrolet , their early-1920’s 20-seat Fiat ‘charàbanc’, individual side-doors and canvas hood, continuing to be particularly popular for Sunday outings.

West Coast Motors’ fleet included a 1924 Lesmahagow-built saloon-bodied Oldsmobile , a 1926 Reo ‘Major’ with a 20- seat Metcalfe body and rear luggage compartment, a 1927 four-cylinder Albion ‘30/60’ with a 20-seat body and rear locker and a 1929 Albion ‘Victor’ 17-seater, three of its seats being removable to accommodate extra luggage.

To help intending passengers distinguish the approach of the different operators’ vehicles at night, coloured front lights were displayed, red for West Coast, blue for McConnachie.

Despite ‘motor-power’, one of McConnachie’s drivers, who had left Campbeltown one sunny morning on the Tarbert mail run, found the road blocked by snow at Clachan and, using his initiative, he had the Tarbert mail steamer held up to allow him to get his mail and passengers through by driving a borrowed pony and trap along the beach at West Loch Tarbert.

On New Year’s Day 1930, West Coast Motors took over the Campbeltown to Tarbert mail contract, previously run by McConnachie’s and the new Traffic Commissioners, empowered by the new 1930 Road Traffic Act, finding that there 1 was insufficient traffic to justify the previous level of services on the Campbeltown - Lochgilphead route, directed the two companies to come to a new agreement so that they could be licensed for their services.

Until the advent of Traffic Commissioners and the issuing of licences McConnachie’s and West Coast had simply divided up the routes and services between them for their own convenience and, from the late 1920’s, both had been operating out to Machrihanish. Now West Coast withdrew from the route and were licensed to give the 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. returns from Campbeltown to Lochgilphead, McConnachie then being allowed too on that route with the 11 a.m. Campbeltown departure for the Tarbert mail steamer.

To the irritation of McConnachie’s and West Coast, The Campbeltown and Machrihanish Light Railway Company, the C.M.L.R. , had acquired two, red and very unreliable, Reo ‘Speedwagon’ buses to augment their train services in 1929 and much to McConnachie’s surprise, the railway company and not themselves, the railway company were given the Machrihanish route’s licence. The railway company also went to the Traffic Commissioners looking for a licence to run their to Southend as well but, McConnachie’s and William McKerral , owner of Southend’s Argyll Hotel, already holding a licence for the route, the railway’s application for a licence to run to Southend was refused. With the liquidation of the railway company at the end of 1933, McConnachie’s bought its passenger transport rights from the liquidator for £1,000 and took over the Machrihanish bus route.

McConnachie’s Machrihanish service gave a weekday timetable of buses leaving at 8 a.m., 10 a.m., 11.10 a.m., 1.10 p.m., 2 p.m., 2.50 p.m., 4.10 p.m., 5.10 p.m. (Sats. Only), 6 p.m., 7 p.m., 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. (Sats. Only). The Sunday runs being at 11.30 a.m., 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m., 6.30 p.m. and 9 p.m. with all buses leaving 25 minutes later on the return journeys from Machrihanish.

Their Southend services leaving Campbeltown at 8 a.m., 11.05 a.m., 2 p.m., 3 #p.m., 5.45 p.m. (Sats. Only), 7 p.m.(Sats. excepted) and 10 p.m. (Sats. Only) and returning from the village at 10.15#a.m., 1 p.m., 5 p.m., 6.30 p.m., 8.30 p.m. (Sats. Excepted) and 10.45 p.m. (Sats. Only) with certain Monday day-time buses, marked # and similarly marked Saturday evening buses running on to and from Macharioch, fifteen minutes out from Southend.

McConnachie’s flagship, bought in the early 1930’s, was an azure blue, 20-seat centre gangway Albion ‘Viking’ . Both it and their Morris Commercial ‘Viceroy’ had Cowieson of Glasgow bodywork. Next they bought two Kelly-bodied Commer ‘Invaders’ , a 20-seater and a 14 seater and then a third, this a 26-seat Commer ‘Corinthian ’. Towards the end of the 1930’s, two 32-seat Dennis ‘Lancets’ and, in 1937, a 20-seat Leyland ‘Cub’. McConnachie’s bought two 26-seat Bedford’s , one in 1938 and the another in 1939. They would also, after much searching at the start of the war, manage to acquire two second-hand Harrington-bodied Leyland ‘Tigers’ , a petrol and a diesel.

From 1935 onwards, West Coast were contracted to carry mail and parcels right through from Glasgow to Tarbert, the Campbeltown shipping company itself carrying the Campbeltown mail until the daily steamer service was withdrawn on Saturday, March 16, 1940. West Coast’s vans also had the contract for delivering the daily newspapers from 1936 until 1991.

At the start of the 1930’s, West Coast had bought a petrol-engined 20-seat Morris Commercial ‘Viceroy’ with a mail compartment and a 14-seat Reo ‘Sprinter’ with a ‘Gold Crown’ engine. In 1933, two Albions , a petrol-engined ‘Valiant’ , later converted to diesel and a 14-seat luxury bodied ‘Victor’ and, in 1934, another Albion , a 20-seater with an extended chassis and a large luggage locker. Then, around 1936/37, some Leyland ‘Cubs’ and, very fortuitously, in 1939, just prior to the outbreak of war, some 35-seat, five-cylinder Gardner-engined Albions .

West Coast Motors bought the old Benmhor Distillery premises for use as a garage depot in 1935 and then, in 1937, bought over the Carradale service from David Somerville of Oatfield Farm, the Carradale buses, an Albion and a Reo lettered “PULLMAN SERVICE” on their sides, until then driven by his son Jack.

The Somerville’s were ‘talent scouts’ for potential pupils for enrolment at Keil School, by then at Dumbarton. In 1938, West Coast would find its way into Southend buying up McKerral’s business and buses, an Albion ‘Victor’ and an Albion ‘Valiant’ .

2 War on The Buses

At the outbreak of World War II, MacBrayne’s mail steamer was now obliged to terminate her run at Wemyss Bay because of the anti-submarine boom across the Clyde between and the Cloch Lighthouse. When the daily Campbeltown steamer service, then also operating to and from Wemyss Bay, ended on Saturday, March 16, 1940, MacBrayne’s were given the licence to operate a direct bus service from Campbeltown and to 44 Robertson Street, Glasgow.

Leaving at 7 a.m., the bus reached Glasgow at 1.15 p.m. and two hours later, at 3.15 p.m., left on the return journey to arrive back in Campbeltown at 9.33 p.m. ! The single fare 13/-, the return £1.3/-. The service was an “Express Service”, the licence granted only to serve the interests of those who would have travelled between Campbeltown and Glasgow by steamer and rail and no stops to pick up or set down passengers at intermediate points along the 138-mile long route was allowed !

McConnachie’s and West Coast continued, as usual, to offer Tarbert steamer connections and the through bus- steamer-rail fares to Glasgow were the same as those charged by MacBrayne’s own daily bus service. The Campbeltown to Tarbert bus fares were then 5/- (25p) single and 9/- (45p) return.

McConnachie’s weekday bus left Campbeltown at 11 a.m. and reached Tarbert at 1.05 p.m., leaving again at 2.15 p.m. to arrive in Campbeltown at 4.15 p.m.. Because of the war, MacBrayne’s steamer also ran on Sundays and McConnachie’s Sunday bus left Campbeltown at 12.30 p.m. to arrive in Tarbert at 2.15 p.m., the steamer-train connection arriving in Glasgow at 7.20 p.m.. The Sunday bus then returned from Tarbert at 5 p.m. to reach Campbeltown at 6.45 p.m..

With the final sailing of the old “Davaar” on Saturday, March 16, 1940 and the consequent closure of Carradale Pier, West Coast Motors stepped in to provide a service up the east side of Kintyre and on to Tarbert to connect with the MacBrayne steamer.

Running daily during July and August of the war years but only on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays otherwise, a West Coast bus left Campbeltown at 10 a.m. for Carradale at 11 a.m. and then on to Tarbert for 12.20 p.m.. Leaving Tarbert on the return run at 2 p.m., it reached Carradale at 3.20 p.m. and arrived in Campbeltown at 4.30 p.m..

During July and August, there were buses from Campbeltown to Lochgilphead too at 8.30 a.m. and 3 p.m., arriving there at 12 noon and 6.15 p.m.. An 8 a.m. Lochgilphead departure arrived in Campbeltown at 11 a.m. and too was a 12.45 p.m. departure, after the arrival of MacBrayne’s steamer, from Tarbert to Campbeltown arriving there at 2.45 p.m..

Incredible though it may seem in the start of the war years, the bus operators in Arran found that there was a demand for bus tours round the island and in 1942, Stewart’s of Corriecravie , needing a suitable vehicle, bought a 25-seat Bedford WTB coach from West Coast Motors.

Repainted at Campbeltown in Stewart colours, the fleetname to be applied later, ‘Campbeltown Kate’ , as the Arran schoolchildren later named her, was loaded on to one of Clyde Cargo’s steamers and taken to Lochranza for delivery to Blackwaterfoot to spend the rest of her life on the Corriecravie to Lamlash run, where even she, with just twenty-five seats, found herself too big to drive right inside the school gates.

‘Kate’ had a good life on Arran, her inside soon covered with photographs and posters of the children’s favourite singing and film stars. Though she was dismantled in 1976, the glass display screen from her back panel-top and the front roller destination blind and its mechanism have been preserved to this day.

During the war years, with some four or five hundred sailors and wrens in the area, the companies took delivery of a number of “liberty buses”, 32-seat Bedford ‘OWB’s” with ‘utility’ bodies and slatted wooden seats. Of the four in McConnachie’s 21-strong fleet of buses, SB 6433 ended her days as a caravan on the low shore just north of the Westport beach, a place she no doubt well knew from ferrying personnel to and from the Tarbert mail ‘steamer’. 3 Room on Top

In 1949, West Coast took over Dickie’s, in Tarbert, whose two vehicles ran the connecting bus service between MacBrayne’s mail steamers at Tarbert’s West and East Loch piers, McPhail’s continuing to run the Tarbert - Kilberry service, that service later acquired from McEachern of Kilberry, in the mid-1970's - In April 2006, West Coast, having earlier let go of the Kilberry service, bought both it and the Lochgilphead - Tarbert - Skipness service from Henderson Hiring of Tarbert.

In 1950, McConnachie’s , granted licences to serve Campbeltown’s new post-war housing estates, bought two second- hand single-deck, Roe-bodied rear-entrance, AEC Regal III’s with Wilson pre-select gearboxes, BCP 534 and BCP 535 from Halifax Corporation and a new 1950 45-seat Duple-bodied Leyland ‘Royal Tiger’ with a 0600 horizontal engine, SB 8250 , nick-named ‘The Prefab’ was later fitted for ‘one-man operation’ it being McConnachie’s long-standing policy to employ conductresses on all their services throughout the year.

During the 1950’s, both McConnachie’s and West Coast would buy second-hand vehicles from ‘Gold Line’ in Dunoon, a coach operator whose shares were controlled at one time by The Air Ministry. In 1956, McConnachie’s bought two of their 41-seat Duple Vega-bodied Bedfords , one, RGD 880 , had a Bedford petrol engine and the other, BSB 526 , a Perkins R6 diesel. Later too, their ASB 50 , a 36-seat Duple-bodied Bedford with another Perkins R6 diesel. Another outsider, a 41-seat Burlingham-bodied Leyland ‘Royal Tiger’ , PUJ 782 , once based around the Stratford and Kidderminster area, was bought second-hand from Glasgow’s Millburn Motors in 1957 and, fitted with a ‘portable’ postbox, was to be used permanently on McConnachie’s morning service to connect with the Tarbert mail steamer. Another second-hand Leyland ‘Tiger’ PS1 , GWU 570 , with a 35-seat Duple body, would be used on school services and sold to Rankin’s, the building contractors.

West Coast added five 29-seat Duple-bodied Bedford’s to their fleet around 1948/49. SB 7799 and SB 7809 , bought second-hand from Gold Line and SB 7470 , SB 7779 and SB 8280 bought new. The latter, SB 8280 , was to be the ‘West Road’ school bus and, driven by Jimmy MacKinnon, was housed in the rounded corrugated-iron roofed shed beside Muasdale Inn, which was run too by Jimmy and his wife Maggie.

After Jimmy’s retiral, ‘the scholar’s bus’ as it was known, was replaced by a 35-seat Burlingham-bodied centre-entrance Leyland ‘Tiger’ , SB 8080 , bought in 1950, the bus then staying overnight at Tayinloan. Of the other two 1950 acquisitions, the 35-seat Burlingham-bodied Leyland ‘Royal Tiger’ , SB 8500 , was employed usually on West Coast’s Southend service and then, driven in service for the very first time on Glasgow Fair Saturday’s Lochgilphead - Campbeltown service by Johnny Sinclair, father of Glenbarr and Muasdale shopkeepers Peter and Iain Sinclair, was the 32-seat Duple-bodied Leyland ‘Comet’ , SB 8078 .

That Glasgow Fair Saturday, July 15, 1950, Johnny arrived in Campbeltown around 11 a.m. and was immediately asked to take the new coach up to duplicate the Carradale service, a run which was normally the preserve of specially built but 7-foot 6-inch wide Duple-bodied Bedfords - these much sought after when sold for running on routes such as the narrow Lochgoilhead - Carrick Castle and even some of the Welsh bus routes. Big and wide as she was, the new Leyland ‘Comet’ coped without mishap and arrived back in Campbeltown on time.

Next for West Coast from Gold Line’s second-hand Duple-bodied Bedfords were the 35-seat SB 9281 , the 36-seaters ASB 655 and ASB 656 , both with Perkins diesel engines and then three 41-seaters, DSB 126 , ESB 60 and GSB 571 . In 1958, a 1950 ½-cab 35-seat Burlingham-bodied Leyland ‘Tiger’ was bought from Valley Coaches of Newmilns in Ayrshire.

McConnachie’s bought the first of their three double-decker buses in 1960, a Metro-Cammell-Weymann AEC ‘Regent’ , KOD 585 , with a AEC 9.6 litre diesel and a Wilson pre-select gearbox. Contrary to popular local memory, she was bought from the ‘Devon General’ bus company and driven uneventfully north on the 600-mile plus journey to Kintyre. At the end of her life, in 1967, she again made the journey south, this time to rest alongside the Roe-bodied AEC Regal III ex-Halifax rear-entrance ½-cab BCP 535 of McConnachie’s at The West of England Transport Collection in Exeter.

McConnachie’s other two ‘deckers were ex-London Transport RTL’s, 1950 Leyland-built with Metro-Cammell- Weymann ‘high-bridge’ bodies, LLU 907 (RTL 917) and KYY 812 (RTL 842). The ‘deckers were used on the

4 company’s Machrihanish service, particularly in connection with the tour to ‘The Shores of The Atlantic’ then well- patronised by day trippers from the turbine excursion steamers “Duchess of Hamilton” and “Duchess of Montrose” .

Also to join McConnachie’s fleet in the late 1960’s were the two ex-Gold Line 45-seat Duple-bodied Bedford ‘VAM5’s’ CSB 441D and CSB 442D . The final local acquisition from Gold Line was a 1964 41-seat Duple Belle Vega Bedford , MSB 16 , which was bought by West Coast Motors.

In the 1950’s, using a green-painted 29-seat Bedford OB coach, Archie Malcolm, owner of Campbeltown’s Royal Hotel , provided an airport connection to meet British European Airways’ flights at Machrihanish airport, the service would later be provided by West Coast who, with this in mind, had bought CDC 496C , a 1966 29-seat Duple Belle Vista Bedford from Beggs Coaches of Middlesbrough.

West Coast Motors had won a day tour licence for trips to the 1938 Glasgow Empire Exhibition. After the war, the Traffic Commissioners allowed both McConnachie’s and West Coast to operate 12 trips per year to Glasgow and, taking the trips turn about, the companies then provided a fortnightly shopping trip for Campbeltonians.

MacBrayne’s ran their last bus services on Saturday, October 3, 1970, last of all to leave MacBrayne’s Parliamentary Road Bus Station and Goods Office in Glasgow was the Campbeltown bus, a nearly new 1968 49-seat Willowbrook- bodied AEC Reliance, ‘PGE 429F’, Fleet Number 170. and next day Western S.M.T. took over the Ardrishaig garage.

Among MacBrayne’s route licences were Glasgow - Tarbert; Glasgow - Campbeltown; Inveraray - Ardrishaig; - Ardrishaig; Oban - Tarbert; Ardrishaig - Tarbert; Ardrishaig - Dunoon; Rest And Be Thankful - Carrick Castle; Tarbert - Rothesay; Tarbert - Ingliston; Tarbert - Tighnabruiach; Tarbert - and, surprisingly, Fairlie Pier - Minard.

West Coast Motors took over A. & P. McConnachie’s services in 1969. Four of the vehicles, the 41-seat Burlingham-bodied ‘PUJ 782’ , the ex-Gold Line 45-seat Duple-bodied Bedford coach ‘CSB 441 D’ and two ex-Glenton of London 36-seat -bodied AEC’s were painted in West Coast colours. The other McConnachie vehicles, the two ex-London Transport double-deckers “LLU 907’ and ‘KYY 812’ , the four ex-Gold Line Duple-bodied Bedfords ‘ASB 50’ , ‘BSB 526’ , ‘RGD 880’ and ‘CSB 442 D’ and ‘The Prefab’, the 45-seat Duple- bodied “SB 8250’ being sold off.

Smart Thinking, City Linking

In 1982, West Coast acquired a small hold in Oban, acquiring McColl's of 's business and then, in 1986, bought the bus business operating from The Stag Garage at Lochgilphead and operating to Ormsary, Kilmartin and Ford. Within the year, the Mid Argyll business was consolidated with the takeover of the old MacBrayne/Western S.M.T. depot in Ardrishaig and, through a joint registration with the new services, West Coast Motors began a thrice-daily through service from Campbeltown to Glasgow.

In 1994, Essbee Coaches , a Coatbridge-based company, won a number of school contracts and tenders for enhanced rural services in Kintyre. Though their incursion was short-lived, their presence did bring about some changes and improvements which were to survive, not least the persuasion of operating ‘mini/midi’ buses on local and Sunday services to the outlying and hitherto neglected community of Carradale. In 1997, with more than 50 employees, West Coast Motors’ 41-strong fleet of vehicles travelled 1.793034 million miles and used 159,106 t h o u s a n d gallons of fuel.

After taking over Oban & District's operation in 1999, West Coast then acquired Stewart's Dalavich to Oban service in 2005. Just before the latter purchase, in April 2004, West Coast Motors took over the Dunoon and Rothesay school bus contracts and services which till then had been operated by Stagecoach Western , the Dunoon garage being formerly the old British Road Services depot and the Rothesay garage, a listed building near Port Bannatyne, being the original depot of the old Rothesay and Ettrick Bay tramway.

In January 2006, West Coast then took over the Scotstoun-based services, these operating local routes in Glasgow’s north-western suburbs and the Citybus garage then providing accommodation for West Coast vehicles operating Citylink contracts out of the city, these the subject of some acrimony during the summer of 2008.

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