Post Your Messages Here

THIS PAGE IS IN RESPONSE TO A PLEA FOR HELP FOR SOMEONE LOOKING FOR A RELATIVE (AN EX EMPLOYEE PERHAPS?). I HAVE ALSO DECIDED THAT IT MAY BE OF BENEFIT TO OTHERS WISHING TO CONTACT EX EMPLOYEE FRIENDS ETC. IF YOU WISH TO USE THIS SITE, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL, AND I SHALL PASTE YOUR MESSAGE HERE. REMEMBER TO INCLUDE YOUR CONTACT DETAILS.

Good evening hope your well! Was looking at your site very impressive! Was wondering if it was possible too help me? Well ive been looking for a timetables off Fife Scottish, Eastern Scottish ,Midland Scottish from the 70's era!!Im doing a little display in my house for my dad he used work for Fife Scottish in the Dunfermline depot 70's-90's.Was wondering where I could purchase these items!!!Many thanx Hope im not annoying you and all the best . yours faithfully Alistair Munro

Hi, I can't decide where to work so I was after some advice. Should I go to Dunfermline or Cowdenbeath? What are the pros and cons of both? I am used to driving on express coach work and know they do citylink and megabus out of Cowdenbeath but all the express work comes out of Dunfermline. To be honest I'm not sure if I fancy going round in circles on the D5 and D6 all day, is there much variety at Dunfermline? I live in the eastern expansion so both depots are just as easy to get to. I hope you don't mind me asking, I just can't make my mind up and thought I would ask an insider.

By the way I like the site. Some of the buses I remember when I was driving them for Stagecoach in east London.

Take care

Regards

I'm surprised there have been so few recollections of Alexanders
bearing in mid the vast area covered, the size of the fleet and
the high regard it was held in by the public. To hopefully start the
ball rolling a few of my early recollections.

Although I lived in SMT territory in Musselburgh my grandparents
lived at Brankstone between Dunfermline and Stirling, near to Bogside
Halt station, and my other grandmother lived in Kilmany, between
Cupar and Newport, so holidays were always spent a week at one and
then a week at the other. Kilmany was only once a year, being
awkward to get to, but we used to also go to Brankstone for weekends
as it was easier.

If we didn't get the train to Dunfermline Upper and walk to Carnegie
St. bus station it was a tram to Edinburgh, bus to Queensferry and
over on the ferry. From there it would be a Guy Arab DD on the 66a to
Dunfermline and then we could either wait for a 22c for Stirling via
Blairhall Road End or take a 22d Oakley bus and get off at Blairhall
Road End and walk the rest. (I've checked the route numbers in a copy
of the 1951 timetable I got off Ebay recently!)

After a week it was back to Dunfermline and then on the 325 to Cupar
from where we caught the infrequent (three a day, four on Tuesday)
369 to Kilmany.

As for the vehicles as already mentioned I seem to remember always
Guy deckers on the North Queensferry run while the 22c Dunfermline to
Stirling could produce a variety of single deckers, many of which I
now realise were fairly new post war additions, I'm sure there were
Burlingham bodied ones, possibly the odd Daimler, certainly some
without the roof over the bonnet, as well as the usual Alexander
bodied Leylands. From Dunfermline to Cupar I think was usually a pre-
war Leyland/Alexander or a TS8 special while the Kilmany run was
initially in a late 1920's or early 30's Alexander bodied Leyland
complete with roof rack and folding steps up the back. (Perhaps
someone with knowledge of depot allocations from, say, 1945-1955 will
be able to throw more light on the vehicles.)

Somehow Alexander's buses always seemed more homely than the SMT ones
I was used to. The conductress always seemed to know most of the
passengers and the journey timings seemed fairly leisurely but it was
the vehicles which stood out. Whatever their age they were always
well turned out, brass fire extinguisher on the bulkhead seemed to
shine and many of them had clocks on the bulkhead - the SMT didn't go
in for that! Fife was fairly self contained before the road bridges
and it did seem like a different world, a step back in time even, to
an under10 youngster and always an adventure. But what I fondly
remember most is these lovely buses and their crews.

Just a word to say a big thanks for the hours of pleasure I have had looking through your site. I was also born and brought up in Dunfermline went to St Leonards School then on to Queen Anne, left Dunfermline in 1968 aged 14 mainly due to Fife pit closures and my father being transferred to South Derbyshire where I still live and now visit Dunfermline occasionally and have had a life long fascination with Fife red buses, and I also remember some of the characters in the photos especially Jim Patterson who was a regular driver on the Izatt Avenue to Scott Street ( buses were Alexander Blue) this route later became 4 and travelled to the old rumblingwell terminus via Broomhead when it was first build. Red buses were introduced on the Linburn Rd Beattie Place route (1). I would often just walk up to the Cottage Inn just to travel on a red bus. Characters were "Big" Isa and "little " Isa formidable characters. My Personal favourite bus is Lodekkas both rear and front loading. I remember thinking how impressive almost stately they looked as they chucked up the New Row before all the road changes. I have never worked on them but I always wanted to be a conductor. Instead I became a Registered Mental Health Nurse . A childhood treat was a bus ride around the coast to Kirkcaldy and then back via Cowdenbeath. Another was route 14 to Glasgow and back via 26. The mystery tours from the "top stance" were also a big focus of our family life, back then a car was out of the question for many people and it was the only way we saw places like the Trossachs, Braemar Games and hundred of other places. Folk thought I was daft then and probably still do but I will continue to check your site regularly. Keep up the good work, much more interesting than television.

Hi Walter

Let me congratulate you on your superb Fife Scottish website. I'm not a bus enthusiast as such but I was born in Dunfermline, grew up in Cowdenbeath and have spent most of my adult life in Rosyth and Dalgety Bay. Your bus photos have brought back a huge wealth of memories for me.

I'm a keen amateur artist, painting in watercolours. I'd really like to paint a series of paintings of Dunfermline's top and bottom bus stances as they were in the 1970s. My paintings are realistic and authenticity is important to me. I like to get details right.

Some of the photos on your site show bits and pieces of the stances around the buses which is fine as they give me some reference material for sketches.

But what I'm really looking for is photos that show:

1. The whole (or large parts) of the two bus stances

2. Bus crews.

On the subject of bus crews, and meaning no offence to yourself as a male bus driver, my preference would mostly be for photos showing bus conductresses. It's a strange thing but a painting with female figures always has more appeal for the public (both male and female) than a painting with male figures. I know that uniform styles changed over the years and again my preferred period is 1970-1979. I think conductresses disappeared from the bus scene in Fife about 1980 anyway.

I realise that you might not have any photos of the kind I'm looking for but I'd be grateful for any help/advice that you might have to offer.

Maybe I should add that I'm aware of my responsibilities under copyright law and I'd also respect personal privacy. For example if you were able to let me have a digital image of a conductress, I'd make sure that the conductress as she appears in my painting wouldn't look anything like the woman in the original photo.

I look forwards to hearing from you.

Regards

Ken Young.