Tom Gallacher
Member
Looking at the topic about “quirky bus practices” it brought back memories of an extremely strange bus journey I once had so I thought I’d canvass the forum about their own experiences.
Mine’s starts in Nov 1974. I’m 18, serving in the Royal Navy and based at Rosyth. The nature of the job I had meant that I never worked weekends so I would go back home to Glasgow every weekend.
My return to Rosyth would normally be by getting an early Monday morning train to Haymarket, then another train to Rosyth Halt, getting there about 8am and a short walk to the Admiral’s HQ at Pitreavie Castle to be there for an 8.30am start. This allowed me to also have a night out with my pals on the Sunday.
However, being a bus enthusiast, I decided to have a change and try the express bus from Glasgow to Dunfermline one Sunday evening. This bus left Glasgow Killermont St at 7pm and was due to arrive at Dunfermline around 8.15pm as the only two scheduled stops were at Cumbernauld and Kincardine.
This is pre M80 days so the route would be the old A80/A876/A88 then the Kincardine Bridge and onwards to Dunfermline Bus Station where I could get the bus down to the naval base.
So, the scene is now set, and I’m on the bus, an Alexander Y type staffed by both a driver and conductress. Fair to say the service was not heavily used that evening so I managed to get a seat right at the nearside front.
We leave Glasgow and head out on the A80 and then we turn off at the roundabout for the A73 towards Airdrie. Problem was that we had missed the previous junction which was the one that would take us into Cumbernauld Bus Station. A shout comes out from a fellow passenger “Hey driver, are you not going to Cumbernauld? (that’s the anglified version the original was broad Glaswegian). The driver and conductress look at each other and she pipes up “Is anybody getting off at Cumbernauld?”. No-one needing off so we continue along the A73 on our journey into the unknown. By now it’s evident that the driver hasn’t a clue where he is and is hoping to come across a signpost that might re-direct him to somewhere familiar. He decides to take a left turn in the obvious hope that heading east rather than south would help. His turn was to no avail as it led us to a farm track. Fortunately we didn’t go too far up it and with the aid of the conductress we managed to reverse the bus back out onto the main road.
A few miles later we come to a bus stop and someone has put their hand out. The driver duly brings the bus to a halt. “Do you go to (insert name of some random place) driver?”. “Do you know how to get there?” is the response. “Aye” says the potential customer. “Hop on and show me” says our man at the wheel and then we go on a short journey through some unknown town dropping the passenger off at his home.
Following brief instructions from our departing passenger the drive managed to get the bus back on the road towards Kincardine Bridge and soon we were back on the right road – much to the relief of all on board.
We get into Dunfermline at around 11.30pm and the driver is set upon by inspectors and the like. For me it meant having to get a taxi as the last bus to Rosyth had already left.
Needless to say this was first and last trip on that particular service.
Mine’s starts in Nov 1974. I’m 18, serving in the Royal Navy and based at Rosyth. The nature of the job I had meant that I never worked weekends so I would go back home to Glasgow every weekend.
My return to Rosyth would normally be by getting an early Monday morning train to Haymarket, then another train to Rosyth Halt, getting there about 8am and a short walk to the Admiral’s HQ at Pitreavie Castle to be there for an 8.30am start. This allowed me to also have a night out with my pals on the Sunday.
However, being a bus enthusiast, I decided to have a change and try the express bus from Glasgow to Dunfermline one Sunday evening. This bus left Glasgow Killermont St at 7pm and was due to arrive at Dunfermline around 8.15pm as the only two scheduled stops were at Cumbernauld and Kincardine.
This is pre M80 days so the route would be the old A80/A876/A88 then the Kincardine Bridge and onwards to Dunfermline Bus Station where I could get the bus down to the naval base.
So, the scene is now set, and I’m on the bus, an Alexander Y type staffed by both a driver and conductress. Fair to say the service was not heavily used that evening so I managed to get a seat right at the nearside front.
We leave Glasgow and head out on the A80 and then we turn off at the roundabout for the A73 towards Airdrie. Problem was that we had missed the previous junction which was the one that would take us into Cumbernauld Bus Station. A shout comes out from a fellow passenger “Hey driver, are you not going to Cumbernauld? (that’s the anglified version the original was broad Glaswegian). The driver and conductress look at each other and she pipes up “Is anybody getting off at Cumbernauld?”. No-one needing off so we continue along the A73 on our journey into the unknown. By now it’s evident that the driver hasn’t a clue where he is and is hoping to come across a signpost that might re-direct him to somewhere familiar. He decides to take a left turn in the obvious hope that heading east rather than south would help. His turn was to no avail as it led us to a farm track. Fortunately we didn’t go too far up it and with the aid of the conductress we managed to reverse the bus back out onto the main road.
A few miles later we come to a bus stop and someone has put their hand out. The driver duly brings the bus to a halt. “Do you go to (insert name of some random place) driver?”. “Do you know how to get there?” is the response. “Aye” says the potential customer. “Hop on and show me” says our man at the wheel and then we go on a short journey through some unknown town dropping the passenger off at his home.
Following brief instructions from our departing passenger the drive managed to get the bus back on the road towards Kincardine Bridge and soon we were back on the right road – much to the relief of all on board.
We get into Dunfermline at around 11.30pm and the driver is set upon by inspectors and the like. For me it meant having to get a taxi as the last bus to Rosyth had already left.
Needless to say this was first and last trip on that particular service.
