So, Mr William Arnold, arty photographer, Falmouth College lecturer and phone box enthusiast seeks to publicise, possibly save, the box at Enaclete, Isle of Lewis.
fbb reckons that his possible journey by public transport would, realistically, involve two overnight stops. So your intrepid investigator began the tortuous process of planning the journey by public transport. Not knowing where young Bill resided, he started with the National Rail journey planner, Falmouth to Glasgow.
You would't get further north than Glasgow, so a chance to book into somewhere pleasant, enjoy a carryoot fish supper and a good night's kip before day two.
Then fbb discovered that Bill lived at Helston. So, this time, Traveline was used because a bus was required. But a similar result was generated.
He starts on bus 38 at 0647 ...
... enjoys the experience of THREE railway companies; or FOUR railway companies if he leaves an hour later at 0750. fbb will leave his excitable readers to explore the details of his first "leg".
Day two gets him from Glasgow to Stornoway.
The 0629 departure would be fbb's recommended option unless Bill wanted to linger over a "full English" Scottish breakfast.
It should include a potato scone, square sausage and haggis black pudding. It would, of course, start with a huge bowl of porridge. All this, together with toast a-plenty, should ensure that a midday meal was unnecessary.
On the other hand, 2015 may be too late for an ample Scottish dinner at Stornoway.
Tough decision, eh?
Back to the 0629, which fbb thinks is actually a through Citylink coach all the way, over the sea bridge to Skye ...
... and on to Uig. It is from the latter that service CM22 operates ...
... being the smaller big boat to Tarbert. When the fbbs ventured this far, they were in leisure mode and hotelled in Glasgow, Portree, Tarbert and Stornoway.
They stayed in the Tarbert Hotel ...
... opposite which, back then, was the bus garage for the service to Stornoway. It is now a car hire emporium.
The minibus was not in service - it was just leaving its home next to a church.
But the maitre d' at the hotel nipped across the road and arranged for the fbbs to be picked up outside the gaff and conveyed back down to the pier, the official start of the route. That operator (can't remember the name) has now gone.
Mr Arnold will be in the capable steering wheel of Lochs Motors of Leurbost for the enjoyable coastal ride from Tarbert ferry pier ...
... to Stowaway. fbb could find no picture of a W10, but it would probably be one of these.
Here is the W10 timetable, the most frequent interurban route on the dual-identity island.
Young Will would be on the last departure of the day from Tarbert Pier, at 1625.
So an over night in Stornoway.
For the record, Lochs Motors have been around for years on Harris Lewis ...
... once using former Scottish Bus Group single decks ...
... almost the standard vehicle for independent Scottish operators.
Day 3 : Stornoway to Enaclete.
The timetable, like most routes on Harris Lewis, is heavily biased to school transport, but as we are, just about, in the long Summer break, Traveline does the sorting out for us.
There is only one through trip from Stornoway, at 12 noon, with others requiring a connection at Garynahine.
fbb guesses that William might prefer the security of the through bus, rather than the fear of a failed connection in a strange place, however minute that community might be.
The interchange at Garynahine is a minimalist affair ...
... and the picture below shows the village centre!
Together with the timetable, Traveline provides intending passengers with a helpful (!) computer driven map of the W4 ...
... which we can enlarge for even more helpful (!) detail.
The Enaclete loop off the main road ...
... is very unclearly shown on the map, lower right. Whether the bus would stop at the more remote phone box is debatable.
But William is there, at last.
The big challenge is how he might get back, at least as far as Stornoway. fbb will leave his readers to do their own research. Surely there is an afternoon bus back, at least to Garynahine.
Sadly for the plans prepared by fbb, but doubtless happily for William ...
... he went by car.
Talking of weird obsessions, fbb has recently taken delivery of two tank wagons, one from Italy, but for the UK market, and one ultimately the creation of Dr Richard Beeching. More in the upcoming Variety blogs.
Meanwhile ...
fbb has found his tub of 'scatter' grass ...
A few scrubby bushes will eventually disguise the join.
But he is having trouble with his electrics. In desperation he has ordered one of these.
Now he has to learn how to use it! He has never handled a testing meter in his long and uneventful life! Lets hope it comes with instructions or ...
... there could be problems working with 12,000 millivolts!
Next Weekend Variety blog : Sun 16th Aug
I heard recently that you can fly from Newquay to Glasgow and there are definitely flights from Glasgow to Stornaway. Aircraft are public transport too..
ReplyDeleteIf a one hour connection is Glasgow is seen as a feasible, there is an 1826 from Queen Street that reaches Fort William at 2206. However, there's a 1907 to Inverness, which allows a fairly civilised departure at 0811 by Ember to Ullapool, reaching Stornoway at 1315. So a whole day saved compared to FBB's schedule.
ReplyDeleteLochs Motor Services was formed in 1947 as an owner's co-operative in the Lochs area on the West Lewes coast. Buses had started on Lewes in the early tolmid 1920s and at first each township had its own bus which provided services as required to Starnoway and other hires and the all important church bus. (it seems bus drivers and housewives were exempt from the rigidly applied free church day of rest).
ReplyDeleteWhen licenceing was sorted out after 1930 Lewes had 114 operators! After th e second world war many of them merged as co-peratives such as Lochs. Most have since sold out or ceased trading but Lochs have gone from strength to strength and now even buys new double-deckers for cruise ship work.
As you rightly say in the 1980s and 1990s Lochs bought a large number of second hand SBG buses, mostly Fords and Leyland Leopards. However BWG 650B was not one. It started as a demonstrator, an Albion Viking VK41L, with a front engine*, which sold in large numbers overseas in places from Africa through Hong Kong to Fiji and also to the Northern Ireland education boards. But in Great Britain it was a singular failure, however Lochs used it for 13 years. It was in a pretty poor state when I rode on it in 1972.
* The Albion Viking with the SBG was the rear engine VK43.
The route from Tarbert to Stornoway was started in about 1920 and was run by a number of Harris based oparators. In 1936 it passed to Mitchells of Stornoway and then back to Morrison of Tarbert. Highland took over in 1971 ( a couple of years earlier it would have been MacBaynes) It then passed to newly formed Hebridean with a fleet of coaches still in Epsom Coaches maroon and cream livery, and then to Lochs. I aso rode this route in 1972 and the elderly coach door was opened by the driver pulling on a length of rope. All fares were paid in Stornoway, On boarding on departures, on leaving the bus on arrivals. If you did not have the correct money you were sent in to the hotal bar for change.
if you want to no more about Scottish Island buses I would reconnend PSV Circle publication SSI1.
Alan JS