The advantages of having a Club member who is not only a shipping enthusiast, but also a bus enthusiast are not immediately apparent, but when the member happens to be Lawrence Macduff it all becomes obvious.

Lawrence is the owner of a preserved David MacBraynes bus and has been so since 2002.

The bus is a forty-nine seat AEC Reliance with the coachwork by Willowbrook of Loughborough. It was originally powered by an AEC type AH590 underfloor mounted six-cylinder diesel engine rated at 153bhp, mated to a six-speed ZF gearbox. Unladen it weighs 7 ½ tons.

The coach was ordered by David MacBrayne Ltd for their Glasgow-Campbeltown route and entered service in March 1967.

It was transferred to Fort William in 1968 and passed to Highland Omnibuses in 1970, with almost all of MacBraynes other buses. It then moved to Inverness, continuing as an express coach on services from Edinburgh or Glasgow to Fort William, Inverness and Uig, and also to Ullapool from Inverness.

It moved to Portree in 1975 for island school services and ferry connection work.

Finally, in 1977, it was transferred to Thurso for contract duties at either Dounreay, or at the US Navy’s communications station at Forss.

The bus was sold out of service directly to preservationists in Northern Ireland in September 1981.

Lawrence purchased it jointly, in November 1990, with Robert Grieves (known to Club members), who spotted the bus in Belfast while driving another bus.

Robert abandoned his vehicle, together with the passengers and spoke to the driver, making enquiries about purchasing the former MacBraynes bus.

Robert was a conductor and latterly a driver of the bus during the 1967-68 period.

And so it came to pass that on Saturday 25^th July 2009 around twenty-five Club members gathered at Gourock Station at 09.45 for a Coach-Cruise, which was to take us on a ferry hopping trip from Wemyss Bay to Rothesay, Rhubodach to Colintraive and from Dunoon back to Gourock.

Lawrence had established a generous timetable and, after giving us some information about the bus and the schedule for the day, we set out in good time to catch the 11.00 sailing to Rothesay.

After a coffee in Wemyss Bay we boarded a busy ARGYLE for the crossing to Bute.

The weather was kind to us and indeed remained so throughout the day.

Lawrence was well clued up on the best locations for photo opportunities. The first was in Craigmore where we were able to photograph the bus and ARGYLE together.

Our route took us to Kingarth at the south end of the island. An unscheduled stop provided some amusement when Lawrence recognised the driver of an open-toped tour bus resulting in the two buses causing a roadblock. After a few words and a handshake the two drivers carried on in opposite directions.

From Kingarth the road turns north up the west side of the island affording fine views across to Arran.

There were further opportunities to take photographs before stopping at Ettrick Bay for lunch. During the lunch break we all gathered together for a group photo.

After lunch we re-traced out steps back to Rothesay where we had a short time to stretch our legs.

By this time Lawrence had to keep an eye on the time for two reasons. Firstly we were hoping to photograph the bus and WAVERLEY together as she passed Rhubodach and secondly the ferry now runs to a timetable instead of simply crossing back and forth over the Kyles of Bute. 

Having established that WAVERLEY was running around fifteen minutes late we set out for Rhubodach with plenty of time in hand.

The paddle steamer made a fine sight as she passed through the Kyles en route from Tighnabruaich to Glasgow.

Back on the bus again and we boarded our second vessel of the day, LOCH DUNVEGAN.

The climb out of Colintraive is long and gradual, but the bus coped well. A harder test was to come on the climb away from Loch Striven through Glen Lean, which is also a single-track road.

Once again the bus did very well and Lawrence did equally well in coping with the traffic on what can be quite a busy road.

As we drove along the Dunoon Esplanade our third and last ferry, JUPITER, could be seen in the near distance. With impeccable timing the bus arrived at Dunoon Pier just as JUPITER was a few hundred yards out.

Curiously the bus was loaded onto the ferry last leaving her just within the ramp with the steering wheel turned tight to the left.

Before long we arrived back at Gourock. Our day had been most enjoyable and gave us a taste of long distance bus travel in the 1960s-70s.

Our thanks are due to Lawrence Macduff, who was the most genial of hosts, and to Robin Love, who co-ordinated the event with Lawrence.

Arrangements are already in place for a similar Coach-Cruise for next year (Summer 2010), when Lawrence will be taking his bus over to Arran.