Vital Vista returns to Shetland

摘要

A friendly wave for the photographer from the crew of 1950 Duple Vista-bodied Bedford OB HGE 219 as it passes along the A737 in Renfrewshire on 16 June, the fifth day of a 12-stage, 1,000mile journey from Norwich to a new home with the Shetland Commercial Vehicle Preservation Trust. The coach, first owned by the Scottish Cooperative Wholesale Society (SCWS), was travelling that day from Kilwinning in Ayrshire to Fort William, having been driven the previous day from Keswick. The SCWS bought it for a railway-bus link that never operated, and it passed later in 1950 to William Thomson of Swinister, Sandwick, the first of three Shetland operators to use it. It ran for James Johnson of Scalloway from 1954 to 1968, then James Watt of Reawick until 1979. Nick Taylor, who bought it in 2011, has donated it to the trust in recognition of its vital role in Shetland life.