Toot Toot

[Dickyboy]

Beep Beep!
Hi! My name's Dickyboy.
Just popped over from a related site to have a look.
I've never driven busses or lorries or coaches, but used them a lot in my youth. There were so many different companies out there in the 50s & 60s weren't there?
Used to get many different Mainland coaches on the IOW in the summer and in those days there were quite a few Local companies as well.
They certainly added colour to an island that was rather drab back then.

[Fazer9553]

Hi from Singapore, Dicky

[Ian]

Welcome to the forum Dickyboy, feel free to post photos make comments, ask questions, we are a friendly bunch.

Cheers

Ian

[G-CPTN]

Welcome, Dickyboy.

I've been to the Isle of Wight (first time was a school camping trip in 1956+/-1 and the second time on a hovercraft, probably 1990+/-5).

I saw much more the first time as the second was just a there and back IIRC.

[Dickyboy]

Thanks for the welcome folks
I want to have a look around and see if I can find any details of "Shotters" a small bus and coach company that used to run a route between the village of Brook and Newport on the IOW. I think they had a couple of coaches on the Mainland as well.
The only photo I can find on the www is of one in Victoria Coach Station. About all I can remember of their busses is that they were Bedfords, and one of them had wodden slatted seats. That would have been in the early 50s I guess.
I'll start a search tomorrow. Like the site!

[G6 UXU]

Hello and welcome to the forum, enjoy and all the best.

[G-CPTN]

Originally Posted by Dickyboy

they were Bedfords, and one of them had wodden slatted seats. That would have been in the early 50s I guess.

Almost certainly an OB, though if it was new it could have been an SB.

OB had a pointed nose, SB had a rounded front.

http://wakefieldfiles.co.uk/Bedford-ob.htm

http://wakefieldfiles.co.uk/bedford-ob-lists.htm

http://www.bedfordob.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_OB

http://wakefieldfiles.co.uk/bedford-sb.htm

http://wakefieldfiles.co.uk/bedford-sb-list.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_SB

[Dickyboy]

Originally Posted by G-CPTN

Almost certainly an OB, though if it was new it could have been an SB.

OB had a pointed nose, SB had a rounded front.

http://wakefieldfiles.co.uk/Bedford-ob.htm

http://wakefieldfiles.co.uk/bedford-ob-lists.htm

http://www.bedfordob.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_OB

http://wakefieldfiles.co.uk/bedford-sb.htm

http://wakefieldfiles.co.uk/bedford-sb-list.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedford_SB

The "Shotters" busses I recall were either OB or OWBs. There's a very good photo of one in "Southern Vectis" livery, though I don't recall Southern Vectis running them.
I lived in a village called Brighstone. and both Shotters and Southern Vectis ran the same route through the village, and my parents always used the Shotters busses. Probably because it was the local (Very local) bus company based in Brighstone.
Shotters had two garages, one in Brighstone, and also another smaller one in Gunville, which was just to lay busses up overnight, I assume.
Shotters was a single route operation, which finally failed, though their coaches continued for some time after that. The coaches mainly operated tours around the IOW, and at one time ran a service up to London.