Former Dundee Corporation bus ETS 964 returns home

In April 2010 National Express Dundee very generously agreed to donate Daimler CVG6 ETS 964 (fleet number 184) to the Taybus Vintage Vehicle Society. ETS 964 bus entered service with Dundee Corporation on 27 November 1955 and was withdrawn in September 1977.

On Sunday 30 May 2010 the bus was brought back from the Scottish Vintage Bus Museum at Lathalmond to the Taybus premises for work to commence on getting the bus back on the road as soon as possible.

To see more photographs please visit our Restorations Gallery.
   

Hot off the press

Great news.

Dundee Museum of Transport has been awarded a grant of £2000 from the Innovation and Development fund for use toward a feasibility study.

The letter states that demand for funding was very high in this round but the panel recognised the merit of our application. Pretty good as this was our very first application for funding of any kind. Bodes well for the future.

More news on other developments soon.
   

One for the Future

Dundee Museum of Transport do a Time Team

On 29th July 1943 Hurricane Fighter V7725 took off from Tealing air base. The pilot at the controls was 21 year old Sgt Roland Carpenter from Birmingham a trainee at Tealing. During the flight something went wrong (It is thought he blacked out) and the Aircraft dived nose first into the ground at Caird park Killing Sgt Carpenter.

Following in the footsteps of Time Team who recovered a Spitfire in France, would it not be a great project to do the same for this Pilot and plane perhaps even solving the mystery of why the plane crashed?

We would be able to put on a Display of the Artefacts we recovered and tell Sgt Carpenters story so ensuring that his name will never be forgotten. I wonder if anyone has any thoughts.

   

When Dundee United won the Scottish Cup in 2010

A selection of pictures taken during the preparation of TVVS's open-top bus for the cup-winner's parade have now been added to the Event photos 2010 page.

If you have any pictures of the bus from the parade that we can add to the gallery please contact us.
 

When Dundee United won the Scottish Cup in 1994

On Sunday 22 May 1994, the day after winning the Scottish Cup, thousands of Dundee United supporters lined the streets to welcome the winning team back home.

As is traditional the team travelled in an open-top bus which was part of the Tayside Public Transport fleet. Ailsa bus 300 (WTS272T) was modified by the company in their Maryfield depot in 1983 and is believed to be unique. Like all of Tayside's coaches this bus was given a name, in this case "Broughty Castle".

The open-top bus was commonly seen on the City Tour route before leaving the city in 2002 and finishing up with Full Circle tours in Oxford - still named "Broughty Castle".

The bus was again withdrawn from service and in 2005 it was acquired by the Taybus Vintage Vehicle Society.

Weather permitting the same bus that welcomed the victorious team back home in 1994 will once again bring the Scottish Cup winners back through the city on 16 May 2010.
   

More tram trivia

The info here was originally posted by Brian, Doon the Toon, in the 3Js (DC Thomson's chat board) and the Dundee Forum. Some of the info comes from the video "Dundee Trams", released in 1996, the anniversary of the ending of Dundee's trams.

From the 3Js

When the use of trams was finally discontinued in 1956, the oldest one still working dated back to 1900, although rebuilt on more than one occasion.

The two remaining routes, Lochee/City Centre and Ninewells/Maryfield, closed on Saturday, 20th October, 1956.

The last SCHEDULED tram (car No. 45) left NINEWELLS for Maryfield on that day.

6 cars left MARYFIELD to head for the Lochee Depot at 12.31am on Sunday, 21st October. Car 25 was the last to leave Reform Street at 12.50am. It took over an hour for the journey from Maryfield to the Lochee Depot, due to thousands of spectators lining the route. It had been decreed by the Council that there would be nothing special to mark the occasion - no closing ceremony, no official "last tram", no souvenir tickets, etc.

In the early hours of Thursday, 25th October, the last seven cars at LOCHEE Depot, left to travel to Maryfield Depot. The last of this convoy, Car No 21, gave late night dancers heading home, a free lift.

This was the last car that carried (unofficial) passengers.

All 31 remaining cars of the Dundee fleet were transported on the back of lorries from Maryfield to a field at Marchbanks, where they were burnt. None of them was preserved.

BUT - one of Dundee's trams, the original Steam Tram Trailer No. 21, dating from around 1893-4, has undergone restoration and is one of the most historically significant vehicles at the National Tramway Museum at Crich in Derbyshire.


From Dundee Forum

On the subject of Dundee transport, you may find the this link of interest.

Here's a quote and a photo from that site

Dundee steam tram trailer No. 21 

The Dundee & District Tramway Company ran horse and steam trams in Dundee, Scotland. No.21 was a trailer built by GF Milnes in 1894. It was a typical steam tram trailer of the period, being a top covered double deck bogie car. Dundee Corporation took over in 1899 and electrified the system. No.21 was sold off and became a fisherman's hut at Crombie reservoir For a full history of the tramways of Dundee, I recommend Tramways of the Tay Valley by Alan W. Brotchie. 

In 1969, the body of 21 was moved to Marton Moss near Blackpool, where restoration commenced. Two spare Milnes plate frame bogies were obtained from the Douglas cable car project and reguaged. 

Marton Moss July 27th 1979

There are more photos and details of the restoration work at that site.

That tram trailer is now fully restored and can be seen at the National Tramway Museum at Crich, Derbyshire. Here's a photo of what it looks like now, taken from the Museum's website page

Update 22-10-2012: Many thanks to Brian, Doon the Toon, who gave us an updated link for Dundee Steam Trailer No. 21 from the internet archive.

   

Trivia

Trams
The first municipal public transport in Dundee was operated by "Dundee & District Tramways Co Ltd". From 1877, these were generally horse-drawn, but by June 1885 steam cars with green and white livery were introduced. Unusually, the tram lines were publicly built and owned, although initially leased by police commissionaires to private companies. All routes came under direct municipal control in 1893, which allowed the city to adopt overhead electric lines to power the trams. Between 1899 and 1902 the tramways were fully electrified. The first electric tram in Dundee started on July 12, 1900. The route ran from High Street to Ninewells in the West via Nethergate and Perth Road with a later route running to Dryburgh in the North. The peak of the tram network was in 1932, when 79 lines operated in the city. By 1951, many of the trams had not been updated. At least a third of the stock was over 50 years old. A study lead by the Belfast transport consultant, Colonel R McCreary showed that the cost of trams compared with bus service was 26.700 and 21.204 pence per mile, respectively. He advocated abandoning the tramway system in 1952. In October 1956, the last trams were quietly taken out of service. On the evening of October 20, 1956 the last tram (No25) went to Maryfield Depot. Over 5,000 people witnessed the tram leaving the depot at 12:31 am to go to the Lochee depot. All remaining cars were reduced to scrap by burning.

Buses
The first trolleybuses in Scotland were introduced along Clepington Road in Dundee during 1912-1914. However, motor buses were gradually introduced from 1921 to supplement the tram system, and double-decker busesappeared ten years later. Electric-powered operated by "Dundee Corporation Electricity Works" were still used in parts of the city until 1961. In 1975, Dundee Corporation Transport became part of the new Tayside Regional Council. Tayside adopted a new dark blue, white and light blue livery for its buses, replacing the former dark green.

Did you ever wonder why a bus conductor gives two rings to the driver to set off?
It is because there's a national code for bus bells:
1 ring - stop at next stop
2 rings - ready to start
3 rings - carry on at next stop, bus full
4 rings - stop, emergency
 

Old Dundee Transport pictures used on our banner

Unveiled on Sunday 4 April 2010 the Dundee Museum of Transport banner featured seven images from Dundee's transport heritage.

Following requests for more details the seven original images used for the banner have now been added to our collections gallery.

If you have more photographs of Dundee's Transport heritage please get in touch through our contact us page.