For around twenty years between the early 1980s and the 2000s a family connection in the Eastern Borders saw me making regular trips north of
the Border. Regrettably these have become less frequent over the passed few years, but I still recall the little band of buses that operated
an interesting network of routes through the area.
Known as the Border Courier the unique element of these services numbered C1-C4 and centred on the Borders General Hospital near to Galashiels,
was the buses used featured a secure area at their rear so as to carry medical supplies to the remote villages and towns in the area. This was
a joint venture established back in 1979 by the regional council, the local health board and Eastern Scottish, the service supplied with a grant
of 75% from the Scottish Development Department.
Five Reeve Burgess bodied Bedford CF minibuses were acquired and became fleet numbers ZC1-5 and along with a goods compartment carried
thirteen passengers. The four routes were C1 Borders General Hospital (previously the Peel Hospital) via Selkirk to Peebles; C2 hospital via
Selkirk and Melrose to Hawick; C3 hospital via Kelso, Jedburgh and Selkirk to Galashiels; C4 hospital via St.Boswells, Earlston, Greenlaw, and
Duns to Coldstream or (dependant on day of the week), via Lauder, Westruther, Duns, Chirnside and Eyemouth to Coldingham. This illustrated
what could be achieved by a combined effort of agencies to provide a service for goods and passengers in an area almost starved of public
transport.
Of course carrying parcels and the suchlike on buses is not new as of course they have done for years on the Royal Mail Post Bus services,
although these are much in decline nowadays. Scotland’s landscape and infrastructure of wild and wide open spaces further north in the
Highlands also meant that companies like MacBraynes were much in demand to provide vehicles capable of such tasks. Then back across the Border
in England the Barton company were famous for their edict of “PARCELS CARRIED” applied to the front of many of their buses.
Back to the Border Courier services and over the years these have been maintained under contract by the Scottish Borders Council, the tenders
to operate them varying over the years with one or two bus companies. The main protagonists have been Eastern Scottish, Lowland Scottish (later
part of FirstGroup) and Munro’s of Jedburgh.
Images now follow, of which two have been acquired from unknown photographers, the remainder all my own work, so to speak.
However, there is a sort of interesting twist in the tail so worth persevering to the end of the illustrated section.
1. In late 1981 Eastern Scottish as was acquired five small Bedford VAS5 buses upon which the Reeve Burgess company attached bodywork that
accommodated seventeen passengers in dual-purpose seating, reduced owing to a secure area accessed through a set of doors in the rear panels.
The buses were assigned fleet numbers ZC6-10. ZC7 shown here with the rear doors open, prepared to take on medical supplies from the Peel Hospital’s
storage area before taking up the C4 service out to the east coast at Berwick-upon-Tweed, Eyemouth and Coldingham.
Accompanying the Border Courier name the local council’s logo was also applied to the panelling.
2. By the mid 1980s much had changed within the Scottish Omnibuses group and a new operator Lowland Scottish had taken on the buses and
the services. The buses were renumbered and here 706 previously ZC6 passed through a very wet Galashiels town centre on route C1 bound for
the hospital.
3. In 1987 the older buses were replaced by a fleet of four further Bedfords with an updated Reeve Burgess body design and became fleet
numbers 711-714. By now a new livery had been applied to the Lowland fleet and included the Border Courier buses. What appeared to be a more
secure area at the back was also included and is visible in this image of number 711 as it departed from the small Berwickshire village of
Coldingham. Seventeen dual-purpose seats were retained, for the sometimes long and arduous journeys.
4. The nearside aspect of the same vehicle is illustrated further up the coast at the fishing village of Eyemouth. The revised design by Reeve
Burgess also incorporated a proper destination box unlike the earlier version and intending passengers were now able to see where the bus was
headed, although on this occasion “Courier Service” displayed in the blind box did little to assist. However, it was destined to travel some
30-odd plus miles west of the coastline inland to the hospital complex near to Galashiels.
5. A fifth new bus materialised in 1989 for the network of services as fleet number 715. However, unlike the previous vehicles, this was bigger
and although still with a Reeve Burgess body, but one known as the Harrier, the chassis and mechanics were Leyland Swift. Thus larger with seating
for twenty-one passengers, here the bus is seen as it passed through the network of roads within the hospital complex. This Harrier body was
allegedly the first one built for a Scottish operator and indeed the first to be supplied with a dual goods and passenger version.
6. Like many services up and down the country they are operated under contract to the respective authorities and so during the early 1990s,
upon re-tender the network of services were passed to another company. On this occasion the contract was awarded to Munro’s of Jedburgh who
acquired three minibuses to operate the routes. All were Mercedes-Benz one of which an 811D version was registered J200 BCS and featured an
Autobus Classique 21-seater body. Here the nearside aspect is illustrated as it passed through Coldingham in June 1992.
7. The offside aspect is illustrated as it boarded passengers in Eyemouth in September 1994. Unlike the Eastern and Lowland vehicles, the
goods area did not feature any glass, the area panelled over, able to feature the council logo and the service name.
8. The other two buses acquired (J200 and 500 BCS) were the 709D version with slightly smaller 19-seater Made-to-Measure versions; the
nearside of one is seen here within the company’s base at Jedburgh in March 1997.
9. As a result of respective replacement of the earlier buses and the resultant loss of the contract Lowland adjusted the dedicated buses
accordingly. The buses 706-710 replaced earlier were upgraded to become 19-seaters by the removal of the goods compartment along with the rear
doors. 707 in full Lowland Scottish livery was then placed into ordinary revenue-earning service based at the company’s Berwick-upon-Tweed
garage, a premises at that time shared with the Northumbria bus company.
10. Several years later when the younger Bedfords were made redundant, they too were soon placed back into revenue-earning service after
receiving attention of the engineers and the bodybuilders. Through the side windows of 714 one can see that the goods compartment and the
rear doors have been removed, the vehicle here on a local service in the East Lothian town of Haddington in September 1994.
11. Likewise the sole Leyland Swift was also blessed with the same treatment becoming a 29-seater and placed into service at Peebles. By August
1997 it had received yet another version of the Lowland livery with much more yellow the predominant colour, although this was influenced by the
takeover by what became FirstGroup along with a fleet number change to 1715.
12. Just to illustrate what began the services back in 1979; one of the five original Bedford CF minibuses became an engineer’s vehicle
and was seen here in Galashiels back in August 1989 when based at that town.
13. And so to the era of one of the ‘Big Three’ operators who ran the network of services for a term in the late 1990s. Five 22-passenger
bus seated Optare MetroRiders were acquired, built specifically with a goods compartment as fleet numbers 1538-1542. Even more yellow was the
predominant colour when they were delivered in July 1997 and 1541 illustrated the bold features as it departed Coldingham village bound for
Kelso in June 1998.
14. So what was round the back of these buses? Here lay the answer, a set of double doors and what appeared to be a drop down type of step
to allow access into the secured goods carrying compartment. No access on any of the various company buses afforded access from within the
passenger carrying area.
15. Four years on and once again the network of services found themselves back in the melting pot for the result of a tender award at the end
of another period of contract. And like a game of tennis the ball was placed back into the court of Munro’s of Jedburgh. Thus further
Mercedes-Benz buses were acquired. This shot from May 2003 showed one of the buses on the country roads near to Ayton in Berwickshire and one
of the last times that I photographed the service.
16. In earlier text I made mention of the MacBraynes operations across the remote and sometimes unforgiving Highlands. This was one of a fleet
of possibly nineteen Bedford C5Z1's, which MacBrayne bought between 1959 and 1960. This particular vehicle was unique among them because it was
the only one of the class with a mail compartment at the back which reduced the seating to just 21. The coach versions seated 29 and the bus
versions 28. These were extremely useful vehicles to MacBrayne because not only could they be used on stage services but also for private hire
and the summer holiday tours. It spent over half its life on Islay where it was the regular bus on the Port Askaig-Port Ellen route. By the time
this image was taken in September 1997, it was on the Isle of Arran firmly in the heritage fleet of the Stagecoach company and in revenue-earning
service between Brodick Pier and the National Trust property of Brodick Castle. The steel barred luggage and valuables section can still be
observed in the rear nearside window.
17. In 1962 the Sutherland Transport & Trading Company acquired this 16-seater Bedford VAS2 with SMT bodywork. It was built specifically
with a luggage compartment in order to comply with the requirement to carry goods for the Royal Mail and is illustrated here in the Highland town
of Lairg. (Photographer unknown)
18. Probably more familiar with others though were the fleet of Commers associated with the Royal Mail Post Bus services. Few if any of these
vehicles are still around today, but this one made an appearance at the 1974 Showbus Rally held in conjunction with the Middlesex Show at
Hillingdon on the outskirts of London.
19. Even more familiar perhaps would be later versions of the Post Bus in the shape of this LDV van based vehicle that later provided sterling
service in the more remote areas of England. Here fleet number 2750040 was the regular performer in the area between Ripon and Masham during the
1990s. (Photographer unknown)
20. The Barton company were also famed for their edict on some of their vehicles of “PARCELS CARRIED”. Here this Leyland Tiger PS1 originally a
single-deck coach from 1948 but rebodied in 1957 by Willowbrook, featured at the 2011 Kirkby Stephen Easter Rally in Cumbria, and displayed the
same edict.
Parcels Carried update
Added to website 21 August 2011
If you have not read the original article, it is best to start at the top
CLICK
With thanks to Dave Ballantyne: some additional detail and images.
The Border Courier service ceased during 2005 with Munro’s of Jedburgh being the final operator. Nowadays the 'medical' goods are transported
by National Health Services Borders’ own vans with no passenger transport but still over the previous routes. When the contract finally came up
for renewal on this occasion, it was decided to go 'in-house' with goods only being carried.
The contract when it passed from Lowland in 1992 saw it operated jointly by Austin of Earlston and Munro’s with five Mercedes-Benz minibuses.
First Lowland regained it in 1996 and used Optare MetroRiders. Munro’s won the final contract in 2001 and placed five Crest bodied Mercedes-Benz
minibuses into service. When Munro’s gained the last contract their vehicles were late in arriving so they used a couple of the previous 1992
vehicles supplemented by a couple of other standard Mercedes-Benz minibuses already in the fleet, which were 'tailed' by small vans to carry
the goods.
A couple of amendments to the images (now corrected above):
Number 1, the bus is illustrated at the older Peel Hospital, not the newer Borders General Hospital.
Number 3, the bus is seen passing through the small Berwickshire village of Coldingham, not Eyemouth. I really should have known as on my visits
to the area French’s Garage (to whom the bus in the background belonged), was passed almost each time I left the smallholding.
David has also provided three fine images of the demountable passenger carrying body for the Dodge (see below). These were taken by him when he
visited the Beith collection in Ayrshire during 2007. This is the item that has now been acquired by the new owner in Cumbria.
Tony Wilson
17 August 2011