Guy Arab Mk III (1948)

When I was a boy in the 1950s, blue was my favourite colour and I loved blue buses, especially this type. I longed to have a ride on one and I hoped that one day it would happen. But it never did. We weren’t allowed to board the blue buses where I lived.

Standing at a bus stop in the pouring rain (no bus shelters in those days), waiting for a Glasgow Corporation bus to take us into the city centre. Watching the lovely blue buses pass us by, some almost empty, heading for the Dundas Street bus station.

Buses that came in to the city from outside Glasgow, places like Dunfermline for instance, were not allowed to pick up passengers, only to drop them off.

I used to beg my mother to go by bus to Fife when we visited relatives, knowing full well it would be a blue bus. But we always took the train from Glasgow to Edinburgh, then on to Fife. But my disappointed soon changed to delight as we crossed the magnificent Forth Bridge.

Fast foward 65+ years later and I still haven’t had a ride on a Guy Arab bus! Oh, I was all over this one like a rash taking photographs, but later I missed out. Apparently this bus was used to carry passengers back to Dunfermline, I had got on another vintage bus, a flatnose, I call them. Engine at the back, no character at the front.

AWG 393 is currently preserved at the Scottish Vintage Bus Museum in Lathalmond, Fife

Guy Arab Mk III - my childhood favourite

Guy Arab mkIII 1948 Guy Arab mkIII (1948): photo by Frank Harrigan

Registration: AWG 393.
Fleet number: RO607 (W. Alexander & Sons, Fife).
Original operator: W. Alexander & Sons Ltd (Fife), Kirkcaldy depot.
Allocation: Entered service new at Kirkcaldy and remained there throughout its service career.
1948–1970: Service at Kirkcaldy (blue/cream Alexander livery).
Routes/destinations: A well-known model release depicts RO607 showing route number 339 Kirkcaldy.
Chassis: Guy Arab Mk III double-deck. Chassis no. FD35970.
Body: Cravens high-bridge double-deck body, H30/26R (56 seats, rear platform/door).
Livery (preserved): Alexander blue with cream bands.
Engine: Gardner 6LW 6-cyl diesel (8.4 L), the common fit for Mk III Arabs.
Power (typical 6LW): 102 bhp; widely quoted for 6LW fitments on Arab II/III era.
6 six cylinders
L long-stroke engine
W water-cooled
Transmission (typical Mk III): 4-speed constant-mesh manual (some fleets specified epicyclic; Alexander’s double-decks of this era were commonly manual).
Seating layout: H30/26R (upper 30 / lower 26 seats; rear entrance).
Withdrawn from service: 1970.
Preserved at: Scottish Vintage Bus Museum (SVBM), Lathalmond, Fife.
Owner: I Allan, Dunfermline.