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Return to
Lewis of 1920s Model T bus - JS 1972
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A vintage
1924 Ford Model T bus has returned home to the village of
Shawbost on the west coast of the Isle of Lewis after a 35-year detour
that took it across the Minch* and all the way to London, thought never
to return.
*
The
Minch is
the busy and often storm ravaged stretch of water that
separates the Western Isles from mainland Scotland, familiar to anyone
who has traveled to the Outer Hebrides by ferry
RIGHT: JS 1972 |
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The Model T
bus – one of only eight such vehicles that survive – was originally built in
Manchester and supplied to a Malcolm Mackay of 20 South Shawbost as a
chassis/cowl only. The timber bodywork, floor and seating was then built
onto the chassis by John Macleod, a well-known boatbuilder from Ness in
northern Lewis who had earlier been credited with saving many lives after
swimming ashore with a rope from the naval yacht Iolaire, which had
foundered near Stornoway harbour during a violent storm on New Year’s
morning, 1919, packed full of servicemen and merchant seamen returning home
from war. Over 200 islanders and crew lost their lives on that fateful
night. |
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After a period
in service on Lewis, JS 1972 was then ‘retired’ to a garage in Shawbost,
Lewis. It later enjoyed a brief moment of fame after it was repaired in
1971by former Western Isles Council Convener and keen motor enthusiast,
Donald ‘Domhnall Easy’ MacLeod when the vehicle starred in ‘Lord of the
Isles’; a film about the soap and detergents magnate Lord Leverhulme, who
owned much of Lewis around the time the bus first arrived on the island.
Interestingly, JS 1972 also participated in the London to Brighton Rally on
three consecutive years between
1973 and 1975. |
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Click images to
enlarge |
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At some point
during the 1970s, owner Kenneth MacLeod sold the vehicle to Maurice Saxton
of Glenton Tours of London, where it remained for many years until it
eventually emerged in a ‘for sale’ advertisement.
Calum
Maclennan, the Secretary of the Western Isles Transport Preservation
Group, remembers viewing this particular bus through gaps in the wooden
doors of its garage. He recalls that it would be taken out on special
occasions, such as carnivals and village fetes. When the Transport
Preservation Group was established Calum tried to trace the whereabouts of
the bus for an article he proposed to write for the WITPG newsletter,
commencing his research in 2001 with the Henry Ford Museum archives in
Dearborn, Michigan, USA. Despite following various leads, he was unable to
trace the bus, though he did manage to build up a small dossier of useful
information about the vehicle. |
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Then, a chance
conversation with Roddy Murray, from Newmarket near Stornoway, provided a
key piece of information when it emerged that the bus had been recently
advertised for sale in the media. This prompted Calum ‘Braxy’ Macleod of South Shawbost
(Lewis), a great nephew of original owner Malcolm Mackay, to contact
the seller, resulting in him eventually purchasing the vehicle.
The
yellow-painted Model T bus - registration number JS 1972 - is listed as a
Hackney/Goods vehicle, which indicates that it was specifically built to
carry passengers and goods. On 16th Oct 2008, the bus finally
returned home to 20 South Shawbost, in the Isle of Lewis, after a 35 year absence. |
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