Guy Arab 2 at Esplanade Bus Station, Kirkcaldy
Guy Arab 2 double-decker No. FRO 574 in the fleet of W. Alexander (Fife), Reg. No. CST 5, built in 1944/5, stands in the old country bus station on Kirkcaldy Esplanade on 18th April, 1964. The bus driver is winding the destination blind to display the correct destination, and it is scrolling between the Dunfermline town service destinations of Woodmill Road and Izatt Avenue. Service No. 302 operated between Dunfermline and Rosyth Dockyard. At this time and until around 1980, due to arrangements dating from the 1920s for the protection of Kirkcaldy's municipal tramway from competition, all country bus services ran non-stop within the town and only stopped at this bus station. After closure of the tramway in 1931, the town bus service continued to be segregated and protected in the same manner, even though town and country buses were both operated by W. Alexander & Sons (Fife). As I recall, this was a shabby, foul-smelling and thoroughly unpleasant place to wait for a bus, especially with an icy winter wind blowing in from the Firth of Forth and waves crashing over the sea wall. [John Sinclair]
Guy Arab 2 double-decker No. FRO 574 in the fleet of W. Alexander (Fife), Reg no. CST 5, built in 1944/5, stands opposite the Burma Ballroom in the old country bus station on The Prom at Kirkcaldy, on 18th April, 1964. The ballroom was built in 1930 as the Troxy and became the Burma in 1936. In the 1970s, when ballroom dancing had become unfashionable, it became the Ambassadeur Hotel, then the 'Jackie O' nightclub in the 1980s. Adjacent, in the left background, was the Trocadero cafe, known as 'The Troc', which was always busy with bus drivers, conductors and passengers. I have memories of being there with my mother in the late 1960s and hearing Please Release Me by Engelbert Humperdinck and The Green Green Grass of Home by Tom Jones on the jukebox. This used to be a busy corner of Kirkcaldy at all hours of the day, but with the closure of the bus station in the early 1980s and the recent demolition of the cafe and nightclub opposite, it's now a deserted no-man's-land. [John Sinclair]