FRANCES Downie was delighted to see my recent photograph of Western SMT bus drivers from the 1950s.

Submitted by expat Netta Boag, nee Law, who lives in Canada, it showed Frances’s father Callum Thomson.

Netta’s father-in-law Willie Boag was pictured on the extreme right of the front row.

Frances, who stays in Bishopton, told me her father was a bus driver from 1949 until retirement in 1983.

She said: “My dad originally came from Arran, where he was a fisherman.

“As a bus driver, he was on the Ashton to Port Glasgow run and also the London service.

“He was on the Bow Road service when he retired.

“I had never seen the photograph of my dad and his fellow drivers, and thank Netta Boag for sending it to the paper.” Callum and his family lived in Clyde Street, off Ardgowan Street, Port Glasgow, from around 1945 until the area was demolished in 1972. They then moved to Wallace Street, also Port Glasgow. Callum passed away in 2001.

Frances’s father was also identified by Billy Thomson (no relation) who said he remembered Callum as a driver when he became a conductor with the Western in 1967.

Billy gave me some information about the double decker bus pictured in my original story.

The Guy Arab was among a number of vehicles bought from London Transport which were fitted with ‘utility’ bodies with wooden seats. These were re-bodied by Alexanders of Falkirk and my picture showed the Guy with its new body.

Today’s old Western bus image is of an Alexander-bodied Leyland Titan TD3 on the Ashton service, with Greenock’s Municipal Buildings in the background.

Dating to 1934, the double-decker came to the Western from Greenock Motor Services in 1949, and was transferred to Rothesay in 1955.