Campbeltown headquartered West Coast Motors, one of the private sector economic drivers of Argyll, has just published its 2014 calendar.
Of course the photographs are stunning, in its A3 portrait format – but what they show is a subtle documentary of the services the company provides across the west coast and central belt of Scotland, beyond Argyll.
Arguably the most eyecatching photograph of all – as an image – is one that sets the location of some of the routes run by West Coast Motors.
One of its long distance Scania supercoaches is just entering the steel grip of the single track Connel Bridge in Lorn, west of Oban and high above the Falls of Lora on the choke to Loch Etive. Its white hood – like flash gear in the gun chamber in the film, The Guns of Navarone – is accentuated by light filtering through the steel beams of the bridge, which it fits – just – snugly beneath. This is the April shot.
There is a line up of the acid yellow Glasgow Citybus fleet, in George Square – owned and operated by West Coast Motors. That’s February.
There’s a single WCM coach trekking down through Mull on a tour to Iona – with Mull’s Bowman’s Tours a 2o13 acquisition of West Coast Motors. This one’s the August shot.
There are a whole series of open topper tour buses, owned and operated by WCM:
- Bute Tour – at Rhubodach with the CalMac ferry from Colintraive coming in to the slip in the background – for May;
- Glasgow Sightseeing – on the ‘Squinty Bridge’ [more respectfully titled the Finnieston Bridge] – for July;
- City Sightseeing Oban – on the ‘Bridge over the Atlantic’ to Seil Island [more mundanely known as the Clachan Bridge] – for September;
- Glasgow Sightseeing again – this time dwarfed by the giant former John Brown’s ‘Titan’ Crane [which admits visitors to a high viewing platform], on the Cyde River waterfront – for October.
There’s a shot of the yellow and white supercoach – the new express-direct service operated by WCM for Scottish Citylink, out of Glasgow’s Buchanan Street Bus Station, non-stop for Edinburgh Airport. This is West Coast motor’s first assay to the east coast. This shot’s for March.
In case we forget the reach of this Argyll transport company, June has one of WCM’s big Scania coaches on Westminster Bridge, with Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament behind it.
Back home for November, another WCM Scania coach wiggles its white ears as it eases round to the North Pier in Oban on its way out of town, with the Oban Distillery behind it and the town’s signature, the spectacular folly of McCaig’s Tower, dominating the skyline above.
For those still capable of counting after Hogmanay, the suite of monthly photographs is topped and tailed by straightforward ‘bus shots’ – January featuring an eyeball-to-eyeball close up of the bows of two of its Scania coaches; and December showing the awesome length of a single Scania, swinging into a narrow corner.
This company is all about motors, about buses and coaches. This calendar elevates boys toys to an art form, with much superb and beautifully composed photography. This is an enviable shop window for the places the company serves as well as for its own services.
Happy New Year to West Coast Motors.