As I have mentioned before, there was only one car in Allandale and most people travelling anywhere would use the buses and the service through Allandale was operated by Alexanders. The usual bus service was the Falkirk-Airdrie bus which ran every two or three hours in both directions during the day with the last bus arriving in Allandale at 10.45pm.
This bus did not go any further but turned and went back to Falkirk. On Saturdays there were a few buses which went through the village to Glasgow.
If anyone wanted to go anywhere outside the bus times they would have to walk to Longcroft and get a bus there. There were some people who were apprehensive about going on the bus to Bonnybridge or Falkirk because the road ran right beside the canal and they would walk to Longcroft instead.
Occasionally men would hire a private bus to take them to a football match in Glasgow. When they hired Tam White’s “Easy-Oasy” from Cumbernauld they would usually have to push it at times to get it started.
There were a few motor-cycles in the village John McConnachie and his son, Willie,each had one with a sidecar attached. Robert Stewart also had one. John Manson had a tandem with a sidecar attached which was a novelty at the time.
There were plenty of bicycles and there would be an occasional group outing to Callendar or South Queensferry. On one outing to South Queensferry, Bill Preston had borrowed a bike from someone and, after many stops to mend broken chains, we arrived outside Queensferry but on descending the hill to the waterfront his brakes failed and he pressed the front mudguard against the wheel to slow down. Unfortunately, the bike had celluloid mudguards which burst into flames with the friction. So he made a grand entrance. I don’t know how he managed to stop as we were all laughing our heads off. Geordie Robertson allowed us to use his bedroom to paint our bikes and repair them and there would often be a bike hanging from the upturned legs of the bed while its owner gave it a coat of paint and stuck transfers over it. Alex Lyons and myself went on a holiday by bike to St. Andrews and camped all week and I also went by bike to Berwick-on-Tweed for a holiday with David Galloway. We travelled overnight and both fell asleep at the side of the road when we stopped for a bite to eat.
