After some 49 and a half years as a coach and bus painter, Alan Cooley has hung up his tools and signed out for the last time after retiring from the Island’s bus company.
Alan has worked for Southern Vectis for almost five decades, decorating the many hundreds of buses that have roamed the garden Isle and served the many thousands, if not millions of passengers that the bus company have carried in that time.
Before the use of vinyl, as seen on the green buses of today, Alan used his skill and a paint brush to signwrite single deckers, double deckers and coaches with some rather memorable designs including the pink double decker bus promoting 150 years of Blackgang Chine, and the bright orange Needles Tour bus that served the West Wight during the summer months, among others.
As a trademark of his work, a three inch Mallishag – or caterpillar as it is more commonly known – appears somewhere on each bus that Alan has painted, as featured in The Sun newspaper some 20 years ago.
In celebration of the last bus worked on by Alan, a larger Mallishag has been printed onto the front side window of the bus with a dedication to Alan for passengers and passing members of the public to see.
Mr Cooley retired last Friday.
