Bermudians might take their buses for granted but not British author Colin Pomeroy, who is currently in the process of writing a book of their history. By all accounts it will make fascinating reading.

"People think the first public transportation buses came to Bermuda in 1946, but actually the first motorised bus was in 1907 which was run by the Spurling family.

"It was probably the catalyst for the 1908 Motor Car Act which banned all motor vehicles in Bermuda with the exception of ambulances and graders for the coral roads. The bus was kicked off the Island and that was that."

In fact, according to Horst Augustinovic, co-owner of Print Link, petitions were presented to the Legislature urging the prohibition of all automobiles. One of them, presented by 112 American guests of the Princess and Hamilton hotels, drafted by US President Woodrow Wilson and signed by Mark Twain, undoubtedly carried much weight. Two months later, the 1908 Motor Car Act temporarily ended the career of buses and automobiles.

The Bermuda Railway ran up and down the Island until the end of the Second World War, when it became obvious that it couldn't keep going as the equipment was in bad shape, so it was dismantled first in Somerset, then St. George's, and then in the rest of the Island and sold lock, stock and barrel to then-British Guyana," Mr. Pomeroy says. "The British (forces) began to use motor vehicles here, and that apparently started the ball rolling on motorised transport, and as early as 1942 Parliament passed an act saying motor vehicles would be allowed at a future date.

"The first six buses, Model 773, came from the Yellow Bus Company, and had 21 seats, but they were left hand drive, so that meant passengers had to alight into the traffic," the author relates. "Two were subsequently converted to right hand drive, and one was kept as a spare to cannibalise for parts."

A former Royal Air Force pilot who flew Nimrod aircraft into Bermuda during the peak of the Cold War in the 1970s, and was later a commercial airline pilot, Squadron Leader Pomeroy has always been a "Just do it" type of fellow, so it comes as no surprise that, during one of several visits here while his son was in the Bermuda Police, he noticed a sign for the Railway Trail. When he discovered no book about it existed, he decided to write one himself.

Later, he would write 'The Bermuda Railway, Gone but not Forgotten' in 1993 and 'The Flying Boats of Bermuda' in 2000. The book on buses is his third on a local topic. It began through his friendship with Mr. Augustinovic, which led to an invitation from Public Transportation Board (PTB) director Dan Simmons to write a book about our buses. At the time he accepted, Mr. Pomeroy envisaged a fairly straightforward little book of perhaps 30 pages.

"But it has grown like Topsy, and is now at about 35,000 words, with pictures going back to the very first bus and right up to the new ones coming in this year," he says.

Thanks to Daniel Moore, PTB assistant director technology and engineering, the author was put in touch with bus fanatic Mike Herbert in Nottinghamshire, England ? a connection that has proved invaluable.

"He writes for vintage bus magazines, and had a lot of pictures of Bermuda buses because his sister lives here, so I have done the bulk of the book and Mike has done the technical annexes ? that is, all the buses that have ever been imported, their numbers, and what happened to them," the author says.

The project has taken Mr. Pomeroy about two years to complete, and is expected to be out sometime this summer. It will be sold in local shops, and distributed to tourist offices, cruise line pursers, and local schools.

"Most books take three years when you have to go back to square one, like this one, but you have to do it properly. There is no use rushing it," he says.

In fact, because no one had written about the buses before, the author had to conduct extensive research, which led him as far afield as California, Ohio and Washington state, in addition to delving into the Bermuda Archives and the National Archives in London, England. He has also talked to many people, among them Albert Fray, who was with the PTB all his working life and provided a great deal of information.

But now Mr. Pomeroy needs the public's help. He wants but has not yet located photographs of the buses during the following periods: 1953-1956, 1960-1965, and 1971. Anyone who can help should take the photographs to Print Link, where they will be scanned ? hopefully while the owners wait ? and returned.

The cover of the book will be pink and blue like the buses, and feature photographs of "then" and "now" buses.

Stressing that he does not set out to write books for commercial gain, the author says he is happy just to break even.

A man who likes to keep busy, Mr. Pomeroy's first book, written while recovering from surgery, was about the Isle of Wight railway. Since then, he has written nine other, mostly about subjects in his native England.

He lives in Whitchurch Cannonicorum, where Sir George Somers lies buried, and another Bermuda connection is through his friendship with Len Turnill, a former flying boat ground engineer and near-neighbour, who was in charge of modifying and dismantling in the UK, shipping to Bermuda, and reassembling at Darrell's Island the Island's first flying boat in 1936-7.

Not only familiar with but fond of Bermuda, Mr. Pomeroy is keeping an open mind on future buses, and pronounces our current bus system "Very good".