The following article contains extracts from the Western Enthusiasts Club newsletter, Issue 49, January – February 1988 and is intended to take a nostalgic “snapshot view” of the various activities that were taking place at Western Scottish during this time. We aim to publish these articles on a regular basis and, as always, we would like to thank the Western Enthusiasts Club for allowing us to publish their superb material on our site.
Company News
Our congratulations go to the company on being the overall winner of the ‘Best Bus Company in Britain’ competition organised by the Bus & Coach council in conjunction with the Ladies Townwomens Guild.
To mark the achievement, the Company issued a colour supplement with local newspapers and have applied “Best British Bu Company Award 1987” lettering to vehicles.
We would like to thank the Company for making available the copies of the supplement distributed with the issue of the news sheet.
The other Scottish winners in the competition were Strathtay Scottish and Clyde Coast Services of Saltcoats.
De-regulation News
Dumfries
Dumfries and Galloway minibus of Dalbeattie introduced a Dumfries – Kirkcudbright ‘hail & ride’ minibus service from January 23.
Largs
Viking Coaches have plans for an ambitious service linking Larges, Kilbirnie and Kilmalcom.
New Vehicle Order
The S.B.G new vehicle order for 1988 has yet to be announced but it is expected that a modest number of new vehicles will be acquired.
Vehicles on Loan
A Scania K112 / Plaxton Paramount 4000 coach has arrived on land from Carlton (Dealer). Registered C350DWR, it latterly operated for British Car Parks at Gatwick.
It is expected that it will be equipped to a similar standard as the other Scania coaches and was receiving Scottish Citylink livery at Kilmarnock in February. A fleet number has not yet been allocated.
Allocation & Transfers
November 1987
L600 YSD350L – D
L605 YSD365L – D
December 1987
Z268 D128NUS – C (ex D)
Z271 D121NUS – C (ex D)
S518 YSD818T – D (ex K)
S519 YSD819T – D (ex K)
S544 ASD844T – D (ex K)
L740 GCS 40V – K (ex D)
L751 GCS 51V – K (ex D)
L753 GCS 53V – K (ex D)
L757 GCS 57V – K (ex D)
L758 GCS 58V – K (ex D)
L760 GCS 60V – K (ex D)
L761 GCS 61V – K (ex D)
R827 KUC997P – S (ex D)
Livery Changes
The new style black, white, grey and red livery continues to appear on vehicles and the block fleet name style originally carried by Volvo AV120 has been adopted as standard.
Dennis Dorchesters KN103/4 (B203/4CGA) have received a red and gold livery for operation on Clansman Monarch extended tours.
Modified Vehicles
Seddon KS478 (DSD978V) is the first of the ‘T’ types to be refurbished to bring it more up to dual purpose standard. The interior has been provided with dark grey soft trim whilst the seats are now covered in a two tone grey moquette with a red stripe. It has been repainted in a new dual purpose livery scheme along the lines of that carried by the two black, white and grey liveried Alexander bodied Dorchesters but incorporates a red stripe. It is hoped to illustrate the coach at the earliest opportunity. It will be recalled that KS478 (or KS978) carried a unique version of the dual purpose livery which retained the gold script fleetname.
The second Seddon ‘T’ type to be refurbished is SS434 (DSD934V).
The two red and gold liveried Dorchesters, KN103/4 (B203/4CGA) have been down-seated to C51F (ex C55F).
Presently being upgraded to Rapide / Cordon Bleu standard are Volvo / Plaxton LV189/91/4/5 (B189/91/4/5CGA).
Late news just in is that Volvo / Berkof LV112 (A312RSU) is the first of the type to receive blue and yellow Citylink livery.
Disposals
21 surplus Leopards have been disposed of recently.
S.B.G Engineering have taken L2617 (OSJ617R), L2626 (OSJ626R), L2627 (OSJ627R) and L2628 (OSJ628R). These have replaced L2507/8 (HCS792/3N), L2521 (HCS806N) and L2524 (HCS809N) which had earlier passed to S.B.G.E and were returned to Western for disposal.
Tracey (Dealer, Johnstone has taken the remaining 17 vehicles including the four returned by S.B.G.E. The full lust is L2503 (HCS788), L2506-8 (HCS791-3N), L2516 (HCS801N), L2521-4 (HCS806-9N), L2527-30 (HCS812-5N), L2615-6 (OSJ615-6R) and L2618-9 (OSJ618-9R).
Seddon KS603 (NSJ 20R), the only example of the batch painted in the white, black and grey livery was still residing in the yard at Nursery Avenue, Kilmarnock on February 4th.
Destination Blinds
It is some time since we recorded any destination blinds lists fro Western depots. We would thus welcome any current lists from all locations and particularly the combined route number and destination blinds fitted to the Scania ‘London’ coaches.
Scottish Citylink News
The New Year period always provides interesting observations and 1988 was no exception. Vehicles noted from our Carlisle reporting point were as follows.
Saturday January 02nd
Service 901 – London
LV151 (TSD151Y), LM161 (A161TGE)
Service 903 – London
LV124 (B924BGA), LV195 (B195CGA)
Service 921 – Preston
SL166 (A166TGE)
Service 921 – London
Western LV187 (B187CGA)
Sunday January 3rd
Service 903 – London
LV112 (A312RSU), LH106 (C206HSD)
Service 921 – Preston
SL166 (A166TGE)
Service 921 – Birmingham
DN117 (D217NCS)
Service 921 – London
LV124 (B924BGA), SV126 (NCS116W)
Service 921 – Belfast
DV130 (GGE130X)
Monday January 4th
Service 901 – London
LA113 (A213BOS), LV125 (B925BGA)
Service 921 – London
LV112 (A312RSU)
Cumnock based Dorchester CN102 (B202CGA) which worked Service 429 Glasgow – Birmingham on January 3rd, returned north on Service 378 Birmingham – Newcastle and then returned light to Cumnock.
In Focus
Ardrossan
13 vehicles are presently allocated here consisting of Seddon’s KS506 (XSD606T), KS512 (YSD812T), KS515 (YSD815T), S517 (YSD817T) and KS475 (DSD975V) and Leopards KL643-4 (OSJ643-4R), L664-5 (TSJ64-5S), KL667 (TSJ67S), KL669 (TSJ69S) and KL745-6 (GCS45-6V).
Carlisle
Observed here on January 2nd were Seddon’s DS519-21 (YSD819-21T), DS526 (ASD826T), DS537 (ASD837T), Leopards DL600 (YSD350L), DL682 (TSJ82S), DL762 (GCS62V) and Mercedes minibuses DZ263 (D123NUS) and DZ269 (D129NUS).
Girvan
Noted here in Early February were Fleetline AR852 (XSJ652T), Seddon’s AS471 (DSD971V), AS529/30 ASD829/30T), AS553 (BSD853T) and Leopards AL634-5 (OSJ634-5R) and AL686-7 (TSJ86-7R).