Western SMT / Western Scottish purchased the Seddon Pennine 7 in large numbers in the 1970/80’s. In total Western purchased 112 Alexander “Y” type bus bodied examples and 90 Alexander “T” type dual purpose coach bodied types. To cover private hire work etc 55 of the Alexander “Y” type examples were also fitted with dual purpose “coach” style seating. Details of Western’s Seddon Pennine 7 purchases were:
S2543-2552, KSJ941-50P, B53F
S2559-2583, MSJ365-89P, C49F
S2584-2604, NSJ1-21R, B53F
S2645-2659, RCS699-714R, C49F
S2664-2688, RSD967-91R, C49F
S2789-2798, XSD598-607T, C49F
S2810-2824, YSD810-24T, B53F
S2825-2844, ASD825-44T, B53F
S2845-2864, BSD845-64T, C49F
S2933-2982, DSD933-82V, C49F
S2983-2984, DSD983-4V, B53F
This month’s photograph depicts the original seating / moquette as fitted to Western’s Alexander “T” type dual purpose coaches from the RCS-R batch onwards (the bus in this image is S2650 RCS705R). This style remained fitted to Western’s “T” types until the DSD-V batch were refurbished starting from January 1988 when KS478 DSD978V became the first bus to have it’s interior provided with dark grey trim and it’s seats re-covered with a two-tone grey moquette with red stripe.
The batch also received the new dual purpose black, white, grey and red livery (incorporating a new “Western Scottish” fleet name with a traditional capital W and N). Most of the batch had already received new rear window modifications, with a large flat glass screen replacing the former curved rear screens, which had began in January 1987 when KS564 (MSJ370P), SS934 (DSD934V), AS944 (DSD944V), KS974 (DSD974V) and KS978 (DSD978V) were so fitted.
Great photo. It would be good to compare to the inside of one from the MSJ-P batch. My sketchy recollection is that they had single seats joined together (rather than the double seat seen here) with magazine nets behind and possibly footrests, coach-style bulkheads and soft (vinyl?) trim on ceiling and recessed lighting. The DSD-V batch had the seats in this photo and bus-style bulkheads.
I’m never sure what’s a coach and what’s dual purpose, especially in relation to T-types. I think of the MSJ-P T-types as coaches and BSD-T Y-types as dual purpose. I’m not sure about the DSD-V batch but would probably say coach.
The Alexander group (Fife, Midland and Northern) had Duple Dominant 2 coaches and also T-types. Fife’s and Northern’s T-types had same seats as Western’s DSD-V batch, while Midland’s had seats and lighting similar to Western’s BSD-T Y-types. Eastern’s T-types had a variety of seat styles.
So really, I’m asking when was a T-type a coach and when was it dual-purpose?
Did any else spec a T-type to the same standard as Western’s MSJ-P batch?