The Western Scottish depot at Stranraer was well renowned for it’s double decker allocation in the 80’s and 90’s, mainly for schools work to Stranraer Academy and between the Machars and the Douglas Ewart High School in Newton Stewart, the latter operating out of the Stranraer’s outstation at Whithorn.
The double decker allocation itself was made up almost exclusively from cascaded Daimler / Leyland Fleetlines from Western’s Glasgow garages and would normally be their last depot of operation before their withdrawal / sale.
Our featured image depicts something of an oddball in Stranraer’s double decker allocation as SR827 KUC997P was the only ex-London DMS type ever to be allocated there out of the 32 such vehicles purchased second hand by Western. Her centre staircase and automatic gearbox were all pretty “non-standard” for Stranraer depot and her stay was sadly very short lived.
This particular bus was purchased from Ensign (dealer) in December 1983 and her history with Western was as follows:
| 12/83 | Purchase from Ensign | 01/84 | Centre Door removal / refit | 04/84 | Numbered R999 |
| 04/84 | Allocated to Dumfries | 11/87 | Re-numbered R827 | 12/87 | Allocated to Stranraer |
| 10/88 | Allocated to Kilmarnock | 12/89 | Repainted black, white, red & grey | 12/90 | Withdrawn & sold |
Such a pity that Western didn’t do a better job of the destination display.