A1 Service started life when a number of independent operators in North Ayrshire got together to provide local services between Ardrossan and Kilmarnock. At it's peak there were around 20 members of the cooperative,although by the time the businesses sold to Stagecoach, there were only about 10 members left. Although all vehicles carried the blue and cream livery, the vehicle selection was as varied as the number of individual companies.

Vehicles were predominantly double decker, and typically Leyland or Volvo products. There were a handful of single deckers in the shape of Tigers and Volvos. The Stagecoach era began with the introduction of ex London Titans in allover red, with the rest of the fleet receiving Stagecoach colours. Other arrivals following the Stagecoach takeover included new Volvo/Alexander combinations, while Bristol VRTs and Leopards were brought in from elsewhere in the group.

AA Buses was a cooperative of independants who operated services on the Ayr to Ardrossan corridor. This was smaller than A1, as there were about 5 to 6 members at it's height, but around 1992 Dodds of Troon became the last operator when it took over the operations of Young of Ayr.

Vehicles were predonimantly Leylands, with Nationals and Lynxes being the main types operated. Dodds opted for Scania from around the mid 1980s, and there were also a couple of Fleetlines. Vehicles were painted green and cream, although the two operators used different shades of green, so it was easy to determine ownership.

The Dodds coaching business has been included in this section as well, and these were also green and cream. A handful of vehicles recieved Scottish Citylink livery for the Glasgow to Ayr service. Vehicle choice was predominantly Volvo and Scania and there were also a couple of AEC Reliances still in service in the late 1980s.

As the vast majority of photos will be of Dodd's vehicles, any that were operated by Young's will have a (Y) suffix after the registration.

I made one visit to the Republic of Ireland in 1992, and spent some time in Cork, Dublin, Limerick and Waterford. At that time, the 'homegrown' GACs were a common sight on the road which had been produced in the early- to mid-80s, but there were still some early Bedfords, Atlanteans and Leopards to be found. After the demise of GAC (around 1986/87) Bus Eireann opted for Tigers, DAFs and Van Hool integrals, and a number of ex-Ulsterbus Leopards and REs that had also just entered the fleet. Dublin Bus selected Olympians for the fleet, and also introduced some minibuses under the CityImp banner.

There are also a handful of shots from the Bangor ITT rally in 1992, where a few buses were shown. These include one of the first batch of DAF SB220s, with the rather fetching Plaxton Verde body.

Busways was created as the arms length company for Tyne & Wear PTE. Operations centred on Newcastle, Sunderland and South Shields, with vehicles in a predominantly yelow and white colour scheme. However, the higlight of any visit to Newcastle in the early 90s, was to sample the Bristol REs in the Blue Bus fleet, which did also include some Leyland engined examples. The majority of the fleet was of Leyland origin, with Scania and Dennis products also to be seen.

This collection centres around a visits to Bangor and Belfast for the ITT rally in 1993, an OS weekend to Belfast, and a short stop in Larne when returning from a week in Dublin and Limerick. Some of the coach fleet also saw regular service to Glasgow on Citylink or football hires, and these are included here.

I have included a number of depot shots in this collection, in particular some of the more unusual vehicles operated, including the solitary Volvo B9M, a Neoplan N4016 and the Van Hool bendy coaches. There are also some driver trainers and advertising liveries, as well as some of the older coaches in there as well.

I have finally got round to scanning the shots from Larne, and have included these, along with a few Tigers in Dublin from the same holiday. I also came across the former Paton's Leopard that was acquired from Clydeside, when it returned to it's former stomping ground for the Inchinnan Depot Open Day in 1988.

Clydeside had a very turbluent history. Originally formed in 1986 from the Renfrewshire and Inverclyde operations of Western Scottish, the company was merged with Western in 1989. As part of the SBG privitisation program, Clydeside became a stand alone company again in 1991, prior to being bought over by the management team, with support from Luton and District. The new company was branded as Clydeside 2000, and eventually became Clydeside Buses in 1994 when the British Bus Group was formed.

Clydeside were instrumental in reviving crew operated buses among SBG companies, following the acquisition of around 70 AEC Routemasters in 1987, and this was emulated by Kelvin and Strathtay. These were used as part of a major expansion into Glasgow. Following the merger in 1989 with Western, the Glasgow services were scaled back and the Routemasters were quickly sold off and replaced with Fleetlines from Kelvin Scottish.

Leopards, Fleetlines and Dominators were the backbone of the fleet, with Dodge/Renault S56s used on minibus services. New vehicles added to the fleet included Scanias, Volvo B6s and Mercedes minibuses.

Fleet colours were red and yellow in various layouts, with white relief added around 1995. Express services were branded Quicksilver, with vehicles originally being allover silver, then white with a broad silver band, and finally yellow and white! A handful of Leopards received Quicksilver livery, but without the branding.

The bulk of my Clydeside photos were taken after 1991. Photos with a CS prefix are from the Clydeside Scottish period, and those with a chassis code were taken during Western ownership.

Most of the Cumberland photos were taken in Carlisle, although I also managed visits to Whitehaven and Barrow in Furness. When the company was bought by the Stagecoach group, Routemasters were introduced to the Carlisle town services, although these were eventaully replaced with Darts and B6s around 1993. Cumberland adopted the Coachline branding for it's coach fleet, which had originated with Cotter, Glasgow, although using the Yeowart's, Whitehaven colours.

A collection which mainly centres around a visit to Cambridge in 1994. This should develop into a number of collections as I get round to updates.

I am not quite sure if I have the geography right here, but most of these operators will get there own collection eventually.

Following the SBG reorganisation, Eastern was left with Edinburgh andthe Lothians as it's operating territory. Following extensive competition with Lothian, the Edinburgh operations were scaled back, although they did maintain a presence in the city. Eastern was sold to it's maangement on privitisation, but subsequently passed to GRT Holdings.

Vehicles operated in the green and cream livery, and adopted the GRT layouts following the change of management. The SMT name was restored around 1991/1992. Seddons and Tigers were the main choice for single deckers and coaches. There was more variety in the double deckers, which included Fleetlines, Ailsas, Citybuses, Olympians, and Lions.

Fife was the only company unaffected by the SBG reorganisation in 1986, retaining it's Fife region local service network. The main vehicle types operated were Leopards, Tigers, Ailsas and Citybuses. When Stagecoach took ownership of the comany, they reintroduced the Leyland Olympian, along with the Volvo B6 and B10M standard single deck stock.

Fleet livery changed from red and cream to Stagecoach livery, although the post-SBG fleetname was retained. Most of my visits to Fife territory were to Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy, so unfortunately no nice shots in some of the former fishing villages.

GCT was set up as a low cost unit by SBL in 1993, partly to regain a number of school contracts that they had recently lost, and also to be more competitive when tendering for SPT work. GCT also developed some commercial routes where there was a high volume of competition.

The initial fleet was made up of Atlanteans from the main fleet, including all the second hand units acquired in 1993, a handful of Metroriders and 6 Olympians acquired from KCB. Expansion of the service network saw the arrival of more Atlanteans, and the remaining SBL Metroriders. There were also a number of coach seated vehicles including the 3 East Lancs bodied Scanias and an ex London Country Olympian which carried SB Travel livery. Fleet livery for buses was green and yellow.

This collection covers the Go Ahead Group companies which emerged from Northern General, and also the operations acquired in the early 1990s. I can't recall the exact imeline, but I think it was around 1991/92 that Northern General set up VFM buses as a low cost unit operating in South Shields. The success of that operation, led the to the various regions becoming stand-alone operating units, each with their own identity.

Vehicles operated included all the usual NBC standard products. There was a large number of MCW Metrobuses (not a common choice for NBC) including some with very tuneful Gardner 6LXDT engines, which were used on express services.

Grampian Regional Transport was the main operator of city services in Aberdeen. The company changed from council ownershipto a management/employee holding group around 1992, which started to buy up former SBG and NBC companies shortly after. GRT Holdings merged with the Badgerline Group to form First, and the rest is history.

Vehicles were painted green and cream, with a revised layout adopted at privitisation. Some coaches were treated to a green and gold livery, with Executive branding.

The Grampain fleet was predominantly double deckers in the shape of Leyland Atlanteans and Olympians. Additions in the mid 1990s took the shape of Mercedes 709Ds and 0405s. The coach fleet was expanded during the late 1980s when the Alexanders fleet was taken over, which included some express service work. Vehicles included Leyland Tigers, Volvo B10Ms, and more unusually 2 MCW Metroliners, which didn't stay in the fleet for long.

Highland Scottish provided services to some of the most sparsely populated areas of the country, and deregulation and privitisation of the SBG gave the company major problems. Competition in Inverness and Fort William set Highland nearly put them out of business, and at one time, they looked more like a fly by night independant operator, rather than a former SBG company.

The fleet at the time of deregulation was mainly the Ford R series, Leopards, Fleetlines and Olympians. After withdrawing from Inverness, the Olympians and most of the newer Leopards were sold off, and it was a number of years before there were additions to the fleet. These included Seddons, Leopards, Fleetlines and Bristol VRTs, most of which entered service in their previous operators livery, and in most cases were pretty grotty looking. Eventually these vehicles started to recieve fleet livery, which was initially a variation on the SBG red and grey, and later Rapson colours when they were taken over by them. Vehicles belonging to Highland Country recieved a blue and grey West Midlands Travel style livery.

The company was split into two in 1995, with the Inverness area opertions remaining as Highland Scottish, with the reminder becoming Highland Country. Ownership of the company changed on a regular basis, with National Express, Rapson's and West Midlands Travel all involved at some point. The company became part of the Stagecoach empire in 2008.

Unfortunately I never got as many shots of Highland vehicles as I would have liked, and never got further north than Inverness. I only have a handful of photos following the split in 1995, so these have been included here.

Ian Glass operated a coach fleet and ran a car dealership in Haddington. The coach business was acquired by Lowland in 1991, and the identity lived for several years after the takeover, although the handful of bus services passed to Lowland. The vehicles carried an unusual livery of turquoise, orange and cream, and this was revised to match the Lowland coaches.

Bedfords and Fords dominated the fleet, although there were also some Tigers, DAFs and Dennis Javelins added to the fleet in the mid to late 1980s. The most unusual vehicle in the fleet was a former Leyland Titan demonstrator, which was painted into Lowland colours. This was the only B15 to operate in Scotland (other than demonstrators) prior to 1995, when Stagecoach allocated some to Western and A1.

Greenock saw a number of small operators following the deregulation of bus services. This resulted in a wide variety of vehicle types and liveries, with a large number coming from the PTE/NBC/SBG clearouts of the late 80s/early 90s. It would also be fair to say that some of the vehicles should probably have gone for scrap rather than further service, but that seemed to be typical of the period.

There are also a number of coach operators, based in the region, providing vehicles for contract and private hires, and most of these are taken outwith the Inverclyde area.

The most recent update includes some shots of Argyll Coaches, including a Royal Tiger and Duple 425, in addition to the service fleet. I have also included a couple of Inverclyde Nationals which recived the original fleet livery, although these are not particularly great shots. I have also included a couple of Caldwell vehicles after they were sold to Regal Coach Sales in Kirkintilloch.

A small collection featuring independent operators from across Ireland, and also a handful of railway shots. In addition to the 1992 visit to the Republic and the 1993 trip to the ITT rally, there are also some vehicles which made it across the Irish Sea, usually on football hires to Ibrox or Parkhead.

I haven't been able to trace the origins of some of the vehicles, so if anyone can help out, I would really appreciate it.

Being based in Glasgow, KCB and SBL were the two main local operators, so I have quite a lot of photos of both. Vehicles originated from Central, Eastern and Midland Scottish with their individual vehicle preferences and also London Transport in the shape of AEC Routemasters. The resulting variety was added to as KCB also acquired a number of the independant operators in the area. New additions to the combined fleet were Volvo B6, B10B, B10M and Olympian, all with Alexander bodywork.

KCB was sold by the Scottish Bus Group to it's management as part of the privitisation process, and was eventually acquired by SBL Holdings in late 1994. Stagecoach acquired a 20% holding in the enlarged SBL group, before First eventually acquired the whole operation.

During it's short existance, KCB experimented with a number of different livery and fleetname styles, before settling on the red and cream colours originally designed for Central Scottish's Lanarkshire Bus identity. This was eventually simplified to resemble the Central Scottish layout, and the KCB Network identity was adopted.

I made several visits to Lancaster in the early 90s, and built up a fair collection of LCT vehicles in action. I also was there for the last day of LCT operation, prior to Stagecoach taking over the local service operations, which saw the AEC Regent and an ex-Southdown Queen Mary style PD3 in service, along with several visiting vehicles.

The LCT fleet was predominantly Leyland's, with Leopards, Tigers and Atlanteans in service, with minibuses being Optare City Pacers and Metroriders. There was also a sizeable coach fleet, under the Lonsdale Coaches name.

Lothian was (and still is) one of the smartest fleets on the road. Although the madder and cream livery has now been replaced by the chessboard colours, vehicles are always immaculately turned out.

Leyland was the vehicle of choice, with Atlanteans and Olympians for double deckers, with Leopards, Nationals and Tigers for single deckers and coaches. There was also the unique collection of dual door Lynx IIs. With the demise of Leyland, Volvo Olympians and Dennis Darts became the favoured vehicles.

Coaches and open toppers were painted black and white, and Airport service vehicles were treated to a special blue and white livery.

Lothian Transit was formed around 1991 with some former Western Leopards acquired from Northern being the first vehicles in the fleet. These were painted red and cream and put to work in Edinburgh. Subsequent additions to the fleet included further Leopards, ex-MoD Reliances and two PDR Atlanteans for school and contract work. The company was acquired by Lowland around 1993, and the Reliances and Atlanteans were replaced by Seddons, a Fleetline and some former Ian Glass vehicles.

Fleet numbers started to appear around 1994, and were in the Lowland 11xx series.

Having passed my PCV test in Lowland's KSX 667N, I cut my teeth driving for LT in 1994/95, which will explain some of the locations.

Lowland Scottish was formed out of the Borders operation of Eastern Scottish. I am not sure whether it was the picture postcard locations or the collection of vehicles inherited (mainly Seddon single deckers), but I always had a soft spot for the company.

Other vehicles in the fleet included Tigers, Fleetlines and Olympians. Minibuses were SBG standard Dodge S56s, and later Optare Metroriders. Surprise additions to the fleet included ex-Central Dominators, ex-Southern Vectis Bristol VRTs, and 4 Ulsterbus spec Volvo engined Tigers.

The green and yellow livery was originally applied in Eastern Scottish style, with the shade of green varying in the very early days. Coaches recieved a cream based livery with green and yellow relief. When the company was taken over by GRT Holdings, the colours were adapted to suit the standard layout.

Lowland also acquired a number of other operators in their area, with the main two being Ian Glass (Haddington) and Lothian Transit (Newtongrange). These outfits will recieve their own gallery, although former Ian Glass vehicles in Lowland colours wil appear on this page.

McGill operated a network of services between Barrhead, Paisley and Glasgow. In the mid 1990's, this was expanded to include Johnstone and East kilbride, although the latter was short lived. The vehicles recieved a traditional style of livery of red and grey (which looks beige in some of the shots), with white bumpers.

The company had purchased double deckers until the mid 1970's, when the Leyland National became the standard choice. A few second hand examples arrived, and it was no surprise when a Lynx appeared around 1992. The first Dennis Darts arrived in 1993, and I ws lucky enough to be asked to provide the official photos of K946 SGG being handed over from Plaxton. There were also a handful of minibuses purchased, most unusally being an ex-Ribble Iveco, which initially recieved a non standard livery.

Midland's operations centred around Stirling and Falkirk with links to Glasgow and Edinburgh. Midland revived the Bluebird identity initially for express services, but subsequently across the fleet. Midland was sold to GRT Holdings, and quickly adopted the GRT standard livery styles.

Leopards, Tigers, Fleetlines and Metrobuses were the preferred choice of vehicles, but a number of Seddons were taken on when Eastern's Linlithgow depot passed to Midland. Newer additions included Scania and Mercedes 0405s.

Fleetnumbers changed from Alexander alpha-numeric style (eg MPE365) to a number only format, and I will arrange these photos using the latter.

Moffat and Williamson are a long established coach operator in Gauldry, Fife. Around the late 1980s, they started to pick up some service contracts, before moving into commercial services mainly based around Glenrothes and Kirkcaldy in competition against Fife Scottish.

Vehicles used on the services were typically Leopards, VRTs and Atlanteans, from former SBG, NBC and English Municpal companies, although there were also some new and second hand Mercedes and Iveco minibuses. The coaching fleet was a mix of Leopards, Tigers and B10Ms, and included a couple of rare Plaxton 321 bodied Tigers.

Various operators from the North East, which will develop over time.

A selection of vehicles from the North West, which will be the basis for some future collections.

Northern Scottish was originally the northern segment of W Alexander, and reverted to the Bluebird identity prior to privitisation. The company was sold by SBG to Stagecoach, and the relatively new yellow, blue and cram colour schemes were lost under a sea of stripes.

Vehicles operated were standard SBG types with Leopards, Tigers and Olympians being the mainstay of the fleet. A more unusual choice were a number of MCW Metroliners and Hiliners for coaches, although these didn't last particularly long. Northern was also unusual in opting for dual door Olympians for Aberdeen city work under the Citybus banner.

Northumbria and Tyneside were regular haunts, due to it being an easy day trip, and there was plenty of variety in the area. As you would expect with a former NBC company, Leyland and Bristol products were fairly common (mainly originating from United), although the coach fleet contained a fair number of Bova Futuras for National Express duties. Optare Delta's were favoured for new single deckers, and second hand purchases included around 20 Olympian Specials with ECW coach body. Vehicles carried a red, grey and white colour scheme.

Now that I have started to populate the site, I have decided to rename this particular collection. As I develop other collections on the site, I will move photos from here, but I am going to retain this collection and add to it at random.

Paisley and Renfrew has always had a variety of local service providers. Through the 70s and 80s, Graham's, McGill's, Paton's and Cunningham were operating services against Western Scottish, and although by the end of the 80s only McGill's remained, deregulation brought a host of new operators out. These included Bridge, Bellview and Fairways to name a few, however few of the companies from that period survive today.

The post deregulation operators tended to favour minibuses, and these predominantly came from former NBC and PTE companies. Some of the more successful outfits were able to buy new vehicles, even if it was only Mercedes minibuses.

There were also a number of coach operators in the area, providing vehicles for contracts, hires and Citylink work. They have faired better than the bus operators, as most of them are still serving the district. Coaches were typically Volvos, with either Plaxton or Van Hool bodywork, although DAF, Scania, Duple and Jonckheere products are also represented.

The Graham's stuff is not the greatest quality, and anyone who would like to see more should visit Donald MacRae's Victory Guy site, where there is an excellent collection.

Discovered a few more Marbill shots, which are not the greatest I felt they were worthy to join the site.

Rennie's operations in the late 80s were made up of local services around Dunfermline with express services to Glasgow in competition with Fife, and schools and works contracts. The service work was scaled back in the early 90s, and the company returned to the coach sector, although there was still an odd service retained.

The bus fleet was made up of ex-Southdown Leopards, Atlanteans from Glasgow, Blackburn and Liverpool, and Ailsas from Clydeside, with coaches mainly being Tigers and B10Ms. Minibuses tended to be new Mercedes' or Ivecos, and a batch of ex-Ribble Ivecos appeared around 1992/93, although most of these were quickly sold on. There was a variety of fleet liveries, although most of the shots here will be in red and cream or white and blue stripe liveries.

My first trip to Showbus at Duxford. It is interesting to see how the fledgling Badgerline Group was trying to promote a corporate image, prior to the creation of the First Group. Low floor buses were also quite rare at that time, and usually caried dedicated route branding.

All photographs were taken on 25/09/1994.

Silver Coach Lines were a long established coach operator in Edinburgh although they now operate under the Edinburgh Coach Lines name. Although primarily a coach and extended tour operation, there was a short-lived venture into express work in the late 1980s, running a Glasgow-Edinburgh service with Green, Kirkintilloch under the Cityline banner. In the early 1990s, Edinburgh Transport was set up to run a handful of services in and around the capital, which eventually passed to British Bus Group and became a subsidiary of Stevenson, Uttoxeter. For completeness all photos are included here

The coach fleet was an immaculate collection of Setras and Toyota Coasters, and the original bus fleet was made up of Nationals and Optare Deltas in a blue and orange colour scheme. Post Stevenson's arrivals included Seddons, Leopards and Mercedes minibuses, some of which recieved fleet colours, whilst others retained Stevenson's yellow and black.

Stagecoach comenced operations in Perth in 1980 with one vehicle, and the rest is history. This collection will feature the vehicles based in Perthshire, which will include some shots from the late 1980s of the express operations before they were sold off to National Express.

Vehicles included here will include Bristol FLFs and VRTs, as well as the original MW, Neoplan Skyliners, assorted Volvos including the first Plaxton Interurbans, and the preserved fleet, mostly featuring the well known stripey livery.

I managed to get a few visits to see Stevensons vehicles in operation, including Wolverhampton, Staffford and Burton on Trent, as well as a few depot visits.

Highlights include the ex-Citybus Lynxes, the prototype Olympian, the first Metrobus, and some ex-SBG Seddons and Leopards. Some of the shots from the 1991 visit to Wolverhampton aren't particularly great quality.

The backbone of the SBL fleet in the early 90's was the Leyland Atlantean, but there was added variety with Volvo Ailsas and Citybuses, Leyland Olympians and MCW Metrobuses. This was added to in 1993/94 following a fire at Larkfield garage, which destroyed around 60 vehicles. In addition to a batch of 52 Leyland Olympians, there was also a number of Leyland Atlanteans acquired from Busways and Nottingham. These later formed the GCT fleet, but for a short while did wear the orange and black livery. Minibuses were in the shape of MCW Metroriders.

In the spring of 1992, there was a fire at Larkfield Depot, which resulted in the loss of around 50 buses. This left SBL with a big gap to fill in order to maintain the services, and the company hired in vehicles from a number of sources. These included Volvo Ailsas from Tayside, Atlanteans from Western, GRT Holdings, and Busways, 3 Scania demonstrators, and some DAF SB220s from Hughes DAF. These were numbered in the C900 series during their stay, and most received orange front and rears, although the single deckers were treated to full coach livery. There were also 2 MCW Metroriders hired from West Midlands PTE (numbered M123/124) and they are included in this section, as they retained WM livery for the 6 months or so that they were used.

The Busways Atlanteans later joined the fleet on a permanent basis, and went on to form the basis of the GCT fleet when it was set up in 1993. The Scania single deckers joined the fleet, but the double decker did not stay long. Those that weren't retained were returned during the autumn of 1993 when a batch of 52 Leyland Olympians that had been ordered to replace the fire damaged vehicles started to enter service. There were also a number of demonstrators used during this time, and I have included them in this collection.

As part of the SBG reorganisation Strathtay was formed out of the Perthshire operations of Midland and the Angus operations of Northern. Vehicles were initially blue and orange, and white relief was added at a later date. Although the company was relatively small, there was a wide variety of vehicles types, which was further augmented by the addition of AEC Routemaster for Perth and Dundee town services, and also some ex-GM Fleetlines.

Fleetnumbering was initially in Alexander's style, but this was later changed to a numeric system. The company passed from SBG ownership to the Yorkshire Traction group, and more recently Stagecoach.

Tayside Regional Transport was the conitnuation of Dundee Corporation following the local government reorganisation of the early 1970s. In 1990 the fleet was made up of Volvo Ailsa and Citybus double deckers, and a handful short wheelbase Leyland Tigers, with coaches being either Leyland or Volvo. With the advent of low floor single deckers, various different types were trialled before settling on Scania and Dennis Darts. The coach operations were expanded with the acquisition of Greyhound, Arbroath and Wishart, Dundee.

Fleet livery was two tone blue and cream, with coaches being blue and white. Wishart vehicles retained their identity, and were brown, orange and white. Despite passing through regularly, I never spent a lot of time in Dundee, so this collection will not be particularly large.

United Automobile Services originally covered an area from Berwick on Tweed to Darlington. Operations north of Newcastle were split off to form Northumbria in the 1980s, and in the 1990s, the Tees and District operations were set up, although they shared the management structure with United. Trimdon Motor Services were acquired in the early 1990s and became TMS, a low cost unit managed by Tees & District.

Optare vehicles were a popular choice in the early 1990s including Metroriders, Vectas and Deltas, in addition to Leyland Olympians, Tigers and Lynxes. There were also a number of VRTs and LHs still to be found in service at this time.

It is funny how times have changed, as United was broken up to provide more manageable operations, and yet today the original operational area is now covered by Arriva North East.

The majority of photos feature ex-NBC companies based in South Wales, as I have a decent variety of South Wales Transport, Rhonda and Red & White (the last two having been formed out of National Welsh). This collection also contains some Brewer's vehicles, as they had been taken over by SWT.

Some of the highlights include some ex-Tayside VRTs, a Tiger/Duple combination which spent time with Whitelaw, Stonehouse, and a Van Hool A600 integral, which had been new as a demonstrator. There is also a handful of Crosville Wales shots too, and these were mainly taken in Wrexham and Chester, where I briefly stopped on the journey home. As there is not as much to choose from, I have included some depot shots to bolster this collection.

One area where my collection is a bit thin is Wales. Despite spending holidays there as a child, I only made one visit when I was photographing buses. This was in May 1994, when I made the trip to the Barry Island Bus and Coach show. I stayed for several days in Cardiff, and managed to cover the main towns and cities in South Wales beore heading home.

One of the highlights of that week, was finding East End Coaches depot in Clydach, where there was a collection of Seddon RUs, and an ex-Ribble lowheight Atlantean. Unfortunately I never got to experience one on the road, but such is life.

This collection completes my trip to Wales, with a variety of photos featuring Cardiff, Islwyn and Newport vehicles. At that time, Cardiff ran an unusual mixture of VRTs, Ailsas, Scanias and Lynxes, with some Metroriders for minibus services. Newport had settled on the Scania as the vehicle of choice in the late 80s, the only exceptions being some Metroriders. Islwyn had the most interesting fleet, with a variety of Leopards and Tigers, and some fairly unusual Dodge G08s.

The train journeys between Glasgow, Oban, Fort William and Mallaig are among the most scenic in the UK, if not the world, and a personal favourite. The Class 156 Sprinters currently used on the routes don't make for great photographs, but there have been a few summer seasons when Scotrail operated Class 37s on the route. In addition to rail tours and specials, there is still a loco hauled sleeper service, and a number of freight services, although I never had much luck catching them in action.

The 'Jacobite' steam specials between Fort William and Mallaig have now been running for nearly 25 years, and usually feature former LMS 'Black 5s' owned by West Coast Railways of Carnwath. Class 37s sometimes deputise during particularly dry spells, to prevent the possibility of lineside fires.

If you have never travelled the route, I would highly recommend it (but then I am completely biased!).

An assortment of shots taken around the West Midlands through the early 90s. This will be developed in tmie, with the bigger operators getting their own collections.

Western retained it's Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway operations following the formation of Clydeside in 1986. The two companies remerged in 1989 and split again in 1991 as part of the privitisation process. When Western passed to Stagecoach a couple of years later, the company started to buy up the competition, mainly A1 Service and AA Buses.

The bus fleet was made up of Leopards, Seddons, and Fleetlines, with the coaches being Volvo or Dennis Dorchestors. More unusual acquisitions in SBG ownership included Duple 425s and Scania double deck coaches. In Stagecoach ownership, the standard Volvo B6 and B10M/Alexander combinations were added, along with ex-London Leyland Titans which were allocated to the A1 fleet.

This collection will only feature Western vehicles, with A1, AA and 'Western Clydeside' photos being in their own collections.

This will start out as a mixed bag of vehicles that operated in Yorkshire, although I will eventually seperate out the bigger collections.