Saturday 14 June 2003
Omnibus Soc trip to Aberdeen - I seem to recall doing a very similar trip 10 years ago! In those days I think we had one of the two recently (at the time) rebodied East Lancs EL2000 Leyland Tiger's - ST3, ST17, by this time known as 416, 417. I think it was 417 - but it was my first of these tours. The route we did was almost identical today, except now Aberdeen has two depots once more, and a visit to Arbroath northbound was arranged. 10 years ago IIRC K1 GRT had just returned from Midland Bluebird, Strathtay's newest were Darts 301-305, which were all in service at Arbroath, and the two rebodies. Bluebird were still relying on (in the main) ex-SBG stuff, with surges of Stagecoach transfers coming in - that was the start! Grampian was then a fleet pricipally of double deckers, but this was the summer hat saw the launch of the highly successful Beaver Bus 7 to Bridge of Don - later doubled in frequency, increased to Dart SLF's, and then withdrawn totally! But, I digress...

Today's fare was Strathtay Leopard/Y-type 546 - Strathtay's commercial director admits to being a bit of a Leopard enthusiast and did the driving today - which is one of the three at Blairgowrie to be ftted with 60 seats. 546 is a spare, as the other two are generlly used for the Alyth - Blairgowrie HS contract. 407 (Leyland Tiger) is 60 seater for use on the 60 to Aberfeldy Bredalbane Academy - yes, the only Strathtay service to serve Strathtay, and since the P&K changes two weeks ago it now does again - so 546 is generally spare. All the better, the tacho is still legal, so it made good use today. Bluebird is now Stagecoach Bluebird and has since encompassed JW Coaches, and First in Aberdeen is now what was Grampian then. As ever on an OS tour, a few unique chances to be had... Trip route today, incase you get lost reading my images, was Arbroath Bus Depot, Montrose Bus Depot, Stonehaven Bus Depot, Aberdeen city centre, Aberdeen First and Staegcoach depots, then back via the A90 and A94 to Perth.

	Left Firstly, before leaving Dundee, snapped up Stagecoach in Fife's "new" toy for St Andrews. 16044, P644 SEV, is an Alexander-bodied Volvo Olympian, that has *properly* converted to single door, and repainted. Contrast this with the pic of the red one at Dunfermline a few weeks ago! Right Leyland Olympian 917 and Volvo B7TL 702 - the latter with an unfortunate blind split on the nearside when the engine was turned off - both seen in Arbroath depot.
	Arbroath depot has a large "graveyard" area - pictures of the scrappers have recently been posted to the DundeeBus newsgroup, so I won't repeat them here, but some of the more modern types had a Saturday off. Left Ex-Docherty, Auchterader 221 (Y484 PSR) is seen in Arbroath depot. Right Strathtay will not be having the usual summer de-taxing and park-up at Arbroath, as there is not a complete month this year with the schools not leaving until first week of July. Dundee based Leyland Olympian 923 has, however, came north, before the schools broke up!
	Left Leyland Tiger 418 seen in the depot. Right Whilst 418 was new - very briefly - as a Citylink coach, 425 started life as a Duple-bodied Leyland Tiger for Citylink work - and came to Strathtay from Central. The bus is rebodied since, and is also seen at Arbroath depot.
	Left While Strathtay reduce the number of Leopards in all-day service - most are now just for schoool runs or peak times - some of the school runs operate in service for fare paying passengers. School Service 805 runs to Inverkeilor Primary School from the Auchmithie coastal area, and a Leopard is normally used - like 536 seen in the bus depot. Right Speaking of Leopards, 543's last stand? Having been the rgular bus on some 54/54A/76 workings - see previous pages - it is now provisionally sold BUT it is in "reserve - do not rob" status, because it may well be needed in August - at the moment, Strathtay's school output has increased substantially (mostly in the Forfar area) following wins from other operators, and the cessation of Alexander Melville in nearby Kirriemuir.
	Left Olympian 922 is now off-the-road - but may be placed back on the road again in August (see the above) - after working a school run in Dundee and a morning working on the 76, the vehicle is now a bit "smoky" and is replaced by 924. Right Volvo B7TL 703 also seen in Arbroath depot.
	Left Dennis Dart 304 - new 10 years ago now - did quite a few years in Dundee, before returning to Arbroath in Summer 2002 - when 305 then went to Montrose (fitted with seat belts) and 313 went to Dundee. Seen in Arbroath depot. From here, the trip went up the A92 to Montrose depot, and seen on the Right is newly acquired Mercedes 184, G288 TSL ex-Dochertys also. The vehicle is used on one of the Laurencekirk Primary School workings, and is finished in this "unusual" livery. Unfortunatly, getting the bus out for a photo was impossible as the wheel nuts had just arrived - imported from Mercedes Germany would you believe - and as a result was awaiting re-assemly. Maybe another day.
	Now, round the back to the "outdoor parking area" at the rear of Montrose. Two minibuses that follow have been seen many times before on this site - but, decided to show them again! Left Optare MetroRiders 151 (short, new to Strathtay) and Right 219 (new to Tillingbourne) also parked up.
	Tigers in the open grass! Left Leyland Tiger 411 and Right ex-Bluebird 436, rebodied 429, and the edge of 411 - all parked up behind Montrose depot.
	Left Enough Strathtay buses parked up - so here is our touring vehicle 546 outside Montrose depot. We then proceeded up the coast to Stonehaven.... Right Tradtional-looking Volvo B10M/Plaxton Paramount 52082 is seen in the Stonehaven depot of Stagecoach Bluebird. Low-floor MAN's are being phased onto the Stoney corridor - but this provides an interesting contrast!
	A freshly-repainted and re-trimmed Volvo B10M/Alexander PS of Stagecoach Bluebird, 20144, seen at Stonehaven depot. The main photo is seen Left Top while I've also taken some shots of the interior Left Bottom and Right to show the refub job - which extends all the way to some soft trim around the side of the cash vault (used for weekend late night Nightbird services only).
	Left Formerly driver trainers, Renault G13's 1263 & 1264 are seen parked up at Stonehaven depot. Right In the same location Mercedes 40050 is seen advising customers to Be Happy, with a window card for the evening 103 to Fettercairn.
	From Stonehaven, it was straight into Aberdeen city centre. Left First in Aberdeen Leyland Olympian 121 is seen in Guild Street on "circular" service 6. Right Volvo B10BLE 665 in Union Street - not many of those light blue "Shop At Panasonic" adverts that look so much like Blue Line branding! - on the Orange Line 16.
	Left First Volvo B10BLE 631 seen in Union Street, in Purple Line livery for the 22. Right W581 RFS is seen in Castle Street/Union Street, leading a second similar ex-Glasgow ALX300-bodied Volvo B10BLE. Park & Ride buses are usually branded, but non-branded vehicles run as spares on almost anything.
	Left First 655 is also seen at Union Street/Castle Street on the Red Line 1 heading towards Bridge of Dee. Right Leyland Olympian 116 in the advertising livery for the Princes Trust, travels into Union Street.
	Left First W609 RFS, another ex-Glasgow B10BLE, shows its allover advert for Aberdeen Tool Hire at Castle Street. Right Barbie2-liveried Leyland Olympian 109 was run-off Service 14/15 at Castle Street, and replaced by the oldest Olympian in the fleet - 101.
	Left 4, W4 FAL, is seen in Union Street heading also towards the bridge of Dee. Right Stagecoach Bluebird 22706 (unfortunatly not the best one in the world but the only one I got!) shows the new low-floor allocations to Service 106/107 from Stonehaven - seen unloading in Aberdeen Union Street.
	Left Ex-London Dennis Dart SLF's are now entering service with Bluebird, including R122 VPU seen in Bridge Street. Right Services between Northfield and Torry/Balnagask are provided by Bluebird 59 and First 12 - the latter branded the Green Line - although they take different routes in the south of the city. Anyway, Alexander ALX300-bodied Vovlo B10BLE W599 RFS is seen in Bridge Street also heading north.
	Left 52607 of Stagecoach Bluebird - a Jonckhere-bodied Volvo B10M - is seen in Guild Street. The Bluebird branding is almost visibile in this photo(seconds later eh?) Right After this we proceeded to the First depot in King Street. Pink (13) and Green (12) branded buses could be seen side-by-side with 607, 604, seen beside the fence nearest to King Street.
	Left I mentioned the Beaver Bus 7 above - which started in 1993 - with Mercedes minibuses. The K-HRS batch were bought for this, and subsequent newer routes to Bridge of Dee and Culter. The latter two remain merged as Service 24 - which 405 has been working by the look of this photo. Right A very few select cuts of the 7 became Service 28 - extended last year into Aberdeen city centre then via the X45 to Charleston - as the images I took a few months ago showed at the time. The B6's ex-Londoin usually work this, and others - and 204 is seen in the depot with the day off.
	Left Volvo B7 articulated buses 3 & 6 seen in the depot, parked up out of service. Right Along with the H and K registered minibuses, three ex-Nottingham Dodge S56's joined the fleet. They ended their days on school and contract runs for Mairs and Kirkpatricks. However, for the last 3 (?) years, E108 JNH has been a depto run-about for cash taking, and also had a full tray of all the April 2003 dated timetable leaflets !
	Left Want more unusual? EFP 512T is a german deck-and-a-half bus which I showed here originally in my 1998 photos from the First Aberdeen "100 years" event. Still here, not really doing much these days! Right Top Some additional minibuses have recently joined the Aberdeen "group" of fleets for hire work. I am not 100% sure if this is a First Aberdeen Ltd/Mairs Coaches/Kirkpatricks bus, but it did run for Midland/First Edinburgh until lately - J778 WLS is seen here in the "Mairs" shed. Right Bottom Mairs & Kirkpatrick's are represented by two ex-Aberdeen/Grampian Mercedes 709D's from the H-reg batch bought new for the 6 - the original Beaver Bus. 438 and 439, as they were, are H38, 39 USO.
	Left YS 51 JVD is one of two american-built Blue Bus school buses, used for a private school run in Aberdeen. Right Another ex-London/Essex Volvo B6 202 is seen in the depot. From here, we went south to the Bluebird depot in Tullos...
	Left Stagecoach Bluebird Volvo B10M/Alexander PS 20193 is a much-travelled vehicle, having been round many parts of the fleet! Right Also in the depot was 40302, an Alexander-bodied Mercedes 709D.
	Left Volvo B6LE 31493 is also much-travelled - since doing several years at Perth, it has been on loan to Inverness, back to Perth, and has moved around between Aberdeen and Inverness since. Seen over the pits in Aberdeen depot. Right Until recently, JW Coaches (Banchory) maintenance was done at Stonehaven. However, tese are now being done at Aberdeen, and Mercedes 41801 proves the point over the pits.
	Left Like 20193, 20192 has done much work elsewhere - and is seen over the pits in Aberdeen depot. After this, back to Perth. Right Strathtay 962 seen in Perth Bus Station, ready to head back to Blairgowrie - where a change of bus will take the passengers into Dundee.
	Left Strathtay 150 also runs to Blairgowrie, as Service 58. I mentioned these extra Saturday evening 58's a few weeks ago, and here is a photo of 150 (same bus as last time) in Perth Bus Station. Right First (Midland Bluebird Ltd). 525 seen in Perth Bus Station on Service 19 to Blackford, ran by First in the evenings.