The corny fleetname disguises the fact that these buses are Stagecoach vehicles, running low-cost intra-city services. They are operated by Stagecoach Glasgow, itself a subsidiary of Stagecoach Western Buses.

Citylink is jointly owned by ComfortDelGro and (since September 2005) Stagecoach. Franchises are operated by a number of various independent operators, and the vehicles they assign to the contracts are painted into the distinctive Scottish Citylink livery. Some Stagecoach vehicles are also starting to appear in these colours. The variety of operators involved precipitates an equally varied selection of vehicles on our roads wearing the Scottish Citylink colours.

Launched on 14th December 2005, these impressive new wheelchair accessible 'Dual Purpose' (DP) buses are the first of their type into normal service. A source tells me two others exist, but that these are Wrightbus demonstrators.

Although not the first Wrightbus-bodied vehicles to wear Stagecoach livery, these are, however the first to be ordered new by the company, rather than inherited with another business. It will be interesting to see if they become the first of many, or remain unique.

This collection will chart the progress of the ongoing restoration of P573 at the SVBM, Lathalmond. Please note that the two photos of the bus in its immediate pre-restoration conditionare not mine, and copyright rests with Kenny Hanlin. They are reproduced here with his kind permission - Thanks, Kenny.

P573 is the subject of an appeal for funding in order to carry out the restoration, and is one of the most ambitious museum projects to date. For a full history of the bus, its historical significance, and to find out how YOU can help, please follow the link below.

Prompted by the news that Western SMT L669 had been acquired for preservation and was here, a trip to the Hillington Industrial Estate site was in order.

This National Express owned operator can trace its roots back to Dundee Corporation. The legal lettering on the vehicles still reads "Tayside Public Transport" while the buses sport the predominantly white 'Travel' livery shared by the group's 'Travel West Midlands' sister company.

Travel Dundee, like many others, has been won over by the charms of the Volvo B7TL / Wright Eclipse Gemini combination, and several recent examples are to be found in the fleet.

No trip to Dundee would be complete without a visit to RRS Discovery, Captain Scott's ship on his voyage of Polar Exploration.

Allan's is a premium coach travel operator based in small but immaculate premises off the A7 in Gorebridge. I have long been impressed by the high-spec, high quality of their frontline fleet, which, at the time of publishing, is comprised entirely of Scania / Irizar PBs, all under three years old. As the fleet is renewed on a regular basis, I expect to update this collection periodically.

My thanks to Jimmy, one of Allans' driver/valeter/tour guides for taking time out from preparing the fleet for a big job, to show me around and move coaches into better photographic positions!

Long-established Fife operator Moffat & Williamson have recently relocated their base of operations from Gauldry to the premises at St. Fort, a few miles away, which is where the bulk of the fleet had been parked anyway. As well as the high-spec coaches in the fleet, this operator has traditionally also had a large fleet of school buses. Until recently these were the usual mix of Leyland Atlanteans / Bristol VRs etc. but new Fife Council rules have seen these replaced recently with ex MOD Dennis Javelin / Wadham Stringers, all with '3+2' seating.

Strathtay was formed in 1985 by the SBG from parts of the Northern and Midland Scottish companies, as part of the group's response to forthcoming bus service deregulation. Following privatisation the company was purchased by Yorkshire Traction and operated as 'Strathtay Coaches.' YT, as we know, was bought out by Stagecoach in late 2005, so the Strathtay livery is fast being replaced by Stagecoach Corporate colours - though, interestingly, with 'Strathtay' fleetnames - for the time being at least.

I started this collection with a visit to Blairgowrie depot, where fellow bus enthusiast and friend Kenny Hanlin works. Kenny was very helpful, and can be seen at the helm of a Y-Type / Leopard in Aberfeldy! Yes, Strathtay remains, for the moment, one of few companies actually operating a handful of the old SBG standards in service - though these will disappear very soon now that 'Souter's Buses' are involved!

A small collection of photos of the ongoing restoration of a 1947 Albion Venturer CX19 at the SVBM.

*This project is run by the Sydney Albion Venturer Group, a group of Scottish vintage vehicle enthusiasts formed to repatriate and restore an Albion Venturer CX19 double decker bus, the chassis of which was built at Scotstoun, Glasgow in 1946. This is the first project in Scotland supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund to restore a bus*

Text in Asterisks taken from the Albion CX19 Restoration Project website. Please follow the link below for more details of this major project.

23rd July 2006 saw Knockhill Race Circuit host its first Classic Speedfair. The SVBM was invited to bring a selection of vehicles to exhibit, so JIm Methven and myself took the oportunity to go and promote the museum to the punters. We also managed to find time to have a wee run round the site at various times.

Roland Williams provided open-top Bristol VR, XBO 121T which was used to ferry a select group of Scottish Motorsports Legends, including one Sir Jackie Stewart, on a staged lap-of-honour around the track - though, thanks to Roland's discovery that the footbridge over the track was too low for the VR to negotiate, it ended up as two incomplete laps, one in either direction, separated by what may well have been the first ever 'three-point-turn' to be performed on track before an audience!

A very enjoyable day, and an event I hope is repeated in future seasons.

The 2006 August Open Weekend was themed around the Centenary of the formation of Scottish Motor Traction, the company that would spawn the Scottish Bus Group, and be known variously through the years as 'SMT,' 'Scottish Omnibuses Ltd' and 'Eastern Scottish' before privatisation of the Bus Group saw it returning to the old SMT identity, having been bought by its management and employees.

Today, what was SMT forms a part of First Edinburgh - and it was interesting to note that there was no representation from this company whatsoever. I asked one of the event organisers about this, and was told that their response had been that they were "too busy" at weekends to "help us out" - a statement which holds no water, since rivals Lothian Buses managed to field no less than SEVEN vehicles from the frontline fleet, right in the middle of their busiest period of the year - the Edinburgh Festival.

To the "management" of First Edinburgh: it would have been far more respectable to admit you were simply not interested in acknowledging the heritage of your company. You are an utter disgrace.

Nonetheless, the event was an unqualified success, attracting as strong and varied an entry as I have seen, including a rarity at Scotish events, a BMMO D9.

A hearty round of applause, then, to the event organisers and the vehicle owners, all of whose sterling efforts resulted in a memorable event. And particular credit to the Sydney Albion restoration team, who pulled out all the stops to have the bus ready to take pride of place at the site entrance over the weekend. The fruits of their efforts are documented, of course, in a separate collection.

Is it really a whole year since I was last at Bridgeton? A world of change in that time - I've now left the 9-5 claustrophobic lab-work for a life on the open road. (Well, the congested streets of Edinburgh...)

Unlike last year, when I parked my car in Glasgow and caught the free service to the museum, this year I formed a part of the "delegation" from Lathalmond, taking the wheel of the unique Daimler CVG6 / NC Queen Mary, RAG578. RAG saw service in the city later in the day, although with Jim Methven at the wheel; I missed that, as I was already away playing on the other buses.

Once again, a very good day out, and a round of applause to the GVVT volunteers who again delivered a well organised event.

Having a couple of days off in late September, I decided to take advantage of an SPT 'Day Tripper' ticket - these are valid on all SPT supported services (road, rail and, believe it or not, water-based) within the Strathclyde Passenger Transport catchment area. So I travelled by Bus from Cumnock to Kilmarnock, train to Glasgow Central, bus to Hamilton, by Stagecoach Western's new X16 service from there to Kilmarnock and finally back t base in Cumnock. I was most annoyed, incidentally, to find the X16, rather than beig worked by one of the branded MAN / ALX300s that were bought specially for the service, was in fact worked by ex Docherty's Volvo B6 / Wrights, Y602 TSD. Just my luck...

The anual Open Weekend at lathalmond took place on Saturday and Sunday 16th and 17th of August. Weather, although variable, remained mainly dry, belying the doom-and-gloom of press reports in the run up to the event.

The format was as in previous years; as ever, the museum's own collection were joined by visiting vehicles old and new, trade stalls, and the event incorporated the Scottish Road Run for vintage vehicles.