Eastern Scotish

[pitdiver]

A number of years ago I would travel regularly up to Edinburgh overnight on the old Eastern Scotish service (on the coaches with the sloping windows) Does anybody have any information about theses services as I would like to compare the Timetables of then and the current NX overnight service.

Many Thanks

The thread title should read Eastern Scotish

 

[Busaholic]

A number of years ago I would travel regularly up to Edinburgh overnight on the old Eastern Scotish service (on the coaches with the sloping windows) Does anybody have any information about theses services as I would like to compare the Timetables of then and the current NX overnight service.

Many Thanks

The thread title should read Eastern Scotish

Or, even, Eastern Scottish

On a more helpful note, suggest googling Omnibus Society - their OSMART available to non-members sells old bus/coach timetables.

 

[overthewater]

Didn't the old Eastern Scottish London service go via M6? I'm also sure Fife Scottish had a service between Fife - Edinburgh - London aswell.

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

Those would be trapezoidal windows - a few types had them. I remember the BSG-W Tigers that had them. Most SBG firms operated to London but ES was one of the main ones.

 

[pitdiver]

I can vaguely remember going via the A1 calling in at somewhere like Grantham en route and then travelling via Coldstream and places in that area.

 

[PaulLothian]

I used to use this service in the early 1970s between Finchley and Edinburgh, at the age where I could sleep anywhere!

I suspect that this may have been an all stops service, which always used the east coast route stopping at a variety of towns just off the A1. I do faintly recall Coldstream at midnight!

On one occasion, I navigated a crew on an Edinburgh Festival extra service through all the stops from Lincolnshire to North London, after it emerged neither of them had ever driven that service. Each had gathered the other knew it! As a reward, and as I was the last passenger, they dropped me off at the end of my mother's road, rather than at the official stop 4 miles away.

 

[43106]

I've done this service in 1974 when I went to the Commercial Motor Show at Earls Court. Then, the service was run by 2 batches of Bristol REMH's with Alexander C42FT bodies of 1968 (LFS 272-9F) and 1970 (SFS 349-373H) vintage. Later on, a few Seddons with similar bodywork were bought. Some routes went Edinburgh - Newcastle - A1 - London, with stops in/around Baldock in Hertfordshire. The more direct routes went via the A702 through Biggar, then A/M74, M6 and M1 to London. There were extensions of these services to Kirkcaldy (I did see an REMH at Fife's Kirkcaldy garage) and Aberdeen, but the latter was replaced by Northern's own REMH equivalent, whatever it was - can't remember.

 

[CatfordCat]

There's a 1978 timetable on http://www.eplates.info/othersEF.html

The Alexander M type coach was (to the best of my knowledge) the type of coach that introduced this style - there's an Eastern Scottish Seddon example in preservation at the Lathalmond Museum - http://www.svbm.org.uk/msf750p.html

I think there were some later Duple bodies with a similar window style

 

[overthewater]

A Good number of photos are online.

http://stuarts-world-buses.smugmug.com/John-Sinclairs-Eastern/i-HhJ38Tx/A
http://stuarts-world-buses.smugmug.com/John-Sinclairs-Eastern/i-9vS7VcP/A


https://www.flickr.com/photos/clive...uk_smt_eastern_scottish_pre_1985_|cliveabrown

https://www.flickr.com/photos/59895...5rx-9rS8fo-8rWdpv-8rZ6e1-dox9fE-bPGMPi-buZmSa

https://www.flickr.com/photos/scott...TUd-9wq2QS-f6CoSp-q9JMyu-8NzLQy-qLRyWK-oDoES2


https://www.flickr.com/photos/tpp60...ryE-j5w8RZ-nfhduh-9eRi9x-p11zEt-kAXB2w-ed3waX

Did any of these ever get across the border?

https://www.flickr.com/photos/40511...WcR-qRr319-pY1K2r-dpqCAH-oyJDP9-qRr2ZN-qiyFWJ

 

[TheGrandWazoo]

There's a 1978 timetable on http://www.eplates.info/othersEF.html

The Alexander M type coach was (to the best of my knowledge) the type of coach that introduced this style - there's an Eastern Scottish Seddon example in preservation at the Lathalmond Museum - http://www.svbm.org.uk/msf750p.html

I think there were some later Duple bodies with a similar window style

Like this? Eastern Scottish XH548 (BSG 548W) http://flic.kr/p/aEUNZ4

Or this in later years BSG549W Edinburgh 1987 http://flic.kr/p/kkY8vZ

Sadly, they suffered badly with corrosion and many were rebuilt or rebodied

 

[pitdiver]

Thanks to everybody for the various bits of information and pictures. It certainly brought back lots of memories of the journeys I made using these services. Has anybody travelled on the old Eastern Scottish and National Express services. If so how do they compare.

 

[jp4712]

This is Fife Scottish [actually. W. Alexander & Sons (Fife) Ltd] rather than Eastern Scottish, but it shows the sloping windows of the Alexander M-type well.

Click on the thumbnail to see bigger version.

Fife Scottish FPE63, Newcastle Gallowgate coach station, February 1984 by jp4712, on Flickr