Stagecoach’s foray into the privatised railway had, however, begun some years earlier. On 6th May 1992 the government, through the Queen’s Speech, announced the privatisation of BR. Perth-based Stagecoach had been quick off the mark to test the waters of running a private passenger service on BR metals, to parallel its existing road coach operation. Having learnt of BR’s announcement in March 1992 that normal seating accommodation would be discontinued on the Euston to Aberdeen combined sleeper/Motorail/Royal Mail trains (meaning passengers could now only travel on the services if they booked sleeping berths), Stagecoach decided to step into the breach. The company leased six carriages from BR, and the proposal was to attach two of these to each sleeper train run by the latter between Euston and Aberdeen, to provide seated non-sleeping accommodation on the service.
The carriages selected by Stagecoach were BR Mk 2D vehicles from the pool of the InterCity business sector: Nos. 6201, 6202, 6210, 6224, 6228, and 6232. These were repainted into Stagecoach’s colours - a white background with large orange, red, and blue stripes - emblazoned with “Stagecoach Rail” in capital letters across their sides. The work was undertaken at Derby by BREL Ltd, which included laying new flooring and abolishing a W/C in each carriage. The new vehicles were officially launched at Derby on 7th May 1992.
