...because British Rail is closing the Edinburgh - Carlisle line. Instead, arrangements for the carriage of parcels previously conveyed by train have been made with Eastern Scottish Omnibuses. Your local parcel agent is Mr. Lightfoot, Baker, at Killochyett and packages will be received during shop hours, not the longer hours previously operated at Stow station. Regrettably Thursday is half day closing, the last bus to Edinburgh is the is the 1135 Service 95, to Galashiels, Hawick and Carlisle the 1110 Service 95."

That's not a real verbatim quote, it's conflated from various resources, but I think it highlights just another small but infuriating way in which Borders' life was inconvenienced and made worse by the senseless, dogmatic closure of the line. Anyway, what's this all got to do with the price of fish, I hear you yawn.... (very little after May '68, fish traffic Ed)

And moreover, what's social history doing on Workbench? I'll tell youse why, because especially W/B projects need to be informed by real life, its subjects have to be born of the essence of what we're trying to recreate. And in this case, like or loath it, it's the bus side of life. And I for one personally love and embrace it, not as a true competitor to the Waverley route, it could never aspire to do that effectively, but for its awesome complementary role, where in so-doing Eastern Scottish principally, enriched even further the public transport on offer in the region.

With just the spine of the once extensive Waverley network remaining open to passenger services from 1964, the branches by now handling residual freight services, there was still an effective and viable public transport system, with Eastern Scottish and some independents connecting the towns denied their railway.

Therefore, rural and town service buses are an essential part of the sixties Waverley landscape. Right now there are ten such vehicles sculling about the W/B or used as placeholders on the layout:

They will get their own blog after this launch entry, but here are the basic introductions:

Bristol Lodekka FLF6G town buses and MW6G coach

straight out of the box, obviously

Pair of Plaxton bodied long distance coaches

The madder and cream one was previously WMPTE's unique 407Y, ex-Coventry, from previous layout, the NBC Ribble one is staying because services 501, 502, X10 and X11 interworked with Ribble and Western Scottish vehicles

The obligatory Y-types

Presently wearing Stratford Blue and East Yorkshire colours, ironically the real Stratford Blue vehicle became an NBC poppy red Midland Red bus the model of which I can't bear to part with. These two will be tweaked into the local finery. EFE are about to release another in affiliate company Starks of Dunbar colours, which will obviously join us.

The essential Alexander/ Daimler Fleetline trio in various states of disarray

one of my ultimate fave buses, because of the Midland Red and ex-MR WMPTE examples that used to take me to school and leisure, the three I've retained were expected to become fictional Borders vehicles until...

The Western connection mentioned above - also other operators' examples did work into the area. And then, using this lot for research:

two native local examples appeared, DD80 (DVA 680C) and DD961 (9961 SF), of '65 and '66 vintage respectively, and both H44/31F examples of the classic D body type.