Bedford VAS bus kit, Macbrayne spec

[w124bob]

Sunrise bus kits are listing 2 versions kit 78b and 78c , kit78c has the mail cage, says due 2019 http://www.modelbuszone.co.uk/tmb/kits/sunrise.htm I came across a picture of what appears to be a service bus rather than show bus with no date , but the cars in shot are fwd mk3 Escort and I think a Rover 200 serises. so thats clearly mid 80's

 

[Nimbus]

A little later, actually. The Rover 200 in shot is an R8, which was launched 30 years ago last week, i.e. 1989.

Incidentally, the enterprising Rover 200 & 400 Owners Club staged a re-run of the original Press Launch at its original venue and with a number of the original participants. Both the presentation and the subsequent demonstration runs through the Cotswolds were re-created.

 

The Nim.

[Regularity]

The class 25 in the background is too pristine to be in service, too - a preserved railway somewhere. Brechin?

[TheQ]

3 hours ago, w124bob said:

Sunrise bus kits are listing 2 versions kit 78b and 78c , kit78c has the mail cage, says due 2019 http://www.modelbuszone.co.uk/tmb/kits/sunrise.htm I came across a picture of what appears to be a service bus rather than show bus with no date , but the cars in shot are fwd mk3 Escort and I think a Rover 200 serises. so thats clearly mid 80's

 

Bo'ness and Kinniel Railway I think some years ago, anyway a long way away from Portree on the isle of Skye  along side this piece of fence here, before the white building and the brick building were put up and the trees planted.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@56.0177403,-3.6005743,3a,75y,127.69h,105.97t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sY0KDhmFNmSqzheqIIkHM1Q!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

[w124bob]

So it is a show bus, I did wonder about the class 25! So what would have been used in the West Highlands in the mid to late 80's?

[RANGERS]

These passed to Highland Scottish Omnibuses with the takeover of the MacBraynes bus operations in 1970, I seem to think some ended up with Western Scottish. I've a couple of fleet lists from the 70s which suggest that all were withdrawn by 1975, by which time all would have been repainted into Highland colours. The lack of any lettering on the example in the photo seems to confirm it wasn't an in-service vehicle.

[Covkid]

16 minutes ago, w124bob said:

So it is a show bus, I did wonder about the class 25! So what would have been used in the West Highlands in the mid to late 80's?

The West Highland line would be pretty solid class 37, sometimes with an odd 20 by the mid 1980s. The Kylwe line simililarly but possibly the rare venture of a 26 on engineers trips.

 

25s were ousted from the West Highland line in the early 1980s apart from the three ETHELs which were of the "late" bodyshell design. They were even rarer on the Kyle line, although the predecessor class 24s were common in the late 1960s and 1970s.  

[RANGERS]

2 minutes ago, w124bob said:

So it is a show bus, I did wonder about the class 25! So what would have been used in the West Highlands in the mid to late 80's?

By the late 80s, de-regulation would have had an impact on the Western Highlands. Highland was still the dominant operator across most of the region but the southern tip of the territory including the depot at Oban had passed to Midland Scottish.

 

Types in use in the country areas would have been Alexander Y Types (EFE) and Duple Dominants (BT Models). Plaxton Paramount III coaches in Citylink colours (EFE) had appeared by the end of the decade on long distance routes and the independent West Coast Motor Services were running a variety of full size coaches and had introduced Reeve Burgess/ Plaxton Beaver mk 1s (EFE) and Plaxton Pointers (EFE) in 1988/ 89.

[w124bob]

Well the (Mercedes Benz 709) Reeve Burgess Plaxton Beaver is an EFE release with several on Ebay currently, this one looks like an easy repaint if I can scource some decals. Did Highland have any older Mercedes Benz 709's this model was from '86 onwards, so really an E plate.

 

Edited October 21, 2019 by w124bob

[RANGERS]

On 21/10/2019 at 22:52, w124bob said:

Well the (Mercedes Benz 709) Reeve Burgess Plaxton Beaver is an EFE release with several on Ebay currently, this one looks like an easy repaint if I can scource some decals. Did Highland have any older Mercedes Benz 709's this model was from '86 onwards, so really an E plate.

 

Not sure what Highland had in the way of minibuses in the late 80s, if any, but the one in the photo is an Alexander body.