Strathclyder 2.0
Stagecoach Western M648 FYS (40098) | Buchanan Bus Station, Glasgow
After finishing up on the Isle of Arran in March 2015, Alexander-bodied Mercedes-Benz 709D 40098 (new Mar. 1995) spent the last year or so of it's service life as a staff transport-slash-mobile advertising board. The only ads it carried promoted two services to/from the then-newly expanded Southern General Hospital complex: the then-newly extended X19 (from the City Centre to Southern General Hospital via Pacific Quay & Govan, effectively subsuming the short-lived X1 service) and the ill-fated G1/G2 routes (to/from Maryhill/Ruchill/Firhill).
It is caught here leaving Glasgow's Buchanan Bus Station on the first day of September 2015, no doubt bound for Blochairn depot.
It survived the closure of Blochairn depot and the relocation to the reopened ex-First Glasgow Cumbernauld depot in April 2016, but I don't think it ever ran out of the latter. It lasted until at least October 2017, out of use and dumped at the back of Cumbernauld depot. It has since passed away to the scrapyard, undoubtedly one of the last ex-Stagecoach Merc 'breadvans' that wasn't preserved to do so. Pity, but you can't save them all.
Photo Date: 1st September 2015
Stagecoach Western M648 FYS (40098) | Buchanan Bus Station, Glasgow
After finishing up on the Isle of Arran in March 2015, Alexander-bodied Mercedes-Benz 709D 40098 (new Mar. 1995) spent the last year or so of it's service life as a staff transport-slash-mobile advertising board. The only ads it carried promoted two services to/from the then-newly expanded Southern General Hospital complex: the then-newly extended X19 (from the City Centre to Southern General Hospital via Pacific Quay & Govan, effectively subsuming the short-lived X1 service) and the ill-fated G1/G2 routes (to/from Maryhill/Ruchill/Firhill).
It is caught here leaving Glasgow's Buchanan Bus Station on the first day of September 2015, no doubt bound for Blochairn depot.
It survived the closure of Blochairn depot and the relocation to the reopened ex-First Glasgow Cumbernauld depot in April 2016, but I don't think it ever ran out of the latter. It lasted until at least October 2017, out of use and dumped at the back of Cumbernauld depot. It has since passed away to the scrapyard, undoubtedly one of the last ex-Stagecoach Merc 'breadvans' that wasn't preserved to do so. Pity, but you can't save them all.
Photo Date: 1st September 2015