Eastern Scottish Omnibuses Limited Renault (Dodge) S56 / Alexander AM-type
Something Dodgy - a potted history of the Dodge minibus in the Scottish Bus Group
The 1980s were a tough time for bus manufacturers after deregulation. Full size vehicle orders virtually dried up as operators stocked up on new fangled minibuses as they adapted to this brave new world.. So bus builders were forced to adapt and turn their hand to these sorts of buses. Alexander’s - with their main customer being the Scottish Bus Group - was not unaffected.
Initially, the bodies were nothing more than crude van conversions - think a panel van with windows and seats. And they looked it because they showed little design flair. However the company then developed the AM body, which debuted in vehicles such as this, MR428 (D428ASF) on the Dodge S56 chassis. By this stage, Dodge’s UK Truck business had been acquired by Renault Trucks and it was rebadging them accordingly. Renault Trucks has acquired them following the break up of Chrysler’s UK business.
Chrysler, the smallest of America’s big three vehicle makes, had expanded into the UK when it initially purchased a stake in the Rootes Group in 1964 after an attempt to purchase Leyland in 1962 was rebuffed. It later purchased the remaining shares in Rootes in 1967 and assumed full control. It renamed the operation Chrysler UK and subsequently merged it with its other European makes, basically Simca of France and Barreiros of Spain to form Chrysler Europe. It killed off most of the Rootes brands and elected to sell cars under the Chrysler mark.
The purchase of Rootes brought with it a commercial vehicle arm, under the Karrier and Commer names. They mainly made vans and trucks, and bus production had long since stopped. It was these two it rebranded as Dodge. Chrysler was never really sure what to do with its European arm and after attempts to sell a new range of cars based on Simca designs failed, it sold the whole shebang to PSA, owners of Peugeot and Citroen, after massive losses for the princely sum of $1.00 in 1978, with PSA assuming liabilities too. PSA rebranded the car and light van arm as Talbot but showed no interest in the heavy vehicle arm, these passing to Renault Trucks. Initially it retained the Dodge name but added the classic Renault Diamond logo before rebranding the lot as Renault.
Back to this bus. Alexander by designing this made It a least looked like a small bus. The Group ordered 255 of the type. Most Group companies got them, with the type going to Central, Fife, Eastern, Highland, Northern, Lowland, Strathtay Western and Clydeside. Kelvin never got any, as it had ordered Mercedes-Benz van conversions (again bodied by Alexander) and Midland ordered the MCW Metrorider. A small small batch of these Metroriders also went to Fife too, where they ran alongside the Dodges. Northern Scottish didn’t receive any new but did receive some second-hand later on, mainly from other Group companies that wanted rid of them.
As was the style at the time, the Dodge’s received branding. This one seen in the photo here, part of many run by Eastern, received City Sprinter branding for services competing with LRT Lothian, hence the C-prefix for the service number. The Highland ones received rather amusing Highland Terrier branding. The Strathtay ones were used mainly in Perth for competitive services against Stagecoach and received City Nipper branding. They were also painted in red and cream Perth City Transport colours rather than Strathtay’s usual blue/white/orange, to highlight that they were the original transport company for Perth.
Lowland’s ones were used mainly for competitive services against Northumbria in Berwick-Upon-Tweed and were branded as Berwick Beavers. As such they were the only ones in the Group to see service in England! This is because Berwick is in England - it wasn’t always - and historically what had become Northumbria and Lowland shared services in the town. They even shared a depot!
Western Scottish branded their ones as Buzzers, using them all across their operating area. Fife’s were Buzzbuses used in competition with Rennies of Dunfermline and Moffat & Williamson. Clydeside’s ones were branded as Skippers and used against the various independent operators it had to deal with plus Strathclyde’s Buses. Clydeside even repainted one Dodge in its Quicksilver coach livery, gave it coach seats and it was available for hire for small parties of people needing a minibus. It wasn’t very successful in this role and it spent most of its time on regular services. When Clydeside merged - well taken over - by Western, the Dodge’s were repainted in Western’s grey/black/red livery but with Clydeside fleetnames, loosing their Skipper branding.
Central Scottish’s ones were unusual in that they received two sets of branding under their time in the Group. Initially they were branded as Harriers for use on competitive services in parts of the south side of Glasgow against Strathclyde’s Buses run from Central’s East Kilbride depot. However these proved somewhat unsuccessful and the services were withdrawn. This led to some of the Dodges being withdrawn and passed to other Group companies. By this stage Central was recovering from a disastrous strike and had rebranded its entire East Kilbride depot as EK Chieftain, harking back to the former glory days of former independent Lawrie (Chieftain) of Hamilton, which Central had acquired and who’d run services in the East Kilbride area. So the little Dodges were branded Little Chief’s for local services in the South Lanarkshire area..
Apart from three for Fife Scottish with Reeve Burgess bodies and 12 for Strathtay with Carlyle bodies, all of the Group’s Dodges had Alexander bodies. After a flurry of interest on the Dodge chassis, Alexanders built hundreds on AM-bodies on Mercedes-Benz 7XX and 8XX series of heavy vans. Indeed it became a Stagecoach standard mini-bus type, although was operated by other companies too.
The last new ‘Dodges’ - it was now badged fully as a Renault by this stage - to what was a Scottish Bus Group company was a small batch with Reeve Burgess bodies for the now privatised Eastern Scottish in 1991, which by this time traded as SMT. Some were branded as ‘Bathgate Bairn’ for services in and around Bathgate. In case you’re wondering, Bairn is a Scottish term for a child. Although the Renault was still available, no more were ordered and future orders for SMT minibus wise were for the Optare MetroRider.
Of course some Dodges were acquired second hand by the now privatised Scottish Bus Group companies. The new Clydeside 2000 picked up some former Central Scottish ones that were dispersed all over the place as Kelvin Central’s fleet contracted, as well as some from Merseybus ones with Northern Counties bodies, which were pretty rough to be fair. These latter ones didn’t last long. Also acquired were some Reebur-bodied ones from various Yorkshire fleets. These first generation ex-Group Dodge’s were particularly long-lived with Clydeside and some survived long enough to receive Clydeside Buses livery, when Clydeside 2000 was sold to British Bus. However all had been withdrawn as that company morphed into Arriva Scotland West.
However the oddest second-hand purchases were the ones that went to Strathtay. The parent company of Strathtay was Yorkshire Traction and they acquired 33 former London Buses ones with long-wheelbase Reebur bodies. Yorkshire Traction then split them up amongst their various subsidiaries and some went to Strathtay. They weren’t particularly popular I believe with the staff according to reports at the time and all were withdrawn under Stagecoach ownership, when Yorkshire Traction was purchased.,
Very few of these first generation minibuses survived as they were pretty much run into the ground but this former Eastern vehicle managed to survive and is now fully restored into the livery it carried along with branding for the C5 service. It’s important that this era of bus is also represented in preservation as well.
Eastern Scottish Omnibuses Limited Renault (Dodge) S56 / Alexander AM-type
Something Dodgy - a potted history of the Dodge minibus in the Scottish Bus Group
The 1980s were a tough time for bus manufacturers after deregulation. Full size vehicle orders virtually dried up as operators stocked up on new fangled minibuses as they adapted to this brave new world.. So bus builders were forced to adapt and turn their hand to these sorts of buses. Alexander’s - with their main customer being the Scottish Bus Group - was not unaffected.
Initially, the bodies were nothing more than crude van conversions - think a panel van with windows and seats. And they looked it because they showed little design flair. However the company then developed the AM body, which debuted in vehicles such as this, MR428 (D428ASF) on the Dodge S56 chassis. By this stage, Dodge’s UK Truck business had been acquired by Renault Trucks and it was rebadging them accordingly. Renault Trucks has acquired them following the break up of Chrysler’s UK business.
Chrysler, the smallest of America’s big three vehicle makes, had expanded into the UK when it initially purchased a stake in the Rootes Group in 1964 after an attempt to purchase Leyland in 1962 was rebuffed. It later purchased the remaining shares in Rootes in 1967 and assumed full control. It renamed the operation Chrysler UK and subsequently merged it with its other European makes, basically Simca of France and Barreiros of Spain to form Chrysler Europe. It killed off most of the Rootes brands and elected to sell cars under the Chrysler mark.
The purchase of Rootes brought with it a commercial vehicle arm, under the Karrier and Commer names. They mainly made vans and trucks, and bus production had long since stopped. It was these two it rebranded as Dodge. Chrysler was never really sure what to do with its European arm and after attempts to sell a new range of cars based on Simca designs failed, it sold the whole shebang to PSA, owners of Peugeot and Citroen, after massive losses for the princely sum of $1.00 in 1978, with PSA assuming liabilities too. PSA rebranded the car and light van arm as Talbot but showed no interest in the heavy vehicle arm, these passing to Renault Trucks. Initially it retained the Dodge name but added the classic Renault Diamond logo before rebranding the lot as Renault.
Back to this bus. Alexander by designing this made It a least looked like a small bus. The Group ordered 255 of the type. Most Group companies got them, with the type going to Central, Fife, Eastern, Highland, Northern, Lowland, Strathtay Western and Clydeside. Kelvin never got any, as it had ordered Mercedes-Benz van conversions (again bodied by Alexander) and Midland ordered the MCW Metrorider. A small small batch of these Metroriders also went to Fife too, where they ran alongside the Dodges. Northern Scottish didn’t receive any new but did receive some second-hand later on, mainly from other Group companies that wanted rid of them.
As was the style at the time, the Dodge’s received branding. This one seen in the photo here, part of many run by Eastern, received City Sprinter branding for services competing with LRT Lothian, hence the C-prefix for the service number. The Highland ones received rather amusing Highland Terrier branding. The Strathtay ones were used mainly in Perth for competitive services against Stagecoach and received City Nipper branding. They were also painted in red and cream Perth City Transport colours rather than Strathtay’s usual blue/white/orange, to highlight that they were the original transport company for Perth.
Lowland’s ones were used mainly for competitive services against Northumbria in Berwick-Upon-Tweed and were branded as Berwick Beavers. As such they were the only ones in the Group to see service in England! This is because Berwick is in England - it wasn’t always - and historically what had become Northumbria and Lowland shared services in the town. They even shared a depot!
Western Scottish branded their ones as Buzzers, using them all across their operating area. Fife’s were Buzzbuses used in competition with Rennies of Dunfermline and Moffat & Williamson. Clydeside’s ones were branded as Skippers and used against the various independent operators it had to deal with plus Strathclyde’s Buses. Clydeside even repainted one Dodge in its Quicksilver coach livery, gave it coach seats and it was available for hire for small parties of people needing a minibus. It wasn’t very successful in this role and it spent most of its time on regular services. When Clydeside merged - well taken over - by Western, the Dodge’s were repainted in Western’s grey/black/red livery but with Clydeside fleetnames, loosing their Skipper branding.
Central Scottish’s ones were unusual in that they received two sets of branding under their time in the Group. Initially they were branded as Harriers for use on competitive services in parts of the south side of Glasgow against Strathclyde’s Buses run from Central’s East Kilbride depot. However these proved somewhat unsuccessful and the services were withdrawn. This led to some of the Dodges being withdrawn and passed to other Group companies. By this stage Central was recovering from a disastrous strike and had rebranded its entire East Kilbride depot as EK Chieftain, harking back to the former glory days of former independent Lawrie (Chieftain) of Hamilton, which Central had acquired and who’d run services in the East Kilbride area. So the little Dodges were branded Little Chief’s for local services in the South Lanarkshire area..
Apart from three for Fife Scottish with Reeve Burgess bodies and 12 for Strathtay with Carlyle bodies, all of the Group’s Dodges had Alexander bodies. After a flurry of interest on the Dodge chassis, Alexanders built hundreds on AM-bodies on Mercedes-Benz 7XX and 8XX series of heavy vans. Indeed it became a Stagecoach standard mini-bus type, although was operated by other companies too.
The last new ‘Dodges’ - it was now badged fully as a Renault by this stage - to what was a Scottish Bus Group company was a small batch with Reeve Burgess bodies for the now privatised Eastern Scottish in 1991, which by this time traded as SMT. Some were branded as ‘Bathgate Bairn’ for services in and around Bathgate. In case you’re wondering, Bairn is a Scottish term for a child. Although the Renault was still available, no more were ordered and future orders for SMT minibus wise were for the Optare MetroRider.
Of course some Dodges were acquired second hand by the now privatised Scottish Bus Group companies. The new Clydeside 2000 picked up some former Central Scottish ones that were dispersed all over the place as Kelvin Central’s fleet contracted, as well as some from Merseybus ones with Northern Counties bodies, which were pretty rough to be fair. These latter ones didn’t last long. Also acquired were some Reebur-bodied ones from various Yorkshire fleets. These first generation ex-Group Dodge’s were particularly long-lived with Clydeside and some survived long enough to receive Clydeside Buses livery, when Clydeside 2000 was sold to British Bus. However all had been withdrawn as that company morphed into Arriva Scotland West.
However the oddest second-hand purchases were the ones that went to Strathtay. The parent company of Strathtay was Yorkshire Traction and they acquired 33 former London Buses ones with long-wheelbase Reebur bodies. Yorkshire Traction then split them up amongst their various subsidiaries and some went to Strathtay. They weren’t particularly popular I believe with the staff according to reports at the time and all were withdrawn under Stagecoach ownership, when Yorkshire Traction was purchased.,
Very few of these first generation minibuses survived as they were pretty much run into the ground but this former Eastern vehicle managed to survive and is now fully restored into the livery it carried along with branding for the C5 service. It’s important that this era of bus is also represented in preservation as well.