Central SMT

We have seen how Central loved the Leyland Titan and the Bristol Lodekka, but tried and rejected the Albion Lowlander, the Bristol VR and the Daimler Fleetline. Somewhere in the middle lay the Ailsa and the second last new double-decker to be bought, the Dennis Dominator.

In the case of the Dominator, a fleet of 51 was built up over a short period and all but the first were fitted with attractive Alexander R bodywork. The main Dominator fleet was based at East Kilbride and Old Kilpatrick depots and provided buses for Central's short-lived cross-city network linking East Kilbride and the Clydebank area.

The odd-bus-out in this fleet was D1. Delivered in 1978, during what you might call the Ailsa phase, it carried an Alexander AD body, complete with peaked front dome. After some initial work on the '60' group of services, it was transferred to the Milngavie depot of Alexander (Midland) for a period, to take part in SBG bus trials, being pitted against a native Metrobus, an Ailsa on loan from Fife and an early ECW-bodied Leyland Olympian. On completion of the trials, it joined its more modern sisters at East Kilbride.

Note the re-use of the D code, so recently associated with the Daimler Fleetline.