Western SMT Leyland Leopard W7035
Chassis Leyland Leopard PSU3/3R no. 901476 ♦ Body Alexander Y-type C-F no. 125Y/4268/13 (tow wagon conversion)
History
When new this vehicle was fitted with Alexander AY type dual-purpose bodywork and was part of an order for fourteen such buses delivered to Western SMT at Kilmarnock in late 1969.
It didn’t enter service until April 1970 when it was allocated to Inchinnan depot (I) and carried fleet number IL2231. It remained there until being transferred to Rothesay depot (R) in April 1972. L2231 continued to work from Rothesay depot until being withdrawn in December 1980. This bus and sister vehicle OAG 539H both retained their original coach livery of black and white throughout, rather unusual for Western who would normally have repainted them into the red and cream bus livery.
OAG 535H later became the Ayr depot tow wagon, and can be seen here as AW7035 in SBG red and cream and here as AW1035 in post-privatisation black and white. Many early Leyland Leopards were converted into recovery vehicles by the Scottish Bus Group in the early 1980s. In these conversions the bodywork was cut back immediately behind the rear axle, a cabin formed in the first window bay and a load bay created in the rest of the floor area. Western SMT undertook a large number of these conversions. In most cases, the front of the bus was left unaltered, but this bus and at least one other member of the same batch were given the later style of front panel. (Another of the batch can be seen in original condition here.) At a later date it had its distinctive large glass side windows removed and replaced with much smaller ones (though it retains the original window frames).
The bus remained at Ayr until approximately 1996 when Stagecoach, which had gained control of the Western company in August 1994, transferred the bus to Bluebird Northern at Elgin depot. Hall of Kennoway in Fife later purchased this vehicle around 2000/01, and it was purchased for preservation in 2002.
Restoration
The bus was preserved initially in Hall of Kennoway’s livery. Although it has lost the crane it carried in Western days, it still functions as a recovery vehicle.
Recently extensive work has been carried out on the frame of the recovery section at the rear, with the removal of many panels, what was left of the rear framework, the fuel tank and the brake chambers. The fuel tank has also been removed for refurbishment.
