When is a bus not a bus ?   Answer when it is a dual-purpose (DP) vehicle ?   These vehicles were basically buses with coach seats which allowed operators the flexibility of using them on a variety of services including lengthy stage carriage routes or even the occasional private hire or express service.   In Scotland the trusty Alexander Y-Type provided this capability during the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.   So imagine the delight of Midland Scottish when it learned in 1983 that it had the opportunity of converting 13 members of its Y-Type Leopards from buses to DP vehicles.   These sets of seats had become available from front line coaches which had been upgraded to Scottish Citylink standard using brand new bright blue tartan reclining seats.   Rather than bin the seats from these Duple and Alexander TE coaches they could be re-used in the newest buses giving Midland an early Christmas present. 

A pilot vehicle was chosen – MPE278 (GMS278S) – a well-used Leopard from Stepps depot in Glasgow.   Its 53 bus seats were replaced by 49 seats from a TE Type coach and it was reallocated to Kirkintilloch.    It was soon apparent that the project was a success so a further 13 Y-Types, mainly one from each depot, were converted in the following months.   True to the tradition of DP vehicles several of these buses continued to trundle around on their former local routes while some ventured further on longer routes such as (14) Glasgow to Dunfermline and (15) Falkirk to Alloa.   They also popped up during the summer season to provide duplicates on Scottish Citylink services including cross-border journeys.   However many of them were to have quite a career, serving a further three or four companies.    [See all photos above]

The Scottish Bus Group re-cast its structure in 1985 with the creation of four new companies.   The consequence was that most of the DP Leopards ended up with Kelvin, the new Glasgow based company.   A handful stayed with Midland and the Crieff example went to Strathtay.   The Midland and Strathtay examples saw their days out with those companies but the Kelvin examples moved almost immediately to Highland as part of a larger swap of Y-Type Leopards for Leyland Nationals.   They were scattered far and wide with Highland but incredibly their adventure was just beginning.   Many of these vehicles then moved to Stagecoach Fife who painted them in corporate stripes and from there several were then transferred to Western, their fifth company.   The Western vehicles not surprisingly survived the longest with some even being converted back to buses at the very end.