Central’s Dominators (or “Detonators” as referred to by some staff!) were delivered in four batches during the course of delivery:

D1 (EGB77T) was delivered in October 1978, and was used as part of the Scottish Bus Group trials of various double deckers. D1 also featured the unusual Alexander ‘AD’ body which had a very similar look to the Ailsa Volvo based Alexander ‘AV’ body.

D2-D21 (TYS255W – TYS274W) were delivered in June 1981 (D2-D12), July 1981 (D13-D16) and August 1981 (D17-D21). These featured the first batch of Alexander ‘RL’ bodies to be built at Falkirk, and D2-D6 were unique in being fitted with Rolls Royce Eagle engines.

D22-D41 (FGE422X – FGE441X) were delivered in June 1982 (D22-D30) and July 1982 (D31-D41).

D42-D51 (MNS42Y – MNS51Y) were delivered in June 1983.

All 51 had Spring Suspension, rather than Air Suspension.

During the early years, the Dominators ran in standard red and cream livery, however some colourful overall advertisements appeared over the years as well, advertising such companies and products as Vantage Home Centres (D1), Interlink Parcels (D3), Stakis Hotels (D17), Y-Fronts (D19), Scottish Development Agency (D30), Gateway Foodstores (D32), Slater Hogg (D32), Berger Paints (D33), Motherwell Football Club (D37) and Airdrie Savings Bank (D45)

During the re-organisation of the Scottish Bus Group in 1985, Central lost Gavinburn depot, which was transferred to the newly formed Kelvin Scottish operator and became known as Old Kilpatrick Depot. The 12 Dominators based there at the time (D13-D22, D38, D39) were transferred from Central to the new company as well, leaving Central with 39 Dennis Dominators in it’s fleet.

A further 4 Dominators left Central in 1986 (D3-D6) which were transferred to the East of Scotland to join Eastern Scottish’s Livingston depot. However these were found not to be favourable and very quickly moved back West, joining Clydeside Scottish in the same year and run alongside their native examples.

Another 3 Dominators left Central in 1987 (D2, D8 and D11) and joined the Borders based fleet of Lowland Scottish operating from Galashiels.

In Late 1988 another 12 Dominators left Central to join Kelvin Scottish (D7, D9, D10, D12, D23-D28)

At this point in time, the original 51 Dominators were spread out as follows:

D1, D29-D37, D40-D51 were still in service with Central Scottish
D7, D9, D10, D12-D28, D38, D39 were in service with Kelvin Scottish
D3-D6 were in service with Clydeside Scottish
D2, D8, D11 were in service with Lowland Scottish

In July 1989, Kelvin Scottish and Central Scottish merged together to form a new privatised company - Kelvin Central Buses. The 44 Kelvin and Central Dominators were reunited together again and renumbered in the series 1701-1744 – however, the ordering of this number sequence did not match the sequencing of their original D fleet numbers.

December 1989 saw the once highly profitable depot at East Kilbride closed, resulting in the Dominators based there (D1, D29-D37 and D40-D51) being re-allocated to Old Kilpatrick, Stepps, and for a short time, Airbles depots.

Like many other classes of vehicles, the Dominators had their fair share of mis-haps. Engine fires temporary took D33 and D45 and D46 off the road temporarily, whilst major accidents took D14, D24, D47 and D48, D50 and D51 off the road for a short while whist being repaired. D27, lost it’s roof under the infamous Cook Street railway bridge in Glasgow during 1991, but was repaired using the roof from withdrawn Metrobus 1641 (ULS641X). Interestingly, the last batch of 10 Dominators (D42-D51) seemed to have the least luck with 6 of the batch - D45, D46, D47, D48, D50 and D51 being involved in some sort of incident!). Unfortunately the two later victims - D14 and D50, were not repaired, and were subsequently scrapped in 1993 - D14 was the first in March 1993 at 12 years old. D50 was next in July 1993 at only 10 years old.

The rest of the remaining Dominators put in Sterling service until 1995, by which point Kelvin Central Buses was now known as KCB Network. The Dominators were replaced with ECW bodied Leyland Olympians transferred from now sister company, Strathclyde’s Buses, and were withdrawn completely due to being non-standard and complex machines. Upon withdrawl in 1995, the Dominators were sold to Ensign (Dealer) in Rainham, England and from there they dispersed all over the UK, operating with independents in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Some ran in London as Partial Open Top Sightseeing Buses (D12, D30, D39 and D45), and two were believed to be converted to children’s playbuses by English local authorities (D21 and D33). The rest mainly ran as local service or school buses with smaller independent operators.

The biggest operator of the former Central Dominators in Scotland, was Moffat & Willamson, based in Gauldry. This operator took 7 of the Dominators (D17, D19, D22, D23, D26, D28 and D32). These operated from late 1995 until December 2003 / January 2004.

By 2008, Only 3 ex Central Dominators were confirmed as surviving - D3, D6 and D23. D3 is due to be converted to a mobile home. D6 is heavily vandalised pending scrapping. D23 is in preservation. D45 (converted to partial open top) was possibly the last Dominator in daily revenue service (with Ipswich buses) but by late 2007 was withdrawn and sold to a private buyer.