The quest was on... After several years of watching the bus preservation scene, and seeing various projects completed and rallied by other restorers, i decided that the time was now right to contribute to the bus preservation scene myself and take on the project of restoring a real bus. The problem of course was finding a vehicle that was of suitable significance to myself - as most of those vehicles were now long gone for scrap...

I had previously discovered that two ex Central Scottish Dennis Dominators were still alive and kicking in the Coatbridge area of Lanarkshire. These vehicles would probably have run in East Kilbride - which is where I grew up, and therefore highly likely that I would have travelled on them at some point when I was younger. I remembered the Dominators very well, and so began the job of locating these survivors with the possibility of perhaps owning one of them for preservation.... one day.

So today, I sat off on a journey to track down the two vehicles and see if they still existed. I had learned that the two vehicles in question were ex Central Dominators D22 and D23 (FGE422X and FGE423X), and the owner had recently moved yards, apparently leaving D23 behind as it had a mechanical problem. So with rough details of where the original yard was, off I went to see what i could find.

I very quickly found the yard in question and discovered that neither Dominator nor any of the operators other vehicles were present.

Not to be outdone, I had learned previously that the owners new yard was in an "industrial estate in Coatbridge"... So out came the A To Z map and a route was plotted encompassing every industrial estate in Coatbridge to try and locate the yard.....

As luck would have it, the first industrial estate visited led me straight to the new yard, where D22 and D23 were both present and parked up, amongst the operators other vehicles. Conversation was struck with the owner, and after a lengthy chat he was now aware of my interest in the vehicles, and I was given free reign to photograph them:

It was discovered during conversation with the owner of the fleet, that D22 was still in daily service performing without fault on school contracts and private hires whereas D23 had been off the road since March 2006 with mechanical problems involving its gearbox.

Of the two vehicles, D23 was in a more original condition, still retaining features such as it's original embossed front registration plate as well as some original seats. D22 had been re-upholstered inside, and while looked very smart internally for a 25 year old bus, did not retain any of it's original character.

A few quick comparison photos were taken: