A103OUG History
Not being at all expert on English or Welsh bus fleets I am currently only able to compile a short and incomplete history of A103OUG using the information I can find on the websites of others, but for what it's worth here goes!
To start with A103OUG is a Leyland Olympian which was originally delivered to South Yorkshire, Pontefract in 1984. This was an relatively small independant operator running bus services from Pontefract to various places including Leeds, and this vehicle was half of a 'batch' of a mere two buses of this type ordered that year. It was numbered '103' by them and it worked in that fleet for over a decade until the mid-1990s when that company was taken over by Caldaire Holdings, and then by British Bus.
At some point after the British Bus takeover, A103OUG was transferred to Crossville Wales, which later became Arriva Cymru. The trail runs a bit cold after that as Alan and his co-owners bought it after it had changed hands again and had been moved to Scotland.
Illustrating the livery history of A103OUG presents a problem since neither Alan or I have any pictures of it prior to 2008, and I currently don't have permission to use anyone elses pictures desite having found some on other websites. However here is a brief description of the liveries I know about from web browsing (which anyone reading this can easily repeat!). It's original livery was dark blue, light blue, and white in a distinctive livery used on all the buses of South Yorkshire, Pontefract. I don't currently know whether it was repainted before or after it was moved to Wales, but when it was working in Wales it was in a bright blue & yellow livery. At a later date, while still in Wales, it carried the turquoise Arriva group livery. However by the time Alan and his co-owners bought A103OUG it had been repainted into a yellow & black livery, probably related to it's move to Scotland, which can be seen in the picture at the head of this page!
As mentioned above, A103OUG was originally numbered '103', but I believe from the information I have been able to find that that from the mid-1990s it carried the fleetnumber '563' and may subsequently have carried 'NCME 2613' and 'DOL103', although I haven't been able to confirm either of these identities from any picture on the web. Maybe someone will read this some day who can set the record straight on a subject I don't know too much about. One can only hope!
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