Scottish Paragon Update



20502 looking in very similar condition to when it left King's Lynn

 Chris from Scotland has kindly sent us an update on the Paragon coaches 20502 - 20509 formerly on the X1. Here is his report :
I thought that you and perhaps your readers may be interested to hear that history has to a point repeated itself for the Paragons. As I informed you previously they were acquired by First Glasgow primarily for operation on the X11 "Lanarkshire Express" between Glasgow and Newmains/Cleland, however, over the last couple of months they have steadilly been replaced (more or less) completely on the X11 by Volvo Wright Eclipse Double Deckers. This has resulted in the Paragons being reallocated from Overtown to Blantyre Depot.


Reliveried for the X11, 20506 seen in Glasgow. My thanks to the provider of these pictures ( I know it was Jamie or Rob, who both kindly sent me pix of the Paragons in Glasgow, but I'm now not sure which !)

 As such, the Paragons have been displaced to our own X1 which runs between Glasgow and Hamilton, but  due to a lower service frequency on the X1, the Paragons have been used on fill in turns or other duties that are typically operated by a Dart type bus. In addition, in the last 2 months the coaches have been being cycled through storeage at Blantyre depot due to a lower requirement for the full fleet in daily service. A sad state of affairs indeed.
Some of your readers may also be interested to know that the "Night Flyer" service which First Glasgow operated between Glasgow and London Victoria will be transferring to First's "Greyhound UK" operation from next Monday evening and will be operated by a batch of 3x Ex First Cymru Plaxton Panthers displaced from National Express duties... 23205, 23206 and 23207 (23207 was unveiled to the press in early December carrying its new livery).
Thanks very much to Chris for this update.