ALEXANDER AN68 ATLANTEAN
STRATHCLYDE LA1324 (LSU 381V)

LA1324 has been preserved and will carry this livery when finished. It was one of three Atlanteans fitted with short-bay windows on most of the lower deck in an effort to prevent the structural problems experienced with the large panoramic windows at the time. In the event few buses received this treatment as it was considered too expensive, even though it had been performed on nearly new buses, with the PTE instead choosing to scrap or sell buses as young as 7 years old and keep in service much earlier buses which had the shorter window style.

The LSU-V batch of Atlanteans was the last to feature the large windows, but was also the first to have the neater fold-down front panel and unique in having a single line destination aperture. Many of the batch lost one or both of these features in operation, LA1324 being one of the buses fitted with an earlier front. This will be rectified during the restoration.

The model has features already described on other pages, but is the first model to which I have fitted flush glazing. This feature will be added to some older models in due course and will be fitted to all models from now on, despite being a horrible fiddly job!