Walter Alexander CoachbuildersCompanies House extract company no SC026103
Walter Alexander (Falkirk) Limited formerly Walter Alexander & Company (Coachbuilders) Limited was a Scottish builder of bus and coach bodywork based in

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

. The company was formed in 1947 to continue the coachbuilding activities of W. Alexander & Sons when their bus service operation was

nationalised Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with ...

. After several mergers and changes of ownership it now forms part of Alexander Dennis.

History

In 1913, Walter Alexander founded Alexander's Motor Service to expand upon the Falkirk & District Tramways Company's route into previously unserved

Grangemouth Grangemouth (; , ) is a town in the Falkirk (council area), Falkirk council area in the central belt of Scotland. Historically part of the Counties of Scotland, county of Stirlingshire, the town lies in the Forth Valley, on the banks of the Firt ...

. In 1924, believing in the future of the omnibus, Alexander established W. Alexander & Sons Limited, to run them and to manufacture bodywork for its own fleet and for sale to other operators.P.S.V. Circle (1995), p. 5. In 1928, several of the major British railway companies bought into the Scottish Motor Traction Company (SMT). Walter Alexander decided to sell his business to the SMT group in 1929, and through this action, received access to a vast supply of resources and services. Alexander became an in-house supplier of bodywork for the whole of the SMT group, and only a few bodies were built for other customers during this period. Coachbuilding work had initially taken place at the company's main bus garage and works in Brown Street,

Camelon Camelon (; , ) is a large settlement within the Falkirk council area, Scotland. The village is in the Forth Valley, west of Falkirk, south of Larbert and east of Bonnybridge. The main road through Camelon is the A803 road which links th ...

, but it outgrew this facility and in 1930 a bus garage in Drip Road, Stirling was converted into a dedicated coachbuilding factory, although a few bodies for Alexander's own fleet did continue to be built at Brown Street in the 1930s and '40s. In 1947, in anticipation of the newly elected Labour Government's

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization contrasts with priv ...

of the SMT group's bus services, a new company, Walter Alexander & Company (Coachbuilders) Limited was formed in order to keep the coachbuilding business in private hands. Although Alexander remained the largest supplier of bodywork to what became the Scottish Bus Group, the independent company also began to broaden its customer base. The company outgrew the Drip Road premises and in 1958 it relocated to a purpose-built factory at Glasgow Road, Camelon. The coachbuilding business continued to flourish and expansion was rapid. In 1969, the company bought out Potters, a bodybuilder in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, and set up a subsidiary Walter Alexander & Co (Belfast) Limited, and within six years started selling buses to the Far East. In 1981 the company was awarded the Queen's Award for Export. By 1983, the company was the largest supplier of double-deck bus bodies in the world, and a year later it won a

British Rail British Railways (BR), which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was a state-owned company that operated most rail transport in Great Britain from 1948 to 1997. Originally a trading brand of the Railway Executive of the British Transport Comm ...

contract to construct 25 Class 143 carriages. In 1987, Walter Alexander became a publicly listed company, having previously been a private firm run by the Alexander family. The ownership of the company subsequently changed several times: In 1990 the family sold the company to Spotlaunch plc but within two years a management buyout occurred and it became a standalone company until 1995, when it was bought by the Mayflower Corporation plc. In 2001, it was incorporated into TransBus International. It is now part of Alexander Dennis.Walter Alexander
Falkirk Wheel

Products

Walter Alexander built many different types of bodywork over 50 years, with the most famous being the Y-Type single decker.

Railcars

* British Rail Class 143 - on underframes by Andrew Barclay * British Rail Class 144 - on underframes by British Rail Engineering Limited File:143610_in_July_1991.jpg, Regional Railways Class 143 File:Leeds_railway_station_MMB_48_144006.jpg,

Northern Rail Northern Rail, branded as Northern, was an English train operating company owned by Serco-Abellio that operated the Northern Rail franchise from 2004 until 2016. It was the primary passenger train operator in Northern England, and operated the ...

Class 144

Double-deck buses

* A type and J type - double-deck body (for

Leyland Atlantean The Leyland Atlantean is a predominantly double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland Motors between 1958 and 1986. Only 17 Atlantean chassis were bodied as single deck from new. It pioneered the design of rear-engined, front entrance ...

Daimler Fleetline The Daimler Fleetline (known as the Leyland Fleetline from circa 1975) is a rear-engined double-decker bus chassis which was built between 1960 and 1983. It was the second of three bus models to have a marque name as well as an alphanumeric ...

) to 1972 * C type -lowheight double-deck body for Albion Lowlander 1961–65. * D type, K type and AD type (A for alloy) - lowheight double-deck body (mainly on Fleetline chassis) * L type and AL type - double-deck body (for Atlantean/Fleetline/ Bristol VR) from 1972 * AV type - double-deck body for Volvo Ailsa B55 * R type - including RH, RL, RV, RX, RLC, RVC, RHS and Royale - post 1981 double deck body * ALX series - including ALX400 & ALX500 - low-floor bodies * CB type - for China Motor Bus * KB type - for

Kowloon Motor Bus The Kowloon Motor Bus Company (1933) Limited (KMB) is a bus company operating Bus services in Hong Kong, franchised services in Hong Kong. It is the largest bus company in Hong Kong by fleet size and number of bus routes, with over 4,000 buses ...

* LB type - for New Lantao Bus * MB type - for Manila Bus * SB type - for Singapore Bus Service File:West Midlands PTE bus 4775 (JOV 775P) 1976 Volvo Ailsa B55 Alexander AV, Birmingham, 1982.jpg, West Midlands PTE AV type bodied Volvo Ailsa B55, pictured in Birmingham in 1982 File:Western Scottish SBG preserved bus Leyland Fleetline Alexander AD Type in Paisley, Renfrewshire 22 September 2006.jpg, Preserved Western Scottish AD type bodied

File:Trans-Clyde Volvo Ailsa.jpg, Strathclyde PTE RV type bodied Volvo Ailsa, pictured in Glasgow in 1984 File:DF9565.jpg,

RH type bodied Mercedes-Benz O305 File:CtbLeyland.jpg, Citybus RH type bodied Leyland Olympian

Single-deck buses and coaches

* Y type - including AY and AYS types (A for alloy, S for bus specification) * W type * M type - Motorway coach for Scottish Bus Group Anglo-Scottish services * T type - including AT, TS, TC, TE (A for alloy, S for stage, C for coach, E for express) * P type * PS type - development of P type, popular with

Stagecoach A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...

and SBS Transit * Strider - for full-size rear-engined chassis * AM type ** Sprint - minibus body **

Dash The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

- midibus body (for

Dennis Dart The Dennis Dart is a Rear-engine design, rear-engined single-decker bus, single-decker midibus chassis that was introduced by Dennis Specialist Vehicles, Dennis of Guildford, England, in 1989, replacing the Dennis Domino. Initially built as a ...

/ Volvo B6) * ALX series ** ALX100 - minibus ** ALX200 - small low-floor single-deck ** ALX300 - full-size low-floor single-deck File:LeylandLeopardAlexanderYTypeMFR306P.jpg, Preserved Y type (AYS) bodied

Leyland Leopard The Leyland Leopard was a mid-engine design, mid-engined single-decker bus and single-decker bus, single-decker coach (bus), coach chassis manufactured by Leyland Bus, Leyland between 1959 and 1982. History The Leyland Leopard was introduced ...

on display in Blackpool in 2001 File:Stagecoach_Cumbria_%26_North_Lancashire_21007_M393VWX_(8852909977).jpg, Stagecoach Cumbria & North Lancashire Strider bodied Volvo B10B File:Leven Valley Coaches minibus Mercedes Benz 709D Alexander Sprint P776 BJU Middlesbrough bus station 5 May 2009.JPG, Leven Valley Coaches Sprint bodied Mercedes-Benz 709D File:Big_Lemon_K779_DAO.jpg, The Big Lemon PS type bodied Volvo B10M File:Timeline_bus_(N210_WBA),_Manchester.jpg, Timeline

bodied Volvo B6

Alexander (Belfast) buses

* X type (unofficial title) - for

and Bristol RE * N type - for Leyland Tiger,

Lynx A lynx ( ; : lynx or lynxes) is any of the four wikt:extant, extant species (the Canada lynx, Iberian lynx, Eurasian lynx and the bobcat) within the medium-sized wild Felidae, cat genus ''Lynx''. The name originated in Middle Engl ...

, and B21 * Q type - for Leyland Tiger and Volvo B10M * D type - Alexander (Belfast) version of Alexander RH for Leyland Olympian and Volvo Olympian * Ultra - Alexander (Belfast) version of Swedish Säffle body for the Volvo B10L File:Ensignbus_bus_163_(P563_SWC)_ex-Dublin_Bus_RV341_(97_D_341)_1997_Volvo_Olympian_Alexander_(Belfast),_St_Paul%27s_Cathedral,_7_October_2010.jpg,

Ensignbus Ensign Bus Company Limited, trading as Ensignbus, is a bus and coach operator and bus dealer based in Purfleet, Essex. As of March 2023, it is a part of FirstGroup. History Ensignbus was formed in 1972 by Peter Newman, who remains involved ...

D type bodied Volvo Olympian File:Metro_(Belfast)_bus_2743_(LAZ_2743)_1997_Volvo_B10L_Alexander_(Belfast)_Ultra,_2_June_2011.jpg, Metro Ultra bodied Volvo B10L

Sources

*P.S.V. Circle (1995), ''W. Alexander & Sons Ltd; Part One 1914 to 1931 (fleet history PM14)'', P.S.V. Circle, Harrow.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alexander, Walter Alexander Dennis Coachbuilders of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1913 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1913 Companies based in Falkirk (council area) Manufacturing companies of Scotland 1913 establishments in Scotland Motor vehicle manufacturers of Scotland