Midland Scottish Omnibuses Ltd was a bus operating subsidiary of the Scottish Transport Group formed in June 1985 from part of W. Alexander & Sons (Midland) Ltd, and operated until 1991 when it was renamed Midland Bluebird Ltd. Operation From its head office in Camelon (later Larbert), Midland Scottish was the largest bus operator in Stirling, Clackmannanshire and Falkirk districts and was responsible for urban, rural and interurban services in and around Stirling, the Trossachs, Alloa, Falkirk, and Linlithgow, as well as parts of Argyllshire. Services from these places extended into Glasgow, Edinburgh and Perth. The company also provided coaches for Scottish Citylink express work, mainly north west and central Scotland to other towns and cities in Scotland and England. History Its predecessor company, W Alexander & Sons can be traced back to 1923, and had been split into three smaller companies in 1961. The largest of these, Midland, subsequently renamed Midland Scottish, had an operating territory extended from Glasgow and Bo'ness in the south to Oban and Pitlochry in the north. In 1970 the Oban depot and services had been transferred to Highland Omnibuses, but the operating area was still large and varied. In preparation for deregulation of the bus industry and eventual privatisation the Scottish Bus Group reorganised its subsidiaries in 1985 to create smaller operating units which more closely corresponded with local government boundaries and which reduced the number of jointly-operated services. To this end, the Alexander (Midland) depots at within Strathclyde Region (i.e. Cumbernauld, Kilsyth, Kirkintilloch, Milngavie and Stepps) were ceded to a new company Kelvin Scottish Omnibuses, whilst those in Tayside Region (i.e. Crieff, Perth and Pitlochry) passed to another new company Strathtay Scottish Omnibuses. The company's central works adjacent to Larbert depot also passed to another new SBG subsidiary, SBG Engineering. The remainder of Alexander (Midland) was renamed Midland Scottish Omnibuses, and consisted of the Central Region depots at Alloa, Balfron, Bannockburn, Callander, Grangemouth and Larbert. To these were added the former Scottish Omnibuses depot at Linlithgow in West Lothian, so as to give Midland Scottish full responsibility for the hitherto jointly operated Edinburgh to Stirling / Falkirk services. Also transferred to Midland Scottish were the SBG's operations in Argyllshire from Oban (ex Highland Omnibuses but originally an Alexander depot), Ardrishaig (ex Western SMT but originally David MacBrayne) and Bridgend, Islay (also ex Western SMT). The traditional Alexander's azure blue and ivory livery was