Edinburgh adopted fully automatic transmission as standard for its new buses in 1975 and in 1979 Alexander introduced a number of updates to the appearance of the AL type body. Edinburgh’s first to this updated design were twenty-three bought that year. (The last two of what would have been a batch of 25 were specified instead as Titans, at the time a new Leyland design, but in the event they never materialised.) These Atlanteans were Edinburgh’s first buses with three-track number blinds, capable of displaying service numbers higher than 99. Of these 23 buses, the last eight were allocated to Longstone garage and were used amongst other things on service 61 (St Andrew Square bus station-Currie), LRT’s first substantial venture beyond the old city boundary and operated jointly with arch-rival Eastern Scottish. In order to be able to run on the 61, these eight buses had to be fitted with long-range (!) Autofare ticket machines. When withdrawn in 1993, 595 passed to the LBC for preservation.
