Sad to have to relate that Douglas passed away over the Easter weekend, having been ill for some time. He will be a massive loss to the preservation world.
It was Moris Little, Edinburgh's general manager back then, who ordered 101. He had visions of a large fleet of similar buses but he got one vital thing wrong: passengers prefer to sit, not to stand!
Your post is the first I've heard of Mr. Scoular's passing. A massive shock to say the least, as I didn't even know he was ill. And indeed, his loss to the preservation world will be deeply felt. 101's continued preservation will undoubtedly be the best way to honour his memory. My heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and colleagues.
Heading west and jumping back about a decade or so from 101 entering service in Edinburgh, a similar line of thought to that of Mr. Little's was what led to the existence of Glasgow's 11
Standee single-deck trolleybuses (classified as TBS). The progenitor for the
Standees was Glasgow's Transport Manager of the period, E. R. L. Fitzpayne, attending the International Union of Public Transport conference in Stockholm in 1949 (Glasgow's trolleybuses had started running that April) & taking a liking to the 'sardine' or 'crush loading' concept he had observed while there. He saw it as a way of carrying roughly the same amount of passengers as a double-deck 'trolly' crammed in sardine-tin style on a single-decker, thereby maximizing profits while simultaneously reducing operating costs.
Built largely to Fitzpayne's design (66 passengers with 26 seated and 40 standing, four less overall than the TB/TD classes and with a conductor's desk much like 101), passengers would board at the rear, pay the conductor at their desk and alight at their desired stop via a exit door situated behind the front wheels (TBS2-11 only;
TBS1 had it's second set of doors in the standard position in front of the leading axle), the idea with the seperate sets of doors presumbly being to enhance passenger flow and shorten dwell times at the busiest stops. All 11 vehicles were built on a BUT RETB1 (BUT shortform for British United Traction) chassis and were bodied by both Weymann (TBS1) & East Lancs (TBS2-11; these were rated for 27 seated passengers, one up from TBS1). The first - FYS 765 - entered service in March 1951 (initally carrying the TB35 fleetnumber before gaining the TBS1 fleetnumber), the rest following in February (TBS2) and July 1953 (TBS3-11) respectively.
While the planners thought the
Standee concept was god's gift from heaven, the travelling public took precisely the opposite view as time went on. Confusion over which set of doors was the entrance and exit was common, thus cancelling out the supposed benefits of a speedier passenger flow and increasing the dwell time at the busiest stops. Plus, as
@DunsBus notes above, passengers by and large prefer sitting to standing! In the end, the rear set of doors and conductor's desk were subsequently removed from all 11 vehicles. Being relegated to supplementry/supporting duties, all 11
Standees would be withdrawn by the end of November 1964, over 3 years before Glasgow's trollybuses were withdrawn completely with none of the 11 vehicles surviving to the present day.
Attached images below show two of the East Lancs
Standees in as-built and modified conditions. From the GEC Collection (courtsey of David Beilby) and copyright of A.J. Douglas respectively.