Scottish Motor Traction (SMT) was founded in Edinburgh in 1905 by William Johnston Thomson.
Aside from its bus operations, by 1930 SMT had dealerships in Edinburgh selling cars and trucks at 89 Haymarket Terrace and 71 Lothian Road.
It also operated an air taxi service using a De Havilland Fox Moth between 18 July and 31 October 1932.
The next year, following its takeover of another operator, SMT started an express coach service from Edinburgh to London.
This continued to operate as SMT until the early 1960s, when the fleet name Eastern Scottish was adopted.
Activities other than bus operations remained in private hands as SMT Sales & Service Ltd.
The ferry services, run as Caledonian MacBrayne, remain owned by the Scottish government.
[5] Contributors included the author and Sissinghurst gardener Vita Sackville West (short story "To be let or sold"); travel writer Lewis Spence (“Early travellers in Scotland”); the Marxist archaeologist Gordon Childe discussing his recent excavation of Skara Brae; the botanist and explorer Captain Frank Kingdon-Ward; E. Hayter Simmonds on film-making at Elstree; Robert T. Skinner on Donaldson’s Hospital in Edinburgh; H.W.
An article about Ye Old Sheep Head Inn by M. S. Maddan makes use of a frowning face emoticon in the text.
The SMT advertising pages promoted the company's Edinburgh dealerships offering: MG sports cars from £185, a £389 Buick, discounts on Chevrolet trucks, and the £350 Marquette “Little Marvel” at its Haymarket Terrace showroom; and £185 Citroen cars and the £950 Minerva at Lothian Road.