EASTERN COUNTIES ALLOCATIONS FEBRUARY 1976

Eastern Counties Bristol MW LM 605 AAH 912B was an Cambridge allocation at this time in 1976 seen here on the 155 to ST Ives and is seen in Cambridge, Drummer Street.

February 1976, well i'm too young to remember it for a start, well i was only 4 and what was happening was the beginning of the gradual reduction of the Lodekka fleet, with LFS 12/13/15/16 going into storage in March, and the 900 series Bristol MW class slowly going down in numbers and of course the large amounts of Bristol VR's coming in, with it the change to one man operation. 

Bristol Lodekka LFS 86 was allocated to Great Yarmouth in 1976 but is seen here when allocated to Norwich circa 1980, as a Leyland National 2 is seen lurking behind.

CARTERS RECALL

Copyright John Law

Today's flashback shows three different Carters Buses, the first one we see is ex Eastern Counties Leyland Leopard/ ECW LL 877 XPW 877X heading into Colchester Bus Station in 1991, followed by another of Viv's passion for the Bristol/ECW combination is another ex Eastern Counties Bristol RE 896 SVF 896G, still in it's Eastern Counties pre NBC Coach livery, followed lastly by Ex National Welsh Bristol LH MD 8023 GTX 758W on the 777 at Hadleigh with thanks for the last two photos from Peter Horrex.

SOAMES CALL IT A DAY/THURSDAY OBSERVATIONS

Firstly further sad news has reached me today, with the news that Soames(Forget Me Not Travel) will cease trading at the end of July, seen here back in 2014 is Volvo B12M/Plaxton Paragon.

Today's observations compared with Monday's are not as wide ranging, however they are certainly worth mentioning firstly Scania/Optare Olympus 68 was on the 6, Dart 144 was on the 16 with i would think the last Non DDA East Lancs Dart 96, 139 was on the 15A, 61 was on the X3, whilst Trident 12 was on the X1 with Dart 142, whilst the 4 went back to Double Deckers with Trident 20 and 23, whilst 4 branded Dart 84 was on the 8/13. First Ipswich also had another Double Decker on the 60/61 today this time Volvo B7TL 32486.The first new ADL Enviro 200 for Ipswich Buses out of the 4 due has been seen up at ADL in Falkirk it's registered SN16 OGH.

And she lives the final Non DDA East Lancs Dart is defying it's withdrawal seen today is 96 X96 LBJ.

First Ipswich Volvo B7TL 32486 AU53 HKD today on the 60/61.

MONDAY OBSERVATIONS

Yesterday saw many different allocations to what we are used to on both Ipswich Buses and First Ipswich town services, as seen above Ipswich Buses Enviro 200 81 YX63 LGE appeared on the Park and Ride, in place of the one of the usual Optare Versa's, continuing this theme, IB had Trident 23 on the 9 in place of one of the usual Mercedes Benz Citario's, other observations included ALX 200 Dart 139 on the X1, sister 138 on the 8/13, 141 on the X3 and 144 on the 4, it's noticeable that most of the branded Dart's now appear on routes other than what they should, as was 84 on the 12, and 86 on the 8/13 both branded for the 4, Deckers 20 and 59 were also on the X3,First Ipswich had ADL Enviro 200 44928 out on the 53 instead of the 39/59, while 44517/19 were on the 60/61, with 44518 the solitary one on the 53, numbers made up with 2 Volvo B7RLE's, double deckers are also common these days on the 60/61 with heritage liveried 32479 whilst today 32655 appeared.
In regards to the Carter's takeover by Ipswich Buses, i believe that the Leyland/Volvo Olympians are for sale with just the 4 Trident's and the MCV Evolution passing to IB, Viv Carter will still carry on with their excellent heritage fleet and have already registered a school service. The reaction to my comment on the news was taken to be negative in regards to the comments i made, unfortunately i was rather negative on the whole which has upset people, especially the owners and peoples jobs rely on this takeover, my comment regarding the burden on the tax payer wasn't factually correct, apologises for that i do hope IB will make a go of the Colchester services, although they have operated rural services in the past, Suffolkbus was the identity of the buses/ coaches taken over by them from Bickers/Squirrells in the late 1980's.

First Ipswich Volvo B7TL 32479 on the 60 yesterday

 The Mini E200's brought in for the 59/70 occasionally escape on to towns illustrated yesterday by 44928 on the 53.

Ipswich Buses Lowlander 59 on the X3.

SUNDAY RECALL

This is quite an rare picture in that it could of only been on loan to Ipswich at that time from Eastern Counties Bury St Edmunds depot as by this point Ipswich was Bristol RE free, RL 872 XAH 872H had pretty much been an Norwich allocation until late in it's career, it's seen here at East Bergholt outstation in April 1985.

Copyright Michael Dryhurst

Now this is a real beauty with out any doubt and it has an family connection as being one of the Trolleybuses built by Ransomes in which my late uncle helped to build 81 PV 4789 is situated outside Ipswich Corporation Transport's Constantine Road  depot, note the typical advertisements of the time for Player's cigarettes and Gordon's gin, which wouldn't be allowed now.

IPSWICH BUSES APRIL CHANGES

Ipswich Buses ex Lothian Trident 24 SN51 AXO had a rare turn out on the 4 late yesterday morning and afternoon.

The following routes will be amended, with timetable and stopping places from Monday April 11th, 4 Broke Hall & Bixley/Martlesham Heath, 6/6A Ipswich Hospital Via Ravenswood/Northgate, X3 John Lewis, X5 Ipswich Hospital, 9/10 Whitton & Castle Hill, 15/A Stoke Park Via Maidenhall/ Via Chantry. Other routes which will just see timetable changes are the 8/B Whitehouse and the 12 Chantry(Cambridge Drive) whilst the 13 to Pinewood & Tesco will see a route change, stopping places and a timetable change.

CARTERS BUYOUT

Carters ex Stagecoach Midlands Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties Palatine P915 RYO

News has just reached me in the last hour that confirmation of the sale of the Bus operations business not the heritage fleet to Ipswich Buses has been reached quite why in my opinion, there is quite a few non DDA buses in the fleet which will need replacing by next January and to be truthful the Colchester route doesn't actually carry many passengers another burden for the poor tax payers of Ipswich.

EASTERN COUNTIES ALLOCATIONS FEBRUARY 1991

 The first Leyland Olympian's bought after deregulation occurred in 1989 were DD1-5 F101-05 AVG  with Northern Counties bodies, here we see the first in the batch DD1 heading into Great Yarmouth.

Looking back to the allocations of February 1991 we can see that there was a still a healthy amount of Bristol VR's and Leyland Nationals, the awful Freight Rover Sherpa's by now 5 years old had dwindled down to only 15, and the only coaches were 7 Leyland Leopard/Willowbrook's which by and large had been downgraded for bus use.

Also seen in 1991 was a now 14 year old Leyland National LN 590 WAH 590S in the Ipswich OCM,within a couple of years some were modernised as National Greenways by East Lancs and would finally be withdrawn in the mid 2000's, one of course is preserved by Richard Walker WAH 587S, while the only original Leyland National to survive is the ITM's LN 770 XNG 770S.

FEC ACQUIRED BUSES 2005-09

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fwc439h/5390053089/in/photolist Copyright Steven Hughes.

Now added to my pages section is an new addition to the acquired buses by FEC updating it 2005-2009, 2010-2016 will follow in due course once editing is completed, this includes all the dates of buses new and cascaded from other operating companies. Bought in January 2009 above is Volvo B7RLE 69424 AU58 FFL for Ipswich Park And Ride, the Bury site has since closed and the buses were transferred to normal services although 69421/29-33 have since transferred to Essex. Below you see 37572 AU58 ECW an Volvo B9TL/Wright Gemini also new in 2009 seen here when new, these have since been cascaded for normal services at Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31074376@N06/4179141650/in/photolist Copyright Alex Drennan

SATURDAY RECALL

Today see's two more recent slide purchases, firstly we see Ipswich Buses Atlantean 22  SDX 22R during the mid 1990's interestingly it has had a new front panel to the right, by this time the blinds were in florescent yellow, and the 11 is now of course the 6A, all rather confusing today!

 A rather rare photo this of a Eastern Counties Bristol VR 185 PEX 385R in Clacton on the 123 service of course this route no longer exists in those days the picture points to 1981, both Eastern Counties and Eastern National worked a turn on the service, VR 185 later the next year was reallocated to Peterborough which in turn became Cambus in 1984, then Viscount and even managed to get to Scotland with Rennies during the 1990's.

WEDNESDAY'S SPOTTING

One of yesterday's surprise spotting was two ALX 200 Darts both on the 8/13, 141 unbranded and 142 seen here branded for the X3, while sisters 138/39 were on the X1 with 85 branded for the 4, Trident 21 was on X3 duties whilst the 4 entertained two deckers again with ALX 400 Trident 11 and Scania Omnidekka 60, and First Ipswich had 44517 on the 60/61, talking of the 3 E 200's that are departing they are to be used on a new service 40 to Poringland for First Norwich.

THURSDAY RECALL

Today's recall shows an bus which was allocated to Peterborough for the majority of it's Eastern Counties/Cambus career, originally new in 1971 Bristol RE RL 505 BVF 668J was later joined by it's sister RL 506 which had spent all it's career of over 10 years at Ipswich before heading west both ended up in Ely before withdrawal came in 1985.

MONDAY'S SPOTTINGS

Ipswich Buses Dart 144 Y295 FJN complete with new panels and X5 branding passes through the Old Cattle Market yesterday on diversion because of roadworks in Tacket Street.

Yesterday saw a raft of buses straying from there usual routes, so here goes as seen above Dart 139/44 were both on the X1, followed by Trident 16 on the 4 and 13 today, with Lowlander 59 also on the 4 supplemented by Trident 19 and Scania Omnidekka 60 on morning peaks, the 6 had both Darts 84/86, the X3 saw Trident 13 and Optare Spectra 53, the 8/13 had Darts 85/87, the 10 surprisingly had Tridents 21/23 with Lowlander 57, the 12 saw 2 Scania Omnicity's 71/73 and finally Scania/Optare 69 was on the 15A.

 Ipswich Buses Trident 16 LG02 FDN was on the 4 yesterday.

First Ipswich will be transferring 3 of the 4 E 200's to Norwich in late March, so snap them while you can, seen yesterday was 44519 on the 60. 

SUNDAY RECALL

Shame it's not in colour, but nevertheless what a wonderful bus the Bristol RE was  the distinctive engine whine as they ascended Ashdown Way first thing in the morning was a joy to behold, as every trip into town became a disappointment if one of the batch would appear, as the picture shows this particular one 122 TRY 122H along with sister pressed into service from Leicester by Ipswich in 1980 still with the cream intact with the stripe on the middle waistband in green and the Ipswich crest applied, part of a batch of five one 120 TRY 120H didn't enter service until 1983 and was withdrawn within 2 and a half years the end came in 1987 when i witnessed 118 TRY 118H roll out of Constantine Road in May 1987.

Here we see Eastern Counties Bristol LC 556 3003 AH in Dogs Head Street, near the old Post Office along with an unidentifiable Bristol MW on the 239 Circular around the outskirts of Ipswich, this would put the date somewhere in the later 1960's.

FIRST IPSWICH CANCEL 53 TO PINEWOOD

Usually the preserve of 3 of the 4 transferred in E 200's 44516-44519 back in 2014 when they were being refurbished freshly repainted Volvo B7RLE 69008 AU05 DMV appeared on the 53.

Due to further cuts in the amount of reimbursement from Suffolk County Council, First Ipswich are to cancel the 53 to Pinewood which was in competition with Ipswich Buses 13, originally starting out as an every 10 mins services this slowly evaporated into every 15 mins last year, with the level of funding now being reduced for concessionary fares more routes are likely to vanish, so the big question is why are their free passes when a lot of elderly people can no longer use the bus because there are no bus services to use. Other changes announced see mainly timetable alterations to existing First Ipswich routes 64/A/X64,65,964,X7, the change to the Aldeburgh routes i believe is to tie the services into connections with the Ipswich to Lowestoft Rail service. The H66/X66 to Martlesham BT will also see changes to the route and timetable alterations.

Possibly my favourite bus in the Ipswich fleet is Volvo B7TL/ALX 400 32479 AU53 HJV in a livery which suits the body style seen here yesterday on a rare foray on town routes 60/61, i can confirm that she should be appearing at the Ipswich Bus Rally in March.

EASTERN COUNTIES FLEET PROFILE 1951

Leyland Titan TD1/E.C.O.C was originally new in 1932 as A188 NG 2723 and converted to an Gardner 5LW oil engine in 1937 was rebuilt by E.C.W in June 1941 and was rebuilt with an new E.C.W body in October 1949, renumbered to A193 in 1956, then A7 in 1957 and finally A396  in 1960 a year before withdrawal, seen here in Ipswich OCM in the late 1950's by which time it had done the rounds, Cambridge, Norwich, Yarmouth, Peterborough and finally Ipswich .

Originally LS1 in 1939 as a Bristol L5G/E.C.W C26F and renumbered LS 491 in 1946/7 these coaches had long careers as they were converted to bus use in 1954, originally these would of had glass roof lights but were panelled over and repainted in bus livery as seen her and were withdrawn 3 years later.

A CHANGE OF BLINDS/FLASHBACK

Ipswich Buses have changed there style of destination blinds and for the first time have the Destination at the bottom rather than the top, which is to the same pattern that London's Buses run to with the intermediate places at the top as illustrated by Lowlander 57 PN52 XBJ seen here on the 15, currently some buses are working with the Bus Diverted destination due to the roadworks in Tacket Street, which affects routes X1/X3/4/6/38 although i have only seen this on the 4 so far, there was also Bus Diverted on the blinds on the X5 this morning due to an RTA.

Ipswich Buses Scania Omnicity 71 YN56 NVC did a turn on the X5 this morning due to late running traffic because of an RTA.

FLASHBACK

Today's flashback takes us back to the 1976 when some of the Eastern Counties Bristol MW class were repainted into bus livery for one man operation, LS 805/06/10 3805/06/10 PW were also downgraded with bus seats becoming B41F while sisters LS 804/08/09/11/13 3804/08/09/11/13 PW retained their coach seats as seen by LS 811 above in Norwich Bus Station, LS 814-23 3814/15 PW/816-23 BNG were also downgraded to bus use becoming DP41F in 1975, all received front dome destination blinds, strangely LS 805/06/10 didn't last that long being withdrawn the same year, LS 804/08 in 1977 and LS 809/11/13/16-23 in 1978.