MINIBUS REVOLUTION

Originally with Bristol, then with Yorkshire Rider a batch of eleven found themselves cascaded to Eastern Counties in 1995 these were the Dormobile bodied Mercedes L608D seen here in Kings Lynn.

You either loved them or loathed them much like First's new livery, Eastern counties had dabbled with Minibuses way back into the early 1970's, but in the first half of the 1980's operators found that they could get shot of Single Decker and Double Deckers and replace them with Mini Buses with higher frequency and lower paid drivers, however after a time it was found that places needed bigger buses and a long came the Dennis Dart.

Two for the price one, 717 C717 BEX a Alexander Bodied Mercedes L608D with 1081 F702 MBC an ex Leicester Iveco/Carlyre seen here at Felixstowe Bus Station, today the Bus Depot is gone and the minibus routes added on the main Ipswich to Felixstowe service.

One of two Mercedes Benz/Reeve Burgess 609D's originally bought for Stowmarket services this one MB 759 D759 LEX both had short lives with counties and had departed by the mid 1990's

C895 BEX was one of many Ford Transits bought in the Mid 1980's for services right around Eastern Counties, the only place avoiding them was Ipswich although seven were allocated for Felixstowe , this one being C895 BEX TH 895 these were an engineers dream!

END OF THE LINE DARTS AND EARLY DART SLF'S

Remember these lovely little things an ex First Centrewest  Dart/Wright Handybus 45413 LDZ 9113 at Lowestoft Bus Station

With most Step Darts now all but vanished within First and many of the early Dart SLF's now withdrawn perhaps now is an ideal opportunity to look back photographically to the many varied and interesting Darts that First operated in the region.

Originally delivered to Ipswich as additional buses to operate route 66, 46725 was a standard Dart/Plaxton Pointer seen here in Norwich, love the destination blinds.

Heres an Marshall bodied Dart in 40288 M944 SRE which certainly came to East Anglia via a few group companies, seen here in Great Yarmouth.


To finish the feature off for now is an early Dart SLF with Plaxton body 43440 P440 NEX  originally delivered to Norwich in 1996 some of the batch drifted down to Ipswich for town services where they weren't the most reliable of buses.

OLYMPIAN SWAN SONG PART TWO

Here's another Olympian shot this time of J621 BVG an all Leyland Olympian at Norwich Bus Station, strange that two of the batch ended up at Ben Jordan's scrap yard after just 11 years service while the other two had normal service life.

Here is another variant of the Olympian in 34875 F175 LBL an Northern Counties bodied one which came from Beeline in the London Suburbs and had very long productive life's with First.

34529 NTC 129Y was an Roe bodied Olympian which came from Somerset in 2003, originally delivered to the Bristol area in 1983 in NBC times subsequently Badgerline and then into First hands.

Another ECW Olympian 34536 XHK 236X which were new to Eastern National then later Thamesway seen here on the now abandoned 96 to Mistley, now operated by Carters

Another bus with London links is 34951 G51 XLO another Alexander RL body this time we have it in the initial Blue Buses livery used when First took over Great Yarmouth Transport in 1996.

That ends an feature on Olympians how about an end of life feature on Eastern Counties Darts anyone please let me know.

OLYMPIANS SWAN SONG

34822 G122 YEV an Olympian/Alexander RL when at Bury St Edmunds in 2005

As the Olympians fade away gradually within the East Anglia and the First fleets, here's a selection of photo's which graced the Eastern Counties fleet in their prime. Thanks to people who contacted me on the Essex Olympians allocations, Colchester just have 34014/18, while Chelmsford have 34305 and 34314 which is currently out of service while surprisingly 34108 has re entered service at Great Yarmouth.

Ex First Glasgow sent down these early Olympian/ECW in the form of 34357-60 KCG 157Y seen here in the Ipswich garage.

A former mainstay of Ipswich but drifted up to Lowestoft later in life was one of the first Olympians bought by Eastern Counties after privatisation in 1988 was an Northern Counties Leyland Olympian 34823 F103 AVG seen at Norwich Bus Station

Hope that whets the appetite somewhat if the reaction is good i will do another blog.

STOWMARKET TIMETABLES AND STRANGE SUBSTUITIONS

An strange occurrence on Monday saw IB EL Lowlander 59 PJ53 OLB on new route X1

As mentioned on an previous blog, First will begin their new service 89 to Stowmarket which will operate through both Claydon and Bramford, while the 88 will also serve Claydon, replacing the 110 operated by Galloways, this will start on the 4th February and is Monday to Saturday only and will continue to operate every 30 mins.

STRANGE SUBSTITUTIONS

Meanwhile the first two days of the week saw some strange substitutions for regular passengers on Ipswich Buses services, whilst in town on Monday, Optare Solo 242 was on 4's, whilst one of the two X3 darts appeared on the 6 and the following day again one was on the 4, the X1 had an EL lowlander 59 PJ53 OLB as pictured above on the X1, whilst the 19 usually solo operated had Dart 135 T135 KPV.

Another unusual oddity on the 4 was Solo 242 YN04ZKA.

STEP BUSES IN THE FIRST FLEET DISAPPEAR AS DO EARLY DART SLF'S

Other news to note is the now nearly completed withdrawal of all step buses in the Eastern Counties and Essex fleets, withdrawal of the remaining Olympians leaves just five in service in East Anglia, with 34109/34186/87 at Great Yarmouth, 34014 at Colchester and possibly 34314 at Chelmsford if anyone can confirm this please drop me an e mail. As far as early Dart SLF's go Lowestoft have just 43466/78/81/89 left while Essex have quite a few too many to list here but of the ex Eastern Counties ones Braintree have 42447/43448/83/85, Hadleigh have MPD darts 43357/59 and Chelmsford 43356/60.

BEESTONS COACH DESTROYED

523 FN an Van Hool Astrogen coach identical to the one destroyed.

On Monday Afternoon fire fighters spent an hour putting out a fire on 526 FN an Van Hool Astrogen coach of Beestons, the fire happened while the coach was being road tested after having electrical and mechanical systems checked. In other news Ipswich Buses have repainted a further Scania Omnicity 74 into current fleet livery, while First have lowered their prices on the 53 to Brookwood in-line with Ipswich Buses, trouble is does anyone know about it, no advertising in the local media the only way you can find out is if you go their website or telephone the local office.

Dennis Dart 89 X89 LBJ on the newly diverted route 6 passing through Broke Hall Shops 

IPSWICH BUSES PROFILE PART 2 !

IPSWICH BUSES PROFILE PART TWO

40 M640 EPV an East Lancs bodied Olympian copyright James Long

50 P442 SWX DAF DB250 Optare Spectra H43/26F originally built for export this
was converted from left hand drive to right hand drive.

50 P442 SWX  an Optare Spectra DB250.

51-53 X151-53 LBJ DAF DB250LF Optare Spectra H47/25F 

51 X151 LBJ one of three low floor Optare Spectras bought for Bury Road Park and Ride services back in 2000.

54-59/100 PF04 WML/PN52 XBO/K/J/PJ53 OLA/B/PN52 XBM DAF DB250LF/East Lancs Lowlander H43/29F

58 PJ53 OLA an East Lancs Lowlander on one of it's regular routes the 15 to Thorington Park

60-62 PJ54 YZT-V Scania N94UD/East Lancs Omnidekka H47/33F

60 PJ54 YZT an East Lancs Scania N94UD Omnidekka on the 15 to Thorington Park

68/69 YJ6060 KGX/Y Scania CN230UD/Optare Olympus H47/27F

69 YJ60 KGY is repainted into current livery

70-75 YN56 NVB-G Scania CN94UB Omnicity B36F

70 YN56 NVB seen on its regular rout the 13 to Pinebrook Tesco.

79-82 YX63 ZVV/W/LGE/F Alexander Dennis Enviro 200 

82 YX63 LGF about to take on a 13 to Pinewood Tesco

83 SK07 DYA Alexander Dennis Enviro 300 B44F

83 SKO7 DYA is a former AD demonstrator seen here at Tower Ramparts

84-88 PJ53 OLC/E/G/H/K Transbus Dart 11.4m/East Lancs Myllenium B41F

86  PJ53 OLG is one of two East Lancs Darts in current livery

89-99 X89/901/91-98/199 LBJ Dennis Dart 11.3m / East Lancs Spryte B41F

92 X92 LBJ at Tower Ramparts on the 6 to Ipswich Hospital

135-37 T135-37 KPV  Dennis Dart 10.1m / East Lancs Spryte B36F

135 T135 KPV seen unusually on the 13 to Pinewood Tesco

coming soon the tail end of Ipswich Buses Single deck fleet.