66985 AND 32487 ARRIVALS

Many thanks again tonight for James Long for supplying both pictures for the blog for which are his copyright, the first arrival shown here on Warren Heath is of 66985 KX05 MHO heading towards Felixstowe on the 76, the other is of 32487 AU53 HKE outside Ipswich Foundation Street depot with the help of depot staff before it headed off to the Old Cattle Market where it entered service this afternoon on the 66 to Martlesham. 32490 AU53 HKH unfortunately will now not return until Tuesday next week thanks to Chris Speed for that news.

44516 ENTERS SERVICE

Well she is here at long last arriving yesterday from First Essex's Clacton depot 44516 YX09 ACV she was straight into service unusually on the 60/61 services today, she is seen here at Tower Ramparts today and i must thanks Paulo Van Krieken again for the news, also in the Old Cattle Market Bus Station this morning was 23314 YN54 NYV which is due to migrate south back down to Southampton now the school holidays are about to finish. Also worth mentioning are that First Ipswich changes again which happen from Sunday including the cutting back of the 66 back to the old terminus at Ipswich Rail Station, and minor changes to services on the 64 and 88/89. Carters are also changing there 92-94/96 services in a big way by cutting out the Mistley service all services will go through to Colchester with better frequency timetables are available on the Suffolk County Council Travelline website and First have new timetables available from the Travel Shop in Ipswich or on their website.

IB East Lancs Lowlander 56 PJ53 OLB was unusually on the 1 to Ravenswood yesterday and Trident 19 was on the X1.

ANOTHER EASTERN COUNTIES PHOTO RECALL

After the success in the past of my photo recalls i thought it was time for another one i was hoping to do an Ipswich Buses one this time but time caught up with me but i will put one up hopefully next week to correct the imbalance, first up this time is an Ipswich allocated 34921 G121 YEV a Alexander RL Volvo Olympian in that hideous Barbie 2 mash up off paint and vinyl pictured here in Colchester on the 93.

Yet another Barbie 2 type here and one of my least favorite types of bus the ubiquitous Volvo B6 which unfortunately ended up in Ipswich at least these didn't have the Plaxton Pointer body which used to rattle non stop here is one of the ex First Glasgow ones with the Alexander Dash body 48015 L105 XSU

As you know i love Bristol VR's here's one which spent the majority of it's day with Kings Lynn before finishing up with Ipswich VR 285 VEX 285X originally fitted with coach seats this was changed for conventional bus seats after downgrading from what was the then the X94 now of course the X1.

LN 587 WAH 587S pictured here before it's Transformation into a National Greenway of course now preserved by Richard Walker, seen here again in Colchester on the 92 back to Ipswich.

Not featured one of these before this being a Leyland Leopard with Willowbrook bodies many had poor lives with there NBC companies due to the poor quality of there bodies unusually this one being LW 796 OEX 796W was painted into the bus livery and not the coach/dual purpose livery of cream this one is seen resting in the Bury St Edmunds area.

66957 ARRIVAL/COACHES NEWS

Photo Copyright James Long

 66957 WX55 TZU a Volvo B7RLE/Wrightbus Eclipse Arrived yesterday from Norwich, recently it spent some time on loan to Great Yarmouth and should be quickly on it's way to Rotherham for refurbishment leaving just 69006 to come for Norwich which is serving out it's advertisement period and is due here at some point in September, other news concerns that the current two coaches 23312/14 YN54 NYT/V will be returning off loan to Southampton, interesting note from my depot tour is that while they are here there tyres have had to be replaced with one's from the Ipswich Depot store, the coaches that should be replacing them should be Scania K114IB/ Irizar Century Capacity 12.35 with 53 seats and no toilets and are of the older style body then currently they could be from the ex Greenline batch 23008-15 YV03UBA-E/AJU/X/V or from other similar ones which are currently operated by First Devon/Cornwall & Somerset at Cambourne. Scania saloon 65590 V590 DVF is currently off the road.

23308 YV03 UBA seen here still in Green Line livery in February this year in Taunton is shown here with the older bodywork style. Photo Copyright Dave Growns.

VISIT TO DEPOT,43489 AND 69007

Yesterday was a good chance to visit the First Ipswich depot and to also see behind the scenes of a working depot, suffice to say there is a lot that happens that people may or may not know for instance Ipswich carries a whole host of spare parts some of types that are not even in service with the depot, that could be of use elsewhere, there is a lot of things that are going to happen in the near future with the depot of which is very positive news for the future that i can't talk about yet! I must thank Chris Speed for taking the time out from his busy schedule for taking me around as there were things that happen there i didn't know about, the office in the OCM is also an interesting place which includes a training room with computers and rooms which hold interesting relics of a past age.  At the depot as seen above is  Dennis Dart SLF 43489 R689 DPW which arrived yesterday from Norfolk and is heading off to Clacton in exchange for the final E 200 44516, also back yesterday and straight into service was Volvo B7RLE  69007 AUO5 DMO on the 64 and next week the excitement of the First Double Decker Volvo B7TL 32490 in the new livery, interesting to note that the shade of colour used on the new livery is described as RAF Blue.

69007 seen here yesterday heading into Ipswich on the 64 at Tower Ramparts.

A SURPRISE IN 60807 AND THE RETURN OF 66959 AND 69011

A surprise for me today was the visit of 60807 S658 RNA now a Driver Trainer for First based now at Norwich, which happened to be visiting to take on a driver for a PCV test, also a surprise was 66959 WX55 TZM picture taken by Jim Long which is his copyright, in Belmont Road this afternoon

Below is rather a poor but interesting shot of 69011 taken on Monday in the OCM whilst on the 65 to Aldeburgh unfortunately a Carters Trident had made taking a shot very hard!

In the next two days i hope to put up another blog which will contain news about my visit to Ipswich depot and some other exciting news.

EASTERN COUNTIES REVISITED 1984

LN 549 HVF 549L which started life in Norwich before emigrating south in the 1980's seen here outside the old OCM bus depot.

Why pick 1984 well for those not old enough to remember this was a great period of change both in my life and my bus enthusiasm, just beginning Secondary School bought me more privileges in being able to spend my time chasing buses around, primarily Ipswich Borough Transport i wouldn't get my interest in Eastern Counties until two years later when they started working the 4 to Broke Hall and the 6 to the Airport in the evenings and Sundays, of which there were many happy memories of riding around on the lovely ex Ribble VR's. Bear in mind this was also the time when the Cambridge and Peterborough areas was about to be split off from Eastern Counties of which some of the Ipswich Coaches would pass to the new Cambus operation.

Two glorious VR's here include Series 1 VR 368 TNG 368G and VR 138 SNG 438M

IPSWICH FLEET AUGUST 1984

Bristol VR:127/88/92/98/204/07/41/42/43/56/58/75/76/90/92/368/90/96/98/405 also 138/87/244/70 at Saxmundham and 189/91 at Felixstowe which in those days had their own allocations.
Leyland National: 539/46/86/93/98/99/782 With 549/87/765 at Felixstowe and 764 at Saxmundham
Bristol RE: 501/848/49/69
Leyland Leopard: 749/53/55/56/82/878/80/82 with 764 at Saxmundham and 765 at Felixstowe
Bristol LH 922/25/31
Bristol LD OT 2 at Felixstowe

Bristol LH 925 WEX 925S seen here a few years later in 1988 at the OCM where by now the old depot had been demolished.

RL 501 APW 501J seen here when new was the last normal Bristol RE left in Ipswich apart from Dual Purpose 869 and the coaches.

Aah happy memories of Felixstowe and the days sat waiting for the magnificent Bristol LD OT 2  on the top of the cliffs alongside Golf Road and the Winter's when the old girl with it's top closed up would work the 44 school service through Broke Hall.