CLACTON BUS RALLY

The gorgeous preserved Eastern National Bristol RE 1516 FWC 439H seen here outside the now redundant First Harwich depot.

Yesterday i ventured down to what was my first visit to the Clacton Bus Rally held at the Clacton Shopping outlet on the outskirts of town, unfortunately the weather put paid to many packing up early, however there there was a good amount of stalls on site and at least seven routes of which i only got to go on two as i undertook the longest one up to Harwich on the Bristol RE as seen above, who can pass up such an opportunity, i managed to photo what i think was everything, as i took over sixty i can't put everything so below is a selection of the best.

London Bus Company provided RM 159 159 CLT which was plucked from a barn and only restored and MOT'd in recent weeks seen here on a very wet and windy Clacton sea front!.

Looking rather fine and repainted back into it's original 50 years of Leyland Buses for London is Leyland Titan T1983 OHV747Y.

First Hadleigh provided what is from the latest batch of  the shorter Wright Streetlite 47646 SN15 AFF, not my favourite looking bus!

The old and the new Panther Travel provided a nice little selection of buses including this very fine Leyland Olympian with dual purpose seating BIG 9249 and a newly acquired Enterprise Plasma/Plaxton Primo re registered SB07 PAN.

Eastern National Bristol VR 3107 UAR 597W in NBC Green livery.

 A double Bristol delight  from companies down south here we see Southern Vectis Bristol Lodekka 570 YDL 315 and a Bristol VR 1448 KRU 848W in deregulation Wilts and Dorset Livery.

 One of Hedingham's latest acquisitions from within the Go Ahead group is Scania Omnidekka 1519 YN06 JYD.

 One of Four Scania Omnicity double deckers ex Stagecoach East London for Sullivan Buses DS52 LX59 CPO.

 Patrick Burnside's Eastern Counties Bristol SC/ECW 3006 AH presents a brave face.

Now preserved Thamesway ex First Eastern National Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointer 909 K909 CVW with ex London Transport Leyland National KJD 535P.

FIRST GROUP ORDERS 2015/16

Seen here is the pre production Wrightbus Streetdeck 35101 SN64 CSF which has recently been transferred from Sheffield to Rotherham. https://www.flickr.com/photos/tarquinius_superbus

First Group yesterday announced their 385 Vehicle order which  is worth £77.7 Million and a total of £385 million over the last five years, all buses will have leather seats, CC TV and Wi-Fi as standard, 90% of the order will also be fitted with Euro 6 engines, of the order Wrightbus will make 248 buses and AD has also won a significant order for 110 buses, while Volvo who have not been on First Group's order sheet come back with an order of 20 Volvo B5lLH chassis with bodies from Wrightbus, this order will bring a total of 750 buses now offering low carbon certified buses the largest in the UK. Of this order Norwich is to receive 8 Wrightbus Streetdeck for the Pink Line. 

Full details of the First Bus order:

Manufacturer	Model	Quantity
Volvo	B5LH	20
Wrightbus	StreetDeck	65
Wrightbus	StreetLite	183
ADL	Enviro 200 MMC	63
ADL	Enviro 400 MMC	47
ADL	Enviro 400 MMC GK	5
ADL	Enviro 400 MMC Virtual Electric	2

https://www.flickr.com/photos/firstbusphotos/sets/72157653130430632

First Group has ordered 20 of the Volvo B5LH seen here is 36300 BF63 HDC which started it's life with Lothian and has now come down south where it's been used by Manchester and Halifax and is now with Buses of Somerset.

66977 transfers to Norwich

66977 a Volvo B7RLE KX05 MHA has now transferred to Norwich after recently being a spare bus, this is not a start of down slide of services in Ipswich as Mr Speed has plenty of irons in the fire for possible new services, when the news comes available i will be first in the know so keep your eyes peeled in the next few weeks.

SUFFOLK SHOW AND OTHER ODD THINGS!

Suffolk Show duties today saw IB Trident 18 V126 MEV was in use along with it's sister 19, seen here travelling along Crown Street in Ipswich also in use was Spectra 52, two routes were operated one via Felixstowe Road and the other via Gainsborough. As far as my Tuesday observations were a little bit out as there was a bit more variety on the X5 today with Trident 12 LG02 FDC seen below along with an DAF Lowlander and a X5 branded Dart, whilst 4 branded Dart 86 was on X1 along with an X3 Dart 142 you couldn't make it up.

IB EX LOTHIAN DARTS FLEET NUMBERS CONFIRMED

Copyright Chris Cuthill

As certain people do not wish me to use their photos on the blog, i will have to make do with a repeated photo of Ipswich Buses ex Lothian Darts in their former home of Edinburgh. I have had confirmation of the fleet numbers which are as followed, 134 SN53 AVG, 135 SN53 AVK,136 SN53 AVM and 137 SN53 AVP these numbers are of course re used from the ex East Lancs Spryte Darts the final one being withdrawn earlier this year. A little while back i did a feature on the Northern Circular, here we see IB Leyland Atlantean/East Lancs 40 RGV 40W in the late 1980's by which time the 21 in anti clockwise direction had been withdrawn, if i am wrong Stuart McNae or Stuart Ray will be on my case.

OBSERVATIONS ON IB CHANGES

IB AD Enviro 200 YX63 LGE on Sunday awaiting passengers on the 8 to Whitehouse Asda.

Just a quick blog tonight with some quick observations on what little i saw in the Town Centre this afternoon, the 6/11 to Heath Road Hospital is operated by Double Deckers while the X5 was operated with a mix of Darts and a Scania Omnicity, strange choices particularly at peak times when it picks up school children from Copleston and Britannia. Due to a certain refusal for using the Ex Lothian Dart picture i have to have it removed sorry everyone. Instead in it's replace a new photo that i have acquired and cleaned up is a photo from the late 1960's of Bristol LH 690 RAH 690F and Bristol LD LKD 179 UNG 179 of Eastern Counties.

ITM OMO RUNNING DAY

Ipswich Buses Olympian 41 M41 EPV piloted by Leon Wells at Claydon.

Today's blog is taken up by pictures from Ipswich Transport Museum's OMO day, unfortunately there isn't that many pictures as there was very few visitors outside of the Museum's fleet of buses, from Ipswich Buses, Olympian 41 M41 EPV, First Ipswich Volvo B7RLE 69426 AU58 FNN , Andy Cook's Bristol RE XOI 2526
, Oliver Fosker's Leyland National YYE 274T and Richard Walker's National Greenway WAH 587S and Ipswich Bus Preservation Group's Optare Excel P192 SGV, probably being a Bank Holiday and a lot of other events put paid to many other preserved buses turning out nevertheless it was good day out.

ITM's Eastern Counties Bristol MW  LS 829 APW 829B and Andy Cook's Bristol RE XOI 2526

ITM's Ipswich Corporation Transport AEC Regent 1 ADX 1 outside Ipswich Railway Station.

Richard Walker's superb Eastern Counties National Greenway LG587 WAH 587S

Oliver Fosker bought an Ex London Transport Leyland National YYE 274T now painted in Eastern Counties Deregulation livery.

 I must thank First Eastern Counties Business Manager Chris Speed for the kind use of Volvo B7RLE 69426 today and Joe Thorpe for kindly bringing it up to the Museum and doing a couple of turns on the Railway Station/Town Centre service.

IB FIRST DAY ROUTE CHANGES AND 39623 ON WEDDING DUTIES

IB Excel 172 YG52 DGE one of two on Sunday services, with sister 173 on X3.

Today saw Ipswich Buses make heavy changes to the Town network, including the linking of service 6 through to the 11, the abandonment of the 5 replaced by the X5 and other amendments to timetables and route 4 no longer serving the Railway Station during off peak hours. From my own experience today i experienced route 6 and the loading was particularly poor 4 OAP's and 3 fare payers, not only that but from Bixley Road/Ashdown Way it follows the exact same route as the 4A Sunday service leaving Bixley Road at 15 mins past each hour, followed by the 4A at 19 mins past the hour albeit every 2 hours, surely some coordination is needed by bus companies so we don't have this duplication of routes. Before i go don't forget the Ipswich Transport Museum's OMO day, i shall be there along with Joe Thorpe from First who will be bringing Volvo B7RLE 69426.Timetable link here  http://www.ipswichtransportmuseum.co.uk/pressrel/140515_2.pdf

Lucky me the Beautiful RML 2623 39623 NML 623E is currently being kept busy at Ipswich the last few weeks here she is today just off duty from a wedding hire.