THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD:OLD MEETS NEW

This rare moment in time captured on the 28/10/85 sees the change over between the old guard Eastern Counties Bristol Lodekka OT2 VDV 753 and the new OT3 Bristol VR JNG 50N pictured together in Felixstowe Bus Station OT3,had spent the summer in Great Yarmouth and then came to Ipswich following the acquisition of  two ex Ribble VR's OT 351 OCK 995K and OT 352 NCK 980J for the Summer of 1986. Below is another blast from the past this time Eastern Counties Bristol Lodekka LFS 72 72 DPW in Norwich eking out it's final days during the early 1980's?

CARTERS FLEET LIST JUNE 2015

Carter's solo Dennis Trident/Plaxton President 405 LR52 KWH seen back at the end of April.

FLEET LIST AS OF JUNE 2015

256 L456 JCK Volvo B10L/Saffle B43F 1994 currently for sale
260 AY60 BYD DAF SB180/ MCV Evolution B40F 2010
427 G727 XDL Leyland Olympian/Leyland H76F 1990
415 P915 RYO Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties H74F 1997
456 R156 LHK Volvo Olympian/Alexander Belfast H80F
450 LX51 FJC Dennis Trident 2/Alexander ALX 400 H75F 2001
451 LX51 FJN Dennis Trident 2/Alexander ALX 400 H75F 2001
452 LX51 FJD Dennis Trident 2/Alexander ALX 400 H75F 2001
402 LG02 FEV Dennis Trident 2/Alexander ALX 400 H66F 2002
403 LG02 FEV Dennis Trident 2/Alexander ALX 400 H75F 2002
404 LG02 FCE Dennis Trident 2/Alexander ALX 400 H75F 2002
405 LR52 KWH Dennis Trident 2/Plaxton President H73F 2003

VINTAGE BUS FLEET

DFG33 314 PFM Bristol FSF6G/ECW H60F 1960
RML 2266 CUV 286C AEC Routemaster/Park Royal H72F 1965
OT3 JNG 50N Bristol VR/ECW O43/31F 1975
VR 294 VEX 294X Bristol VR/ECW H43/31F 1981

 Seen at this year's Norwich Running Day in March is Bristol VR OT3 JNG 50N.

Seen last year is Carter's DAF/MCV Evolution 260 AY60 BVD.

EASTERN COUNTIES ALLOCATION SHEET JULY 1953

For all you Eastern Counties history fans tonight well an easy option for me tonight a classic allocation sheet taken from July 1953.

from 1958.

FIRST'S SUFFOLK AUGUST CHANGES/IB DART 137 RETURNS

First Ipswich Volvo B7RLE 66981 KX05 MHK on the 61 2 months ago a route which will see changes to it's timetable.


This week on the VOSA Notices and Proceedings has seen a raft of changes to First's Suffolk services primarily in the north of the county, i have already mentioned the changes to the 53/60/61/A town services in a previous blog. In Lowestoft a completely new service will be the 104, Monday to Saturday every hour, 99 will have it's route, stops and times changed, 106 timetable amendments, 111 to Carlton Colville route and times will change, 102/122 timetable amendments and the 103/123 will be cancelled. Seen below sent from Zak on Norwich Bus Page is Carters Dennis Trident 404 LG02 FCE seen today at Simmond's Diss depot, with thanks to Justin Wythe at Carter's i can tell you it's been off the road since February Half term with accident damage and a badly breathing engine.
One other piece of news is that Ipswich Buses have back there ex Lothian Dart SPD 137 SV53 AVP thanks Kieran.

EX FEC BUSES STILL GOING IN ESSEX

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ipswichbuspage/ The first three photos are all copyright Colin Humphrey.

Four buses tonight which were once part of First Eastern Counties albeit now operating in Essex, first up we see ex Ipswich allocated Scania L94UB/Wrightbus Solar 65692 YS03 ZKM these were superb machines much better than their counterparts the 65670 batch of hard seated Scania's, seen here in Colchester .

Seen last month is Scania L94 65565 S565 TPW which for a while was at First Northampton before that operation was closed, originally of course an FEC vehicle seen here last month in Colchester on the 66A.

 Another ex Ipswich and one of the favourite Scanias at Ipswich was 65589 V589 DVF seen here heading out of Colchester towards St Michaels on the 64A.

And finishing with an either love them or hate them Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointer 2 43485 R685 DPW which is currently at Braintree another one that spent some time at Ipswich/Bury St Edmunds.

INDEPENDENT OPERATOR FLEET NEWS

Galloway Volvo B10M/Van Hool 340 NJI 9241 in Crown Street Lay-by in Ipswich today.

Today is a round up on what's happening on the Independent operator scene, plus a little bit of First news at the end!
Coach Services of Thetford have purchased 2 Scania Omnincity deckers ex Stagecoach London LK59 CPK/U and will be operated on the 84/86 Brandon/Thetford to Bury St Edmunds service. Mulley's have purchased from Peterborough Council Optare Solo YJ57 YDB. Suffolk Norse have 2 new Volvo B8R/Plaxton C56/70F, while 2 used Dennis Javelin/Plaxton coaches have arrived one is AF57 WHF ex Sanders, Holt the other is YO52 FHJ , while moving on to Pygall, Peterlee, Durham is Dennis Javelin/Plaxton N471 EUG. Galloway's have acquired a further Volvo B9R/Caetano Levante FJ61 EYG  from Edinburgh Coachlines, and finally Ben Fosker's Venturer Coachways has N43 AHH a Dennis Javelin/Plaxton C53F ex Henshaw, Moreton in Marsh, Gloucestershire

First Ipswich have registered the 53 to Pinewood as an every 15 mins service from July, originally started out as an every 10 mins services so has lost 2 buses an hour in the last year, while the 60/61 to Greenwich sees alterations to it's timetable.

Soames Volvo B12B/Plaxton Panther on a swimming contarct today in Crown Street Lay By.

IB Dart/ALX 200 139 Y271 FJN has moved on to 98 Shotley duties still with X5 branding though.

SATURDAY BLOG UPDATE

A quick update on yesterdays blog, lots more information has come to life on the above coach thanks to Kieran for pointing out there was another photo available of with its second operator Georges Coaches however it originated with Gardiner of Spennymoor and it's an Albion Aberdonian/Plaxton Consort 2 with 41 coach seats dating from 1958. Also thanks to Benjamin Fosker for the update on SRS 132 which was a Bedford VAS/Bella Vega with JDW(Bluebird) having come from the Receivers of the Ipswich Coach Company when they ceased trading, JDW was the initial of the three owners,Davenport, Jones and Woods.

 Not a lot of photos exist of the Ipswich Coach Company however one other from the Stuart Ray collection sees an ex Standerwick 'White Lady' SFV 412 an Leyland Atlantean with Weymann body seen here on a hire with the Ipswich Transport Society in 1971.

IB TRIDENT ON THE 4

Now back to normal well sort of with an bonus photo of an rare outing for IB Dennis Trident 16 LG02 FDN brings back memories of the 1980's when Atlanteans were the norm!.