SATURDAY NATIONAL EXPRESS FLASHBACK

Two 1980's memories of the days that Eastern Counties/Cambus coaches ploughed the way into London, first up we have ex Eastern Counties Bristol RELH 742 by now Cambus 153 GCL 344N at Cambridge Drummer Street followed by LL 841 VYM 518M ex National Travel London seen back in it's old haunts in London.

THREE IB DARTS NOW OUT OF SERVICE

Three IB East Lancs Darts Have now reached the end of the road seen above 91 X91 LBJ has been withdrawn due to mechanical failure, while Dart 97 has been withdrawn and stripped of parts and Dart 99 will be withdrawn tomorrow as it's MOT has expired.

IB Dart 97 X97 LBJ seen back in the summer of 2013 on the 4 to Bixley Farm.

THURSDAY BITS AND PIECES

Not a particularly a good day for me photo wise, as my one attempt at taking Ipswich Buses SPD Dart 135 ended in failure, however i did manage a decent shot of 134 SN53 AVG at Tower Ramparts on the 16, 135 was on the 12 and somehow i kept missing it!

Meanwhile First Ipswich Volvo B7TL 32489 AU53 HKG found itself on the 61 to Greenwich.

Ipswich Buses ALX 200 Dart 141 Y273 FJN found itself on the X3 with branded X3 sister 142 on the X1 i believe both X5 branded Darts have been debranded so if anyone can confirm this.

While below you can see confirmation of the registration of the new X7 service from First Ipswich.

FIRST EASTERN COUNTIES BUSES LTD, DAVEY HOUSE, 7B CASTLE MEADOW , NORWICH NR1 3DE From: Old Cattle Market, Ipswich To: Grange Farm, Felixstowe Via: A14 Name or No: X7 Service Type: Normal Stopping Effective Date: 30Aug2015 Other Details: Monday to Saturday

This dealer white holiday coach made a appearance on Monday for Alfa Tours YN13 BXA is a Scania Irizar I6 54 seater coach. 

ALL THREE LOTHIAN DECKERS ON THEIR WAY TO IPSWICH

Both pictures come from Leon Wells and remains his copyright

All three ex Lothian Deckers Dennis Tridents 601/06/07 SN51 AXF/O/P seen here above at Washington Services are on there way back to Ipswich as can be seen from the above photo 606/607 are painted in the later Lothian livery while sister 601 remains in the previous Harlequin style livery, thanks to MD of Ipswich Buses Jeremy Cooper i can reveal that  both will be repainted into fleet livery but will not be refurbished.

Above is one of the two Lothian Dart SPD's 135 SN53 AVK that entered service this week as i have previously stated due to a busy schedule i haven't got too much time to take photos at the moment so if any one has would you be kind enough to send me some. Copyright Hadleigh 1849 https://www.flickr.com/photos/76466268@N06/20215006461/in/photolist

THE GREAT EXCHANGE OF 1973 PART TWO

One of the large jumbo sized Bristol VR'S finished it's day's in good old Ipswich here we see ex Norwich and Yarmouth VR 309 LFS 281F heading out to Shotley in 1980 a year before withdrawal.

I thought i would add a few things to my report from yesterday, two other NBC companies United Counties and Bristol were also due to send Bristol FLF's to Scotland but as the buses were Bristol 6LW engined the deal didn't proceed, many of the received VR's were in a very poor states as the good old Scottish rock salt had caused a great deal of corrosion, one today is preserved by Julian Patterson originally numbered VR 303 LFS 303F

this became VR 308 when the last batch of VR's received by Eastern Counties took the numbers up to VR 304. Below you can one of the original liveries carried by the Scottish VR's shortly before they transferred down to England, this particular VR BN 367 NGM 167G in the Central SMT livery was one of five originally destined for Eastern Counties that went to Lincolnshire in exchange for five Lodekkas, this one became 1981 in the Lincolnshire Road Car fleet, while below that in a shot from Graham Walker you see one of the ex Lincolnshire Road Car Lodekka's FLF 431 VFE 459 in Cambridge in 1982.

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https://www.flickr.com/photos/16313630@N07/5769133129/in/photolist

In other news photo's of the last two of Ipswich Buses Dart SPD's ex Lothian of 134/35 show that 134 entered service today i believe and 135 yesterday if anyone out there has photos of them i would be grateful if you could get in touch.

THE GREAT EXCHANGE OF 1973

Eastern Counties Bristol VR VR 324 OSF 306G with no destination blind was by and large an Norwich allocation.

By the early 1970's the Scottish Bus Group was so sick and tired of the problems caused by the early Flat front VR's that they sort buyers of the whole lot, in 1971 Eastern National took 15 Bristol Lodekka's 2865-9 RVW 391-4D, 2870-73 RWC 941-5D,2878-80 SVX 277-79X and 2881-83 UEV 219-21E in exchange of 15 Bristol VR's from Alexander Midland MRT1-15 SMS 31-45H.
Eastern Counties weren't the only ones involved with the swap, Alder Valley sent 12 Lodekkas, Southdown 7, Northern General 11, 3 from Southern Vectis and 9 from United, Eastern Counties sent FLF 476-500 KVF 476-80E/KPW 481-87E/LAH 488-91E,MAH 492-500E, FLF 343-47 MNG 343-47E, FLF 349-54 ONG 349-54F and FLF 355-64 ONG 355-64F. In the end Eastern Counties only received 30 Bristol VR's from Scotland, 12 were of the jumbo size being  83 seats while the rest were 77 seats, these being VR 301-12 LFS 291/304/303/293/94/290/280/301/281/302/286/83F and VR 324-26 OSF 306-08G from Scottish Omnibuses, VR 316/19-23/27, NGM 157/174/162/170/166/65/164G from Central SMT and VR 317/18/28-33 OCS 579/78H, NAG 591G/OCS 580H/NAG 585/89/87/84G from Western SMT. 13 VR's that were to come to Eastern Counties instead went to Lincolnshire Road Car and Eastern National with 12 and 8 Bristol Lodekkas respectively coming to Eastern Counties.

Courtesy of Syd Eade we see one of the buses involved in the great swap FLF 496 MAH 496E at Norwich Bus Station.

FIRST IPSWICH DEPOT WIN AN AWARD

Congratulations to First Ipswich depot who picked up an award on Thursday in the UK BUS Excellence awards as Highly commended depot of the year, well done to everyone at Ipswich who has made a concerted effort to turn around the depot from admittedly one of the worst three years back to one of the best in the country. In fleet news Cameron on Yarmouth Bus Page revealed that the two Enviro 200 destined for Ipswich are 45119 RT09 JPT seen below copyright Stuart Ray and 44928 EU08 FHB, both were originally at Lowestoft before moving to Norwich earlier this year currently both are destined for Rotherham next week, while the following week Volvo B7RLE 66982 and later one other will move to Norwich this is due to a fall in PVR on the 64/65 routes at the end of August.

While i enjoyed the merits of the Ipswich Buses Demonstrator the lucky people on the 4 route have had the delight of Enviro 200 81 YX63 LGE for the past 4 days, deputising for Dart 85.