TWO FURTHER EX IPSWICH VOLVO B7RLES RECEIVE NEW COLOURS/HISTORIC PHOTO SPECIAL

EX Ipswich Volvo B7RLE 66980 KX05 MHJ has now received Turquoise line colours, photo by Dan High via Kieran's Norwich Bus Blog. Whilst below we see 66978 KX05 MHE on Purple Line 37 to Mulbarton, again thanks Kieran.

A REAL PIECE OF HISTORY

Now today's photo is a real piece of history as we travel back to before the formation of Eastern Counties with this picture likely to be taken around the late 1920's of a Reo Sprinter which passed to them from Bowyer and Topper from Ely in 1928 when a year old and withdrawn pretty much after takeover by the newly formed ECOC in 1931/2 as R65.

RECALLING THE PARK AND RIDE CHANGEOVER IN 2013

Raiding the archive today and looking back only two years on this one, here we see First Ipswich Volvo B7RLE 69424 AU85 FFL on Park and Ride duties shortly before it's repaint into the Olympia livery although it was repainted and refurbished into it's current livery the following year and below sister 69432 AU58 FFV now of course with First Essex freshly repainted in December 2013.

And a bonus photo to finish with recalling Lowestoft during the 1970's we see Eastern Counties FLF 475 KPW 475D in Lowestoft Town Centre heading for Oulton Village on the 687.

EASTERN COUNTIES TILLINGS LIVERY COMPARISION

 Due to what i can only call incompetence on my part i have lost all of today's camera photos when i left my camera gain some water ingress hopefully i have fixed the problem, so today i have an comparison for you with many thanks to Chris Munden for letting me use this, First West Yorkshire have repainted 37575 YJ58 RTX into the West Yorkshire Tillings livery, however if you compare it to Eastern Counties Bristol K LK 133 HPW 133 it's not quite the same! Anyway i can bring you photos so i will have to put it down in words, today's surprise was IB Open Topper Leyland Atlantean 9 MRT 9P complete with Leon Wells on the X3, Dart 86 was on the 15A instead of the 4 and a Decker which i didn't identify was on the X1. Deckers which i have spotted in use on the 4 this week include 68 yesterday afternoon, 22 on Monday Morning and again this morning and afternoon and 62 yesterday see picture below.

200,000 VIEW SPECIAL

A special blog tonight which charts some of my favourite pictures some are on here for the very first

time others are not above we see the classic Bristol MW/ECW on Eastern Counties LS 808 808 PW when allocated to Bury St Edmunds Cotton Lane when still in the Cream/Maroon livery and not the awful National Express White livery. Below was my highlight of last year was the allocation for only one Journey of First's Private Hire AEC Routemaster RML 2623 on the 77 complete with appropriate blinds made for the day, this years highlight was actually being able to conduct this very bus on the Norwich Running day back in March, well pushed into it by Chris Speed anyway it was good experience for my duties at the ITM later that year, mentioning Mr Speed his and Danny Beales Great Yarmouth AEC Swift 85 WEX 685M made it's re appearance this year and won best bus at the ETCS bus rally in August, no surprise really, see picture below. At the bottom you will see IBT AEC Regent V 60 SDX 60 back in 1980, no excuse other than it's my favourite type of bus and what got me into buses, in those days i would hang around town until one would pop up on the 4 to Broke Hall that or one of the ex Leeds Atlanteans, little did i realise all those years later i would conduct 63 ADX 63B for the ITM, boyhood dream achieved. Finally my favourite Single Decker Bus i know some people say they were cold and draughty at times and they rattled as well, but for someone who was brought up on the Bristol RE's there's nothing like waking up in the morning and hearing that distinctive Bristol engine, so below being aired for the first time is Eastern Counties Bristol RE RL738 AAH 738J on the forecourt of Felixstowe Bus Station in July 1981. The following i would like to thank for all there help over the last 3 plus years, Chris Speed of First, the bloggers Steve W, Kieran, Sam, Cameron, Grahame, from the bus companies Jeremy Cooper at Ipswich Buses, Viv Carter at Carters Coaches and all my loyal supporters of course.

CHRIS SPEED AND JEREMY COOPER ANSWER QUERIES ON BBC SUFFOLK

Part of Ipswich Buses investment in Buses this year has seen 4 ex Transbus SPD Darts and 3 Transbus Trident/Plaxton President arrive from Lothian, all three ex Lothian deckers should be in service in the next week, seen above in August is Transbus SPD Dart 137 SN53 AVP.

Both Chris Speed from First Eastern Counties and Jeremy Cooper from Ipswich Buses this morning answered queries from members of the public on the morning show on BBC Suffolk with Mark Matthews.
Questions asked included cuts to the 19 service on Dale Hall, which was cut due to lack of public funding however buses on the Whitton/Castle Hill area now operate every 7/8 minutes and from 7th October will be operated by the three new Mercedes Benz Citarios and two Double Deckers so more elderly people should be able to use these services, services which currently occupy the stands closest to the shopping centre in Tower Ramparts will have seats fitted once work on the shopping centre is completed. Chris Speed answered questions on the poor connection of services on the 64 which don't link to the trains at Saxmundham, whilst service 66 was mentioned in regard to staff in the travel shop not knowing what was the correct timetable whilst a question on service 76 to Felixstowe in regard to no longer having a bus going down Nacton Road, was answered that its something that may happen in the future if people demand it. The show can be heard here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p030yll2#play

On the aforementioned service 76 from First Ipswich is Volvo B7TL/ALX 400 32491 AU53 HKJ.

MONDAYS BITS AND PIECES AND A WELSH VISITOR

Suffolk Norse MAN coach AY56 BJO, Carters Alexander bodied Olympian R156 LHK and Beestons Scania Omnidekka YN54 OAH lined up in Ipswich OCM.

Not a great lot to report today, just a few oddities to report, so here we go Carters Alexander bodied Olympian took the place of Trident 451 LX51 FJN while also strangely on IB's 98 service to Shotley

was East Lancs bodied Dart 96 X96 LBJ, whilst on town services IB had ALX 200 Dart 138 with X3 branding yes very confusing on the 15A whilst Transbus Enviro 83 was on the 16.

 Whilst below we see a strange combination and a rare one at that Silcox of Pembroke Dock in Wales visiting Ipswich on a tour, this unusual beast is a Dennis Javelin/Caetano CN06 ANP. Silcox back in the 1970's took on several ex Eastern Counties buses if my memory is right!

LEYLAND ATLANTEAN WINS THIS WEEKS POLL

https://www.flickr.com/photos/martin_addison/3535583182/in/photolist-bUNtTp-9EzNRJ-6oqMGJ-nFCz1y-6omzWv-5cooT2-7Ymqwy-7CijYk

The winner of this weeks Favourite Double Decker poll has concluded it's final week although it has been fun to do the lack of people polling has forced me to pull an idea to do a further one until the end of year poll in December, anyway the result was as followed the Leyland Atlantean finished first with 44%, the Olympian in second place with 35%, then the Titan in a distant third with 17% and last was the Fleetline with 2%, above in an evocative photo from 1982 before the Tower Ramparts Shopping Centre was put up we see Ipswich Borough Transport's Roe Bodied Atlantean 98 TRT 98M on the 2A to RSJ Works now of course long gone. Below we see one from my own collection of Atlantean 16 RDX 16R with a bright offside advert for Home Choose Carpets.