WEDNESDAY FLASHBACK/INDEPENDENT NEWS

Above Courtesy of Stuart Ray 

Taken during 1986 we see withdrawn Eastern Counties Bristol RE RL 875 YAH 875J  along with sister RL 872 towards the rear of the Bury St Edmunds Cotton Lane depot, RL 875 for many a year was Ipswich Allocated passing to Cambridge for a spell ,this would of been around February /March time, as allocation sheets of the time show it listed in January but not in April, above you can see it when brand new in a proper Tillings Cream/Maroon so much better than the bland NBC Poppy Red. Travelling forward a bit in time to the early 1990's and we see Eastern Counties LN 782 DPW 782T in an all over advert for another long last company Connells Home Improvements, note that 16 was still being carried for the service to Woodbridge/Bawdsey an ex Bickers service number this would later became the 71.

INDEPENDENTS NEWS

Beestons have another Scania Omnidekka in the form of YN03 DFE originally with Metrobus this transferred other to Go Ahead's London General operation before sale to Ensign in September, Three C's have bought ex Soames YN05 HVH an Volvo B12B/Plaxton C53FT 

SUNDAY RAIL REPLACEMENT COACHES

While i was busy conducting on Sunday i just about in the two five mins between journeys was able to squeeze in a few photos from the various coaches which were being used for Rail Replacement from Ipswich, above we have Panther Travel Volvo B10M/Plaxton BIG 611, whilst below we see Simmonds Volvo B12BT/Van Hool Acron 4512 UR formerly SK07 FTV. Below that we have Belle Coaches Setra OJI 4756 i know with all these private plates it's difficult to see what year they were all i know is it was made in 2001. Below that is New Horizon Travel of Frating Scania K340EB4/Irizar PB SK07 NKN and finally an interloper from yesterday in the form of YN07 LGN? from Pamray Travel of Littleport another Scania K340EB4/Irizar PB.

THE TALES OF A CONDUCTOR PART TWO: THE ITM 50TH EVENT

The three First Eastern Counties heritage liveried buses together for the first time, Volvo B7TL's 30888 W743 DWX from First Lowestoft in Lowestoft Corporation colours, 32479 AU53 HJV from First Ipswich in Deregulation Post Office Red and 32059 W2I9 XBD from First Great Yarmouth in Great Yarmouth Transport livery.

Well talk about a long day, yesterday started bright and early, firstly meeting Joe Thorpe at the First Ipswich depot where before we departed First Ipswich's heritage bus VA 479 Volvo B7TL 32479 AU53 HJV was put through the wash and as usual the team at Ipswich had it remarkably clean inside, from then it was off to the ITM  arriving just before 10.30, i had just a 10 minute turn around as i took on Ipswich AEC Regent V 63 ADX 63B driven by John Rawling for two journeys from Ipswich Railway Station back to the Museum, where i was met by Chris Speed having bought his Great Yarmouth AEC Swift to Ipswich for the first time, by this time a total of 22 buses had turned up making things rather tight for parking. Next up for me was a trip out to the Levington turn off with John Rawlings battling away with the gear changes on the museum's Eastern Counties Bristol K KNG 374 where i skilfully managed to only bang my head upstairs people marvelling that the seats were one long seat seating four people rather than the usual two, we were joined on the run by a further Bristol K Eastern National VNO 859 see picture below. No time for lunch and a great trip conducting on EATM's Eastern Counties LFL 57 557 BNG across the Orwell Bridge imitating IBT's old 18 service, by now it was getting rather busy as the buses were getting full. One trip remained and it was my old friend Chris Speed who looked the part as we took the Great Yarmouth AEC Swift 85 WEX 685M up to Broke Hall on the 4, picture below. I must mention the organisers Mark Smith and Owen Smith for doing sterling work both prior to and during the day, as can be seen it was well attended roll on next year.

Chris Speed's Great Yarmouth Swift 85 WEX 685M at Broke Hall

Another of the visitors yesterday was ex Wilts and Dorset Bristol VR KRU 848W in a livery which really suits the VR.

65589 MAKES IT INTO PRESERVATION

Finally i am able to reveal that ex Ipswich allocated Scania L94UB 65589 V589 DVF has been kindly donated to the Ipswich Transport Museum by First Group after sister 65588 was deemed too expensive to repair i alerted them to the fact that it's sister 65589 was still hard at work in Colchester thanks must go to Chris Speed who i kept badgering about her to set up a deal with the museum and First Essex, i believe she will be the literally the first Scania L94UB in preservation, which is something to crow about and also the first low floor bus the museum has which will add a part of the enormous and rich Eastern Counties collection that the museum already has. You can see 65589 tomorrow at the ITM for the 50th Event. Many thanks to my good pal Grahame Bessey who has supplied me with the 'other one of the three Volvo B7TL's that will be attending the ITM 50th event in First Lowestoft 30888 W743 DWX of course 30888 is no stranger to Ipswich having spent some time here on loan last year and is now repainted into Lowestoft Corporation colours.

SUNSHINE AFTER THE RAIN!

Well what a day, it started Sunny then a torrential downpour and as they say sometimes you have to suffer for you art, so to kick off Ipswich Buses had all over ad  DAF Lowlander 54 PF04 WML out on the X5 Ipswich Hospital route for the first time, i must say that all in all its quite pleasant to the eye but then anything Blue and White to me rather then Yellow and Green is okay. As can be seen below the weather was far better 30 minutes previous, and pictured below is Galloway Optare Solo SR YJ65 EWG which was it's first day in service on the 113/14 to Diss in the capable hands of Owen Phillips.

Mean time it's been a rather lucrative week for First Ipswich as the have been using Plaxton Paragon Volvo B12M WV02 EUP 20514 on Rail Replacement between Ipswich and Felixstowe as Abellio can't cope with a few leaves on the line!

There was also a lot of funny allocations on IB routes today as Scania Omnidekka 62 was allocated to the 4, DAF Lowlander 58 was on the X3 with E200 79 it makes me think are the current ALX 200 Darts being phased out?, and an ALX 200 Dart 140 replaced a Lowlander 55 on the 15, whilst a Trident was on the X1. Captured below is Dennis Lance 162 L162 ADX making a rare visit to the Town Centre.

First Ipswich and Ipswich Buses were raising money for Children in Need by bringing their Teddy Bears to work and various members of staff for both companies wore fancy dress. Many thanks to Chris Speed who sent me this photo of the Ipswich Engineering team with their Teddy Bears.

ITM 50TH UPDATE/IB ALL OVER AD/CARTERS NEW TRIDENT

With thanks to Chris Speed for the news i can confirm that both First Great Yarmouth Volvo B7TL/ALX 400 32059 W219 XBD  and 30888 W743 DWX from First Lowestoft will be at the Ipswich Transport Museum 50th Event on Sunday in their heritage liveries as you can see above i bumped into 32059 back in August, be warned though their seating isn't as luxurious as are very own 32479. In other news Ipswich Buses are applying an all over advert for Town 102 FM an local radio station not that ever listen to it, photo from Town 102 Facebook page. Carters also have a further Transbus Trident/ALX 400 LX03 BTF ex Tower Transit and carrying it's ex First Group fleet number 33206, fleet number 407, currently still in London Red and with double doors it will be converted to a Single Door and LED destination blinds in due course.

Picture courtesy of Viv Carter of Carters Coach Services.

WEDNESDAY FLASHBACK: CONTRASTING COUNTIES LIVERIES

 Two rather interesting slides for today's flashback, one is particularly interesting and that is the inside of the lost Felixstowe Depot looking rather full at the front in July 1981 is VR 189 RPW 189R which was originally to be a Lowestoft Corporation bus but was purchased by Eastern Counties upon their takeover, note how the windscreen wipers are on the top, while the rest of the fleet were on the bottom to the left is RLE 745 GCL 347N which a few years later in 1984 went with the rest of the batch to Cambus with the split of the company in 1984. Above is VR 258 RAH 258W in 1988, at the Railway Station when Felixstowe buses actually went there, already the recently introduced Post Office red livery is looking rather scruffy which was usually the case when adverts were taken off.