FURTHER SECOND LIVES

Another edition of further lives of local buses today, one is an new scan the other is a scan of a print bought some time back, the first picture would be taken in the late 1970's, ex Ipswich AEC Regent V 36 HPV 36 stayed local and was used as a courtesy bus for Townsend Thoresen, the name of course is synonymous for the ferry disaster back in the mid 1980's, after which the name disappeared into the history books. Below we have Ex Eastern Counties Bristol RE RL 513 EPW 513K which for the majority of it's life was an Ipswich allocation before spending it's last days at Bury St Edmunds a picture i have of it when withdrawn saw it pretty much cannibalised so Delta of Stockton done a pretty good job in getting it back into service.

A SELECTION OF NEWLY PURCHASED IMAGES

A selection tonight of recently purchased slides converted to my PC firstly we have Ipswich Buses G119 VDX which entered service on the 4 to Broke Hall & Bixley on the first day of August 1989, how do i know that you wonder well i bought a copy way back in 1990 of the Eastern Bus Handbook! Heading back into town here in the summer of 1992, following that we have two Eastern Counties images the first Black and White image shows LH 533 FNG 533K heading out of Cambridge Drummer Street heading towards Soham on the 122, a certain Mr Hales will enjoy that one. Finally at the bottom a bus that i featured several weeks back this time Bristol VR 207 XNG 207S is at Woodbridge in November 1981, complete with an 50th Anniversary sticker next to the fleetname and of course in poppy red, you certainly wouldn't get away with the advert on the side today.

OUT AND ABOUT IN THE COLD

They say that Bus Photographers must be mad to venture out when it's cold well today was no exception after all the recent relatively mild weather we're now experiencing the first taste of no doubt colder weather, however it was a nice crisp and sunny day, the only trouble particularly at this time of year is the low trajectory of the sun causing a few retakes, nevertheless i managed to photo at last one of Carter's new acquisitions in Dennis Trident 406 LX04 FYB  which appeared on the 93 to Colchester, it was also nice to bump into Barry First Ipswich's Engineering Manager who was very enthused about his 'taxi' this morning thanks to him i managed a nice interior shot of 20514 which i must admit looks absolutely fantastic and speaks volumes for what can be done to a nearly 14 year old coach. It seems to me that Ipswich Buses are not using the ALX 200 Dart's on the X3 most day's are they out of service, or being used elsewhere? So on today was at least two deckers Trident 21 Y458 NHK and DAF Lowlander 57 PN52 XBJ while at least one X5 Branded dart was on the X1, while DAF Lowlander 54 now of course in it's Town 102 advert took the place of an ailing East Lancs Dart on the 4.

1965 FURTHER RECALL IN PICTURES

Eastern Counties LFS 112 FAH 112C was new in 1965 and is seen on the 502 to Heartease in the late 1970's

ICT 29 GPV 29 an Ipswich Park Royal AEC Regent V was new in 1959 and is seen here outside the Cricketers Pub on the 3 to Rushmere Heath.

Eastern Counties Bristol SK LC 507 TVF 507 was Ipswich allocated at this time this particular version of the 208 was a short working within Ipswich to Pine Avenue.

IPSWICH CORPORATION TRANSPORT FLEET 1965

Copyright Geoff Lumb. From the first batch of AEC Regent III motor buses we see ICT 1 ADX 1 now of course preserved by the Ipswich Transport Museum.

1-6  ADX 1-6  AEC Regent III/Park Royal H30/26R 1950
7-12 BPV 7-12  AEC Regal IV/Park Royal B42D 1953
13-16 CDX 513-516  AEC Regent III/Park Royal H30/26R 1954
17/18 DDX 17/18  AEC Regent III/Park Royal H30/26R 1955
19/20 DDX 19/20  AEC Regal IV/Park Royal B42D 1955
21-24 EPV 21-24  AEC Regent III/Park Royal H30/26R 1956
25/26 FPV 25/26  AEC Regent V/Park Royal H37/28R 1957
27-32 GPV 27-32  AEC Regent V/Park Royal H37/28R 1958
33-36 HPV 33-36  AEC Regent V/Park Royal H37/28R 1959
37-40 LDX 37-40  AEC Regent V/East Lancs H37/28R 1960
41-44 MPV 41-44  AEC Regent V/East Lancs H37/28R 1961
45-48 OPV 45-48  AEC Regent V/East Lancs H37/28R 1962
49-55 PPV 49-55  AEC Regent V/East Lancs H37/28R 1963
56-62 SDX 56-62  AEC Regent V/East Lancs(Neepsend) H37/28R 1963
63/64 ADX 63/64B  AEC Regent V/Massey H37/28R 1964

Ipswich operated only an AEC Fleet in 1965, and would stay this way until the end of the 60's, here we see ICT AEC Regal 19 DDX 19 from the second batch outside the cattle market in Portman Road. Below from the third batch of AEC Regent V's from 1959 is 36 LDX 36 having just passed Electric House.

FRIDAY BITS AND PIECES

Ipswich Buses Lowlander 55 PN52 XBO seen today after a top of various lubricants by the fitters.

Not a great lot to report just an update to things that have happened during the week, firstly apologies to the people who were expecting the Wisbech, Kings Lynn, Newmarket and March allocations of the Eastern Counties fleet in June 1958 unfortunately i do not have the sheet for this at the present time, hopefully in the next few weeks i will obtain a copy. Observations on Monday and through various other reports see the allocation of a Double Decker to the 8 Whitehouse Asda which works a solitary trip out returning as a School Service anybody know?. Further news on the purchase of Scania L94 65589 V589 DVF is that the bus will be looked after by the Ipswich Bus Preservation Group until the bus is old enough for the museum, it passed it's MOT on Monday. Suffolk on Board have various changes to the Lowestoft network by First from the 6th December which can be seen here http://www.suffolkonboard.com/buses/bus-service-changes/december-bus-service-changes/

IB Plaxton President 23 SN51 AXF on it's solitary trip out to Whitehouse, Monday afternoon.

EASTERN COUNTIES ALLOCATIONS JUNE 1958

Seen here in a photo by Syd Eade is Bristol Lodekka LKD 207 VVF 207 in 1974, at the time of this allocation it was allocated to Ely. As can be seen by the allocations there were an array of unique and different buses mostly from takeovers from smaller independents and by now the Bristol Lodekka was appearing in larger numbers with the rebodied Pre War Leyland Titans being withdrawn.