IPSWICH BUSES APRIL CHANGES

Ipswich Buses ex Lothian Trident 24 SN51 AXO had a rare turn out on the 4 late yesterday morning and afternoon.

The following routes will be amended, with timetable and stopping places from Monday April 11th, 4 Broke Hall & Bixley/Martlesham Heath, 6/6A Ipswich Hospital Via Ravenswood/Northgate, X3 John Lewis, X5 Ipswich Hospital, 9/10 Whitton & Castle Hill, 15/A Stoke Park Via Maidenhall/ Via Chantry. Other routes which will just see timetable changes are the 8/B Whitehouse and the 12 Chantry(Cambridge Drive) whilst the 13 to Pinewood & Tesco will see a route change, stopping places and a timetable change.

CARTERS BUYOUT

Carters ex Stagecoach Midlands Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties Palatine P915 RYO

News has just reached me in the last hour that confirmation of the sale of the Bus operations business not the heritage fleet to Ipswich Buses has been reached quite why in my opinion, there is quite a few non DDA buses in the fleet which will need replacing by next January and to be truthful the Colchester route doesn't actually carry many passengers another burden for the poor tax payers of Ipswich.

EASTERN COUNTIES ALLOCATIONS FEBRUARY 1991

 The first Leyland Olympian's bought after deregulation occurred in 1989 were DD1-5 F101-05 AVG  with Northern Counties bodies, here we see the first in the batch DD1 heading into Great Yarmouth.

Looking back to the allocations of February 1991 we can see that there was a still a healthy amount of Bristol VR's and Leyland Nationals, the awful Freight Rover Sherpa's by now 5 years old had dwindled down to only 15, and the only coaches were 7 Leyland Leopard/Willowbrook's which by and large had been downgraded for bus use.

Also seen in 1991 was a now 14 year old Leyland National LN 590 WAH 590S in the Ipswich OCM,within a couple of years some were modernised as National Greenways by East Lancs and would finally be withdrawn in the mid 2000's, one of course is preserved by Richard Walker WAH 587S, while the only original Leyland National to survive is the ITM's LN 770 XNG 770S.

FEC ACQUIRED BUSES 2005-09

https://www.flickr.com/photos/fwc439h/5390053089/in/photolist Copyright Steven Hughes.

Now added to my pages section is an new addition to the acquired buses by FEC updating it 2005-2009, 2010-2016 will follow in due course once editing is completed, this includes all the dates of buses new and cascaded from other operating companies. Bought in January 2009 above is Volvo B7RLE 69424 AU58 FFL for Ipswich Park And Ride, the Bury site has since closed and the buses were transferred to normal services although 69421/29-33 have since transferred to Essex. Below you see 37572 AU58 ECW an Volvo B9TL/Wright Gemini also new in 2009 seen here when new, these have since been cascaded for normal services at Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/31074376@N06/4179141650/in/photolist Copyright Alex Drennan

SATURDAY RECALL

Today see's two more recent slide purchases, firstly we see Ipswich Buses Atlantean 22  SDX 22R during the mid 1990's interestingly it has had a new front panel to the right, by this time the blinds were in florescent yellow, and the 11 is now of course the 6A, all rather confusing today!

 A rather rare photo this of a Eastern Counties Bristol VR 185 PEX 385R in Clacton on the 123 service of course this route no longer exists in those days the picture points to 1981, both Eastern Counties and Eastern National worked a turn on the service, VR 185 later the next year was reallocated to Peterborough which in turn became Cambus in 1984, then Viscount and even managed to get to Scotland with Rennies during the 1990's.

WEDNESDAY'S SPOTTING

One of yesterday's surprise spotting was two ALX 200 Darts both on the 8/13, 141 unbranded and 142 seen here branded for the X3, while sisters 138/39 were on the X1 with 85 branded for the 4, Trident 21 was on X3 duties whilst the 4 entertained two deckers again with ALX 400 Trident 11 and Scania Omnidekka 60, and First Ipswich had 44517 on the 60/61, talking of the 3 E 200's that are departing they are to be used on a new service 40 to Poringland for First Norwich.

THURSDAY RECALL

Today's recall shows an bus which was allocated to Peterborough for the majority of it's Eastern Counties/Cambus career, originally new in 1971 Bristol RE RL 505 BVF 668J was later joined by it's sister RL 506 which had spent all it's career of over 10 years at Ipswich before heading west both ended up in Ely before withdrawal came in 1985.

MONDAY'S SPOTTINGS

Ipswich Buses Dart 144 Y295 FJN complete with new panels and X5 branding passes through the Old Cattle Market yesterday on diversion because of roadworks in Tacket Street.

Yesterday saw a raft of buses straying from there usual routes, so here goes as seen above Dart 139/44 were both on the X1, followed by Trident 16 on the 4 and 13 today, with Lowlander 59 also on the 4 supplemented by Trident 19 and Scania Omnidekka 60 on morning peaks, the 6 had both Darts 84/86, the X3 saw Trident 13 and Optare Spectra 53, the 8/13 had Darts 85/87, the 10 surprisingly had Tridents 21/23 with Lowlander 57, the 12 saw 2 Scania Omnicity's 71/73 and finally Scania/Optare 69 was on the 15A.

 Ipswich Buses Trident 16 LG02 FDN was on the 4 yesterday.

First Ipswich will be transferring 3 of the 4 E 200's to Norwich in late March, so snap them while you can, seen yesterday was 44519 on the 60. 

SUNDAY RECALL

Shame it's not in colour, but nevertheless what a wonderful bus the Bristol RE was  the distinctive engine whine as they ascended Ashdown Way first thing in the morning was a joy to behold, as every trip into town became a disappointment if one of the batch would appear, as the picture shows this particular one 122 TRY 122H along with sister pressed into service from Leicester by Ipswich in 1980 still with the cream intact with the stripe on the middle waistband in green and the Ipswich crest applied, part of a batch of five one 120 TRY 120H didn't enter service until 1983 and was withdrawn within 2 and a half years the end came in 1987 when i witnessed 118 TRY 118H roll out of Constantine Road in May 1987.

Here we see Eastern Counties Bristol LC 556 3003 AH in Dogs Head Street, near the old Post Office along with an unidentifiable Bristol MW on the 239 Circular around the outskirts of Ipswich, this would put the date somewhere in the later 1960's.