MONDAY OBSERVATIONS

Yesterday saw many different allocations to what we are used to on both Ipswich Buses and First Ipswich town services, as seen above Ipswich Buses Enviro 200 81 YX63 LGE appeared on the Park and Ride, in place of the one of the usual Optare Versa's, continuing this theme, IB had Trident 23 on the 9 in place of one of the usual Mercedes Benz Citario's, other observations included ALX 200 Dart 139 on the X1, sister 138 on the 8/13, 141 on the X3 and 144 on the 4, it's noticeable that most of the branded Dart's now appear on routes other than what they should, as was 84 on the 12, and 86 on the 8/13 both branded for the 4, Deckers 20 and 59 were also on the X3,First Ipswich had ADL Enviro 200 44928 out on the 53 instead of the 39/59, while 44517/19 were on the 60/61, with 44518 the solitary one on the 53, numbers made up with 2 Volvo B7RLE's, double deckers are also common these days on the 60/61 with heritage liveried 32479 whilst today 32655 appeared.
In regards to the Carter's takeover by Ipswich Buses, i believe that the Leyland/Volvo Olympians are for sale with just the 4 Trident's and the MCV Evolution passing to IB, Viv Carter will still carry on with their excellent heritage fleet and have already registered a school service. The reaction to my comment on the news was taken to be negative in regards to the comments i made, unfortunately i was rather negative on the whole which has upset people, especially the owners and peoples jobs rely on this takeover, my comment regarding the burden on the tax payer wasn't factually correct, apologises for that i do hope IB will make a go of the Colchester services, although they have operated rural services in the past, Suffolkbus was the identity of the buses/ coaches taken over by them from Bickers/Squirrells in the late 1980's.

First Ipswich Volvo B7TL 32479 on the 60 yesterday

 The Mini E200's brought in for the 59/70 occasionally escape on to towns illustrated yesterday by 44928 on the 53.

Ipswich Buses Lowlander 59 on the X3.

SUNDAY RECALL

This is quite an rare picture in that it could of only been on loan to Ipswich at that time from Eastern Counties Bury St Edmunds depot as by this point Ipswich was Bristol RE free, RL 872 XAH 872H had pretty much been an Norwich allocation until late in it's career, it's seen here at East Bergholt outstation in April 1985.

Copyright Michael Dryhurst

Now this is a real beauty with out any doubt and it has an family connection as being one of the Trolleybuses built by Ransomes in which my late uncle helped to build 81 PV 4789 is situated outside Ipswich Corporation Transport's Constantine Road  depot, note the typical advertisements of the time for Player's cigarettes and Gordon's gin, which wouldn't be allowed now.

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.