MONDAY OBSERVATIONS

Ipswich Buses Ex Carters MCV Evolution 156 on the 98 to Shotley today.

Plenty of observations to be found out and about in Ipswich, kicking of with Ipswich Buses and MCV Evolution 156 has found a new home on the 98 to Shotley displacing one of IB's ALX 200 Darts, East Lancs Lowlander 57 is now permanently allocated to 92-94 services and was joined today by Ex Lothian Trident 24, town services particularly the 8/13 are now seeing an even wider selection of Buses including Dart 86/87 and Excel 171, the 15A saw Dart 84, and the X3 had 85, Solo 244 was on the 16, whilst the 4 lost it's regular Solo 241 picture below, for a extremely tatty ALX 200 Dart 144 with a cracked window and a rattly pole, with Excel 172 also making a welcome appearance.

New IB Enviro 200 107 YX66 WCL was on the 10 which in the main is now also Single Decker worked.

SATURDAY FLASHBACK

Eastern Counties Bristol Lodekka FLF 441 GPW 441D, Felixstowe Bus Station.

In case you are wondering i have had to take down the fleetlist's blog as the information came from a PSV Circle book which does not allow information to be copied, so please if you do glean any information from any of there publications please do not pass it on to me, said information is probably available somewhere so i will try and source it else where.

Photo by RJ Elseworthy. Eastern Counties Bristol VR 186 PEX 386R, with it's strange number blinds waiting time at Sudbury

THREE C'S FLEET SEPTEMBER 2016

Three C's Volvo B10M/Jonckheere S72 UBO seen earlier this year.

THREE C'S FLEET

TJI 7516 Leyland Leopard/Plaxton C53F originally XGS 777X new 09/81
S72 UBO  Volvo B10M-62/Jonnckheere C57F new 08/98
X12 CCC  Volvo B10M-62/Plaxton C49FT  originally X143 RNV new 09/00
AB03 CCC Scania K114IB4/Irizar C53F originally YN03 WPT new 04/03
YN05 HVH Volvo B12B/Plaxton C57F new 03/05
YN07 LDJ Scania K310EB4/Irizar C53F new 04/07
YN07 LDL Scania K310EB4/Irizar C53F new 04/07

Fleetlist will be added to menu shortly for easier access.

THE OTHER 106 and 108 PLUS MONDAY UPDATED

 A couple of photos illustrating the previous 106/108 from my collection, these have been featured before, but not for some time, 106 C106 SDX was an one off Dennis Falcon with East Lancs body which survived for 22 years, sadly this was scrapped a few years back, following that we have 108 C108 SDX with an Northern Counties body, these seem to be genuinely unloved at the time this one was delayed the most not entering service until late in 1986, most were sold off fairly early, most passing eventually to First Leicester with some ending their days as driver trainers.

Update to Monday's observations include the now use of a full size single decker on the 19, East Lancs Dart 93 X93 LBJ, Scania Omnicity 71 was on the X3 as well, and yesterday reportedly 2 Double Deckers were seen on the X3, if anyone has anything to say on theses changes, please let me know, as i would like to gauge people's opinions, you can do this by commenting below.

Coming Soon Updated Fleet Lists

A full update on all the local operations, plus additions like Mulleys and Suffolk Norse.

IB'S NEW ENVIRO 200'S AND OTHER OBSERVATIONS

After a fruitless excursion out to the never reaches of Felixstowe this morning, the afternoon saw a much more productive results with all four of Ipswich Buses Enviro 200's captured on camera, even though it was playing up, coming into Ipswich i had spotted 106 YX 66 WCK first of all at Ipswich Hospital on the X5 so this was the first one i photoed at Tower Ramparts, 108 YX66 WCL was next up on the 15 while 105 YX66 WCJ was on the 12 and 107 was caught at the Ipswich OCM on the 202 to Shotley. Other observations reached from today sees the 4 converted to 1 Optare Solo and 1 ALX Dart which is rather disappointing to see from my point of view, whilst the 9/10 routes also seeing mainly Single Deckers,Scania Olympus 68/69 have been taken off the X5. Other spots today was Scania Omnidekka 62 on the X1, and Scania Omnicity 71 on the X3,whilst First Ipswich had Volvo B7TL 32487 on the 60/61.

IPSWICH BUSES NEWS

Ipswich Buses ex Metroline Dennis Trident 22 LR02 BBJ has been used on regular routes during the school holidays seen here last Thursday on the 10.

I have published this information before but as this comes into force today i thought i would reissue it, meanwhile Ipswich Buses have added a further ADL Enviro 200 KX59 GNY in Ex Premiere, Nottingham, then back to Mistral Dealer, Stewarts of Mortimer then Bristol Greyhound in the last year, this was partly swapped with the only coach in Carters fleet Volvo B10M NK51 ZSR.


X1/X2/X3 – There are adjustments to times in the afternoon peak time on Mondays to Saturdays to reflect passenger demand. There will be a slightly earlier first journey to the station and an extra afternoon X3 from John Lewis.
4 – The 0935 journey from Tower Ramparts on Saturdays will now depart at 0940. 
X5 – No changes. Now that the roadworks at Major’s Corner have finished we hope to be able to operate the timetable we tried to introduce in April more punctually.
6/6A – In response to customer requests we are extending the 1500 6A all the way via Ravenswood and Gainsborough to Ipswich Central – offering an earlier journey home for children from St Alban’s.
8 – We have adjusted various most times, including providing an additional morning peak journey. 
9/10 –The 1457 service 10 will operate on all days, offering schools a better service back into town, but the 1512 service 10 will terminate at Meredith Road shops on schooldays. Some very early morning journeys to Whitton will start at Westwood Avenue bus stop instead of at Norbridge.
12 – The 0700 journey from Ipswich Central will now depart at 0655 to improve connections to the station and run earlier throughout.
13 – As promised we have made further improvements with more peak time buses. A big thank you to our customers on this route who have stayed loyal to your locally owned company. 
14 – We have had to make some economies on this route because of cuts to Suffolk County Council funding for concessionary fares. We have withdrawn a number of peak time journeys in order to reduce the number of buses required in our fleet as a consequence of this. We are also shortening the route so that on the way out of town buses will turn into Hawthorn Drive and then straight into Primrose Hill. The bus will no longer serve Pimpernel Road and customers for Stonelodge Lane West and Sheldrake Drive can alight on the way back to town.
15 – The 1805 & 1825 journeys have been retimed to make them more punctual.
16 – No changes.
17 – No changes.
18A – No changes.
19 –. We have had to make some economies on this route because of cuts to Suffolk County Council funding for concessionary fares. We have withdrawn a number of peak time journeys in order to reduce the number of buses required in our fleet as a consequence of this, however we have taken the opportunity to allow buses more time to complete their journey and we hope that buses will be more punctual as a consequence.
92 – The service will now run hourly during the day Monday to Saturday. The early journey to Manningtree Railway Station will now depart from Old Cattle Market Bus Station at 0710 and run Monday to Friday on all non-Bank Holidays. Journeys will no longer start or finish at East Bergholt.
93/94 – Revised running times to improve punctuality, with fewer journeys serving Great Wenham. The 0817 93C and the 1520 return journey are renumbered to 93A.
98/202 – Revised running times to improve punctuality. Some 98 journeys are renumbered 98A and will now serve Chelmondiston Lings Lane bus stop, providing a bus every hour to Chelmondiston. There are now buses every hour on route 92 to Holbrook at those times.
Routes 464 and 465 – these routes to Stowmarket High School are now provided as local bus routes.
Routes 501 & 502 to Suffolk One will now be restricted to college students only.

East Lancs Spryte Dart 94 X94 LBJ was deputising for a Mercedes Benz Citario on Thursday along with Scania Omnidekka's 60-62, although 61 later appeared on the 4,deputising for an Solo on the 19 was Dart 141 Y273 FJN, which followed that up with an appearance on the 4 on Friday, while Dart 138/42 were also on the 4 Tuesday/Wednesday. Darts 84-87 continue to be used on the 8/13 in the main although 87 escaped on Saturday back on to its intended route the 4.

FROM ENGLAND TO SCOTLAND THE 1973 SWAP.

Both Pictures Copyright ETCS

During 1973 Eastern Counties were involved with other NBC companies to swap Bristol Lodekka's apart from ones with Bristol Engines, above ex Eastern Counties FLF 491 LAH 491E became BE 357 with Central SMT gaining the triangular destination common to SBG companies, other NBC companies such as United didn't have to send there Lodekkas very far, strangely this one THN 264F moved to Western SMT based in Glasgow new in 1968 it retained it's 4 piece set blinds as well as it's Cave Brown heating system.