IPSWICH DECKERS OF THE 70'S AND EARLY 80'S

74 LDX 74G was from the first batch of Atlantean's bought in 1968 this is the second livery carried  from 1974

Well the first one is a bit of a cheat, as we move forward into the 1970's One Man Buses began to come into Bus managers thoughts as economy was the order of the day, that and the shortage of Drivers and Conductors that many companies began to feel, services were cut or didn't run at all the boom days of the 1950's and 1960's were over, as more commuters began to use their cars. The first One Man Double Deckers came in 1968 with the first use in 1970, Ipswich coming late to the party of their advantages, the first four were the elegant Eastern Coach Works bodied Leyland Atlantean 73-76 LDX 73-76G, ECW had only been available to the nationalised bus companies prior to the embargo being lifted, from 1974 an new livery coinciding with the change to Ipswich Borough Transport with a predominately cream and less green this livery was not perpetuated further being used just on 73-76 and a few AEC Regent V's, along with the single door. Ipswich kept faith with the Leyland Atlantean throughout the 1970's but this time with Charles Roe bodies from 1973 until 1977, 83-88 WPV 83-88L, 94-98 TRT 94-98M, 1-5 HDX 904-908N, 6-10 MRT 6-10P, 11-20 RDX 11-20R and 21-35 SDX 21-35R, subsequently later on it was revealed that in 1976 Ipswich were seriously giving thought to the Volvo Ailsa. 1980 saw Ipswich keeping faith with the Atlantean with five with East Lancs bodies 36 RBJ 36W and 37-40 RGV 37-40W, with the thought of more Double deckers being needed Ipswich purchased four Atlanteans from West Yorkshire PTE which originated with Leeds 41-44 UNW 401-404H with Roe bodies of which one never received Ipswich livery 42 UNW 402H withdrawn after just over a years use, and two which received altered front panels similar to the later Roe bodies which rather spoilt their looks.

 86 WPV 86L was from the first batch of Atlantean's bought in 1973 with Roe bodies. Below is 44 UNW 404H one of 4 bought from West Yorkshire PTE in 1980.

Two Atlantean's for the price of one on the left is Roe bodied 27 SDX 27R and the right East Lancs 37 RGV 37W.

MONDAYS RELATIVELY QUIET

Monday's these days is about the only chance to i actually get to visit the centre of Ipswich, some would say that's a good thing. As far as unusual observations there was very little to report, on the X5 to Ipswich Hospital there was only 1 Decker instead of the usual 2, with ADL E200 101 seen above  Dart 137 was also allocated, the 15/A Thorington Park each have 1 Decker allocated these days as does the 10 to Castle Hill & Whitton. On the X1 was Dart 88 whilst Scania Omnicity 73 was employed on the X3. As far as the Branded for the 4 Dart's 84/86/87 were on the 8/13, whilst one actually was employed on the 4 in 85. First Ipswich Mini E200 Dart 44928 EU08 FHB usually on the 59/70 routes was once again on the 60/61 see below.

IPSWICH AEC SINGLE DECKERS

Continuing last weeks theme charting the career of Ipswich's single deckers, the first batch of single deckers arrived in the form of AEC Regal/Park Royal 7-12 BPV 7-12 in 1953 for routes to Chantry Estate and to replace the remaining single deck trolleybuses using the low bridge on Bramford Road, these were followed in 1955 by 2 more in 19/20 DDX 20, 20 is seen just behind the Town Hall entering Princes Street. It wasn't until 1967 that more single deckers arrived with the less than popular AEC Reliance this time with Massey bodies 69-72 HPV 69-72F, 72 seen below is pictured at the rear of Constantine Road Depot.

Replacing the Regals began in 1972 with Ipswich again choosing the AEC product with the Swift, while Great Yarmouth found it to be a good product, firstly the batch Willowbrook bodied 79-82 JRT 79-82K , 79 below than the following year with East Lancs 89-93 DDX 89-93L proved as troublesome as the examples that London Transport had, most were withdrawn by 1983, 79-82 with 89-93 following a couple of years down the lines, Leyland by then had absorbed AEC and the next time it was another British Bus company in Dennis that dominated Ipswich's orders in the 1980's.

ICT AEC Swift 91 seen at Tower Ramparts in the early 1980's.

THREE LIVERIES ONE BUS

 Going through and sorting my photo collection today i came across Eastern Counties Bristol LHS 930 WEX 930 in 3 different liveries, the first picture is at Great Yarmouth in Commuter Express livery, followed by two taken in the late 1980's, the second shows her in NBC Dual purpose livery without NBC Fleetnames and the third in the hideous battleship grey colours at Ipswich OCM where it finished it's career.

ARRIVA COLCHESTER FLEET

 Arriva Colchester Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointer 2 3412 SN54 HWZ. Copyright Steven Hughes

ARRIVA COLCHESTER

Single Deckers

ADL Dart MPD/ADL Pointer 2: 1558/59/1600(Transbus)
ADL/Transbus Dart/SCC:1562/63/64/65
Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointer 2:3314/27/28/29/30/33/3412/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20/21
DAF DE12/Wrightbus: 3516/27/28/29/34
Volvo B7RLE/Wrightbus: 3825/26
ADL E200: 4011/4012/4013/4014/4015/4016/4017/4071/72/73/74/75

IPSWICH ON A MONDAY

On a bright crisp November Monday, First Ipswich Volvo B7TL 32486 turned up on the 60/61 Greenwich/Gainsborough service.

Monday seems to be the day to catch odd occurrences on Ipswich Buses and First Ipswich services, firstly i had a surprise when IB Trident 13 turned up on the 4, these days they only usually turn up on Saturday's, sister 15 also turned up on the X3, which is usually ALX 200 Dart operated with anything from 138-44, 140 slipped away from the X3/X1 and was on the 12, below IB Scania Omnicity 72 was on the 10 usually Enviro 200 operated, Dart 98 has changed from being a regular on the 4 and is now commonly used on the 16, with sister 94 on the 19 and 93 on 8/13, 84/86 were also on the 8/13 with sister 87 on it's correctly branded route 4. On Rail Replacement duties was Panther Travel BIG 8856 a Plaxton bodied Dennis Davelin.

IPSWICH AEC DOUBLE DECKERS

Prior to the introduction of the Leyland Atlantean fleet of Double Decker's Ipswich had a predominately AEC fleet of both Single and Double Decker's with the Regent III, Regent V, Regal, Reliance and finally the Swift. Motorbuses as they were called back in the 1950's were introduced to Ipswich in 1950 with an route to Whitehouse, gradually the Trolleybuses were withdrawn as the cost of Electricity became to high, Buses took there place and were finally withdrawn in 1963. Below from the first batch of Motorbuses is ADX 3 a Park Royal bodied Regent III seen here at Electric House during the 1960's on Training duties behind is Sunbeam/Park Royal Trolleybus 123 ADX 193 from the final batch of Trolleybuses delivered to Ipswich. The later batches of Regent's came in the guise of the Regent V, the vast majority of which were bodied by East Lancs up to 62, 63-64 were Massey bodied and the final 4 were Neepsend, above picture shows 49 PPV 49 an East Lancs bodied Regent V passing through the Cornhill on the infrequent Ipswich Station X.

66 DPV 66D from the final batch of 4 became the Ely Playbus later in life and still exists albeit in a very poor state, fortunately all 3 others exists from the batch 68 with the ITM, 67 became an Open Topper and exists somewhere in Europe while 65 DPV 65D this year was bought for Preservation.