32479 AT THE IPSWICH TRANSPORT MUSEUM

Today's blog is rather special as it's something which has taken some time to arrange due to the holiday season and the longer time it's taken for the refurbished buses to come back to Ipswich, this was a chance to good to miss and was a chance to bring the ITM and First Ipswich together to promote both organizations which me and First Business Manager Chris Speed have been hatching for some time was to get 32479 AU53 HJV in the heritage livery of the Deregulated Eastern Counties livery alongside one of the museums beautiful Eastern Counties buses in the form of LFS 125 GNG 125C which was put into position by ITM's Stuart McNae a former Ipswich depot fitter himself, who was rapt later on in conversation with current Ipswich Engineering manager Barry Spurling on how things were done in the past, also along for the morning was Lucy Wright PR Manager for First Norfolk/Suffolk and Essex and ably assisting with putting things into position was Bernard Simpson of the Museum and regular photograph contributor James Long. Thanks must go to all those who contributed to the event and for the weather which stayed dry and bright.

 Current Engineering manager Barry Spurling with Chris Speed.

In another exclusive to the blog i can tell you that Volvo B7TL's 32487 and 32492 should both return to Ipswich hopefully within the next 8 days, the delay has been caused by a lack of leather material for the seats, while Enviro 200 44516 should return tomorrow.

Also caught while we were waiting was Volvo B7RLE 69429 AU58 FNN heading up past the ITM on it's way to Felixstowe.

65630 THE MYSTERY DEEPENS

                                                                                                       

Scania L94 65630 V830 FSC has now been parked up in the depot for just shy of two weeks and yet nobody seems to know whats happening to it, from previous information it was meant to join the rest of it's sisters in Colchester last week but as of today it still hasn't moved. Only one other thing to report on the refurbishment front this week is the quick arrival back of Enviro 200 44516 which will complete the other three. Tomorrow will see a very special report and hopefully the Ipswich Buses story will return at some point this week taking as from 1970 up to deregulation in 1986.

66987 INTO SERVICE AND IB REPAINT

66987 KX05 MHV seen this morning in High Street, Ipswich on the 60 to Gainsborough, photo copyright David Warren.

 As can be seen by the photo above Volvo B7RLE 66987 KX05 MHV entered service this morning on the 60/61 Greenwich/Gainsborough services, below is a picture showing 69007 from the rear showing in better detail the First logo and the application of the livery applied on the offside rear of the bus.

32490 AU53 HKH Seen here yesterday at Martlesham Tesco shows the application of the livery on the offside which is applied at a slightly different angle to fit on a double decker.

IPSWICH BUSES NEWS

 A surprise repaint into current fleet livery is Dennis Trident 11 LG02 FCX while sister 14 LG02 FDJ has now finished it's term on the 192 BT contract and seems to have taken up residency on the 202 Shotley run as seen below, also currently in the depot is Carters latest buy a Volvo Olympian/Northern Counties P915 RYO information from the excellent http://norwichbusesblog.blogspot.co.uk/

69007 NEW FLEETNAMES, 32490 RETURN AND SCANIA REPLACEMENTS!

69007 AU05 DMO seen here Monday with it's new vinyl's in place front and side and a large First logo at rear, photo copyright James Long

Ipswich depot have began to apply the new vinyls to the fleet the first one up was Volvo B7RLE 69007 AU05 DMO as seen above entered service on Monday, in other news Volvo B7TL 32490 AU53 HKH returned on Tuesday as predicted, today's departure was Volvo B7RLE 66985 KX05 MHO with 66987 MX05MHV returning home tonight from Rotherham. In another piece of exclusive news i can reveal, thanks again to Chris Speed that the remaining Scanias will be replaced by more 05 Plate Volvo B7RLES from First Essex, all of which will be refurbished, 65670/72-75 will depart to Colchester while the older Scania L94's will be scrapped, 65630 V830 FSC has not departed to Colchester as yet, but is due to happen.
A plea on the behalf of the ITM now we have duplicate copies of  Eastern Counties timetables from 1971-79 all areas, of which are in good condition all are priced at £2.00 if collected in person from the museum, please e mail me first though or can be sent out for only £1.50 inc postage and costs.

65675 SN51 UYJ is one of the above mentioned Scania L94UB/Wright Solars which will be transferred out by Christmas.

FIRST IPSWICH UPDATE AND ALLOCATIONS

32494 Volvo B7TL/ALX 400 AU53 HKM seen here today on the changed 66 to Martlesham now no longer serving Halifax.

Not going to be a particularly long blog today, just a few things to add to yesterdays one, 66986 Volvo B7RLE KX05 MHU went directly to Rotherham for refurbishment, and the first B7RLE 69007 AU05 DMO has received the new vinyls with the Ipswich name at the front and small First logo swirls on the sides, just missed picturing one today due to further traffic delays on Bishop's Hill but did manage to see it later in the day on the way to somewhere else and the application looks pretty good and appropriate for the new livery.  

66850 MX05 CHD seen here today on the 55 to Bixley

IPSWICH ALLOCATION SEPTEMBER

Volvo B7TL: 30888(LOAN)/32479/32486#/32487/32488/32489/32490/32491/32492#/32493/32494/32653/32655/32656
Enviro 200: 44516#/44517/44518/44519
Scania L94: 65579/65588/65589/65630/65670/65672/65673/65674/65675
Volvo B10BLE: All on Loan from First South Yorkshire: 60618/60622(on loan at GT.Yarmouth)/62143/66112
Volvo B7RLE: 66850/66950/66957#/66959/66981/66985/66986#/66987#/69005/69007/69008/69009/69010/69011/69422/69423/69424/69425/69426/69427/69428/69429/69431/69432/69433
Buses marked with # are currently away being refurbished.

66986 ARRIVAL AND LAST DAY OF THE 66 TO HALIFAX

First up i must thanks Mark Doggett for sending me a selection of photos from the last day of the 66 to Halifax including the gorgeous 32487 AU53 HKE heading out to Martlesham Heath at the Old Cattle Market and an offside view at Halifax, Stoke Park, personally and some may disagree i think the livery really suits the ALX 400 body, hopefully tomorrow we should 32490 back, as a side note it's worth mentioning the PVR of the 66 goes down by one from today.

In case some of you have forget the following are away for refurbishment, Volvo B7TL's 32486/90/92, Volvo B7RLES 66957,66985 from tomorrow! Enviro 200, 44516 and currently on loan are Volvo B10BLES, 60618/22(on loan at Great Yarmouth),62143,66112, Volvo B7TL 30888 from Great Yarmouth and Scania/Irizar Coaches 23312/14 from First Hampshire/Dorset/Berkshire. With the transfer in from Colchester of  Volvo B7RLES 66985/86 KX05 MHO/U this has seen the 2 ex Ensign supplied ones 69532/33 PL05 UBR/S to depart there. Finally below a picture of withdrawn Scania 65590 which has gone to Spalls for storage is seen here in January 2013 on the 61 to Greenwich as i know at least one person out  there will enjoy it.

IPSWICH BUS STORY IN VIEW 1950-70

Photo Copyright Geoff Lumb

Another slightly different blog that this time charts the progress off the Ipswich fleet through photographs the first picture illustrates the first Ipswich motor bus No 1 ADX 1 an AEC Regent III/Park Royal on the 1B to Maidenhall during the 1960's in what is now the Crown Street Lay by.

Copyright Malcolm King 

Spot the difference time now while looking the same as ADX 1 above the difference being on the later batches of the AEC Regent III's is shown here with 14/16 CDX 514/16 having a different arrangement of opening windows.

Copyright Malcolm King

After 1957 Ipswich concentrated on the AEC Regent V with Park Royal body seen here is 29 GPV 29 outside the Cricketers pub on a now abandoned route the 3 to Rushmere Heath .

The last batch of AEC Regents were Neepsend bodied being 65-68 DPV 65D which is now preserved seen here at Tower Ramparts during the 1970's

Seen here late in his life time is AEC Regal/Park Regal 19 DDX 19 this was part of the second batch of the type in 1956? and were the last Single Deckers for 11 years.

The next single deckers in 1967 were again AEC's this time the Reliance which were not as successful as the Regal's sadly the last known one 72 HPV 72F was broken up a few years ago, seen here is Massey bodied 70  HPV 70F on the 2A to the Airport during the late 1970's

During the late 1960's Ipswich had to cut their connection with AEC and went with the ever popular Leyland Atlantean with ECW bodywork numbered 74-76 LDX 74-76G were painted in a trial livery of more cream and less green, later of course ICT went for something like this went the third batch of Roe bodied Atlanteans 4-7 HDX 904-07N were painted into a predominantly cream  and green livery. Next time well in the future i will catalogue the period 1970-95.