FIRST GROUP ORDERS IN FULL

Brighton & Hove Wrightbus Streetdeck 935 BX15 ONM in Brighton this month.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/antrimfj

Now i have the First Bus Handbook to hand i will dish out who's getting what, for each company above is an Wright Streetdeck recently delivered to Brighton & Hove as can be see this is the completely restyled version with the stealth like front end.

WRIGHTBUS STREETDECK

First Bristol 35103-16/35139-50:Hengrove  and 35160-67 Weston Super Mare
First South Yorkshire: 35117-38 Rotherham
First Leicester: 35151-59

ADL ENVIRO 400 MMC

First Bristol: 33951-74 Lawrence Hill
First Glasgow: 33976-99 Caledonia
First Scotland East: These with GKN Flywheel 39301-5 Bannockburn

VOLVO B5LH WRIGHTBUS GEMINI 3

First Manchester: 39237-56 Bolton

WRIGHTBUS STREETLITE DF 
First Cymru:  47659/60 Ravenhill
First Hampshire/Dorset And Berkshire:47686-95 Southampton

WRIGHTBUS STREETLITE MAX DF

First Scotland East: 63251/52 Livingstone/63253-76 Larbet
First West Yorkshire: Bradford 63277-88/Halifax 63289-95
First Hampshire/Dorset/Berkshire: 63296-63312 Hoeford/63314-16 Slough
First Essex: 63228-44 Colchester
First Midlands: 63345-57 Worcester
First Leicester: 63358-66
Eleven are unaccounted for.

ADL ENVIRO 200 MMC

First Glasgow: 67041-48 Blantyre/67049-64 Overtown/67065-83 Parkhead
First Aberdeen:67084-90
First Cymru:67091-95

Sorry for repeating this but it perfectly captures the recent batch of Wrightbus Streetlites delivered to First Essex at Hadleigh 47646 SN15 AFF this is the shorter version.

THURSDAY BITS AND PIECES

An odd bus to use on the contracted 72 service for Suffolk Norse not exactly low floor but there we go here we see Suffolk Norse Dennis Javelin/Plaxton Profile YD53 ZNB,thanks Joe for the correction and below we see Carter's Leyland Olympian/ECW ex Go Ahead South Coast(Damory Coaches) and of course originally Southern Vectis, due to a number of buses undergoing repairs this fine beast was out in regular service. Not the best of images with the iron bars in the way! Below on the Park And Ride today was IB Scania Omnicity 70 YN56 NVG which i caught moments before my bus arrived.

MORE FLICKR PHOTOS SCANNED A BRIEF GLIMPSE

Tonight a couple of photos illustrated a project to make all my vintage slides and negatives available to you all first up is Eastern Counties Bristol RE RL 721 YAH 721J in Dogs Head Street behind is the old Post Office sorting office now of course the Buttermarket shopping centre.

One of my personal favourites see the classic Roe bodied Leyland Atlantean 16 SDX 16R of Ipswich Buses with an offside advert for Home Choose carpets who i believe are still around this would indicate the 1990's also the later luminous yellow blinds. More at https://www.flickr.com/photos/clive62/?

EASTERN COUNTIES ALLOCATION 1974 PART TWO

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ibptsfelixstowe/11896050764/in/photolist-

Eastern Counties Bristol Lodekka LFS 113 FAH 113C was allocated to Peterborough in 1974.

Today i follow up Sunday's post with the second part of the classic allocation list with 2 pages covering the north of the region Kings Lynn and the west of Eastern Counties sphere which 10 years later in 1984 would become Cambus initially then a few years later the Peterborough area becoming Viscount.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/jncarter1962/2313845905/in/photolist-  Copyright John Carter.
Seen in 1985 is Bristol VR 321 NGM 170G Ex  Central SMT Motherwell the previous year of 1973 saw the exchange of Bristol VR's from the Scottish Bus Group with Eastern Counties Bristol Lodekka's going the other way.

MONDAY BIT'S AND PIECES

Unfortunately due to a camera malfunction today i can't bring you the intended photo's i was going to use, one that i did get this morning was Ipswich Buses Solo 241 YN04 LWK after it's recent mishap with Scania Olympus 69 it has a nice lime green rear engine cover, rather tasteful me thinks, other than that there is nothing really to report the only thing to report IB wise was Optare Excel 2 171 on the 4 with Spare Dart 84 on the 13!, while First Ipswich had Volvo B7TL 32494 which was on the 60/61, Volvo B12M 20514 has gone off to Rotherham this morning to be internally refurbished other than that that's it for today.

Suffolk Norse AD Enviro 400 YX63 ZKJ was parked in Crown Street lay by for it's usual swimming contract.

EASTERN COUNTIES ALLOCATION LIST JUNE 1974

Bristol RELL RLE 869 WPW 869H virtually an Ipswich /Felixstowe allocated bus for it's entire life is seen here in Felixstowe in 1981 in what is now the Lidl Supermarket!

Today I'm going to illustrate another classic allocation sheet, this time i will be going back to 1974, now this is an interesting time as we begin to see the ongoing march of one man operated buses particularly the Bristol VR and the first Leyland National's and the withdrawals of the early Bristol Lodekkas the LKD class, it was also only little over six months when the swap with the Scottish Bus Group for their Bristol VR's coming here and the E and F reg Bristol Lodekka FLF class going the other way, strange to think that 12 years later the Bristol Lodekka class out lived those Scottish VR's which Eastern Counties struggled to maintain. Part one today includes the allocations of Norwich, Great Yarmouth, Lowestoft, Cromer, Ipswich,Bury St Edmunds, Felixstowe and Saxmundham.

Seen here a year later in 1975 is Bristol Lodekka LFS 109 ENG 109C seen here on a 209 Bexford Works knowing Counties drivers of the time i'm surprised he knew where to find it on the blind, LFS 109 would finish it's days to the west of the region in Cambridge. Photo Copyright Stuart Ray.

MY PICK FROM MY FLICKR ALBUMS

Seen when just over a year old on January 31st 1974 is Ipswich Borough Transport Leyland Atlantean 86 WPV 86L outside the Cricketer's Pub in Crown Street.

Lowestoft based Eastern Counties Leyland National LN 567 PVF 367R is seen here heading toward Great Yarmouth on the 604 in September 1993.

I think one of  the best in my collection is this Eastern Counties Bristol VR 256 PCL 256W which wore the 240/257 Saxon Radio/Radio Orwell All over advert from the mid 1980's onwards, Radio Orwell in time became SGR FM, and now Heart, with minimal programming in Ipswich.