AMONGST THE GREY SKIES

Amongst the gloomy skies of Tower Ramparts this afternoon i spotted an rare event, since the appearance of the Mercedes Benz Citario's on the 9, other buses appearing on this route have been basically non existent, well not today as can be seen above by Ipswich Buses Lowlander 56 PN52 XBK meanwhile the 4 Branded Darts for the 4 route continue there wanderings, yesterday 84/85/86 were on the 8/13 with 87 on the 12 while Dart/ALX 200 141 was on the 6 and 144 on the X1, today saw 87 back on the 4 with 84 on the 15A then later on the 6, 85 on the 8/13 with 86 spare in the Cricketers Lay By, while a strange choice for Ipswich Buses on a peak time working for the 15A was Dart/ALX 200 141 Y273 FJN , see below while below First Ipswich had Volvo B7TL 32490 AU53 HKH on the 60/61

BEESTONS SINGLE DOOR CONVERSIONS

Many thanks to Dave Burrows at Beestons who has sent me these photos of two of the recent Scania Omnidekkas originally from Metrobus converted to Single Door at the top we see YV03 PZY and the bottom one is of YV03 PZL.

MORE ON THE GER BUS/FLEET NEWS UPDATE

Many thanks to David Kindred for allowing me to use this picture for my blog, this updates the feature i did back in December on the Great Eastern Railway Buses, the photograph sees either CL 200 or CL 201 numbered 9 or 10 a Stratford built bus with 2 seats beside the driver and a luggage compartment seen on the nearside behind the drivers seat, notice how little the main station buildings of the railway have changed very little over the 110 years, and the distinct lack of traffic, all the buses allocated to to the route were withdrawn over a six month period between 11/1913 and 05/1914, little is known about there careers after withdrawal, although 5/6 BJ 319/20 became lorries.

IPSWICH BUSES UPDATE

Ipswich Buses have withdrawn the first of the three ex Park And Ride Optare Spectra's now in their sixteenth year, 51 X151 LBJ is seen 3 years ago, IB Dart 96 is not withdrawn yet but is kept mainly for school contracts.

 2 Ipswich Buses on the 4 today DAF Lowlander 55 PN52 XBO and Dennis Dart/ALX 200 141 Y273 FJN ironically back on the route they were displaced from!

AND THEN THERE WAS ONE?

Is this the final chance of a photograph of one of the last East Lancs Darts that haven't been refurbished, on the 1st January there was 3 left 89 above on the 16 and 92/96, 92 has now been withdrawn and i haven't seen 96 in quite a while. Other observations from today saw the 4 back to it's usual 2 Dart allocation with branded 86 and non branded 88, Branded Dart 84 was on the 15A with sister 85 on the 8/13. A full length Single decker in Dart 134 see below was on the 19!, while Trident 21 was on the X1 and finally two of the Y-FJN Darts also strayed today 141 on the 8/13 and 144 X5 branded bus on the 16.

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EASTERN COUNTIES ALLOCATIONS FEBRUARY 1976

Bristol MW LM 626 EVF 626C is seen here in the early 1970's pretty much stayed an Norwich allocation during it's career seen here at the old Norwich Bus Station

At the time of this allocation sheet Bristol VR 134 RAH 134M was an Kings Lynn allocation but by this photo in the late 1980's had moved back to Norwich, seen here at Cromer.

THURSDAY FLASHBACK

 Two rather different photographs converted from slides portraying rather different aspects of the Eastern Counties operations during the 1980's, firstly we see the unremarkable ECW body on the Leyland Leopard LL 882 CAH 882Y many with this type of body were later re bodied due to the poor build quality if memory serves me right particularly at the rear around the boot area? The second picture sees two of the remaining Bristol RE's serving out their last year with Eastern Counties at Bury St Edmunds particularly as the Leyland National wasn't welcome, here we see RL 509 CNG 509K and RL 687 DRX 631K which came from Alder Valley in 1981 during April 1986 when the allocation was as followed RL 503/08/09/13/674/87/92.

MONDAY OBSERVATIONS

Today some observations taking from yesterday's travels, seen above First Ipswich 44519 was on the 60/61 while Mini E200's 44928/45119 were both on the 53, they certainly seem to be moving away from the 59/70 of late. Ipswich Buses had Dart/ALX 200 143 out on the 4 with Lowlander 59, and today a Trident the number i didn't see and Dart 86, with Dart 84 parked up. Scania/Optare Olympus 69 was on the 15A and Enviro 200 82 was taking the place of an Optare Versa on the Park And Rides, it's worth of that 146 YK08 EPC seen below has now received the new style numbering as per the ex Lothian Tridents. My cautionary tale today is be warned if you take pictures in Ivry Street near Ipswich High School is that a certain ex First driver now working for Norse and his friends at Beestons don't like there pictures taken, and were taking steps to stop me taking a picture of Beestons new coach, i can understand that some drivers don't like there pictures being taken, so i avoid them as  see us as being crackers.

FLASHBACK SUNDAY: AN IPSWICH BUS SPECIAL

Taken in the Summer of 1993, when it was in it's twilight years with Ipswich Buses was Leyland Atlantean No 3 HDX 906N seen on the now defunct 2 route to Warren Heath, later on it's history the two was curtailed back to Gainsborough, pressure by First Eastern Counties to stop encroaching on it's territory on Warren Heath? I always liked the N reg batch of Atlanteans for their distinctive opening doors sound, which were always slower to open than the later batch.

 Seen heading out of Lloyds Avenue and on to the Cornhill in the late 1960's is AEC Regent V 49 PPV 49 on the Ipswich Station X service a route long since vanished.

I have fond memories of the ECW bodied Atlantean's that Ipswich had that passed to Eastbourne this interpretation of the Ipswich livery never passed much favour and was very soon phased out here we see 74 LDX 74G parked outside the Constantine Road Depot.