Monday Round Up

A few things to report so here goes.  Firstly - literally - First Ipswich have once again had their heritage livery B7tl kidnapped by First Norwich, this time for a few weeks. I was in Norwich on Saturday and as luck would have it managed to snap 32479 back on her original turf.

32479 changing drivers in Castle Meadow, Norwich

It must be said that all buses are grubby within minutes of leaving the depot at the moment so don't take much notice of 32479's outer appearance.

32479 departs for Attleborough

Also observed in Norwich was former First Ipswich (yes and Essex) Volvo B7rle 66980, in my view looking much better with a Yellow Line front than Ipswich Grey - sorry RAF Blue!

66980 in St Stephen's Street Norwich

In other news it has been revealed that Jeremy Cooper, who left his post as Managing Director of Ipswich Buses in December, has taken up the post of Acting Commercial Manager at Konect/Anglian. Mr Cooper was always welcoming to this blog and we wish him luck in his new post. As yet Ipswich Buses have not advertised for a successor to Mr Cooper.

My thanks to Toby Pearson who has informed me that Stephensons' Northern Counties bodied Olympian M409 RVU, new to Metrobus, has moved to Galloway, presumably for school work. Perhaps someone from Galloway can confirm that?

Finally I'm grateful to Cameron Robinson for alerting me that Ipswich Transport Museum have revealed details of this year's Heritage Bus Day, to be help in Portman Rd on Sunday 9th April. Entrance and bus rides are free, and there are events taking place at the museum as well as Portman Rd. See Ipswich Transport Museum's Facebook page for more details.

That's it for today, again our thoughts are with Clive at this difficult time, and if anyone has any news and/or pics relevant to Ipswich please let me know by emailing me at busandtrainpage@gmail.com and I'll be happy to publish them.

Blog News

Good evening everybody. Clive has asked me to look after this blog while he takes care of some unfortunate family issues. I'm happy to do that, but as I don't get to Iswich too much these days if anyone has any news or pics worthy of publication then please send them to me at busandtrainpage@gmail.com and I'll be happy to publish them here.

In the meantime take as long as you need, Clive, some things in life are more important than buses and I'll try to keep things ticking over.

Steve W

LOST INDEPENDENTS:ROSEMARY COACHES

Copyright ETCS.

Rosemary Coaches was bought out by First Eastern Counties during 1993, the fleet was made up of various Buses and coaches, some i must say not all in the best of conditions, 3 pictures here tonight illustrating three different decades, at the top we see Leyland Tiger/Burlington? VUP 742 which was new in 1957 to Summerson of West Auckland, pictured during 1973, part of the inherited fleet purchased by First was this 19 year old Bristol VR/ECW YHN 654M which had originated with United as 654 and given fleet number VR 502, the other VR 501 was an ex East Yorkshire example a year older. Finally an interesting coach and a rare one at that, here we see an Western Scottish Bristol REMH NAG 114G with Alexander M type body originally used on overnight services between London and Glasgow during the 1970's as 2208 and allocated to Dumfries depot.

Copyright ETCS.

ON HIRE TO EASTERN COUNTIES

Sovereign was one of many local coach operators who hired in Buses and coaches to Eastern Counties this particular example is FEX 9 an Bedford SB/Duple Super Vega. Copyright ETCS

During the mid 1970's many companies had Bus shortages partly due to manpower shortages, also because of a shear lack of replacement parts, in certain areas such as London, many of the AEC Swift's bought in large numbers were never repaired and went straight to the scrapyard. Operators as far south as Beestons and Theobalds in Suffolk, even Great Yarmouth Corporation hired Eastern Counties single and double deckers.

Great Yarmouth hired this 10 year old Daimler Freeline a type that never really caught on anywhere in this country, this example is 19 AEX 19B. Copyright ETCS.

EASTERN COUNTIES MINIBUSES:THE EARLY YEARS

Ford Transit/Robin Hood TH891 C891 BEX was one of five allocated to Felixstowe's minibus services.

You either loved them or hated them, sadly no Eastern Counties Minibuses are preserved although one does exist somewhere in Suffolk, no Eastern Counties services thankfully were converted to minibuses in Ipswich the nearest you could see the above was a network of services with Ford Transit's was Felixstowe, nowadays these services are tacked onto the 75-77 operated today by First Ipswich, come 1990 Ipswich had 3 more additional Ford Transit/Dormobile in MB 965/66/68 C965/66/68 YAH and the slightly larger Mercedes Benz 608D/Alexander with 20 seats which  originated from Norwich MB 711/24/54 C711/24/54 BEX. Meanwhile the dreaded Freight Rover Sherpa's allocated to Norwich and Lowestoft had literally burned themselves out were now parked up at Ipswich depot after just 3 years use out of 40 bought only 9 were in service by the beginning of 1990.

Freight Rover Sherpa/Dormobile SD 647 C647 BEX was one of only 4 left heading into 1990 seen here at Lowestoft Bus Station.

LOST INDEPENDENTS: BICKERS

Bickers Ford R192/Willowbrook was new in September 1970, in contrast behind is ex London Transport Guy Special MXX 356.

Bickers commenced services in 1925 with a 14 seat Model T Ford for use on services from Coddenham, business expanded through the 1940's with Lings of Brockford taken over in 1955, in 1968 they took over the Ipswich to Otley service from P & M Coaches and in 1974 the Ipswich to Debenham service from Eastern Counties. During 1981 they took over the Ipswich to Woodbridge services from JDW Transport, this was extended during 1982 when Eastern Counties withdrew from the Bawdsey service. In 1988 Bickers was sold jointly to Ipswich Buses and Eastern Counties.

Bristol LH/Plaxton GGV 47N had a relatively short career with Bickers from New passing to Laws of Killingworth, North Tyne Travel and later to TMS and then to United in 1992 and numbered 1902.

Freshly repainted into Eastern Counties livery ex Bickers Bedford YMT /Willowbrook SB 811 NBJ 842P lasted about a year after takeover before being withdrawn.

EASTERN COUNTIES BRISTOL RE PROFILE

The Bristol RES was introduced during 1964, with the first and only batch for Eastern Counties arriving during 1967, with a short body and low chassis ,much of the styling had been already been used on the MW particularly the curved frontal profile, from the first batch we have RS 652 KVF 652E seen in the early 1970's still in original Tillings livery at Bury St Edmunds, Cotton Lane Depot, it was repainted into NBC Livery during 1974.

Eastern Counties started buying the longer RELL from 1968 through to 1972 the initial body style used was much flatter at the front, 36 feet long with a low frame, fitted with an Gardner engine, the batch for this year were fitted for one man operation from new but weren't used as such until the end of 1968, seen here in Norwich Bus Station, during 1981 in the latter NBC livery with no centre band is RL 676 PPW 676F.

The last styling introduced in 1969 for the RELL series bought an curved BET group styled frontage seen here at Ipswich OCM is RL 737 AAH 737J this time with the white band applied.