Low floor lolloping

A-Line's ill-fated Volvo B6 R178 NPN has stepped in for use on the 80s over the past few days due to ongoing problem with R651 YCR's gearbox. With the X reg Vario being used full time on the Liskeard services the B6 has been laid up down at the depot as the spare bus, so this has been its first run out for a few weeks. It certainly looks very smart and is indeed a pleasure to ride on, but size is again the issue with this bus. Although this extra capacity is very much welcome, with the Vario reaching capacity on the popular trips, the length and weight of the bus have meant the drivers have struggled to keep it on time on what is already quite a difficult schedule to keep to. Although loading times are reduced thanks to the low floor, its noticeably slower on hills than the Varios, and corners such as the one you can see it negotiating below all build up the lengths of time for the journey, causing a knock on effect during the day, as was experienced on the Liskeard trips. It was a lovely send of though as I boarded R178 for what was my final day as a pupil of Devonport High School for Boys on Wednesday, before going onto study leave, with more exams up and coming over the next month. Then again, it would have been apt to finish my final day on a Vario, one of the few constants in my period at DHSB over the past 7 years, albeit the ones I traveled on in 2005 being newer, and owned by First! 

Snap on Sunday

Unfortunately it appears that First Devon and Cornwall's open top service between Barnstaple and Croyde won't be materialising itself again this year. Although the day I travelled on it, it did seem quite busy, this was the first couple of days, so the town may well have lost interest later into the holiday season. 


Luckily though, this hasn't marked the end for the two Volvo B10Ms that were in use on the service, D701 GHY and D705 GHY. They've both been moved back to their old haunt of Weston Super Mare, in which their lives were played out on the X1 from Bristol to WSM when new. Now in open top format, they run the service from the Railway Station to Sand Bay. It seems somewhat unclear at the moment as to what has happened to the L reg Volvo Olympians that had previously been used on this service though. I can't see the B10Ms replacing these newer Olympians, and yet I wouldn't have thought there would have been much scope for a raising of frequency, especially now that this route now runs in competition with Crossville. All I can therefore suggest is that there is a regional manager somewhere up there who was desperate to have them back, I say with rose tinted spectacles on. They were certainly loved back then though, and maybe, just maybe, someone wanted their memories re-kindled within the town! 

Wonderful Weston

With many thanks to David Smith, I am able to give you a glimpse of the first of the Ex-Plymouth Park and Ride Dennis Enviro 400s to be painted in their new guise. Quite frankly, however much I loved the cloud livery, this new livery may just overtake it. Its certainly very bold, with some very nice little features, in particular the black headlight surrounds, along with relatively little intrusion across the windows. Then again, the X1 livery does appear to have the effect of squaring the body off, where as the P&R livery compliments the curves nicely. The P&R livery is also much more subtle and softer than X1, which works both in favor and against it. What I would definitely say though is that I wish that this X1 livery was what First Group were taking on as their new standardised livery, and not that of this horrible off lilac livery. The more I look at it the worse it seems to get, it hasn't grown on me at all as of yet, and it just seems such a shame, seeing as when they put their minds to it, First Group have produced some great liveries, such as the two seen here. X1's livery is a much nicer design, as well as having a nicer colour pallet, and I'd reckon this would probably look good on a wider range of vehicles than the new lilac livery is currently doing. 


As a footnote, you may have noticed that the destinations along the side look slightly short. That's because when they were first applied, Bristol and Weston Super Mare were the wrong way round, but the middle 3 were correct. They've taken these two off, but haven't yet got round to re-applying them in the correct order. Bit of an embarrising mistake! But then again, the rest of the Ex-Plymouth Enviro's are still running round in the be-branded cloud livery, and 33418 is still a completely blank canvas! You would have 'thought' this would have been the one to receive the new livery first! 

Loud Leylands!

This evening a couple of film clips taken aboard the two Leyland Olympians that were on offer in Blackpool just after the Easter weekend, as mentioned before, was probably the final time 'proper' Leyland will operate in public service within Blackpool as more and more Tridents flood in to fill the gaps. As luck would have it, each of the buses on offer that day had both the engine types avalible on Olympians, A719 YFS with the TL11, and D367 JJD with the more traditional Gardner 6LXB. 


  Firstly here is D367 JJD, the final Olympian ever to be bodied by ECW, heading outbound towards Marton Mere. 


And here we see A719 YFS heading inbound towards Blackpool with the TL11 whaling. 

Snap on Sunday

One of the most interesting operations we came across on our tour of the North West was in Preston. The bus station itself had around 80 bays if memory serves me correctly, which gives you an indication of how vast the whole set up is in the city. In the short 30-40 minutes we had there, we encountered no less than 13 different types and bodies of buses, from 4 different operators. Preston Bus itself is a very interesting company, now owned by the Rotala Group, and its obvious that they've been putting in some real investment quite early on under their ownership, including the running of hybrid Optare Versas. The livery is just stunning, most definitely one of my favorites that you can find in the UK today, which amazingly seems to suit everything from a brand new Versa, right down to J reg Leyland Olympians. The re-paint scheme has also been very swift, with just 3 vehicles operating in the old livery at the time of photographing. As you can see from the photos, even in the early evening, the bus station was manic with activity; I would have loved to have spent a bit longer there to take it all in fully. Its great to see that none of the vehicles let the side down, even the oldest ones, making the whole operation have a very professional appearance. Stagecoach are the other big group giving them a run for their money, along with the ever famous Fishwicks, and Cumfybus. I'd certainly presume that loadings must be good to keep such a huge operation viable, but again, I didn't really have enough time there to take in fully how successful all these were. Certainly somewhere I'd like to visit again though, there's very few places in the UK you can get so much variety in one place.   

Snap on Sunday

This week's Snap on Sunday comes to you from picturesque Par, taken along the river at the Middleway crossing, with First Great Western's 150239 doing the honours on the run down to Newquay. 

B6 Bashing

Photo, thanks to Jamie Limb


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=150809267614
EBAY LINK NOW ADDED
Unfortunately it seems that A-Line's latest addition to the fleet will be a short lived one due to various operational problems found with the vehicle over its first month of operation with the company. The vehicle's size has been a major factor in the decision, negotiating a vehicle of this size through small villages, Downderry in particular is no easy task, and has caused knock on delays throughout the day on the Liskeard services, which can only get worse during the summer period with increased traffic. This coupled with the huge fuel bill, with the bus averaging just 9mpg, concluding in the weekly fuel bill hovering between £900-1000. Shame considering the effort put in by various employees to get her to the wonderful standard she is currently presented in. I had my first trip on her yesterday, and indeed it goes very well indeed, by far the best B6 I've ever rode on, although, deafeningly loud! As you will hear from the video below, there sounds like quite a large air leak of some kind, which I'd presume is coming from the turbo. Certainly very comfortable though, and was a privileged to be driven on an exclusive journey, by the manager himself! The replacement vehicle is likely to be another Vario, but as always I shall keep you updated on any developments.

Snap on Sunday

Still playing around with the new camera, with some guidance from the expert hand of Mr Rice, I'm beginning to learn my way round the new Nikon getting to grips with the astounding things that it seems to be able to do; that's if you know what your doing of course! 

With the saturation levels whacked right up the Nikon is able to make WA54 OLT look brand new once more, even on such a dull day as today has been. 

With the saturation at normal levels we see the true colours of the Tridents shine through. The range of colours on a day like this though is quite amazing, my old Canon had no where near the colour range the Nikon is able to achieve. 

This is probably my favorite photos I've taken so far, depicting A-Line's R651 YCR. The sharpness the Nikon can produce is also completely unrivaled by my old Canon. The whole feel of the camera is completely different, with it just being able to react so much faster. I thought the old S5IS was decent, but it really isn't a patch on what the D5000 is able to produce. And I thought camera technology hadn't moved on; how naive I was! 

The new beast!

As some of you may already know, I was ‘foolish’ enough to leave my camera on the train on the trip back from Blackpool last week. IT was a tight connection for out train back down to Plymouth at Birmingham New Street, and in my haste, hauling my suitcase etc off the train and up the stairs, I managed to forget the old faithful Canon S5IS. The train was heading for Bournemouth, so alerted Crosscountry, incase it was handed into the train manager, South West Trains, in case it was taken off the train at the end of the line, and First Great Western , incase someone was kind enough to hand it in at the station they were leaving the train at. But alas nothing has materialised, and so she needed replacing.

The camera I’ve decided is fit for the job is certainly quite a large step up from the old Canon, to this 2 year old Nikon D5000. As is quite plain to see, this is a ‘proper’ DSLR camera, so its certainly going to take some getting used to before I can start producing some half decent photos, but in time these should be of a far superior quality to the old Canon’s. The camera itself I was extremely lucky to find. This is an Ebay purchase, and although there is of course some risk involved while using Ebay, if you’re careful enough it can certainly come up trumps, as indeed it did with this. My D5000 was previously owned by a professional photographer who used this as his backup camera, and hence, has had extremely little use. The lens itself to fit the body had never been used once as the previous owner simply used his professional lens instead, so I’ve ended up with a practically new camera, for nearly £500 less than what it would have cost when it was brand new. I kid you not, I paid just £280 for the beast, just £30 more than my Canon cost when it was new just over 4 years ago! So it certainly appears I’ve come up trumps. So to kick things off, here’s some inaugural photos taken this afternoon of Cawsand Bay, along with A-Line Vario, R651 YCR. I did ‘try’ to take photos of some other buses passing through, but I missed every single one apart from one in which a car managed to cross my path just at the wrong time! Its certainly going to take some getting used to, this isn’t just a ‘point and shoot’ and you get a nice photo! 

Snap on Sunday

My apologies first for the lack of blogging this week. My final exams are looming ever closer, reducing my free time hugely at the moment, which has come along at the same time as a spate of illness, very conveniently timed... So I can't promise a huge amount of regular blogging in the near future, but will try to fit one in when I do find a spare moment. 


Snap on Sunday this week is another picture taken on my 3 day jaunt of the North of England, this time another Leyland Olympian, Ex London D238 FYM, but found in the beautiful city of Chester. I believe I'm right in saying that the Olympians operating on Chester's City Sightseeing tours are First Group's very last 'proper' Leylands still in use. Chester has always seemed to be very fond of the Gardner 6LXB examples, with their final fully closed top Leyland only being retired in August last year, this being the stalwart that was B200 DTU. B200 was bought new for Chester Park and Ride duties, and managed to survive her whole 26 years within the city, quite amazing considering she was part of one of the 'big five'. 

Snap on Sunday

The Snap on Sunday was an outright obvious one for me this week, depicted is the glorious beast that is D367 JJD playing her trade on the 20 to Marton Mere in Blackpool. D367's original identity was D263 FUL which some of you may recognise as being the final Leyland Olympian ever to be bodied by ECW, as well as the final vehicle ever produced by ECW before production was transferred to the to Leyland where the old Leyland National factory was then used to body them using the old ECW molding. More on the Blackpool scene later in the week.  

Darting Northwards!

Apologies for the gap in blogging this week, I've had a bit of a mini-holiday up in Blackpool over the past few days to sample the delights that the North of England has to offer, and there most certainly was plenty of decent stuff to see! I shall post further on the various bits and bobs of interest in the coming days, but for now I shall re-unite you with a couple of lost friends. 

Can you tell what it is yet!? A shot of the bus in question along with a similarly liveried Asda truck!


This, under her new very stylish green livery for the Asda shopper bus is our old friend, K110 SFJ, who is now owned by the Halifax Joint Committee. They also own L126 YOD which is pictured below and used as the spare for this contract. Unfortuantely, HJC no longer operate any public services, so sampling their wonderful fleet of Olympians and MCW Metrobus', not to mention a number of step entrance Darts was impossible. What I really must commend though was the quite frankly stunningly good customer service operated at Halifax bus station. The man who was on the help desk was able to give me every last detail about the services they had lost, and who they were now operated by, as well as telling me about the 1 service they did still operate in another town, and how I could get there using connecting services etc etc. He also aided me in being able to locate the depot, and working out which services to use to be able to get there. His knowledge and friendliness was truly outstanding, I just wish I'd taken down his name so that I could let his employers know! As I'm sure many of you will know first hand, the way we get treated as enthusiasts varies wildly, and indeed I did incur one particularly bad experience over the few days which I will undoubtedly come onto in a later post, but its people like this that really make the hobby so much more enjoyable, and accessible, a true rose among what unfortunately are many thorns within the industry! That said 'down here' generally we do have a wonderful bunch of companies who are more than willing to aid us in our hobby, particularly Plymouth Citybus as of late, but also A-Line Coaches who have been truly wonderful to myself and other enthusiasts over the years. 

Anyway, back to the point of the post, here is the photo of L126 YOD in which is pretty much the PCB livery she left us in, but with the red painted over in green. K110 however looks very well cared for, and the livery really is very smart indeed! The buses certainly look set to be well looked after in the near future. 

Snap on Sunday

Now the subject for this week's Snap on Sunday was obvious, but the question was which one to go for! I've gone for this one thanks to the ideal position on The Hoe thanks to Brian George, allowing this wonderful backdrop. Unfortunately, Smeaton's Tower is currently having some work done to it, wrapped around in scaffolding and therefore a shot with it in the background was unfortunately not possible, but the Plymouth Eye is a fit replacement landmark for now. Plenty more photos where this came from if you haven't had a look yet, located on my Flickr account by following the link below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11717981@N02/sets/72157629734845121/

Further preservation

Roselyn continue their commitment to their hard working members of the fleet, announcing the newest member with this accolade, Volvo B10M 237 AJB originally registered E44 SAF. E44 was brand new to Roselyn way back in 1988, and yet 24 years on we still see her in daily use with the company. In fact I photographed her just yesterday, operating the regular Plymouth Service, but is also is often seen operating trips for football supporters to Plymouth Argyle on match weekends. And yet even though she's 24, that timeless Van Hool bodywork, and a bit of TLC has kept her looking young and fresh, another fine example of a Van Hool bodied vehicle that completely masks her real age. I've always admired Roselyn in the fact that they will keep a vehicle going past their usual 'sell by date' to particularly please a driver than enjoys a particular bus, as was the case with one of the TTT-X Ex Plymouth Citybus Leyland Atlanteans which still ran with the company until very recently, E44 being another great example of this commitment to their employees. I've been a fan off E44 for many years, and yet infuriatingly, she's always managed to allude me every time I have a slim possibility of riding on her, but hopefully, not anymore!

Not come May 6th, where Roselyn will again open their doors to enthusiasts for their open day, the first of which was held 2 years ago. They will once again be offering open top tours of the area, quite possibly using their own open top vehicle this year rather than ones hired in from Chepstow Classic Buses, as well as other tours using classic buses and coaches. They'll also have a band their once again which was certainly an interesting and quite possibly unique feature for a bus rally, also supplied in 2010. E44 will undoubtedly be there alongside the rest of the preserved fleet including a Beford VAL, Bristol VR and Bristol Lodekka. But first to come is the annual Penzance Running Day next Sunday organised by the Cornwall Bus Preservation Group which I'll do a full post to remind you about later on next week.  

Excel-ling

You may well have noticed a distinct lack of Volvo B7s on First routes over the last week. This, as you may have already guessed, is because they are no longer based in Plymouth. Swansea has managed to gain 4 of 'our' B7s, numbered 69249-52 although for some reason 69253 has managed to stay put, meaning after all those B7s that were once in use in Plymouth during the big Ugobus push during Phase 3, we are now left with just 1. So, what's replaced them. Well this is where the Optare Excels that were destined for Cornwall come in. More R reg Darts as well as a few step entranced Darts were able to be sourced for the new work in Cornwall, and therefore 4 of the Excels have stayed put in Plymouth for the time being. Infact I don't really know why I'm being so cold towards the Excel; in actual fact, I'm really quite a fan.

 The Excel has always has quite a strong following of enthusiasts, with an entire site devoted to their movement and workings (http://sulzerpower.com/excel/), and rightly so! Early Optares, both the Spectra and the Excel have always just had something about them that make them interesting, and pleasurable to the enthusiast. The body of them is certainly very good looking, very striking, with lovely clean lines, a very good piece of design, although I'm sure operators will probably tell you it comes at a price, with rot being a bit of a problem if you're not careful. Secondly, the engines are certainly quite punchy, and do really sound quite interesting, especially considering their relatively young age. This does of course depend on which engine the Excel is fitted with, although personally I've even found the Cummins engined ones to sound interesting, even though these are slightly underpowered. The other engine option for the Excel came from Mercedes, and quite frankly, you cannot get much better than this in a modern bus. Genuinely, the power, and comfort can only be matched by a Citaro, if at all by a modern low floor vehicle. They are quite frankly sublime, and I don't say that lightly. I believe all the vehicles that FDC have inherited from Glasgow are indeed Cummins powered, but I'd certainly say don't let that put you off sampling them. The one I rode on today, W49 WDS, although somewhat tatty interior wise, wasn't bad at all, although certainly not the nicest Excel I've ever been on. The other one out today was T375 JGB, but expect more to follow them into service over the next couple of days. The other feature I do particularly like about the Excel is the sideways seating on the rear wheelarches! Its such a simple thing, and yet I always find it completely changes to the feel of the bus. Not only is there plenty of room for a group of people to sit and talk without jabbing each others feet into one another every few minutes, but it always seems to open up the bus and feel a lot more airy and suspicious. So yes, although some 8 years older than the B7s, I certainly wouldn't knock them too fast if I were you, I reckon they're quite a catch! And when was a bit of variety ever a bad thing, even if you aren't a fan of the Excel! 

Who expected this!

Well, I admit I was pretty doubtful when the first couple of people gave me news that K803 would return to service. Everything seemed to be against her surviving any longer after such a horrific engine malfunction without even considering her age. Sure enough though more and more reliable sources sprung up saying K803 was coming back. I still wasn't totally convinced. Surely they could find a working bus somewhere in the empire to fill her place I thought? But no, I was wrong, and here she is! K803 ORL has returned to service with First Devon and Cornwall, with a new engine stuck in her, and back operating prime routes within the city, today out on Ugobus services including the 2, 6 and 7. This brings the count for surviving K-ORLs back up to 2 of the original 4. My question to you though is, is the engine that has now been fitted to K803 the original type, or is it some old lump that was lying around? It certainly didn't quite sound the same, so I have therefore made a comparison video and posted it below, showing clips of the engine noise before and after. The turbo and gearbox make it quite hard to distinguish the difference, but the idle tickover certainly appears to be different. Possibly a ride on her would settle this dispute, but for now, the jury is out!

Limping no longer

It was unfortunate to hear that Riverlink (Rail River Link) Leyland Olympian OFS 702Y came to the end of her working life last week after many a year of hard graft working across pretty much the whole country! The old girl started off life right up north with Lothian, before ending her life right down south in Totnes. OFS unfortunately has been riddled with problems since her introduction with Riverlink, spending a large amount of time off the road. A lot of money was spent on her over the years, but none of it seemed to remedy what you would have hoped would have been a really reliable vehicle coming from such a well respected company. Not once did I ever actually spot her in service, I personally have absolutely no photos of this bus whatsoever! Luckily with thanks to Nicholas Morton, I am able to share this one with you, in her final weeks of operation. OFS has now been replaced by two vehicles, one being a Royale bodied Volvo Olympian M832 HVC, new as a demonstrator vehicle, and the other a K reg Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympian, but with a Gardner fitted, rather than the usual Cummins! The Royale has been out and about already as pictured below, still her in East Yorkshire Motor Company livery, a feature which the K reg also shares at this moment in time.  




For your enjoyment as well I have also included a video of OFS 702Y after being converted to a semi auto gearbox rather than a fully auto, with thanks to Kameron Allan, from whom which the Royale photo also comes with from, with thanks from me. 

The new Volvo!

No, not Plymouth Citybus' stunning looking Volvo B7RLEs, I've already been beaten to that one! I may get round to doing a post on them if the mood takes me though. But no, today's new addition comes to us from Tamworth. A-Line Coaches has (finally!) received this fine looking ALX200 bodied Volvo B6LE, from, quite obviously, Stagecoach! R178 NPN was new though to a Hong Kong operator, but was shipped back over to the UK in 2000. From then on she worked in and around Portsmouth on the Portsmouth - Havant corridor before then being moved up to Northampton and Rugby to work for Midland Red in 2008. 

The classic tell tale signs are there from her Hong Kong heritage including the large air conditioning pod, and the lovely plush coach seating which is thankfully, not leather, but proper cushioned fabric moquette! Don't get me wrong, a leather seat most certainly has a much better visual impact, as well as operational benefits, but give me a good fabric seat any day! The rest of the bus is indeed surprisingly tidy, and although the paintwork will need a bit of sprucing up to get her back into top form, its a very honest well looked after vehicle. Although of course the real test will come when she hits the road on the Liskeard journeys, doing a long 14 hour day through Cornish countryside. The fired right on the button though, with the engine sounding pretty healthy, so things certainly look set for a bright future as it stands. The bus is also quite momentous at A-Line in that its not only the first full size single decker the company has owned, but also that its the first low floor bus in the fleet. Both of the Varios can of course take wheelchair passengers anyway, but the low floor itself has of course got many more positive connotations along with the disabled access. 

Snap on Sunday

With the risk of giving you all a case of deja vu I post a picture this week with the same bus, in a location very similar, a few hundred extra yards down the same road! The photo shows A-Line Coaches Vario X891 YGU circling Millbrook Lake during the fantastic weather we enjoyed in the early part of the week

Bristol or bust!

With many thanks to David Morgan, I can bring you this brilliant photo of (quite obviously!) Ex-Plymouth Enviro 400, WA56 FUD back at work in her new home of Bristol. The batch will be replacing Volvo B9s on the Weston Super Mare routes, with the B9s being moved onto Park and Ride duties. Although these are slightly older (only by a year or two!) I would still say WSM have got the better deal out of this, I'd much rather have those lovely leather seats on an insignificantly 'older' bus than a newer bus with interior standard seats. As you can see 33412 has yet to be repainted, and is running around still in the 'Cloud' livery in a de-branded state, hence the off-centre 'First' on the front where it used to read "Plymouth Working together First". It is believed none have actually made it into the full new livery as of yet, but more than one is now painted in the base white/lilac ready to receive the full treatment. 

Rumba-ling along!

Ok, is this title a bit too cheesy/tenuous! I'll leave that for you to decide, but here, in all her glory, stands Leyland Olympian C412 HJN, photographed highly likely for the first time since my final photo of her taken in the summer of 2009, taken approaching 3 years ago! Yes indeed, as the DVLA promised, C412 HJN lives on in the hands of a Dance Troupe in Crewe and looks to be well looked after having just been re-painted out of the First Group livery 'with modifications' she has carried since leaving FDC, into a new all black livery. I admit, its not done her any favors in terms of looks, but is this a beauty contest?! All that I'm worried about is that finally I can see proof that the old girl, my favorite while she was at Torpoint as I'm sure you are well aware of, is alive and kicking! The interior also looks to have been untouched, and thankfully not modified or ripped out in any way, which is certainly a positive. The only noticeable cosmetic modification I can see is that they've blocked out the destination board, but not a disaster! Even the poles look like they're the same colour, AND she's retained her First 'star' and Plusbus stickers on the windows. 

She certainly therefore looks set for quite a positive future seeing as they have invested a fair amount of money in a proper re-paint for her. I'm hoping quite honestly that they'll hang onto her for a few years to come so that I'm at least in some sort of position to be able to preserve her when I'm not having to deal with mounting debts at university. Then again, this is a foolish 18 year old lad talking, what do I know about the world!? Thankfully, and re-reassuringly, I've had a lovely heart warming and positive comment from the man behind the camera of these shots, Martyn, who'll many of you will recognise as 'Renown' on Flickr;

"I remember thinking similarly to you when I was 18 umpteen years ago believing that I could never preserve a bus ... don't ever think you can't do the preservation thing as there's always a way."

My never ending thanks go to Martyn for allowing me to use his photos for the blog this evening, and for the words of wisdom!

As a footnote, my bestwishes go to fellow Plymouth transport blogger, Graham Richardson - writer of Plymothian Transit - wishing him a speedy recovery from his health scare. All the best from me, take it easy!

Arriva-ing into Cornwall

A-Line Coaches' first ever double decker has this afternoon arrived at the depot gleaming in the spring sun. The bus with the honour of holding this title is East Lancs bodied Volvo Olympian M698 HPF, wearing a brand new coat of red paint, and looking resplendent as she sat among her new stablemates. 

M698 started out life with London and Country, later becoming Arriva London in 1994 as a batch of 19 for whom she served for over 10 years. She was then passed into West Yorkshire with Arriva and latterly sold on to Tees Valley Coach Travel for whom she appears to have had quite a strong following of enthusiasts. I've already heard several comments from various people who have ridden on her over her previous 18 years, and all have been very complimentary! The Cummins L10 certainly sounds like it can pack a punch, so I'm very much looking forward to having a trip on her in the near future. She's a very tidy bus indeed with barely a scratch on her, certainly not appearing her age. All that lets her down unfortunately is a slightly tatty interior, but nothing that can't be fixed! 

Thanks must go to Jamie Limb at A-Line for moving the bus around to allow me to get some decent shots of the bus, the sun was playing havoc with any sort of decent photography today, so was much appreciated! The other new addition, an R reg Volvo B6 that was due today suffered with a broken radiator this morning, and therefore hasn't made it down to Cornwall quite yet, although it is hoped she will arrive tomorrow! 

Goodbye, and thanks for all the smiles!

Unfortunately, its not only the Park and Ride Enviro 400s that we're losing from the local bus scene, but also a quintuplet of buses that are dear to my own heart over at A-Line. As briefly mentioned before, A-Line have been disposing of a majority of the withdrawn/semi-withdrawn fleet to make room for the new buses that should both be arriving during tomorrow if all goes to plan, for new contract wins. This has meant that coaches are no longer needed for the school services, and therefore only one coach will be kept on do to private hire work, thankfully being B10M A182 MNE, even though she's older than all 3 coaches being disposed of! At least Jim can appreciate a good solid vehicle when he sees one, despite its age, possibly a factor that is too heavily concentrated on these days. I doubt if you asked a majority of passengers they'd ever guess that A182 MNE was actually some 28 years old, and yet they likely would guess more accurately the age of the Plaxton Paramount bodied vehicles which haven't dated as well as the Van Hool bodied vehicles. 

First to go as mentioned last week was Volvo B10M G526 LWU which was withdrawn from onward sale due to the new buses arriving so soon, with the extra depot desperately needed. I've already vaguely explained her history so I won't dwell too much, but she certainly isn't the one I'm saddest to see disappear. Not the most solid of vehicles, and although the engine sounded nice, it didn't pack very much of a punch.  

Next to go over the weekend was Scania K112, JIL 3755. It was only on Friday while I was down at the depot taking photos of the vehicles before their final trips that I was able to locate the chassis and body number, and consequently was able to uncover her true identity after flicking through Scania chassis lists. It turns out that JIL 3755 was actually quite a rare coach in her real guise as D359 OBA. She was new to Smiths Sherings at the same depot ironically as stablemate A182 MNE, but was bought for National Express Rapide work. D359 was in a batch of her own strangely, and to my knowledge, must have been the first, if not one of the only Scanias that Smiths Sherings operated. I'm sure someone will be able to correct me if I'm completely wrong on this, but Scanias were certainly non standard at Smiths, although quite common when they became purely 'Sherings' several years later. Did D359 kick off a revolution, or was she bought simply because of contract agreements to do with the NX Rapide work? This discovery has certainly raised some interesting questions, so hopefully someone with a greater amount of knowledge on this than myself will be able to shed some light on this. If my hunches are right and she was quite a significant or at least interesting vehicle, it is a shame that she couldn't have been saved. Even at the age of 26, D359 was a very capable vehicle with a very sound body and a consistently strong engine. The only thing preventing her from fulfilling full potential was a fuel bug which ceased to go away after several attempts and therefore she was relegated to the depot, where she has sat for around a year now. Yet still, even in her dying days she fired and was able to make it outside and onto the tow truck on her own power, showing how capable and reliable the Scania K112s always were. Real shame to see this one go. 

Next on the hit list is another one of my personal favorites, Mercedes 709D M152 LPL, nicknamed 'Milly'. What a step up in comfort this was when she first arrived, replacing the clattery, uncomfortable Ex Southern Vectis Ivecos, J234 and J238 KDL. She was one of those buses that seemed to have a real character, and I did grow very fond of Milly on my daily travels to and from Cremyll each morning and afternoon. Endlessly more interesting (and reliable!) than the Varios I endure daily today. Milly started off life at East Surrey not long after I was born, giving me a real perspective of how long and hard the poor old girl has labored. She then moved on into Wales where she was converted for coach work rather than bus services, and then was bought by A-Line in 2007. She didn't survive hugely long in service in comparison due to the grants put in place for vehicle upgrades at A-Line to the two Varios. Still, nevertheless she remains close to my heart for a variety of reasons, and therefore its another particularly sad passing for such a lovely little bus for who time has finally caught up. Even looking at her parked next to D359, really even I have to admit she looks older, even though she is actually nearly 10 years younger! Note also that I made sure the blind was set appropriately for her final departure. 

And lastly, the bus that can't make it out of the depot under her own power and therefore will be left until last is Volvo B10M E920 EAY. This was the coach that replaced the beautiful old Bedford YNV, C344 FTT, and consequently I was quite cold towards her in her early life at A-Line.  E920 started off life in Nottingham with Silverdale before moving down to Cornwall firstly at Williams Coaches, and later with A-Line. She suffered with chassis rot quite early on in her life at A-Line and therefore didn't spend a huge amount of time on the road before being withdrawn and replaced by G526 LWU. Mechanically she was much better than G526, but unfortunately the Cornish sea air over many years didn't seem to aid her in her fight against the common problems of the Plaxton Paramount bodied B10M. Since then she has been canabalised for bits to keep A182 and G526 on the road, and therefore is no longer in a drivable state, so she will end her life being dragged away later this week. 


Well, I've talked far too much there, but I hope some of it has been of some vague interest! However 'exciting' new vehicles get, nothing for me beats the emotion and interest involved in vehicles ending their working lives after carrying so many happy passengers, and covering so many hundreds of thousands of miles over their lives. It certainly becomes even more real when they are vehicles that you have effectively 'grown up' with, and most certainly these four have been close to me since I first started taking an interest in the bus scene in 2005. A sad end to some lovely vehicles, but to coin the common phrase "You can't save them all!"