Wednesday 4th March 2009 ~ Belgian Bun Bonanza

For the third day running, all the seventeen B9s were in service on the X1 turns. Of these all seemed to behave apart from 37575 on K15, the first eastbound departure from King's Lynn, more of which anon.
When only two B7 Profiles are available, which has been the case recently, K3 and K17 are always the favourite turns, so it was decidedly unusual today to find neither of these with a B7. For the record K17 was 37578 dead on time at lunchtime with our friend the late lady driver and K3 with 37576, viewed by Rob Brooks arriving at Wisbech at 14.24 (3 early) and departing 1 early ! Instead today 20353 was used on K4 (the third B7 turn) and 20351 on K19. For some reason the infamous 'Norwich swap' took place on L13 with whatever had worked out of Lowestoft at 07.45 being changed at Norwich for 20351 off K19. This meant 351 ended up at Lynn, but had it stuck on K19 it would also have ended up at its home depot, so that is not a valid reason for the swap. Perhaps not surprisingly the bus which should have been on L13, 37565, came in on K19 tonight ! Incidentally, it was seen lurking in King's Lynn bus station with 'INGS LYNN X1' on the front. I wonder whether it has had a replacement destination glass fitted like 37573?
So as we've said 20351 ended up at Lynn off L13, while 20353 which should have done the same on K4, somewhere got swapped over with 37577 on K6. This manouevre is usually accounted for by K4 running late into Lowestoft and then becoming K6 while K6 itself terminates at Yarmouth to become K4. Got that ? I'll be asking questions later ! Anyway in short, 20353 will end up at Yarmouth tonight and should do Y8 in the morning.
By far the most notable matter today though involved K15. To start with, my suppositions last night about K2 and Y9 being B10Ms yesterday were correct and today Lowestoft turned out 20107 on L11 and 20118 on L12, not forgetting a third consecutive coach, 20351 on L13. Imagine the scene, there is Bruce sitting in the coffee shop adjacent to Wisbech bus station with his Belgian Bun when at 12.40 a coach turns up. Ah thinks Bruce, seeing the top of it, there's 118 ! As it leaves, curiosity gets the better of him, as he suddenly realises it looks a bit clean for 118. Up he jumps and just catches sight of the number 20126 on the back ! This was on K15 instead of 37575 and one imagines it came on at Yarmouth. Shortly after, 118 duly arrives heading east on L12. Naturally this made Bruce's day as it is his favourite B10M and quite rare over here these days. I'm sure you'll join me in wishing Bruce well, as he has some health problems at the moment and we wish him a speedy recovery. His contributions to this blog are very much appreciated. 20126 returned tonight and was on time departing Wisbech on the 22.31 to Peterborough.
20121 was seen in revenue earning service today on a terminating 41A from Hunstanton this evening. 20105 has been unwell lately and on Monday expired at Heacham at 15.30 on a 40, Fitters attended and a new fuse did the trick, today though it was in Vancouver Avenue garage undergoing a 'B' category service. The schools turns to Hunny this afternoon were 20109/131 and turbo-less 20352. X1 timekeeping was a bit dubious today. 20107 was 15 late past Bruce on L11, but this was cut to 13 late from Wisbech when seen by Rob B.