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25/05/2011

Tuesday May 24th 2011 ~ It Takes All Sorts (of buses)

Quite a trying day for the operators today, but with a minimum of inconvenience caused to the travelling public. King's Lynn managed to provide ten Geminis for eleven turns, the odd one out being K3 with coach 20352.
At the other end, the repair of 37578 at Yarmouth saw this used on Y6 leaving 37158 spare and this did the 07.52 X1 shuttle from Gorleston to Norwich. Lowestoft also had a spare B7, 37157 which was reported by Malcolm on the  09.40 Norwich to Lowestoft X2. 34157 replaced this on the 11.08 return. Meanwhile, coach 20126 was used on X1 turn L11 which it operated all day.

Some days things all hold together, but today was not one of those ! I suppose seeing various Geminis appearing with a new advert for 'Kung Fu Panda 2' should have made me realise it was going to be one of those days.
First dilemma was when 37572 on K5 was in trouble with an air problem, into King's Lynn at 10.27, it was replaced by 37156 which was taken off L10. This then left L10, the 10.15 to Peterborough to go forward with Scania 65532. The obvious intention was to make good 37572 so that it could knock the town bus out on its return from Peterborough, this was to be thwarted though when 37574 working K15 suffered a water leak. 574 reached King's Lynn at 12.40 and after some delay, a repaired 37572 was seen leaving Vancouver Avenue at 12.56 heading down to the bus station to replace 574 on the 12.45 to Peterborough. All this meant that when 65532 came in from Peterborough at 12.55, there was nothing more suitable left to relieve it with the result that the Scania went all the way through to Lowestoft on L10.
37576 was seen being towed to Volvo at Norwich just before lunch. Slight axle damage has been caused after a wheel bearing shattered and this work was unable to be carried out at Lynn depot.
After almost ten hours on the X1, this evening 65532 was replaced with some sense of irony by 20352. The latter had come in at 19.07, been refuelled and cleaned and was then sent back to King's Lynn bus station to operate the 19.50 to Peterborough.
Here are some pictures of events today....

On loan B7 Profile coach 20352 looks quite smart as it arrives at Wisbech on K3 this morning. 37578 on the  08.48 to Peterborough (Y6) can be seen in the background.

65532 worked throughout on the 11.35 Peterborough - Lowestoft today. It is seen here on Walpole A47 Flyover. (picture : Bruce Billingham)

Bruce was on hand to capture a second successive X1 turn with unorthodox power. 20126 descends from the A47 flyover today working L11 12.05 Peterborough - Lowestoft.

At the other end.... 20352 earning its keep, seen entering Great Yarmouth Market Place on the 13.55 from Lowestoft (K3).  Photo courtesy East Norfolk Bus Blog / RN


A discussion on how to 'Drive Green' with a Scania is taking place as 20352 prepares to replace 65532 this evening.

Well fancy meeting you here ! 20126 on L11 meets 65532 heading for Vancouver Avenue this evening.


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