Monday April 30th - Saturday May 5th 2012 ~ A Tale of Two Lorries

Well so much for a daily blog ! Never mind, here's a catch up of recent events of which there have been few. Firstly thanks to Des, Kieran and Peter for pointing out that due to building work at Peterborough railway station from April 30th to May 22nd, all X1 services will be starting and terminating at the bus station.

Monday April 30th

All set for a new week then, but the A47 woes struck again this morning. A broken down lorry on Guyhirn Bank in the morning rush hour caused disruption. Cheryl and Peter were on Y6 08.48 Wisbech - Peterborough (05.50 ex Great Yarmouth) and were diverted via Wisbech St. Mary. Here they met K3 running late with 37572. Bruce spotted K4 with 37577 and K5 with 37157 both returning from Peterborough but only around 5 late, so it looks like the diversion worked well, even if the road is a bit the worse for wear now. At lunchtime, Y13 11.45 King's Lynn to Peterborough was 37576 running 17 late, however,by the time it arrived back at the Southgates on the 13.05 from Peterborough it had regained quite a chunk of time and was just 4 late.
37574 had a quick visit to Volvo at Norwich today for repairs, but was back at King's Lynn by this evening.

Tuesday May 1st 

All set for a new month then, but the A47 woes struck early on. A broken down lorry on Guyhirn Bank in the morning rush hour caused disruption.................................Hang On, haven't we been here before ?? This time it would seem, a diversion had not been set up and Samantha passed three X1s on her way from March to Wisbech. One of these was Y6 (37579) with Cheryl on board, once past the blockage she reported passing Thorney Toll 35 late. Bruce was monitoring services returning from Peterborough and saw K3 with 37573 12 late, K4 with 37570 just 9 late and  K5 was 37574 running 23 late. At lunchtime I met 37565 on L10 11.35 from Peterborough running 27 late at Walpole Highway followed closely behind by L11 at Walton Highway with  37575 on time. Y13 continued its poor timekeeping with 37569 15 late at Walpole on the 11.45 ex Lynn.
37158 was stopped at Vancouver Avenue for a windscreen repair this morning and talking of the garage, Y9,  L12, K16, K17, K18 & K19 departures to Peterborough all came from this direction - seen on SG Webcam - so may be driver changes were taking place at the depot for some reason, rather than the South Gates stop.
37563 had an adblue problem at Swaffham while working Y9 at 13.00 and was replaced by 37572 (seen by Malcolm at Lowestoft).
Des says "Now the lighter nights are here, thought I'd have a go at getting a few pictures around Gorleston for you, here are this evening's efforts" :

Wednesday May 2nd
Now come on, you weren't really expecting another morning with a lorry broken down ? Today things seemed to run smoothly throughout. 37563 remained out of service with its adblue fault, Cheryl was waiting for K2 17.05 from Peterborough at Thorney tonight when it turned up with 37572 proclaiming 'Contract' on the destination screen. 37160 had a busy day, it worked Y7 and was then cleaned before being required to take over K4 at 19.35 to Lowestoft from 37575.

37575 on K4 at Walpole Highway before it was later replaced by 37160.

Thursday May 3rd

K2 swapped 37567 for 37568 today at some point. 37572 was viewed in the deluge working L8 with a blank destination screen. Everything else behaved - strange or what ?

Friday May 4th

37572 was again destination-less today, seen on Y13 at lunchtime going nowhere (well Lowestoft actually).
K5 had 37567 to Peterborough and back where an injector fault saw 37569 take over and 37563 was battered back into shape to take K15 at 12.45 from Lynn enabling 37579 to be stopped for servicing. The lucky bus having a complete day off was 37577 which was due for a safety service.
Malcolm saw an unusual sight on the X2 when the 11.08 departure from Lowestoft was little Dart 42451.

37572 Destination Unknown !

Saturday May 5th

I didn't see much today, but while out just before lunch I decided to hang about to view L8 & L12 which should cross near Walpole. 37575 came along first running 10 late on L12 and eventually L8 turned up from Peterborough with 37565 running 17 late. By this evening L8 had recovered all this time and more, being noted at Terrington 3 early on the 20.10 from Peterborough. 37578 on Y6 was 10 late into Lowestoft says Malcolm. Since Tuesday there have been no episodes of refuelling B7s at Lynn as they have all been rostered on the shorter turns, so well done those who made it happen.
Kieran spent some time at Norwich bus station observing the X1s today - here are some of his pictures for which many thanks.

Norwich Bus Station sees 37573 pause for passengers while working the 11.25 Lowestoft - Peterborough (K19).  Photo : Kieran Smith

37577 working K1 11.55 Lowestoft - Peterborough at Norwich. [K. Smith]

B7 Gemini 37160 currently running without a front fleet number departs from Norwich as Y7 10.05 Peterborough - Lowestoft [K.Smith]

B9s 37576 & 37565 are both unable to be fitted with T side adverts at present. Here 37565 calls at Norwich on L8 10.35 from Peterborough, by now running on time (see report above). [Kieran Smith]

37566 gets away from Norwich Bus Station on the 12.25 Lowestoft - Peterborough (K2). [K. Smith]