Monday 16th July 1012 - Sunday 22nd July 2012 ~ Goodbye Rain

37578 approaches Tilney All Saints on a diverted X1

One unusual event which I failed to mention in the last blog, was the diversion of evening buses via Tilney All Saints for three nights up to 13th July. Closure for resurfacing of the A47 Tilney High End Roundabout saw services westbound from Lynn taking the A17 to the Tilney turn and then the road through the village past Glebe Estate and the Church. The diversion continued on to the school where a right turn was taken past the Eagles golf course to rejoin the normal route at what was at the stop once known as Tilney All Saints (New Inn). This added around ten minutes to schedules and I travelled the diversion on the Friday night. The journey to Lynn was spoiled by idiots on the upstairs back seat who were threatening to urinate and worse - if you are of a nervous disposition, I strongly recommend you travel downstairs on a Friday evening. Coming home though, the 21.50 service was unusually full thanks to punters from the King's Lynn Festival and I'm pleased to say all were impeccably behaved.

Over the past week services have run very well with no major incidents noted. Monday saw an unusual evening bus swap when K1-XL07with 37568 arrived at Great Yarmouth at the end of its booked turn , but was then called on to work the last leg of K17-XL04 to Lynn instead of 37576.
On Tuesday K2 -XL08was in trouble at Norwich with a transmission fault on 37579. 37564 was summoned from King's Lynn and worked the remainder of the turn from Dereham. A serious accident on the A146 at Stockton caused delays to the X2 and 32651 & 30887 were seen arriving at Lowestoft in quick succession before departing as the 11.38 & 12.08 to Norwich.  Back on the X1 37158 was 7 late out of Lynn with K18-XL05 and had lost a further 10 minutes by arrival in Yarmouth.

At lunchtime today 37573 nearest the camera replaced 37563 on XL01 -K14 12.15 King's Lynn - Peterborough.
Photo from  Richard Delahay via Des Speed.

On Wednesday 37157 had to be removed from K18-XL05 and a repaired 37579 replaced it. 

Seat damage on 37157 - these seats are pretty rugged, so how did this happen ?

37571 had its MOT on Thursday and 37573 was taken off K5-XL11 at 10.30 for repairs to be carried out. 37565 worked forward. K3-XL09 arrived at Lynn with 37158 which had its steering pulling and this was taken out of service for investigation. Palatine 34155 arrived in Lowestoft 30 late on the 14.10 X2 from Norwich and then left 20 late on the 15.48 return. 
Friday saw K2-XL08 in trouble at Norwich with 37569 having to have its oil pressure switch replaced by a Volvo technician. The bus was repaired without too much delay and was able to continue the turn. 37564 which had been 11 late into Lowestoft on L8-XL14 then suffered a water leak at Dereham at 17.50. 37574 which had arrived at Lynn on Y7-XL13 was then used to work L8 forward from Lynn to Peterborough at 18.50. 34156 was another Palatine deputising on the X2 and Malcolm saw it departing with the 15.03 to Norwich. 37577 was progressively delayed on Y13 13.05 from Peterborough (XL19), 22 late from Wisbech, 27 late from Lynn and 29 down at Dereham. Time was regained however and it was 23 late at Norwich but just 13 late into Yarmouth. 
Saturday was uneventful with all buses behaving. I had a couple of trips to Wisbech, firstly with 37576 on L12-XL18 and returning with a still noisy 37575 on L9-XL15. Then K17-XL04 returning on K15-XL02 with Frank who hasn't had his picture in the blog lately. well what do you know, Dave Hodkinson was at Peterborough later and snapped 37566 on K5-XL11, with - yes you've guessed it - Frank doing his paperwork.

Both 37572 and 37568 were quite comfortable, though in the latter's case I sat on the back seat downstairs and the reversed seats facing me had clearly been abused by backseat passengers putting their feet on them. The woman opposite me proving the point. 
37576 was swapped on Sunday with a splintered windscreen and Y7 continued with 37567.