The X1 Blog

Saturday 21st January - Tuesday 24th January 2012 ~ Bye Bye Buses

2012-01-25T23:08:00.003Z

36180 out in the Fens. Photo : Rob Brooks

Saturday 21st January

I was not expecting to see any X1s from my window today, but the service had not completely transferred to the A1101 and I saw L8 with 37569 at 09.54 (4 late), Y10 with 37565 at 10.51 and finally this afternoon 37575 on K18 at 14.54 (also 4 late). These were all westbound services and none of them were seen returning. Ironically, the Weasenham Lane temporary lights were not in operation today. Just one swap today when 36180 on K3 was changed for 37159, believed to have been at 10.00 this morning. 37571 was spare bus at Lynn and 37158 was also undergoing attention as it is being prepared for MOT this coming week. 32651/4/5 were all viewed on X2s by Malcolm. Thanks to Graham Latimer for supplying a full list of Friday's workings

Sunday 22nd January

The usual B9 worked service. 37577 on the 14.00 Wisbech to Lowestoft for some reason departed almost five late despite having arrived in good time. X1 vehicles have had notices affixed explaining that the Wisbech Weasenham Lane stops are being omitted until further notice.

Monday 23rd January

Nene Quay in Wisbech was closed to eastbound traffic at 09.25 this morning. It remains open for westbound traffic. The temporary lights at Weasenham Lane appear to be a precursor to permanent traffic lights being installed at this location. Bruce was 'on duty' today and copped the whole 19 turns.
Services ran pretty near to time with only 37157 on K3 and 37159 on K18 being seen around 10 minutes behind schedule. a problem with 37575 saw it taken off K4 and replaced by 37566. Another swap saw L8 worked by three different B9s, initially 37563, this was replaced by 37571 for the 09.15 Lynn to Peterborough. Later 37578 took the 21.35 to Lowestoft driven by Des. he says "I was on ttime until Norwich then 2 minutes late from Acle with the Acle Straight closed. After the diversion I was eleven late to our destination, Gorleston JPH".
At Lowestoft, Malcolm writes " I don't know what was going on with the X2 this morning as 32651 and 32656 came in together about 10.30 with the latter departing not in service a few minutes later. 32651 did the 10.38 to Norwich and then it was a case of deja vu with 32654 & 32652 both arriving close together and 32654 then did the 11.08 departure".

Tuesday 24th January

New adverts for 'Chunky Kit Kat' are proving very persuasive - well at least with me, I keep wanting to go and buy one ! Perhaps just as well the buses are no longer passing my window. One bus which evaded the new ads was 37578 still advertising 'Puss In Boots' and seen 10 late on Y6 this morning. 37575 was tried on K4 again for the second day running but was taken out of traffic and is now awaiting injector sleeves. 37563 off repairs was its replacement. K5 began with 37572 but it needed a safety service, so the 10.32 to Lowestoft was worked by 37157 which had just received the same treatment. 572 was out again later though as K14's 37567 was also due for servicing and this came off at 15.00 as it had an oil sensor fault anyway. Y9 with 37566 was 15 late past Bruce on the 09.45 Lynn - Peterborough this morning. but strangely spot on time going back east.

Friday 20th January 2012 ~ What Buses ?

2012-01-21T00:24:00.000Z

Something odd happened today. I saw 37566 departing Wisbech a few minutes late on the 08.48 to Peterborough (Y6), it negotiated the Horsefair Roundabout and left via the A1101 Churchill Road. This was a bit surprising as Nene Quay was traversable in both directions. It then transpired that Mrs. P had decreed that all X1s should take this route both in and out of Wisbech to avoid the temporary lights at Weasenham Lane. This was all the more unusual as delays have been pretty minimal up to now. It will be interesting to see if any X1s escape and use the usual route over the next few weeks.
Nene Quay will be closed to eastbound traffic from this coming Monday until 29th June. It is possible to use the normal route as far as Wisbech town bridge and then turn left, but few drivers have attempted this in the past. Westbound, Nene Quay remains open until 23rd February.
So today I saw the 308 Great Yarmouth to Birmingham and several school buses along with a Holmeswood tourer but that was all.
On the X1, 37563 returned to traffic taking over K5 from 37572 at 10.32 to Lowestoft. 37572 was then seen in the garage by Bruce before it took to the road again at 12.45 replacing 36180 on K15. 37571 on K16 was taken off for servicing and 37160 which had suffered a cracked windscreen took over after repair at 13.15.
The map below shows Nene Quay highlighted and the alternative route via Old Market and North Street, which if used would mean the Weasenham Lane stop could still be served.

Monday 16th - Thursday 19th January 2012 ~ Last Week of Work Buses

2012-01-21T00:04:00.000Z

Wisbech seems to be swimming in roadworks at the moment and it is set to get worse. Temporary three way lights at Weasenham Lane, the same on Leverington Road and next week the final phase of the flood barrier scheme is being started meaning that Nene Quay will be unavailable for buses coming in from Peterborough and from my point of view mean my sightings will be considerably restricted,
Des says "A glut of roadworks at the moment : Peterborough Bus Station affected from January 16th for 35 days. The west side is currently closed and many buses are using the adjacent bus park for passengers to alight and load. X1 is using Bay 16 to alight and Bay 17 to load. Bus park traffic flow has reversed : enter via The Brewery Tap and exit into Bright Street so heavy traffic on Bourges Boulevard. the Wisbech Weasenham Lane lights are in operation from January 9th for 12 weeks and in addition the Acle straight has night closures from 20.00 to 06.00 from 16th January for nine nights.
Konect Service 8 has changed pick up bays in Norwich bus station. It now loads from Bay 1 towards Dereham and is always sitting there as we pull in to the bay for westbound services",
The X1 service seems to have been running fairly smoothly and completely Gemini operated. Here are a few notes from this week :
Monday 16th : Marion & John were waiting for L10 this morning at Wisbech, due off to Peterborough at 10.48. It didn't appear and instead a string of Lowestoft bound buses passed through before 37160 turned up on L11. This didn't deter them from enjoying an X1 day out though, after Peterborough they travelled through to Lynn for a wander before returning on K3 with 37159.
This afternoon I went to visit my Mum who is in hospital, I expected to pass K17 neat Terrington and it duly appeared about 4 minutes late at Tilney :

Now knowing 37568's unfortunate reputation for late running, I should have been suspicious and lo and behold it turned out to be K16 running 34 late !
I saw the real K17 on my way home which was 37563 driven by Mr. Speed which I passed on Nar Ouse way. Buses spare at King's Lynn today were 37158, 37564 & 37565.
Malcolm had to travel to Norwich and seen on the X2 were 32651/5/6 as well as President 32210

Tuesday 17th : An accident in Peterborough near Boongate caused a few delays this morning. 37573 on K4 08.35 from Peterborough ran into Wisbech 20 late, but this was the only service badly affected. All other services seen were less than 10 minutes late. K1 had 37570 swapped for 37565 at some point. 37563 and 37159 had a day off. Later yet another accident at Boongate caused delay to Des driving 37579 on K16 14.35 ex Peterborough, this was 12 late into Wisbech.

Wednesday 18th : Most buses were not on the road for long today before they gained an unsightly coating of grime. Early delays saw k2 with 37578 10 late and 37570 on K4 14 late. After this things settled down with K16 and 37157 12 late being the worst delayed. 37563 and 36180 were stopped for servicing today and tonight K2 swapped 37578 for 37160 which took the 18.35 Lynn - Lowestoft.

Thursday 19th : 37563 is having some panels repainted, so had another day off today. Timekeeping was good today with both the 11.18 & 11.48 Wisbech to Peterborough passing me slightly early.
L11 with 37565 had this taken off for 37576 at 13.32 and similarly K15 with 36180 changed for 37575 at 15.32. Malcolm saw 34156 getting a run out on the 11.38 X2.

Thursday 12th - Sunday 15th January 2012 ~ Fair Fares

2012-01-16T10:29:00.000Z

One thing I didn't mention in the blog was the recent fare increases. Cheryl's return from Wisbech to Thorney has gone up by 30p for example. Nevertheless, the X1 still provides good value for money and (to me at least) seems far cheaper than taking the car. I sometimes wonder if many of the people who complain about public transport costs have ever tried owning a car - a sobering experience I can tell you, with the high cost of fuel, as well as tax and servicing, oh and not forgetting the MOT and tyres,then there are parking fees, hang on - I think I'll stick to the bus where I can !
It's been a rather quiet few days on the X1 it would seem, so nothing unusual to report. Thursday saw 37572 doing odd things. It did L8 to Lynn coming off at 09.08 and then went for servicing before taking over K16 13.15 to Peterborough. 37567 took L8 forward and I'm pretty certain it was 37568 which came off K16, again all to do with maintenance requirements. 37574 remained in Lynn garage today.
Friday was a little hit and miss with timekeeping, but nothing seemed to run too out of course. 37157 had its MOT carried out after having had some panels repainted, 37569 & 37577 were the other two buses not used. It may have been Friday 13th, but Grahame Bessey managed to get some good shots while out in Dereham today

36180 still standing in for 37156 and working K15 as usual, ready to depart Dereham at 11.35 for Peterborough. GB

Taken from the top of a Konect Enviro, 37159 and 37576 are seen at Dereham on the 13.05 and 13.07 departures for Peterborough and Lowestoft (K18 and L8). GB

37568 in the Dereham sunshine prior to departing as the 11.37 to Lowestoft (Grahame Bessey)

About a month ago we featured a picture of 37579 still with its narrow font destination. Here it is today with the standard large lettering ready to leave Dereham at 12.35 westbound. GB

Saturday saw 36180 have a change from working K15 which it had done from Tuesday to Friday, instead it was on K17 running around 10 late when seen this afternoon. 37157 was back on the road on K5 and this left 37569, 37578 & 37579 all spare at Lynn. 37578 had been stopped due to a cracked windscreen.
On Sunday everything seen was pretty near to time, the service was all B9s and 36180 at last had a day off. Our man at Yarmouth garage says Yarmouth trainer 20109 needs some work doing on it and it will be out of service until April, meanwhile 20115 & 20126 continue to perform ably and are still classed as X1 spares.
Thanks also to Bruce, Malcolm and Matthew for all their recent reports.

Saturday 7th - Wednesday 11th January 2012 ~ Five In One

2012-01-12T00:09:00.001Z

A very uneventful five days have passed with the main X1 service entirely Gemini operated. 36180 has been standing in for the accident damaged 37156 for a while now and this week 37157 has been stopped for MOT prep work.
On Saturday and Sunday the service managed to run without any swaps, although 36180 'escaped' from Lynn on Sunday, working K5 which until now on Sundays had terminated at Yarmouth, however, as it came out of Lowestoft on L12 on Monday, it looks as if K5 now finishes there. 37578 on Sunday's Y7 did the opposite and it came out on Monday's Y9 from Yarmouth instead of appearing from Lowestoft.

Punctuality on Monday was quite good and only 37569 on K2 16.18 Wisbech to Peterborough was notably adrift leaving 14 minutes late. 37571/7 were rested at King's Lynn.

Tuesday began with delays following an accident near Guyhirn, 37563 on K2 08.21 Wisbech to Lowestoft passed me 18 late, but K3 and K4 had only lost 7 minutes and then services reverted to time. There were a couple of swaps with Y9 and Y13 exchanging 37566 & 37573 for 37577 & 37568.

Wednesday saw 37160 needing attention from the Volvo man, but it still managed to do K5 from Lynn to Peterborough and back before being stopped and replaced by 37566. Later it was out again though replacing 37564 for the 18.02 to Lowestoft. A maintenance swap saw 37567 come off K16 at 16.00 with 37572 working forward to Lowestoft. Once again Malcolm Hicks reports three different types of double decker on the X2, the 10.38 departure from Lowestoft was 32652, 32211 was on the 11.08 and this afternoon the 14.38 had Palatine 34157.

Richard Alger took some pictures in Dereham on Tuesday which he has kindly sent. He managed to get some X1s together with the Konect service 8.

Friday January 6th 2012 ~ Bruce Reports

2012-01-10T01:03:00.000Z

Thanks to Bruce for standing in while I was at the BBC today. Here is his list of sightings (well, we haven't had a list for a long time have we ?)

08.31 K2 37569,

08.33 Y6 37574,

09.03 Y7 37157, K3 not seen

09.36 K4 37577,

09.43 L8 a B9 coincided with sausage sandwich breakfast,

10.10 K5 37575 passed Y9 37160.

10.40 L10 37565, Y6 not seen.

11.10 Y7 37157,

11.11 L11 37567

11.39 L12 37159

11.40 L8 37572

12.38 K14 37158

13.08 K15 36180

13.10 L11 37567

13.35 K16 37579

14.06 K17 37570

14.08 Y13 37573

14.38 K18 a B9 slipped by

15.06 K19 37566

15.39 K1 37563 simultaneously with K16 and 37579

16.40 K18 37576

16.41 K3 37564

20115,20126 and 34108 were not noted west of Kings Lynn on this day either, however RML2480 appeared to be the only available spare bus at Richard's garage

Malcolm adds :This afternoon Jenny and Rachel saw 37574 leaving the bus station working Y6, I saw 32656 working the 14.38 X2 service to Norwich, 37578 worked Y7, 34155 worked the 15.03 X2 to Norwich, 37572 worked L8 and 37160 was on Y9.

You will see from this that 37157 was swapped at Lynn for 37578 to work the 11.32 Lynn to Lowestoft and later this evening 37574 had a headlight out on Y6, so 37565 took over for the 17.45 Lynn - Peterborough. 37565 started the day on L10, but 37571 was substituted at Lynn at 10.15. Punctuality looks to have been good for a Friday.

Thursday January 5th 2012 ~ X1 Fans

2012-01-07T13:46:00.002Z

When I was in Edinburgh last weekend I managed to spend a morning with Stuart Montgomery. He took me on one of the new Enviros and we then spent a couple of hours in George Street watching the goings on. Princes Street is of course closed for the installation of the Tramway, so all buses are having to be diverted from this stretch.
Anyway, Stuart is always (justifiably) proud of Lothian Buses and the immaculate condition in which they keep their fleet. I remember a year or so back I saw one of First's B7 Geminis up there with the fan making a horrendous racket and I asked Stuart if Lothian ever have this problem, as they run a very large Gemini fleet, to which he responded " Och No ! Never, it would be taken straight off the road ". I had to smile then, when last weekend Lothian Gemini 702 I think it was, rounded the corner sounding like a roadsweeper. Stuart swiftly changed the subject !

One of Lothian's Lady Victoria liveried Geminis, one of which had a faulty fan during my visit.

For several months now, our X1 fleet have been silent in this respect, then last night I passed 37160 on K4. I had my stereo turned up quite loud, but the bus seemed to momentarily drown it out. Surely not ? Then today 37160 worked Y7, it being heard before it was viewed, confirming that its fan is playing up. Oh well never mind !
At this point I thought I would go 'off subject' a little and show some other buses seen during my Edinburgh visit. I know some drivers read this blog and they might be surprised to learn that although Lothian's fleet is very new (and completely low floor), indeed Stuart told me that their oldest vehicle is a Y reg Dart, in contrast, the First fleet are quite elderly and certainly older than anything we have apart from 20115/126.

So some pretty ancient stuff there then, but isn't it lovely to still see the Royales in use. Finally on this topic, it's not all low floor with Stagecoach either :

For a better idea of the Lothian fleet, you couldn't do better than to take a look at Stuart's Flickr site :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stuart_montgomery/

So what about the X1 then ? Well it was a good day for punctuality overall, certainly at the west end of the route. This afternoon 37573 on K1 passed Bruce 13 late on the 15.15 King's Lynn to Peterborough, but smart working reduced this to just 7 minutes by the time it left Wisbech. Everything else seen was within 8 minutes of the timetable.
Having said that, there was an element of disruption caused in the east due to today's high winds as Des reports :
"I was waiting to work Y7 15.42 Yarmouth - King's Lynn, due in at 15.37. Breydon Bridge had been closed to northbound traffic only, while curiously traffic continued to use it southbound. This resulted in long queues of traffic on all other routes into the town. By 16.00, a Lynn driver who has his meal break at Yarmouth had turned up to work L8 16.12 to Peterborough. we decided that as he had to have a further break at Lynn before operating the 19.50 thence to Peterborough (L10), he should take the next bus that arrived and operate it as L8 (the 16.12). Y7 arrived at 16.18, 41 late with 37160, this loaded and then departed at 16.21 now running as L8. This would need refuelling at Lynn at 18.55 as it had originally been on Y7 which terminates there, but would now be required to work through to Peterborough and back to Yarmouth.
At 16.28 the original L8 arrived with 37579, 16 late and less delayed as Breydon Bridge had been reopened to northbound traffic. I ran forward as Y7 dropping passengers at Acle, Norwich and Easton with 'not in service' on the screen. I then ran light to Little Fransham where I resumed 'in service' now just 23 minutes late".

37564 in King's Lynn Vancouver Avenue garage this evening after arrival on L11. Along with 37563, 37567, 37573 & 37574, it is currently running without adverts on the passenger side reminding us of how these vehicles were intended to look.

A nice line up of 37575, 37579, 37576 & 37577 at King's Lynn tonight

Elsewhere L12 had 37577 with a gear fault replaced by sister 37578 for the 11.15 Lynn to Peterborough and there was a swap an hour later on K14 too with 37576 coming off for a scheduled service and 37565 working forward as the 12.15 to Peterborough

Wednesday January 4th 2012 ~ Back To Work

2012-01-07T12:28:00.001Z

A number of people who use Blogger have been having problems with the masthead photo on their blogs. The last two I have used, the Christmas one and this one of 37157, appear blurred as if in low resolution. Hopefully they will get this fixed soon in view of the glitch affecting so many people.

I went back to work today and didn't get a lot of time at my desk. At first several services failed to appear, but I then put this down to them running dead on time or marginally early and that I'd missed them, rather than them using an alternative route.

Grahame Bessey says "Whilst going through some old photos, I came across 37579 pictured in Acle back on 16th December 2008 with a large font destination which suggests it was reprogrammed at some point but then returned to the original settings!"
Yes Grahame this is exactly what happened. I mentioned it at the time and it came back from Volvo with the narrow font after attention there. Anyway, isn't it strange when coincidences happen ? Just as Grahame's email arrives, I see 37579 on K2 this morning having sometime over the last few days reverted to the large font style as seen above !! This is the first time since all 17 B9 Geminis have been in service, that they have all carried this bolder style of destination display. A shame really, as you could always identify 37579 from a distance as long as it was unique in this respect.

Unusual happenings today included 36180 starting out on K4 for a journey from Lynn to Peterborough and back where it was swapped for 37160 to work the 10.02 to Lowestoft. 37567 on L12 was 9 late on the 11.48 Wisbech to Peterborough, but returned dead on time, suggesting a short cut somewhere. Eleven minutes was the maximum lateness recorded today by 37569 on L10.

Malcolm noted three different types of bus on the X2 today, President 32211 was on the 10.38 Lowestoft - Norwich, Palatine 34156 arrived on the 09.40 from Norwich and 32651 worked the 11.08 departure from Lowestoft. Later 32654 was on the 14.38 with 32210 spare in the bus station.
Des writes "Yesterday (Tuesday), saw the timetable revisions commence with the evening X1s being curtailed at Grat Yarmouth and then becoming Service 1 all stops to Lowestoft. Some buses are able to display X1 Lowestoft and scrolling underneath ... for 1 to Lowestoft and for 1 to Gorleston. Through X1 fares are available to the additional stopping points on the 1 route.

Tuesday January 3rd 2012 ~ Delays & Obstructions ...but the X1 was OK !

2012-01-05T23:37:00.000Z

Leaving my accommodation in Edinburgh this morning to head for Waverley station, it was a bit breezy, but nothing out of the ordinary. Later in the day wind speeds in excess of 100 mph were recorded here. Fortunately I was away early for the 06.55 train before things deteriorated. My journey was unhindered until I reached Retford where we ground to an unscheduled halt and sat for three hours ! At least it meant passengers got their money refunded, but this must have been little consolation to those heading for connecting services and Eurostar. The reason for our delay ? Well you've probably guessed - it was cable theft at Carlton-on-Trent. All this meant that my idea of catching Y9 11.05 Peterborough to Lowestoft had evaporated and I just came out of the station at 13.39 to see 37567 drawing off with K14 13.35 departure. Returning to the concourse I watched the ever increasing list of cancelled trains become longer. Most passengers were resigned to the disruption, but as ever there were a couple of people 'creating'.
The 14.05 bus to Dereham appeared to be on time - it always makes me smile to see that the railway refuse to list the correct destination of the X1, allegedly because the train to the more far flung destinations is quicker.
Peter had sent me a text telling me that if I caught K15 14.05 departure, it would be loan Gemini 36180. At about 13.50 two coaches belonging to Smiths of Blofield arrived on what appeared to be rail replacement services........

Notice the red Audi parked in front of them ! This was a lady motorist who ignored all the restrictions and parked here to refill her windscreen washer bottle. The next bus to arrive at 14.02 was not my X1, but a Stagecoach Trident which pulled in to the bus stop in front of the Audi blocking the car in. To make matters worse, the tight right turn out of the station approach could only be completed by the Trident by it parking at an angle - all because of that silly lady ......

This also had the knock on effect of blocking the road completely, although I think the driver of the car at the rear was being a little bit over cautious. This happened at 14.02 and the Trident was due to depart at 14.17 !! Both the motorist stuck behind and the guilty woman in the Audi approached the buses driver and asked him to move to no avail. Eventually the Oundle service departed at 14.14 by which time the driver of the car shown here had abandoned it to drop off his passenger. The Smiths coaches pulled away and then traffic had to overtake the abandoned car on the left.
Goodness knows how long the queue was, but it was a good three minutes before 36180 appeared. The driver (Adrian) said he had been tempted to avoid the station when he saw the queue but stuck to his duty and we eventually left at around 14.20. Being the joker he is, he told me he was going empty to King's Lynn ! We picked up at Queensgate where the former 20141 was on a March service operated by Emblings, we then managed to regain some of the lost time. 36180 has the higher maximum speed like the B9s so moved along quite briskly although Adrian said it was a little sluggish pulling away. Bruce kindly picked me up at Walpole Highway and gave me a lift home.

37564 with new adverts in Vancouver Avenue after working K5 today.

Elsewhere on the X1, 37563 was back in traffic on K19 this morning but 37570 took its place at 14.45. Earlier 37570 arrived in King's Lynn on L10 with 37159 taking over for the 10.15 to Peterborough.
37568 is still sidelined at Vancouver Avenue awaiting parts.

Two Year Blog : Happy New Year.

2012-01-04T23:22:00.001Z

Thursday December 29th 2011 - Monday January 2nd 2012

Thursday dawned with me taking the X1 to Peterborough in order to catch my train to Scotland. I took K3 06.45 from King's Lynn from Walpole Highway which was 37567. This delivered me to the rail station in plenty of time. The day seemed to pass without incident and the three buses not in use were 37563/8/76. 36180 was back on K15 which seems to be its favourite turn. 34155 was seen by Malcolm operating the 11.08 Lowestoft - Norwich X2.
Friday saw 37576 back in action on K19 and 37572 was rested instead. 36180 was K15 again. 20115 was viewed by Christine at Brundall this morning on an X1 short to Norwich. Des drove B7s 37157 & 37160 but both were running up to 10 minutes late due to heavy loadings.
Saturday (New Year's Eve) saw the usual early close. 37565 had a screen washer failure first thing, so Y10 07.15 ex James Paget Hospital left with coach 20115 in an almost exact repeat of events on Christmas Eve. Its jaunt was halted at King's Lynn with 37158 taking over. In a move designed to get 20115 back home, L12 then had 37578 removed so that the coach could head back east on the 14.02 King's Lynn - Lowestoft and then the 17.25 Lowestoft - Yarmouth. 37563 & 37568 had their third consecutive day in Lynn garage.
There was no service on New Years Day but there was a Sunday service on Monday 2nd. The service was entirely B9 worked with 37566/7/9. 37571/2/4/6/7/8/9 being in use.

Richard Alger says "Thought you might be interested in attached pictures of 20111 now with Panther Travel. It was an entrant in the 1 January running day in Southend. You will see that it was passed by an old friend, 20501 operating the service X30". Interesting stuff Richard and here are those pictures :

Wednesday December 28th 2011 ~ Last Post of the Year

2011-12-28T23:38:00.000Z

I'm off to Bonnie Edinburgh for the Hogmanay celebrations after a break of a few years. My regular contacts have kindly agreed to stand in for me in my absence, so I will do a combined blog when I return. If I get time, I might also do a review of 2011, similar to that for 2010.
Today was at least sunny after yesterday's gloom. Delays didn't seem to be as bad as yesterday and it was back to a weekday service. 37579 travelled back to King's Lynn for screen repair and 20115 was then taken back to Yarmouth. 37572 on K14 was swapped at 12.15 for 37566 off repairs. It is always a bit of a challenge for Richard & Co at this time of year as the fortnightly safety services still have to be carried out, despite the loss of regular working days. At least with Christmas Day being on a Sunday things weren't quite as bad as some years past.

About the most interesting vehicle working into Wisbech today was this B10M coach on Emblings 380 service from March. If it looks a little familiar, it is because it is none other than R841DVF, now re-registered as TIL 7772. This coach was 20141 in the First fleet and was an X1 regular for many years. Its last working on the X1 was on October 22nd 2008.

The MaX1 zone details

Tuesday 27th December 2011 ~ Sales Rush

2011-12-28T23:15:00.000Z

As is customary, more than a few people were reported awaiting buses which never ran on Boxing Day. After a fruitless wait, one couple spent time in the pub at Terrington before taking a taxi in to town according to Bruce. Today buses seemed heavily loaded and with an hourly service this was not unexpected. 37576 with the 14.22 Wisbech to Peterborough was seen departing along South Brink 30 minutes late and the 13.00 Wisbech to Lowestoft was around 20 late. It was late afternoon before punctuality improved.
Coach 20115 spent the day in Vancouver Avenue along with an assortment of Geminis. One swap occurred when 37577 was taken out of service for cleaning after a passenger mishap and 37157 took its place.
Des was in Gorleston High Street this morning and espied 37572 on L10 09.48 from Lowestoft. It was already 11 late and nearly full, 37 passengers boarded and nine were left behind. This first westbound service is always very busy, but from Jamuary 8th this problem may be alleviated with the implementation of buses at 07.08, 08.08 & 09.08 from the JPH westbound. As things stand, Yarmouth garage doesn't open until 07.00, so this could be interesting !

2011-12-24T22:23:00.000Z

I hope you all have a grand old time and thankfully we have not had any conflagrations like this one :
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/Home/Firefighters-tackle-double-decker-bus-blaze-on-A14-24122011.htm

Cheers Gerard

Saturday December 24th 2011 ~ The Ghost of Christmas Past

2011-12-24T22:19:00.000Z

These days the only chance of an unusual working on the X1 seems to rely on a mishap taking place at the eastern end of the route. This afternoon 37579 arrived in Lowestoft to work 13.55 K5 to Peterborough with a huge crack across its windscreen. The only option was to call 20115 out of Yarmouth to work forward at 14.42. I'd done all my Christmas 'stuff' so thought I'd pop out to get a picture of it. I went over on 37565 on K18 (yes twice I've travelled on it in less than 24 hours !) and 20115 arrived bang on time. With passengers boarded on 'Cinderella', the driver was just about to depart at 17.15 when the evil stepmother 37157 appeared ("It's behind you !!"and as much to our driver's surprise as anyones) we were all required to disembark and board the cold Gemini. What a pantomime ! As it turned out, with 37566/8 both stopped at Vancouver Avenue for an adblue fault and an injector sleeve , this was the only spare Gemini available. Not sure why 20115 was taken off so suddenly, even if it did have its usual screeching fanbelt when started.
The services seemed to run within about 10 minutes of time today and by mid afternoon, everything appeared to be on time.
I will take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and thank those of you who have contributed in any way this month. G

Thursday 22nd December & Friday 23rd December 2011 ~ Christmas Countdown

2011-12-24T19:15:00.000Z

As the Christmas rush nears its conclusion, the queues in and out of the towns served by the X1 grow ever longer, as shown by the increasing delays related here.

Thursday December 22nd

Mid afternoon saw the heaviest delays in the west. Most services had run within 10 minutes of time, but K14 came back from Peterborough 24 late with 37158 to work the 14.26 Wisbech to Lowestoft, K15 was 15 late with 36180 and K16 with 37157 had lost 27 minutes for the 15.26 departure.
37569 on K3 was swapped for 37575 which was seen at Walsoken 23 late heading west. 37575 had earlier worked Y13 to Lynn for 37574 forward at 11.45.
Once again the old girls were in service on the X2, 34158 on the 12.08 Lowestoft to Norwich and 34156 on the following 12.38.

Dale gives 37160 a bath at King's Lynn

Friday December 23rd

Not surprisingly, the timetable unravelled again today. Late morning delays of 15 minutes were standard, but 37158 on L11 was 16 late westbound and 31 late returning. 37565 with L12 was -12/-20 respectively. After Y13, services from Peterborough then passed Wisbech as follows : K14 37573 27 late, K15 36180 38 late and K16 37160 37 late. At least by this time passengers were being inconvenienced less as the delay had become over 30 minutes !
Eventually things got back on course with 37564 on K4 seen departing Quensgate at 18.22. Cheryl and myself were post Christmas party passengers on L12 tonight with 37565. My first trip with this one which was not as cold as some. At Wisbech everyone left apart from myself and we were joined by two drunks who were en route to Walton Highway and King's Lynn. They were of very limited vocabulary and it reminded me of what our late night drivers have to endure at times. Our driver handled them very well and I was back to Walpole on time.
Des had an interesting day, taking 37159 on Y9 06.45 James Paget Hospital - King's Lynn on time. En route he saw an Eddie Stobart had left the road at Little Fransham. It had been heading east and had ploughed into a lamp post bringing down power lines. Temporary traffic lights had been set up and for the Eddie watchers, it was H5616 Alison Jean.
Later taking 37570 on L8 15.25 ex Lowestoft, 37159 was seen in Gorleston Magdalen Estate with passengers, but 'not in service' 35 late. My relieving driver was still on his break when I rolled into Yarmouth due to the heavy traffic.

Friday 16th December 2011 - Wednesday 21st December 2011 ~ The Megablogs Continue

2011-12-21T23:51:00.003Z

Well you all know what it's like at this time of the year, the days flash past and before you know it, Christmas has arrived. Cheryl says "Emblings bus called 'Kim' is decorated with tinsel, why can't 'First' do the same ?" Well I guess it might cost them a lot of money dear ! Let's have a quick look at recent events, oh and apologies for the large posting again.

Especially for Cheryl, here is another smaller operator's B10M decorated for the Festive season !

Friday 16th December : The mystery of 37160 and its MOT continues - I am told it has not taken place yet, so we will see what happens ! Today 37576 was seen on K5 passing me 6 late at 09.56 only to reappear on L12 21 late at 12.11. It has been having adblue problems of late. 37572 had been taken off L12 and K5 had gone forward with 37160, itself having started out on K4 but 37157 replaced it after attention to its heating system. This evening L8 had 37571 swapped for 37578 off Y7.
For a Friday near Christmas, punctuality was fair - apart from 37576 mentioned above, all other turns were reasonably near time. 37566 on K17 15.05 ex Peterborough was the poorest performer being 15 late.
Des says "Wellington Road in Dereham has been closed since Wednesday with roadworks due to finish today. Here's a nice little map (click to enlarge)

Saturday 17th December : I had a trip to Cambridge today and used the X1 to get me to Lynn. Bruce kindly agreed to give me a lift to and from Walpole Highway as beer drinking was involved.
I took Y7 with 37579 which was reasonably loaded, it is such a shame that the lack of air conditioning on these buses inevitably means windows are covered in condensation spoiling the good views which are affordable. Despite this handicap I was able to clear the window to look out for L11 going the other way - I needn't have bothered as it didn't run and 37574 was viewed lurking in Vancouver Avenue as we passed. We'd seen L12 on Nar Ouse Way with 37158. So in the end I was glad I was travelling east rather than a 30 minute wait going west.

37579 departs King's Lynn as the 11.32 to Lowestoft today. It is unique in the X1 fleet in retaining the small font destination display.

I returned on Y10 with 37157 which was lovely and warm upstairs and with Blondie Karen in charge as far as the Southgates. After the obligatory 5 minute changeover, we set off again and our driver did his best to make up the lost time. 37569, 37572 & 37160 were not seen on the route today, although it is quite possible that one of them replaced 37574 on L11.

37579 still looks remarkably clean despite the wet conditions today.

Des writes "Icy roads off the main A47 made me 8 late into Lynn with 37579 on Y7 06.22 ex Yarmouth this morning. Later I was 4 late departing Lowestoft on the 13.55 (K5) westbound with 37571 after I had to take it to Gasworks Road for cleaning after some passenger illness. The roadworks in Dereham had not finished as expected and it was not until early afternoon that the road reopened and K3 was able to use the normal route".
On the X2 the new arrivals seem to be fairly reliable. Malcolm saw 32652/4/6 all in action today.

Sunday 18th December : The usual quiet Sunday with the only notable occurrence being the use of loan Gemini 36180 on K4 which ends up at Yarmouth (tut tut !). 37574 was parked front end in at Vancouver Avenue which is most unusual - perhaps after it was taken off L11 yesterday. Peter sent a text : " On a filthy (well outside anyway) 37567 on the 14.10 ex Peterborough. The driver got out at the bus station to wipe his mirrors and also came round to our front nearside window and wiped a clean square. He said "There you go mate, now you can see where you are going" ! Excellent ! He must have realised I was a friend of the X1 blogmeister". Des explains the current problems with 37576 which he drove again today "It is something to do with the adblue sensor being in a different position.This means 'Fill tank, Adblue system error, No Data etc' messages flag up on the dashboard and because the sensor thinks the emissions are high, the computer derates the engine performance".

Monday 19th December : Funny old world isn't it - not so long ago we had a fleet of X1s travelling about advertising the film 'Iron Man', now they have begun to appear with 'The Iron Lady' on the side ! I was otherwise engaged today at our Christmas work party so didn't see much, however, our loyal band of corespondents covered every turn. 37160 wasn't out - having an MOT maybe ??!!
36180 came back from its Great Yarmouth overnight on Y9. Malcolm says Palatine 34157 was being used on the X2, although 32651 was spare in the bus station. Clive on EAB Group reports the sad news that former X1 vehicles 20112 & 20116 have been withdrawn by First Scotland.

Tuesday 20th December : One of those days ! The troubles began with a collapsed manhole cover between Thorney Toll and Guyhirn causing queues early this morning. These were then added to when a lorry and a car decided to have a shunt in the affected area. K2 and 37563 on the 07.30 from Peterborough passed me just 9 late with Calvin trying to make up time, but then things worsened. K3 with 37157 was 16 late into Wisbech, I missed seeing 37566 on K4, but K5 with 37569 - back in traffic at last - was 25 late. After this 37577 on Y6 was 11 down, 37574 on Y7 likewise and I missed 37567 on L8 which had been 7 late going west.
Y9 10.18 Wisbech - Peterborough with 37579 was 12 late departing and no less than 34 late coming back. 37565 was on L10 with Peter on board, he says "On the 10.48 ex Wisbech (4 late) and now the A47 is closed at Guyhirn to recover a lorry, so I'm enjoying my first ever X1 via Whittlesey - looks like it could take a while by the volume of traffic". He was not wrong, and it arrived at Peterborough bus station at 11.44.
The delays continued into the afternoon and I saw 36180 on K15 14.05 ex Peterborough 25 late, K16 with 37571 15 late, K17 37568 23 late and K18 37159 17 late.
Des says " I had 37579 again today from the James Paget on Y9, the windscreen washer jets became blocked en route so we popped in to Vancouver Avenue for them to be cleared. Returning east on Y6, this bus had damage to a mirror, so another garage visit was required. The bus (37577) was lightly loaded and we got away at 11.27, about 20 late. Just 5 late into Norwich where K5 with 37569 was still loading. A quick call to control to suggest me running light to Lowestoft to takeover K5 at 13.55 was sanctioned and I was into Lowestoft at 13.47. 37569 then became Y6. Due to the Thorney Toll disruption, my next turn, L8 with 37567 was 18 late departing".
Cheryl was waiting for K2 at Thorney at 17.30, only to see 37563 as expected turn up, but going west instead of east. It was closely followed by 37157 on K3 and in the end 37563 went light from Peterborough to Lynn and poor Cheryl had to await the return of 37157 !

The spare bus pool was a bit depleted today with 37572 having an engine fault and 37576 stopped again with adblue problems. 37571 on Y13 was taken off at 11.40 and the 11.45 to Peterborough left Lynn with 37160. 37575 on K16 then needed replacing and 37571 was off again westbound at 13.15.

There were further problems in the evening peak after another A47 accident on the western Norwich bypass at 18.20. Y9 with 37579 got through OK, but L10 with 37565 and L11 with 37578 both became trapped in the ensuing chaos. L12 managed to avoid this and 37564 was seen arriving at Lynn on time at 20.40, however, the two delayed buses didn't arrive until after 21.00. 37574 was used to work L10 19.50 Lynn to Peterborough having come in on Y7. The A47 reopened at Longwater at 22.25.
In Lowestoft Malcolm saw 32652 having a sortie on the 101 town service to Hollow Grove while President 32210 worked the 11.38 X2 to Norwich.

Wednesday 21st December
A better day thank goodness, but the temporary lights near Thorney Toll were still in operation. Peter writes " 17 late into Peterborough on K4 with a very cold 37575 (due 08.29), but right time tonight on a sweltering 37157 on K5 18.40 eastbound. There's no happy medium with X1 heating !"
K4 was the exception though and morning services were little affected, however, after lunch there was a dip in punctuality. Y13 with 37569 arrived into Wisbech 29 late for the 13.56 to Lowestoft and K14 didn't do much better, it was 20 late with 37160. K15 was a different story though and 36180 was 5 minutes going west and hadn't dropped any further time when it returned. Mind it did have a driver noted for punctual running at the wheel !
A couple of swaps took place this afternoon, 37567 on L8 was changed for 37572 at 12.02 and later the 17.02 Lynn to Lowestoft (K18) had 37574 swapped for a repaired 37576. Meanwhile 37573 had a day off for servicing.
The X2 continues to provide a variety of buses, thanks to Malcolm Hicks for his regular reports. Today 32656 was on the 11.38 to Norwich, 32210 was on the following 12.08 departure and later this afternoon 32652 arrived 24 late on the 12.40 ex Norwich meaning 34157 had to be found to work the 14.08 which departed 15 late.
The Fenland Citizen newspaper reports today that Nene Quay in Wisbech is to be closed eastbound from January 23rd until June 29th for the remainder of the flood defence work to be carried out. This will entail Lowestoft bound X1s taking a diversionary route, either via the A47 bypass and A1101 or via Weasenham Lane.
Thanks to all who have supplied information and photographs recently, much appreciated.

Monday 12th December - Thursday 15th December 2011 ~ No News Is Good News

2011-12-15T22:41:00.000Z

Monday 12th December : The service seemed to cope well with the busy roads today. 37575 on the 15.15 Lynn to Peterborough (K1) was 10 late through Wisbech, but all other diagrams were just a few minutes behind time. 36180 was on K17 and 37158/574 were out of service along with 37569.
The A47 was closed between Wisbech & Guyhirn again after an accident this evening. L10 was noted passing through Walton Highway around 22.25 (15 late) on the 21.10 ex Peterborough. The X2 still sees Palatine workings and today Malcolm saw 34157 on the 13.40 ex Norwich. President 32210 was spare in Lowestoft bus station.

Tuesday 13th December : Chris rang this morning to say that 37577 had expired at Wisbech Cromwell Road Tesco lights at around 09.30. It was at the head of a queue of traffic with its hazards on and with its driver on the phone. The problem was trivial though as a few minutes later it was on the move again and was seen returning just 9 late.

37563 arrives at Wisbech this morning on K3 08.05 Peterborough - Lowestoft

37578 was stopped at Lynn today receiving attention to some minor collision damage. 37576 on L10 10.15 Lynn to Peterborough was 16 late from Wisbech, but after this delays were slight until K15 with 36180 which passed Wisbech 16 late westbound and 20 late returning to Lowestoft.
Des says " I was driving 37160 on the 08.15 Lowestoft - Peterborough (Y13), however, a problem occurred on departing the James Paget Hospital as the exit was blocked by a low loader - in the end had to monitor the traffic light seqence and make a safe exit via the entrance road ! Returning east from Lynn with L10, 37576 had a variety of Adblu errors showing, but then the display would totally clear for a few miles before reappearing. President 32211 which has a reconditioned engine was considered reliable enough to work the 13.40 Norwich to Lowestoft X2 today, but 32210 was still in the bus station spare.
Wednesday 14th December : Timekeeping was pretty good until late afternoon, though maybe it was roadworks at Fransham which caused K19, K1 & K2 15.18/15.48/16.18 departures from Wisbech westbound all to run 10 late. 37160 was due MOT prep this week, but it continued in service until the day of its test (believed to be today) so must have been in prime condition. Today it started out on K3, but was replaced by 36180 off servicing for the 09.33 to Lowestoft. Y6 had 37574 taken off the duty today, but why is unclear. 37563 replaced it. On the X2, 32210 had been relegated to a Bernard Matthews contract (seen by Malcolm) while Michael Bryant saw no less than three Palatines working on the X2 itself.

Thursday 15th December : A large number of swaps occurred today. As early as 08.00 it looks like 37565 came off K19 for servicing to be replaced by 37574. Y9 with 37563 had an adblu problem and 37576 took over for the 09.45 Lynn to Peterborough. Next change was on Y6 where 37570 was off at 11.00 for 37565 to work forward. 570 was pronounced OK soon afterwards and when 37157 on Y13 meeded attention, 570 took over its turn as the 11.45 to Peterborough. It just did a return trip to the city before a repaired 37563 replaced it as the 14.32 to Lowestoft. As a consequence, 37569 - still undergoing bodywork repairs (+ the absent 37156) were the only X1 buses off the road today.

Thursday December 8th 2011 - Sunday December 11th 2011 ~ Catching Up

2011-12-13T22:46:00.000Z

I seem to have got well behind with the blog again (Christmas preparations and visitors being the main reasons), so here is a quick look at what's been going on of late :

Thursday 8th : K18 apparently began with 37564 and K19 with 37576, but by this afternoon they had become the other way around. An overtaking manouevre by 37576 perhaps ? Everything else was fairly normal today, 37569 is back at King's Lynn following its wheely at Acle on Saturday. It requires repairs to some panels before it can re-enter traffic. K4 had 37568 changed for 37574 at some point to facilitate booked safety services. All services noted managed to keep within 10 minutes of time except K17 with 36180. This was 6 late on the 14.18 Wisbech - Peterborough and 14 late returning.

Friday 9th : I worked a half day as I had impending visitors. An average lateness of around 10 minutes was evident in the morning, due to the extra traffic/passengers. L8 with 37570 was 14 late westbound through Wisbech and L11 with 37563 was 12 late. Bruce took over observations at lunchtime viewing 37577 on K15 running 14 late as was 37572 on K17.

37157 at Walton Highway this afternoon on K14 12.15 King's Lynn to Peterborough.

I set out to drive to March at 15.30 and I nearly drove off the road with surprise when I met 37160 on K16 bang on time - yes and this on a Friday when it is so often the worst performer of the week ! 37579 & 36180 both had a day off at Lynn today, along with 37569. 32651/2/4 were all noted on the X2.

Saturday 10th : Gave Jamie a lift to Walpole Highway to catch Y7 09.03 to Peterborough which was 37566 spot on time. I waited to view K3 which was Blondie Karen driving 36180. Didn't see much else myself, but 37160 was 8 late on L9 11.56 Wisbech to Lowestoft after its exertions yesterday. The only swap today was 37577 for 37159 on K2, presumably because the former required attention from the cleaners.

Sunday 11th : 37574 on K6 10.10 Peterborough - Lowestoft was changed at Lynn for 37566, reasons unknown. All ten diagrams were B9s as booked.

Wednesday December 7th 2011 ~ Dim the Lights

2011-12-12T01:13:00.000Z

Today it was the turn of 36180 to have a headlight problem, it was taken off K15 this afternoon and 37160 replaced it. Earlier 37160 had come in on K16 and 37573 had gone out in its place. Another A47 accident, this time between Wisbech and Guyhirn resulted in two services becoming stranded in the resulting traffic this afternoon, K2 16.18 from Wisbech with 37564 and K18 15.35 from Peterborough with 37157 were the services affected. In the end 37157 went through to the coast, but probably light for at least part of the way. 37564 was replaced at Lynn by 37567 and on arrival, 564 went to berth in the garage. K3 with 37158 reached the Cromwell Road roundabout before turning back and was seen by Cheryl taking the Town Bridge to gain access to the Wisbech St. Mary road via Old Market.
The road was closed for some hours, but despite this L8 20.10 from Peterborough passed through Walpole 2 early with 37579, while ironically, coming the other way at this time was 37568 on L12 which was 8 late. services from Lynn which hitherto had been good for punctuality in the evenings, now inevitably run at least 5 late because of the Southgates driver changeovers.
Stuart Leader writes "Didn't know if you'd seen the Suffolk CC website, but there are upcoming changes to the evening X1s from January 3rd. The X1 will fill in for the service 1 between Yarmouth and Lowestoft". http://www.suffolkonboard.com/news/bus_service_news/passenger_transport_service_changes/january_bus_service_changes__1

Tuesday December 6th 2011 ~ Headlight Headline

2011-12-09T15:15:00.000Z

Ransomes were called in to work on some of the fleet today and 37157/8 & 37574 were swapped around accordingly. 37574 was kept in first thing with 37158 doing K4 until 09.57, after which it retired to Vancouver Avenue and 37574 which had been attended to, took over. In the end, 37157 was not used on the X1 today. Loan vehicle 36180 was used on K15, it was 13 late into Lowestoft this morning and Malcom reports 37578 on K16 having lost 16 minutes, meaning it was 7 late departing on the 09.55 to Peterborough. This had been cut to just 3 minutes when it passed Wisbech, 37158 was 10 late through on k4 this morning and K1 with 37566 was 13 late this afternoon. 37160 on L11 suffered a heavier delay though and it was 18 late leaving Wisbech on the 11.18 to Peterborough.
I've left the best till last today, 37564 had a headlight problem first thing and with nothing spare, 20126 was borrowed working through to Peterborough on L12 07.45 ex Lowestoft, it then worked the 12.35 from Peterborough throughout to Lowestoft (unless you know different !!).

20126 seems a bit lost these days amongst all the elephants ! Last time it was out it was blinded for Lowestoft via Beccles, today it was only going as far as Great Yarmouth (may be 37564 took over there ?). No excuse for it being on the 1X though !

37564 was fit to resume its turn at 17.48 but in the event was 23 late into Lynn after yet another A47 accident at North Burlingham. The relieving driver stood at the Southgates at 21.02 only to see 564 pass by on its way into Lynn, rather than coming out westbound !
Nevertheless his spell waiting in the cold must have given him some incentive to make up time and Bruce reports 564 passing just a couple late on the 22.10 ex Peterborough.

Monday December 5th 2011 ~ The Christmas Rush

2011-12-08T00:30:00.000Z

With the Christmas shoppers in full flow now, it is not surprising that the X1 has begun to encounter delays due to the additional traffic. Timekeeping today was OK, but most ran a few minutes late. Surprise of the day on this score was loan vehicle 36180 which somehow manged to be 3 late going west, but a few seconds early returning into Wisbech to form the 15.56 to Lowestoft (K17). I would hazard a guess that this is probably only the second time this year that I have seen this service running before time.
New advertising schemes seen for the first time today include one for Alvin & The Chipmunks in Chipwrecked (groans all round !) and a new rear advert for Wisbech Grammar School. 37157, 37567 & 37571 were noted with these today and I expect further vehicles to acquire them when the adman gets round to King's Lynn.
Diagrams 4, 6 & 12 all had swaps today. K4 operated for most of the day with 37565, but at 16.45 this was changed for 37573. The latter had come across this morning on L12 as far as Lynn where 37578 had taken its place. Finally 37572 on Y6 was changed for 37577 for the 20.35 Lynn to Lowestoft this evening, 577 had already done a full turn having arrived on Y9.

That nice man Grahame Bessey was out with his camera today, so high time we featured some more pictures :

37160 departing Norwich on K16 11.25 to Peterborough today. [G Bessey]

37574 with the 09.25 from Lowestoft negotiates Norwich bus station [G Bessey]

Smile your on Candid Camera ! 37576 loads at Norwich today with K1 the 13.25 departure westbound. [G Bessey]

37565 on its way to Lowestoft with K4 at 11.50 (08.35 ex Peterborough). [G Bessey]

... and to finish from Grahame, a look at what you will be likely to find on the X2 until further notice. One of the new girls is captured at Norwich bus station today.

Malcolm also reports seeing 32656 (above) arriving in Lowestoft with the 10.10 X2 from Norwich and in addition, 32652 on the 10.08 to the City.

Sunday December 4th 2011 ~ No Parking !

2011-12-07T23:50:00.000Z

I made my return from Scotland today and with my train scheduled to arrive in Peterborough at 15.48, this seemed a reasonable connection into the 16.10 Peterborough - Lowestoft X1. In the event, a signal failure at Arksey and a very slow approach into Peterborough on the slow line due to engineering work meant I emerged from the station at 16.06.
In the normal X1 bus stop were two rail link coaches, but no sign of a Gemini. A lady already waiting asked me if I was waiting for the King's Lynn bus and a glance at my watch confirmed it was now 16.08. I replied that I was indeed doing just that and that I'd expected it to have arrived by now. She said that a white double decker had been departing just as she came out of the station, so realising that this was our bus, I suggested she followed me to Queensgate on foot where we might just catch it. This was hardly satisfactory as we both had cases and the rain was pouring down. On arrival at Queensgate, there sat 37564 with its driver, a Lowestoft man I believe, already loaded, but with its engine switched off awaiting departure time. I didn't tackle the driver about his early departure from the rail station - it must have been at least five minutes early - as I appreciate that if he had parked on the road, there would have been a huge queue of traffic behind him by the time it was 16.10. Nevertheless, this is a problem which must be fairly regularly encountered when there are rail link buses or cars abandoned in the bus stop and which appears to remain unresolved. Time for this to be attended to I think !
The journey on 37564 was uneventful but comfortable and the bus was well patronised. Expecting to pass a westbound service near Thorney I was surprised when we passed 37576 at Guyhirn around 17 minutes late.
The full X1 compliment today was 37563/4/5/8, 37572/4/5/6/7/9. After last nights incident with 37569, it was decided to send 37157 light to Yarmouth to provide cover for Monday.

Wednesday 30th November 2011 - Saturday 3rd December 2011 : On The X1

2011-12-04T23:02:00.000Z

Wednesday : 37577 had an unusual day out today, it was spotted at The Forum in Norwich at an event for 'Bus Users UK' - thanks to Malcolm for the information. Punctuality was pretty poor today, although most services were only between 5 - 10 minutes late through Wisbech. 37158 on Y9 was 11 late and 37157 on K18 13 late. The new bus (36180) was given a safety service, so didn't appear and the same applied to 37160. On a day out to King's Lynn, Malcolm also saw 20126 on the 09.10 Norwich - Yarmouth short.

Thursday : A slightly better day for timekeeping. 36180 was back on K17 and this meant 37573, 37576 & 37160 were all kept in at King's Lynn for attention. Tonight 37578 on L8 was replaced by 37567 off Y7.
Palatines seen by Malcolm today were 34158 on the 10.10 Norwich - Lowestoft X2, 34186 on the 10.10 Norwich - Yarmouth X1 short and 34157 on the 14.08 X2 from Lowestoft.

Friday : Time for me to have an X1 experience. I was at Walpole Highway this morning for Y6 08.33 to Peterborough. 37577 arrived with a smiling Mr. Parry at the wheel, he seems to be my regular chauffeur on my X1 outings. Heavy congestion into Wisbech saw us depart 9 late, but the journey was very pleasant. I was on my way to Scotland, so had to rely on Bruce and Dale for the rest of the days workings. 37563 on Y7 was swapped for 37565, but everything else stuck to diagram including 36180 which was used on K15 today. 37571/8 were spare at Lynn. 32212 appearing on the X2 13.40 Norwich - Lowestoft was to prove notable !

37566 on Y9 was 12 late past Bruce this morning, but by the time Roy spotted it at Yarmouth this afternoon, it was waiting time. Photo : East Norfolk Bus Blog.

Saturday : Thanks to Richard, Des and Malcolm for keeping me in touch with events. Firstly the appearance of 32656 on the 10.38 Lowestoft - Norwich X2 and 32651 09.40 ex Norwich announced the types arrival on the route. Syd says "The ex London B7s have proven to be unreliable on longer distance work, so the Lowestoft ones used mainly on X2 work are being exchanged for ALX400s. 32212/3/4 are being swopped with 32651/2/4 at Norwich whilst 32207/8 should transfer to Gt Yarmouth over the weekend, releasing 32100/101 to go to Norwich (Caister Roads only short length pair) and 32655/6 then to Lowestoft. The first moves occurred Friday evening,but its not yet confirmed which buses were involved".
On the X1 a fairly unremarkable day with 37158 and 36180 spare at King's Lynn. Tonight, 37569 was in trouble at Acle on K18. It sustained some body and wheelarch damage. This may leave Yarmouth short when the full timetable resumes on Monday.

Tuesday 29th November 2011 ~ New Technology

2011-12-01T20:04:00.001Z

Today 36180 entered into service on the X1. It worked K17 as we half expected and was spotted by several of our regulars. Richard kindly sent me a picture of it on his mobile phone yesterday afternoon, but while writing a blog is up to my capabilities, transferring a picture from mobile phone to PC is a bit beyond them. I must read the manual and see what it is I have to do !

36180 heads up to the A47 flyover at Walpole bang on time on the 13.45 King's Lynn to Peterborough (10.25 ex Lowestoft) this afternoon

Syd says "I am sure you will be inundated with photos of this newcomer, but anyway you can't beat a first day shot.

James Race was on hand to get a couple of shots prior to 36180 departing on the 2040 from Lowestoft this evening, and there is something about a decent night picture as well.

Thanks to James Race for these photographs.

With the new vehicle out on the road, in theory this gave three other vehicles a day off. 37159 was given scheduled maintenance, while the other two were used as maintenance swaps. 37567 on K19 was changed for a repaired 37565 - its injector sleeves had been drawing in air causing its recent failure. L10 had 37579 changed for 37563 and K14 had 37568 taken off for 37579 to work forward.

An A47 accident at Blofield at breakfast time had a knock on effect on a couple of services. Y9 10.18 Wisbech - Peterborough with 37575 had lost just 7 minutes, but L10 (37579) was 16 late going west, reduced to just 7 late going back east. Earlier Rob Brooks reports 37564 on K2 08.21 Wisbech - Lowestoft being slightly delayed departing while the driver "rebuilt his ticket machine".

Monday November 28th 2011 ~ Announcing The Arrival Of ......

2011-11-28T23:30:00.000Z

36180 in Norwich. Photo courtesy of East Norfolk Bus Blog / RN. http://eastnorfolkbus.blogspot.com/

To deputise for the damaged 37156, Norwich 'Gemini' 36180 arrived at King's Lynn today on temporary loan for X1 use. After a deep clean at Lynn it should enter service on the route tomorrow (Tuesday).
So a new bus for the route, but today we also had an old one - dear old 20126 was pressed into use. Last night 37565 on Y7 (the final eastbound turn) expired at Hopton. Yarmouth fitters took 37570 to take over and the service resumed at 00.50. Meanwhile 37565 was brought in to Yarmouth for repairs at 04.00. Des drove 37565 this morning on Y13, but it was labouring to gain speed and only reached Gorleston Library on the 07.30 Yarmouth - Lowestoft. It returned to Caister Road garage at reduced speed and the arrival of 20126 off its college turn was then awaited. This worked forward from Yarmouth to Lynn at 09.07 where it was replaced by 37564 off servicing. 20126 went back light to Norwich with a Lynn driver and here a Yarmouth driver took the bus back to Yarmouth garage.
This left King's Lynn with one spare bus, 37158 until the arrival of 36180. Punctuality was pretty good today, 37157 on K16 14.35 from Peterborough was the worst performer 11 late.
Malcolm reports some X2 sightings from Lowestoft, 32208 on the 10.08, 32207 on the 10.38, 32211 on the 13.40 and loanee 60813 on the 15.03 to Norwich.

Thursday November 24th - Sunday November 27th 2011 ~ Is This The World's Most Boring Blog ?

2011-11-27T23:46:00.000Z

That was one of the questions the press asked earlier in the year, however, although I would have then disagreed, may be now they would be correct. The X1 service continues to operate as advertised - shock, horror !
Thursday : Punctuality was pretty average, worst delays through Wisbech were around teatime with both K1 15.48 to Peterborough with 37575 and K2 16.18 with 37572 noted 11 late. At the other end of the scale, 37579 on K5 was a minute early this morning for the 09.56 Wisbech - Lowestoft despite a three car pile up between Thorney and Guyhirn shortly before.
37158 on K16 looks like it was changed for 37574 this afternoon, while 37569 was spare at Lynn after servicing.

Photo courtesy of Joe Watson

Friday : Notorious for poor timekeeping, today fared well for a Friday. 37575 on Y6 was already 12 late for the 08.48 Wisbech to Peterborough and Bruce saw it 20 late returning. Things went fairly well after this until K14 which was 20 late with 37567, but this was the worst performer and even 37157 on K16 was only 7 late.
37573 was stopped with a compressor problem at King's Lynn, while 37577 replaced 37574 on L11. Presidents 32208/10/11/14 were all noted on the X2 by Malcolm.

Saturday : Once again excellent punctuality for a Saturday with only 37569 on L12 appreciably late at 11 minutes westbound. Earlier the 08.10 from Peterborough was in to Wisbech a record breaking 2 minutes early with 37564. 37573 remained stopped at Lynn and 37158 was the second spare vehicle today. Y7 with 37576 was on time this morning but had to pay a visit to Lowestoft garage before departing on the 14.55 to King's Lynn, while 34157 was on the 14.38 X2.

Sunday : An all B9 operated service as usual. The 17.50 King's Lynn - Peterborough with 37567 was 9 late, but otherwise timekeeping was OK. 37568 which was one of the Lowestoft spare vehicles today was seen by Malcolm in Lowestoft bus station which indicates it may have had a run out on the X2.

Monday November 21st - Wednesday November 23rd 2011 ~ Exciting Blog !

2011-11-24T23:31:00.000Z

OK I lied about the title :+) Another trio of days where the X1 service ran well - don't forget I try and tell it how it is and these days it is usually fine.
I had a nice email from the driver who was in charge of 37156 when it was involved in its accident last week. He says he and his passengers were very lucky to escape unscathed and the police had to do a search (successfully!) for the driver of the car.
Speaking of B7s, a series of problems with 37160 now seems to have been resolved. Various ailments have afflicted this bus, it has received new heating pipes, a new radiator and also suffered electrical problems which affected some of the lighting in the downstairs saloon. It's now back in service and all seems OK.
Monday saw me have a day off from X1 observing. My correspondents made sure I knew what was going on though and the early evening saw yet another A47 collision between Wisbech and Peterborough.
A maintenance swap on Y13 today saw 37566 come in from Lowestoft to be replaced at Lynn by 37570. Des drove 37579 on Y7 this afternoon and encountered bad traffic congestion in Dereham, ten minutes to get out of the Market Place here alone. 37563 on K4 suffered a large windscreen crack today.

Tuesday saw 37160 & 37572 off the road at Lynn and the rest of the fleet (minus accident damaged 37156) in service. Punctuality wise, 7 minutes was the heaviest delay noted today through Wisbech. Presidents seemed to be much in evidence in Lowestoft today, Malcolm saw 32211 on the 11.08 X2, 32210 appeared on the 10.10 from Norwich, while 32200 & 32204 were seen on Martham services.

Wednesday

37563 had its windscreen sorted and 37573 was also at Lynn for servicing. 37578 was the most delayed X1 this morning, it was 10 late on Y13 11.45 ex King's Lynn to Peterborough, but the 308 Yarmouth - Birmingham National Express coach was just ahead of it running 60 late for some reason.
37160 had its repairs completed today and was in use on K18. 37577 was 13 late into Lowestoft on K19, but by the time it passed through Wisbech at 17.00 it had regained all its lost time.
The X2 saw 34158 & 34157 on successive departures to Norwich at 10.38 & 11.08, while loan Volvo single decker 60813 was also on the route along with 32212. Thanks to Malcolm for the gen.

Thursday 17th November 2011 - Sunday 20th November 2011 : Omniblog

2011-11-21T00:19:00.001Z

Yes another omnibus edition , thanks largely to the X1 fleet behaving themselves. I was out sampling beer with Peter last night and he said "When you do several days in one entry in the blog, can you do the days in reverse, otherwise it seems in the wrong order". Well I've had a long think about this and the answer is No ! Oh Dear that's another friend I've lost - and my oldest one at that. I don't think I could handle writing it backwards Peter it's as simple as that. Anyway, see what you think of this :

Thursday 17th November

Punctuality was quite good, with 3-4 minutes being the average delay. 37157 on L11 passed me 10 late at 11.30, but by the time it returned from Peterborough (due by me at 12.50) it was just a minute late.
37579 was 12 late into Lowestoft with Y7 and departed 4 late on the return 14.55 to King's Lynn says Malcolm. 37574 on Y6 was changed for 37575 at some point while 37160 was off the road at Lynn for repairs.

Friday 18th November

37574 was at Vancouver Avenue today for its turbocharger to be replaced. 37160 was back in traffic on K3. There were some unusual diversions around Wisbech this afternoon. K15 with 37568 was spotted by me coming in from Peterborough about 14 late at 15.04 through the Old Market having travelled via Wisbech St. Mary and then Jamie R saw K2 coming in to the town over the Norwich Road speedbumps with 37566 at around 16.20.
Until L12 services through Wisbech seemed to run well, but Y13 with 37570 was viewed on Lynn Road running 13 late on the 13.56 to Lowestoft. K14 ws also delayed and was 19 late in from Peterborough for the 14.26 eastbound.
As usual on a Friday, K16 saw the heaviest delay and fittingly it was dear old 37159 in charge of the 14.35 ex Peterborough, seen arriving Wisbech 31 late and then viewed 28 late at Walpole by Bruce. & Rob Brooks.
K17 and 37576 ran 21 late eastbound but after this services gradually returned to normal.

Saturday 19th November

An incident on the A47 between Wisbech and Guyhirn saw the road closed until 15.30 today. All services were diverted via Wisbech St. Mary. 37160 was kept at Lynn garage with its interior lights malfunctioning and 37563 also had a day off here for attention to some panels.
'First' seem to have decided that it's about time they challenged Konectbus on fair promotions , both Des and Sam sent me this link :
http://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/suffolk_norfolk/travel_news/news_initiatives/?item=3511

Sunday 20th November

An all B9 operated service with minimal delays noted. 37565/7/8, 37571/2/3/4/5/8/9 were the buses used. 37572 is now the highest mileage B9, it has now done just over 368,000 miles !

Wednesday November 16th 2011 ~ A Rarity

2011-11-18T19:15:00.002Z

Following last night's accident which occurred east of Thorney Village, 37156 was taken off the road and today sent to the Full Circle workshops for assessment. This brings the spare X1 fleet down to two vehicles temporarily and both these are at King's Lynn. Problems this morning then when 37570 was failed at Lowestoft with a dashboard warning of a brake problem. This meant nothing available for L12 07.45 Lowestoft - Peterborough. B10M Premiere coach 20126 was joined by L12's driver at Yarmouth after it had completed its regular college contract and then went empty to Norwich to resume the service.

20126 on Nene Quay this lunchtime and a friendly wave from John.

It was 5 late through Wisbech but returned bang on time. Unfortunately a lady with a wheelchair was waiting at Walpole Highway for the 12.35 ex Peterborough, so I gave her warning that the service was a coach a couple of minutes before it arrived. Not sure whether they waited for the next low floor X1 or NG service or whether they managed with the coach.
By the time 20126 returned to its destination, 37570 had been fixed and this did the remainder of L12 commencing with the 17.48 from Lowestoft.

20126 heading back home near Walpole Highway on the 12.35 from Peterborough. Eagle eyed Mr. James spotted that the blind reads 'Lowestoft via Beccles' !

The appearance of the B10M was not the only incident today. At 16.35 a four vehicle crash on the A47 near Middleton saw an initial diversion via Blackborough End aborted due to congestion and the police then closed the road throughout from the Hardwick roundabout to the A1122 roundabout west of Swaffham.

Delays were extensive and K5 (due Lynn at 17.07) together with Y6 and Y7 all rolled into Lynn at about 18.50. This meant there was nothing westbound, so when 37158 on K1 arrived to do the 18.02 to Lowestoft, it was turned round to go to Peterborough in the place of K5 and Y6. K1 was cancelled and eventually a driver took 37565 empty to Lowestoft in lieu. K2 had Mr. Speed in charge (he was supposed to take K1). K5 and Y6 had been stuck on the A47 and Y7 travelled via the diversion route. L8 arrived into Lynn just 12 late as things recovered. Further east 37566 on K14 travelled via Filby eastbound after queueing traffic at Acle. 37575 on K15 took the normal route and was 10 late into Yarmouth.
Problems with a few B9s saw 37569 on K19 come off at 14.37 to be replaced by 37160, however, this just managed the leg to Peterborough and back to Lynn before it was removed with its heaters not working. 37578 off repairs worked forward to Lowestoft. K17 had problems with 37571 and at 16.32 the aforementioned 37569 replaced it. Finally 37572 on Y6 was swapped for 37571 for the 20.35 Lynn to Lowestoft.

Tuesday November 15th 2011 ~ Collision Course

2011-11-17T00:58:00.000Z

37576 running about 5 minutes in arrears this lunchtime on K15 12.45 King's Lynn to Peterborough (the 09.25 ex Lowestoft)

The day began well with morning services running to time. 37579 on Y7 seemed intent on not losing any time and positively rushed past my vantage point on the 10.05 from Peterborough, after lunch K17 with 37565 was 9 late westbound from Wisbech and then K18 with 37563, which had replaced 37566 at Lynn was 7 late and K19, K1 & K2 all ran five late with 37575/572/573 respectively.
Over at Lowestoft, Malcolm reports 32210 out of service at the bus station with Palatine 34157 on the 14.38 X2 and 32213 on the 14.40 1a to Martham.
Ryan takes me to task for failing to report the reinstatement of vintage Olympian 34333 at Great Yarmouth - it is purely intended to help out on Bernard Matthews contract work for the time being.
It was a bad evening on the X1 route though with Y6 needing to have 37578 removed with a water leak and 37568 off L11 worked forward from Lynn to Lowestoft at 21.35.
Just before 22.00 37156 on L12 was involve in a RTA at Thorney. An errant car was in head on collision with the B7 and 37156 sustained considerable damage to the front and side panels, fortunately the driver and passengers on L12 escaped unscathed. 37571 on Y13 (the last service of the day) was able to take delayed passengers onward.

Sunday / Monday November 13th/14th 2011 ~ Double Blog

2011-11-17T00:26:00.000Z

Sunday seemed a very quiet day, but several services ran late. The service was worked by B9s 37565, 37568 -573 & 37577 - 579.
Monday was better timings wise, some services ran slightly early and Y13 with 37159 was 2 early heading westbound. K14 had 37570 swapped for 37156 at lunchtime, but as the latter didn't leave the depot until its bus station departure time of 12.15, the service was 6 late at Wisbech. 37158 & 37160 were out of use at King's Lynn. One of these was viewed on the Southgates webcam arriving from the Hardwick direction at 15.15, presumably after a test run. I missed K2 this morning as it was bang on time, but Phil M says he followed it all the way to Thorney with 37577. Malcolm saw three Presidents at Lowestoft this afternoon, 32211 leaving the bus station not in service, 32210 on the 14.38 and 32207 on the 15.03 X2 services to Norwich.

Tuesday 8th November - Saturday 12th November 2011 ~ All Is Well

2011-11-13T14:27:00.002Z

Another combined blog and whilst it doesn't mean I can make an individual daily blog, it must be pleasing for 'First' who seem to be enjoying a very settled spell operating the X1.
This week saw the three spare vehicles all still at King's Lynn and this gave the chance for some small remedial jobs to be carried out by Richard and his team at King's Lynn.

Tuesday 8th

Light traffic meant punctuality was pretty good today, but even I wasn't prepared for 37156 on K14 12.48 Wisbech to Peterborough running a minute early, as well as 37159 on L10 11.35 from Peterborough also a few seconds ahead of schedule. 37160 returned from Volvo meaning that all the B7s have now had their brake disc mods carried out. Swaps today included 37578 for 37572 on Y6 at some point, 37579 passing through Wisbech on both Y9 and K17 with Y9 believed to have gone forward to Lowestoft from Lynn at 12.32 with 37160 and K17 arriving at Lynn with 37574. Strangely 574 then took over from 564 on Y13, so why they didn't simplify things by keeping 574 on K17 and putting 579 on Y13 is anyone's guess. All Geminis were used at some point apart from 37157 which was at Lynn being serviced. Malcolm reports "32212 on the 10.08 X2 to Norwich with 32207 on the 09.10 from the city. 60808 reported on an X2 yesterday was on the 101 town route today".

Wednesday 9th

Almost all services were 3 - 5 minutes late at Wisbech today. K16 as usual was worst performer with 37159 (seems to be its favourite turn) 9 late on the 14.35 from Peterborough. 37577 was working L8 for the third day in a row. 37564/67/73 were all spare at Lynn. After yesterdays' Sightings of the booked Presidents on the X2, today was just the opposite with Malcolm seeing Palatines 34155/7/8 in use. President 32213 was on the 14.40 service 1 to Martham.

Thursday 10th

37577 switched to L10 today and was a minute early in each direction this morning. Timekeeping was pretty good, though 37576 on K17 was 5 late westbound and 12 late coming back on the 15.05 from Peterborough. 37566/8/9 all had a day off at Vancouver Avenue.

Friday 11th

37575 was in a spot of bother on K2 today, I think it broke down in Norwich but that needs confirming as I write. Naturally there were several options to replace it and 37577 took over the turn. Friday timekeeping deteriorated in the afternoon, but nowhere near as bad as sometimes. No prizes for guessing the tardiest bus, yes it was 37159 on K16 again - this time a mere 14 late on the 14.35 from Peterborough. L12 had 37574 to Lynn this morning for 37564 forward. 37563 was 8 late into Lowestoft on L8 and Malcolm saw Presidents 32207/12 back on the X2.

Saturday 12th

Eleven minutes was the maximum lateness noted through Wisbech today, this being the busy 10.18 to Peterborough with 37576 (pictured above) which was a slightly improved 8 late returning. The funny noises 37575 was making yesterday were repaired in time for it to work K1 today. This turn sometimes gets a B7 on a Saturday, but today the trio of 37156/58/60 were spare at King's Lynn.
Tonight 37563 which has had a badly glaring nearside headlight all week was taken off L8 and 37577 off L11 replaced it.

37157 pictured in Peterborough with the Saturday 11.35 to Lowestoft (Y10). Photo courtesy of Tony Irle

Friday 4th - Monday 7th November 2011 ~ A Few Notes

2011-11-08T00:14:00.000Z

Very little to report over the last few days, so here goes :

Friday : 37159 returned from Volvo after attention to its brake discs and this just leaves 37160 to be seen to. Malcolm saw Presidents 32208/14 at Lowestoft depot with 32211 on the 10.38 X2. 37569 spent the day at King's Lynn having complete new pipework fitted above the nearside rear wheel after its recent problems.

Saturday : A strange swap involving K16 & K18 today, originally allocated 37157 & 37156, this afternoon they looked to have swapped turns with 37157 8 late on K18. I wonder if the drivers took the wrong buses from the garage ? 37576 was kept at King's Lynn with an adblu fault and 37564 suffere a similar problem on K19 this afternoon with 37578 replacing it.

Sunday : All B9s, err that's it. Thanks to Bruce and Malcolm for sightings.

37563 on K2 in Gorleston at lunchtime. Photo from Des Speed

Monday : 37563 on K2 (above) lost time this afternoon, seen 18 late departing Thorney eastbound. Earlier things had been much better with even K16 with 37159 being dead on time at Terrington westbound. 37572 on K3 was changed for 37566 at Lynn at some stage, both because of servicing commitments.
37156 had a special guest on board today, Snowy from the new TinTin movie on L11 15.20 eastbound from Norwich. The proof is here !

Thursday November 3rd 2011 ~ Jack & Jill Went Up The Hill .......

2011-11-04T22:05:00.000Z

Peter had a day out today via the X1, I passed him waiting for Y6 (37564) at Walton Road at 08.40. It was running a little late, Peter says "I was beginning to get a bit worried, especially with the congestion going into Wisbech. I was aiming for the 09.46 train and it looked unlikely to start with, but our excellent driver went straight to the railway station and I made it comfortably". He adds, "Been on the Guided Busway into Cambridge today, now these buses would be good for the X1, high back leather seats, wi-fi and power points".
It was Des who drove Y6 from Yarmouth as its rostered driver didn't turn up. He was 6 late departing, but on time by Norwich.
Timekeeping was pretty good today, the only exception being L8 which expired at Peterborough this morning, Jamie Robinson texted to say "37569 in Queensgate with hazard lights on". The poor B9 had a recurrence of its coolant problems, Jack & Jill's pail of water would have been handy. Instead 37565 off servicing at Lynn took up the turn at 12.02 to Lowestoft.
37158 returned from Volvo yesterday and was back in traffic on K3 today. This leaves 37159/160 to be dealt with and 37159 was taken off L8 at 09.00 and sent to Volvo Norwich for this to be done. 37569 replaced it but then failed (see above). 37579 should be back tomorrow after its MOT today.

Wednesday November 2nd 2011 ~ Much Better

2011-11-04T21:46:00.000Z

37566 running 8 minutes late this morning passing Boskoop Farm with the 07.35 ex Peterborough.

A much better day today, Congestion in Wisbech was particularly bad this morning, 37575 on Y6 was 12 late departing, but had cut this to 6 returning east. Y9 with 37570 was 6 late going to Peterborough, but only a minute late returning, but the exceptional performance was yesterday with of all things a B7. 37160 passed me at 09.28 (8 late) and returned from Peterborough at 10.49 (1 early), quite extraordinary and one item I failed to mention amongst all yesterday's confusion. Just when it looked as though things were going well today, L10 failed to run westbound - yesterday it was 49 late, today it didn't run at all. The following service, L11 was itself 6 late with a packed 37567. The answer to L10s whereabouts was answered later when 37157 passed by on L10 eastbound 17 late at 12.37, presumably having gone light to Peterborough - I may have missed it, but I don't think so.
This afternoon I was out and about and saw 37159 on K16 unusually bang on time at Walpole, next was K17 with that nice Mr. Parry - Doreen must have been impressed, I saw her getting off 37565 at 16.04 at Walton Road, dead on time. Let's hope she hadn't been waiting for L10 earlier.
Earlier in the afternoon their was an unusual sight on the Southgates webcam with two B9s on the roundabout alongside each other, 37563 on a test run after servicing and 37565 on K17.

As a postscript to yesterday, here is a map of the unusual diversionary route used. Today 37576 was back in service, windows repaired on K19, after its altercation with as it turned out, a beet lorry not a skip lorry as originally quoted.

Tuesday November 1st 2011 ~ Halloween Nightmare

2011-11-02T00:39:00.002Z

Shortly after 5am this morning, a car ran out of control and collided with a lorry in a lay-by on the A47 at North Burlingham. Unfortunately, there was a fatality and this resulted in the road being closed for seven hours.
Naturally this meant the X1 became embroiled in queues, diversions and all round chaos. Today was the first occasion where the lack of spare buses became a major player in what ran and what didn't.
As we have mentioned lately, Lowestoft currently has no spare X1 vehicle, so this morning when the time came for the 08.55 Peterborough departure, the incoming service not having arrived, there was nothing to replace it. The depots overnight incumbents, 37568, 37566, 37157 and 37563 had already departed on L8, L10, L11 & L12 respectively.
Stephen Gowler on 'East Anglia Buses' Yahoo Group says " I left Lowestoft on the 09.25 (K15) this morning, full to the rafters as the 08.55 (K14) never showed. We arrived in Great Yarmouth 8 minutes down, and as we were due to leave, the driver announced that he wouldn't be going to Acle. We headed back to Gorleston then set off for St. Olaves and Haddiscoe, then to the McDonalds roundabout at Gillingham and into Norwich along the X2 route. We met 37575 between Gorleston and St. Olaves and another Gemini near Thurton, so this must have been the official diversion".
K14 had set out from Lynn with 37567, so on arrival at Lowestoft it then assumed the mantle of K15, as Stephen says, departing at 09.25. So what of the original K15. Well 37576 which was working the turn had a slight argument with a skip lorry on the diversion, smashing a trio of upstairs windows. It was seen in Lowestoft bus station by Malcolm Hicks who says "It departed empty at 10.20 'not in service' with a blonde lady at the wheel". Meanwhile K16 which was due to depart at 09.55 had not arrived and eventually 37570 turned up just in time to depart back westbound as K18 at 10.55. As for K17, this had set out with 37565, but it is thought that late running meant it went back to Lynn empty to regain time.
When K18 arrived at Lowestoft (37577), it became K19 and this pattern continued with K19 (37575) becoming K1. Not sure where the original K1 got to though as 37572 later became L11 !
Back at the western end, K5 with 37564 was taken off at Lynn at 10.30 with 37156 which had just returned from Volvo working forward eastbound. Surprisingly, 37158 was then sent to Volvo to undergo the operation with its brake discs. With the dire shortage of buses, I would have expected this work to be put 'on hold'.
Repercussions of the accident further east did not immediately become apparent and Y6, the first through working from Yarmouth was almost on time from Wisbech with 37573. Later Y9 also departed near time (37571 just 3 late), but L10 got lost in the delays and eventually appeared wedged to the seams with 37566, passing my window at 11.39, about 49 late. Possibly because of this, L11 did not run over the western section and 37157 which had been on it terminated at Lynn. L11 resumed as the 13.02 to Lowestoft with 37572, or at least that's what we think :+O
Services to Peterborough from Wisbech then became very fragmented. The 11.48 (L12) was bang on time with 37563, the 12.18 (Y13) was 10 late, K14 eventually appeared 25 late with 37157 - this had restarted the turn at Lynn after it had failed to run from Lowestoft (see earlier in this tome).
Tony Irle says "37157 departed Peterborough rail station at 14.05 to Lowestoft and 37565 also seen at the station at 14.09". Well this is explained as follows : K15 did not run, but it did come back as the 14.05 from Peterborough with 37565 - this means it is feasable (especially today) that 37565 worked Lowestoft to Peterborough empty !
K16 with 37567 was only about 5 minutes adrift - but that's because 567 had started on K14, then became K15 and by now had dropped to K16 ! K17 did not run and it looks as if this turn (the 10.25 Lowestoft - Peterborough) was cancelled in its entirety - well there's not much you can do when you run out of buses is there ?
K18 was still 37570, but 19 late which meant nothing left Wisbech westbound between 13.48 and 15.07. K19 & K1 were within about 12 minutes of their booked time, but after K1 departed at 16.00, there was a 55 minute lapse until the late running K2 appeared with a well loaded 37574 running 37 late. K3 should have been next, but on arrival at Lynn 37159 was turned round to form K17 16.32 to Lowestoft, this left nothing for K3 so the 16.15 to Peterborough & 17.40 return were cancelled, cue Peter Risebrow who says " Got to Peterborough rail station forecourt at 18.11 to see an X1 disappearing - no problem I thought, I'll nip over to the bus station and catch it. No such luck, so I joined the passengers waiting for the 18.20. 37569 (K4) arrived at 18.40 and left at 18.45. To add insult to injury, as I got off at Walsoken, 37156 came along on K5 right time ! I'm still trying to work out what the X1 Peter saw at 18.11 was, but there you are. Cheryl Cleary reports "There was a man in'First' gear sitting behind me on Y6 this morning, turned out he was monitoring our driver" - probably a Drive Green inspection I would think. She continues " Tonight I was waiting as usual for K2 at Thorney, it eventually appeared at 18.11 with 37574, about 39 late. The driver explained about the smashed windows on 576 earlier which had left them short and apologised for the delay".
One positive out of today was that L10 and 37566 managed to regain all its lost time by this evening and with one of our most capable drivers, even managed to be spot on time into Wisbech at 21.55 from Peterborough. Something which is rarely witnessed. Finally thanks must go to my colleague and fellow X1 nutter, Bruce Billingham, for his help in trying to work out what exactly happened today. Come to think of it, he's probably still looking out for the missing K3 - it's OK Bruce you can go to bed now !

Monday October 31st 2011 ~ No Slack

2011-11-01T22:34:00.000Z

The week began with zero spare buses ! 37579 was on MOT prep, 37575 awaiting a visit from the Volvo technician for attention to its compressor trouble and 37156 at Volvo Norwich having a brake disc modification - this being the reason for the B7s visiting their premises, not a maximum speed change as I'd hoped.
Many services ran the best part of 10 minutes late today. Y7 with 37160 was 8 late from Wisbech at 09.26 on the 09.18 to Peterborough, but almost amazingly returned just 2 late. L10 was delayed en route and 37573 on the 11.35 from Peterborough was 21 late at Wisbech. At King's Lynn it was changed for a revitalised 37575. Subsequent service ran late, but as usual it was K16 which suffered worst, 37157 was 9 late westbound and 15 late returning. 37573 was soon back in action taking K18 to Lowestoft from Lynn at 17.02 replacing 37159.
37569 was in trouble for the second successive evening, tonight it failed at wisbech at 17.30 with a water leak on K4. a temporary repair saw it limp on , but it was replaced for the 19.35 Lynn to Lowestoft by 37160 which had come in on Y7.
Over on the X2, missing 32211 was back in service today with 66126 working the 13.38 ex Lowestoft. Malcolm reports K15 with 37576 arriving in Lowestoft 13 late and then departing 6 late on the 09.25 to Peterborough. Bruce's favourite 34108 was earning its keep on the 09.40 Nrwich to Yarmouth X1 shuttle.

Sunday October 30th 2011 ~ X2 Review

2011-11-01T21:33:00.000Z

Not much of note on the X1 today, thanks to Bruce for his observations. 37569 was changed at Lynn this afternoon with a burst pipe and 37576 took its place on the 16.35 to Lowestoft.
Nice to hear from Syd again regarding my recent query on the X2......."A bit late as the request was last week, but I may be able to shed a little light on the missing B7s on X2.
32211 had been having major engine work (and also visited Volvo during the course of work ) Its last sighting on X2 was 9th October. 32213 has problems with its retarder so was sidelined at Gasworks Road, the last time it was noted on X2 was 16 August when it was on the 2220 departure from Norwich, although she was seen on 29th September operating the 1110 service 1 from Lowestoft to Martham. 32214 is a bit of a mystery as I dont seem to have any details of X2 workings to hand, although it was reported to be overheating in service, which may restrict it to contracts etc. Hope this helps fill some gaps".
Well things are obviously a bit desperate at Lowestoft still with 20126 appearing on Friday aand Yarmouth's 34112 on Thursday.

Saturday October 29th 2011 ~ A Postscript

2011-11-01T00:06:00.000Z

How could I forget ? When doing Friday's blog, I forgot the highlight of the day over at Lowestoft. Malcolm reported coach 20126 out again, this time on the X2. It was seen arriving on the 14.10 from Norwich, returning on the 15.48. 66126 was seen broken down in the bus station.
Moving on to today, 37575 was sent out on K4 this morning, but by the time it had worked to Peterborough and back, it was unwell with compressor trouble. 37564 took over for the 10.02 Lynn to Lowestoft, despite it being taken off L8 yesterday to enable it to be serviced on Monday. 37579 was also at Lynn spare, but as this is due an MOT next week, so 37564 was preferred.
Punctuality was very good today over in the west, but Malcolm reports 37576 on L8 being 17 late into Lowestoft on L8 before departing westbound just 3 late.

Friday October 28th 2011 ~........ and Two Come Along at Once

2011-10-30T20:44:00.000Z

If you were around in the early days of the Geminis on the X1, you may recall that seeing them in pairs was a regular sight. Not so now of course and I can't recall the last time I saw this until today.......read on.
37575 was returned from a week at the Volvo workshops today. It was given a routine service at King's Lynn and should be back on the road tomorrow. Going the other way was 37156 and all the B7s are expected to visit Volvo in the next few weeks, but why I know not. Could they be having a go at upping the top speed again ?
37156 was out today, it worked L11 before being replaced at Lynn by 37577 for the 10.45 to Peterborough. By this time westobound services from Wisbech were losing time : L11 8 late, L12 with 37563 12 late and Y13 well down with 572 17 late.
In the afternoon, K14 passed me bound for Lowestoft just 4 late, K15 went to Peterborough 12 late and was late by the same margin coming back. K16 was - very surprisingly for a Friday, just 6 late for the 15.26 to Lowestoft with 37159. K17 had 37568 15 late westbound and 22 late coming back east. There was then a sevice gap before 37157 appeared on K18 exactly 30 late. I had seen it passing the Southgates 25 late, but the congestion into Wisbech had lost it another 5 minutes. Only 8 minutes behind was 37571 on K19. So you've probably guessed what happened next, K18 & K19 returned in convoy both passing me at 16.56, 36 & 6 late respectively.
This evening L10 was in trouble with 37566, it was unable to proceed from Lynn on the 19.50 to Peterborough. Surprisingly though, it wasn't replaced so the service was cancelled. Mr Robinson was due to catch it at 21.15 from Peterborough, so I drove over to pick him up. A lonely figure waiting at Thorney Toll for L10 was still there when I returned from Peterborough and L12 with 37563 was passed on time at Guyhirn. I am told that a B9 was sent to Wisbech to work the 22.00 back to Lynn.
Not good though for a Friday night. Earlier L8 had 37564 removed and replaced by 37160 off Y7. 564 is due for servicing on Monday.

Thursday October 27th 2011 ~ B7 Convoy

2011-10-28T23:29:00.000+01:00

37573 at Yarmouth Market Gates this afternoon with K4 14.12 to Peterborough. Photo courtesy of Richard Kirk.

By some strange quirk of fate, three consecutively numbered B7s came out today with 37157 on Y9, 37158 on L10 and 37159 on L11. All were running fairly near to time, but a B7 was back on K18 with 37160 passing Wisbech westbound 16 late this afternoon. Someone with a sense of humour was rostering today, as Y13 had 37565, K14 37566 & K15 37567, so another trio followed each other !
The two spare buses today were 37568 & 37574, both stopped for routine servicing at Lynn. The shortage of power at Lowestoft resulted in 34112 on loan from Yarmouth working on the X2.
Terence reports that an accident at about 16.00 on Magdalen Way, Gorleston involving two vehicles resulted in X1 services being diverted via Trinity Avenue and St. Anne's Crescent. The road reopened around 17.00.

Wednesday October 26th 2011 ~ Busy Bee Sevens

2011-10-28T23:12:00.000+01:00

I can never quite believe the decision made a few years ago when the order for dedicated B9 Geminis for the X1 was cut from 20 to 17. Had the original plan been kept, then surely appearances of B7s on the X1 would have been much less common ? The speed handicap of 49mph may seem trivial, but the figures show that services which regularly get B7s are always the ones more inclined to run late.
Here in the west, the service you definitely wouldn't want to trust to get you to Peterborough to catch a train, is K16, the 09.55 from Lowestoft and guess what ? Yes, it's the diagram which is most often a B7 !
K14 is probably the second best bet, but the use of a B7 on K18 seems to have ceased on a regular basis this month. From Lowestoft & Yarmouth, the use of B7s is fairly indiscriminate, but the shorter turns seem favourite. In particular L11 and also Y7 and Y9. Refuelling on the longer turns is a daily occurrence and one wonders what the bemused passengers think of spending 5 minutes of their journey spent in Vancouver Avenue refuelling. Shame it could have been so much better. Mind you in the winter, give me a B7 any day, at least they are warm and I'm sure the seats are more comfortable and better spaced.
Today K1 had 37157 throughout the day which is extremely rare on a weekday. The only time this happened before was with 37158 on 13th October 2009. Everything ran pretty well to time today until L11 which was 37160, 15 late from Wisbech westbound and 10 late returning. K14 was also a B7 casualty, it was 14 late on the 13.35 from Peterborough with 37158.
Swaps were in evidence again today, but on a lesser scale. Y13 with 37579 came off at Lynn and 37567 off servicing did the 11.45 to Peterborough. L10 had 37565 removed for 37579 on the 13.02 to Lowestoft. K18 with 37563 was then given 37565 for the 14.15 to Peterborough and finally K2 had 37578 taken off for 37563 on the 15.45 westbound.
On the X2, Malcolm noted Dart 43465 working the 13.38 to Norwich. Thanks also to Brian for his observations today.

Tuesday October 25th 2011 ~ The Seven Year Itch

2011-10-28T22:10:00.000+01:00

Exactly seven years ago today, I started to write down the vehicles used on the X1, transferring them into a MS Works chart each day. All seems a very long while ago now - all coaches then of course. Over the years the service has used up to 21 vehicles, though back in 2004 the figure was 18. Today the service uses 19 Monday to Saturday and 10 on Sundays.

There were wholesale swaps at King's Lynn this afternoon to fit in servicing requirements and to facilitate repairs on some ailing buses. The changes began at 12.30 with Y9 when 37576 was replaced by 37566 from the garage. At 13.00 L10 saw 37577 changed for 37572, the latter again fresh from the garage. With both spare buses now used, the changes proceeded as follows :

14.00 K18 37569 in, 37576 out.

14.30 K19 37564 in, 37577 out.

15.00 K1 37571 in, 37569 out.

15.30 K2 37570 in, 37564 out

16.00 K16 37159 in, 37571 out

In the case of 37569, 37564 & 37571, they all laid over for an hour before continuing on the route. At least one bus had an oil leak.

Despite all the swaps, timekeeping was fair with the latest service through Wisbech being L12 and 37578 nine minutes late. This evening 37578 had lost a lot more time after an RTA in Bracondale and was noted at Dereham running 53 late (sched departure is 20.44).
There were no Geminis out on the X2 again - not possible with Lowestoft not having one spare of course. Michael Bryant reports that of the Presidents, 32207/08/10/12 are the only X2 regulars at the moment, with 32214 having been absent for about 2 weeks, 32211 the same for about 2 months, whereas 32213 has been missing from Michael's sightings for about six months now. Any news on these absentees would be welcome.
There was fun in the East tonight. Des drove 37579 into Lowestoft on K4 whereupon it is due to go light to Yarmouth garage. On arrival at Lowestoft at 22.30, Dart 43453 on the last Lowestoft - Martham service 1 was in trouble, a non-starter with Lowestoft fitters in attendance. In the end Des waited with the Dart and 37579 worked the 1 to Martham. Once started and on his way with 43453, he saw the last southbound service 1 also in trouble at Hopton with 34186. This service continued with the Dart and Des then found himself with his second broken down bus of the night, awaiting fitters from Yarmouth. 34186 had air in the fuel system and once rectified Des drove it back to Yarmouth garage.

Monday October 24th 2011 ~ Juggling

2011-10-27T01:16:00.001+01:00

It appears that the malady affecting 37575 is sufficiently bad to warrant it being absent for most of this week. Lucky then that no Geminis were booked to have MOTs this week. I am told that the mysterious move of 37578 from Lowestoft to Lynn on Friday was authorised to get it back to Lynn for maintenance. A Lynn driver travelled over to Lowestoft to collect it. As I suspected, this leaves Lowestoft with no spare tacho fitted vehicles for the X1 - could be interesting ?
A rare failure in service occurred today when 37573 on K17 was halted at Narborough with a water leak whilst working Y9 12.32 King's Lynn to Lowestoft. Fortunately 37566 which had earlier worked K4 07.05 from Peterborough as far as Lynn was freshly serviced and this was sent to Narborough to relieve 37573.
There were other swaps today too. 37563 took K4 forward at 10.02 from Lynn to Lowestoft and then shortly afterwards, K5 also changed buses, 37159 in for 37570 out. Y6 with 37572 had this removed at 17.40 and a revived 37573 worked forward to Peterborough at 17.45, however, Des takes up the story.
"I took Y6 forward from the Southgates into Lynn at 20.23, we left on time, but the curse of 37573 at Narborough struck again and upon leaving the village, the dashboard stop light and accompanying warning claxon was sounding. All other dashboard readings were fine and the temperatures were all normal, so I proceeded to Swaffham where I checked the water level. The header tank was empty and I assume it was an airlock somewhere in the coolant system causing the warnings, it having used the reserve supply in the header tank. A click on the computer control stalk cleared the dashboard and noise. Trouble was it had to be cleared every 20 seconds or so for the remaining three hours of journey time !".
Many thanks to Bruce for supplying a full list of sightings today - I was at home having a new carpet fitted, also to Malcolm for his help as always.

Sunday October 23rd 2011 ~ Mishaps

2011-10-27T00:56:00.001+01:00

The usual quiet sort of Sunday, but a few items of note. A burst water main near the Tinkers Drove turn in Wisbech meant 3 way temporary lights were in situ for much of the day. This delayed many services by up to 15 minutes. 37565 on Y8 was removed this evening and swapped for 37158 after the former's drivers seatbelt jammed. In the east, Malcolm saw 37160 being used on the X2 - it arrived in Lowestoft on the 09.50 from Norwich and then did the 11.20 return.
Here are some more recent advertising campaigns currently in use :

Saturday 22nd October 2011 ~ Hanging On

2011-10-24T23:54:00.000+01:00

With 37575 at Volvo and no spare X1 vehicle at Lowestoft, things seem to be hanging by a thread at the moment. Today all the other buses in the pool were in use at some stage.
L11 looks to have had 37159 changed for 37576 at some point during the day at Lynn, while L12 was also swapped, 37570 which had started the turn and was needed for servicing on Monday was changed for 37578.

37570 heads away from Walpole on L12 11.15 King's Lynn to Peterborough (L12) today. Its rear overall advert is much the worse for wear now as can be seen here.

Further to recent correspondence regarding long distance services and the suitability of the buses provided, Tony Powell says "The Milton Keynes to Peterborough X4 is due to be provided with new Scania /E400s shortly. These will be to Stagecoach Gold Standard and will have leather coach type seats. Hopefully the same type as on the X5 Cambridge - Oxford coaches in which case I will be well pleased. With the full journey on the X1 taking 4 hours 30 minutes (with basic bus seating) and the X4 just an hour less, it does make me wonder how many passengers ever do the entire journey on either service".

A fair compliment of passengers here on 37579, but doubtful if any are doing the full Peterborough - Lowestoft journey ? 37579 is negotiating Wisbech Horsefair roundabout to work K14 14.26 to Lowestoft this afternoon.

Friday 21st October 2011 ~ Jiggery Pokery

2011-10-24T23:28:00.000+01:00

Rob Brooks captured 37159 on K16 heading down the old A47 dual carriageway at Fence Bank with Norfolk Green no. 127 in hot pursuit this afternoon.

With everything going pretty much to plan these days, it was rather nice to get one of those days where you need a detective to work out what happened.
While timekeeping through Wisbech seemed pretty reasonable for a Friday, further east there seemed to be problems. Y6 had 37579, but this appears to have been replaced for the 11.02 Lynn to Lowestoft by 37578. Not sure why this occurred because 579 was not due for servicing. There couldn't have been much wrong with it as when K15 with 37573 arrived, it was replaced by 579 for the 12.45 to Peterborough. What happened next was extremely odd - basically the 13.45, 14.45 & 15.45 to Peterborough all changed vehicles, while the services on the quarter hour remained unchanged. So K16 had 37159, K18 37574 and K1 37564 throughout, but K17 had 37567 replaced by 37573 (off K15), K19 had 37565 replaced by 37567 (off K17) and K2 had 37568 changed for 37565 (off K19). A bit of a pattern there then, but why Lord only knows.
In a final twist to the day's proceedings, Y6 which had left Lynn with 37578 changed vehicles again for 37158 which had been the Lowestoft spare. So what was really surprising tonight was 37578 being in situ over the pits at Vancouver Avenue when it should logically have become the Lowestoft spare bus !
The upshot of this being that Lowestoft are now left without anything spare for X1 use.

Monday October 17th - Thursday October 20th 2011

2011-10-21T22:35:00.000+01:00

As it has been a fairly inocuous week on the X1 once more, here is a quick synopsis of events so far.

Monday 17th : Possibly the most unremarkable day this week. The first appearance of an advert for the film TinTin on 37156/160 & 37570 applied over the weekend at Lowestoft, also rear ads for AXA, these being a second use of the previous campaign. A great day for punctuality with 37574 on K16 being the most delayed service, seven late from Wisbech on the 13.48 to Peterborough. Lowestoft kept 37157 as spare, while 37577 on K2 at the start of the day had changed over to 37566 by teatime. L8 had 37563 taken off at Lynn tonight for servicing and 37571 off Y7 replaced it at 18.50 to Peterborough.
The new road from Dogsthorpe to Spalding finally opened today and a 7.5 ton weight limit put into place at Eye Green, bringing more traffic to the A47. A new bus stop is being built at Peterborough B&Q on Bourges Boulevard.

Tuesday 18th : 20102 appeared at Yarmouth garage today on a run delivering spares. Sad news from Yarmouth too with the last EC Olympian 34333 at last being withdrawn.
A couple of services made good time on the Wisbech to Peterborough section today : 37568 was typically late on L10 10.48 ex Wisbech by 7 minutes going west, but returned bang on time, while K19 with 37565 was 6 late and returned just 2 minutes behind time and this during the afternoon peak.
Only one service was badly delayed and this was (as it nearly always is !) K16. Even with Mr. Speed at the controls 37158 was already 18 late when he departed on the 13.20 Southgates to Peterborough. By Peterborough rail station it was 24 late and then 22 late back into Wisbech. Smart working saw it just 13 lates when Des left it at Southgates at 16.20 having already been into the bus station.
Peter says "37563 on K4 07.48 from Walton Road this morning. we left Wisbech 10 late and were then held up all the way to Peterborough, approaching approx 20 late. Fortunately our driver took the sensible option and went straight to the rail station where I just made the 08.52 train to Birmingham". Good to hear that Peter and 37563 had made up more time by the time it passed me at 09.22, just 2 late. He adds "This evening 37159 on K5 18.40 with Blondie driving - I knew it was her before I saw the bus as she was hooting at all the illegally parked cars ignoring the buses only signs. Mind you the hooter on 37159 was pretty pathetic, sounds like a bee in a tin can ! Nevertheless it was very clean and warm upstairs, better than the cold 37563 this morning".
Malcolm saw Dart 42447 on the 14.38 X2 this afternoon. but 37157 was spare and may have worked too. Sister 37156 was a very unusual choice for K15 today, seen below.

Wednesday 19th :
K19 did a 37576 for 37577 swap for maintenance this afternoon and timekeeping was very good - well until late afternoon that is. 37567 on K1 was 9 late to Peterborough and K2 was 16 late with 37566, K3 was just a minute late with 37160, but then there was another extended gap and 37159 (unusual for K4 to get a B7) was 16 late too. 37573 noted on Y6 today with its new rear ad for AXA - fixed upside down !

Thursday 20th :
37575, normally a reliable steed, was in trouble on K3 today. It was making alarming noises on arrival at Lowestoft and the driver who took it back west at 12.55 reported it to King's Lynn where it was arranged to swap it with 37565. The latter was 8 late at Wisbech and meanwhile 37575 was whisked off to Volvo for investigation.
37565 had earlier worked K15 into Lynn at 12.37 from Lowestoft, but here it was removed for servicing and 37564 fresh off its MOT worked forward.Many services ran up to 8 minutes late today.
37572 was changed for 37160 on Y6 this evening. Malcolm saw the absent 37157 on the 15.48 Lowestoft to Norwich X2 this afternoon.

Sunday 16th October 2011 ~ More Alterations

2011-10-18T23:09:00.002+01:00

Just when I thought I'd listed all the recent diagram changes, I realised that I'd forgotten to mention Saturday's K1 which now goes to Lowestoft depot rather than Yarmouth. This compliments L8 which now does the opposite.
Steve from Oulton Broad wrote to me this week and says :
"Hello, I wonder if I might add to your lists of wants for the new X1 bus fleet and this is very important. Heating upstairs, presently you can tell the difference if you ride on a B7 during a cold spell, they are like toast, but those B9's well I always ride downstairs when it's cold. I went to Northampton last Saturday using the X1 to Peterborough and then X4 to Northampton, and consequently was able to do a back to back with the Gemini and the Enviro 400. Well in my opinion the Gemini is vastly superior. The Enviro wins on speed, but other than that the comfort of the Gemini is much better, even down to the fact that after 3 years and 300,000 miles they still don't rattle".
I wonder if the speed issue might just apply to the B7s Steve ? These have a 49mph limiter, whereas the B9s can do at least 10 mph faster. A few weeks ago I was told that B9 37566 had also been restricted to work at 49mph following its gearbox modifications at Volvo. I am not sure if this has been rectified yet.
Bob also messaged me to say "Tony (Stonechat) and I set off yesterday morning to meet up at Queensgate to catch the 08.44 X1 to Lynn (K4), but it hadn't arrived by 09.00 and more than a dozen people were waiting for it, so we caught the Stagecoach 37 to Spalding and the NG 505 to Lynn.
It was odd, because we had walked down to buy our bacon rolls and Tony saw it arrive, but it vanished, our only suggestions being that it broke down at the Station, or the driver forgot to call back at Queensgate on his way back to Lynn". 37572 was the bus in question and I wonder if any of our readers can supply an answer to this one.
Today 37563/5/8/9 & 37572/3/4/7/8/9 were in use on the X1 and 37157 was sighted by Malcolm working the 10.20 Lowestoft - Norwich X2.
This was the second week of Sunday diversions at Swaffham :

Saturday October 15th 2011 ~ Wedding Bells

2011-10-17T23:46:00.000+01:00

37159 passes the roadworks atGorleston Church. Photo by Des.

My work colleague Carol got married today, so for much of the time I was 'off route', Bruce kept an eye on things this morning and managed to see everything bar L8 which we reckon must have been 37571. This turn which until recently terminated at Lowestoft garage, is now diverted to finish at Yarmouth on Saturdays.
37575 passed 24 late on L11 12.05 from Peterborough, but 37563 was only 3 late on the 12.35. 37564 was stopped for MOT preparation at Lynn today and 37158 was the spare bus here. At Lowestoft 37157 was on hand.

Friday October 14th 2011 ~ B7 Variation

2011-10-17T23:38:00.000+01:00

Being one of the longset diagrams, L8 normally has a B9 allocated, but yesterday 37157 worked it and today 37158. As it was due maintenance on Monday, tonight 37571 off Y7 was used to replace 37158 at Lynn for the 18.50 to Peterborough.
Punctuality was quite good for a Friday. The worst spell here in the west was around teatime when K17 with 37565 which had been 2 late going to Peterborough, returned 17 late and K18 following with 37578 was 12 late. After this things soon got back to normal.
37568 and 37579 were spare at Lynn today and 37157 was at Lowestoft. 37574 had a minor problem with a faulty gear selector this morning and was 15 late departing from Yarmouth on Y13.
The closure of Fullers Hill in Yarmouth is suspended for the weekend and will resume on Monday. Only buses were supposed to be admitted through the Gorleston Church roundabout on a stop/go board system, but all traffic was using this route.

Thursday October 13th 2011 ~ Everything's All White (Well Almost)

2011-10-16T20:00:00.000+01:00

A reminder that the X1 Gemini livery doesn't endear itself to winter weather was provided today. Despite lovely sunny conditions in Wisbech this morning, both 37573 on L11 and 37578 on L12 passed through westbound with mud all over the rear wheelarches. No doubt the healthy sugar beet crop is to blame.
Punctuality was very good today with only 37572 on K2 being seen 8 minutes late on the 16.18 Wisbech to Peterborough and earlier 37158 on K14 08.55 ex Lowestoft had also been 8 late departing, not regaining time until Lynn.
Swaps today were maintenance related, K5 had 37568 replaced by 37577 for the 10.32 Lynn to Lowestoft and Y6 had 37569 taken off for the 17.45 Lynn to Peterborough with repaired black sheep 37566 replacing it.

Wednesday October 12th 2011 ~ Overheating

2011-10-16T19:50:00.001+01:00

37160 continued to play up today. It was sent out from Lynn on K16 and managed Ok until just after it had departed on the 13.15 King's Lynn to Peterborough. It was diverted into Vancouver Avenue where it was seen with what looked like water pouring from the engine compartment. Eventually it was sorted and left 25 minutes late but its late arrival in Peterborough saw it return light to Lynn, where once again it had to receive fitters attention for overheating. 160 was booked to continue K16 at 16.02 to Lowestoft, however, it didn't leave the garage until 16.16 and was seen passing Southgates roundabout at 16.29, about 22 late.
37566 remained over the pits at Lynn today while its air build up problem continued to be fixed. 37572 was in trouble for the second day running, but not through anything mechanical this time. It was taken off K4 as it required cleaning after a passenger was unwell. The 19.35 to Lowestoft was taken instead by 37565 which had come into Lynn on Y9.
There was an unusual Lowestoft swap this morning. K17 had 37569, but this was replaced by 37158 for the 10.25 to Peterborough. K18 then came in with 37156 and had this swapped for 37569 leaving 156 as the Lowestoft spare in place of 158.
Timekeeping was average today. 37158 had lost 10 minutes by Wisbech on K17, while in the morning 37570 on Y6 was 8 late from Wisbech westbound, but returned spot on time.
A slight diversion has been instituted in Yarmouth for a few days thus :

Tuesday October 11th 2011 ~ 571 Off the Leash

2011-10-13T00:34:00.000+01:00

On January 18th this year, 37571 worked K2. Nothing odd about that surely ? Well yes actually ! With 37571 being favourite for K17, it rarely appears on any of the turns which finish at Lowestoft, however, today it graced K2 again for only the second time this year. So what of K17 ? Well all of a sudden. this seems to be getting any available B9 and since the end of August, 571s grip on this turn seems to have slackened.I'm sure there is some reasoning behind this, but as yet I know not what it is.
After yesterday's delays, today things ran quite well and the heaviest delay noted was a mere 8 minutes.
The problem with 37566 was attended to by the Volvo man today and 37572 was also the subject of his healing hands. 572 actually had a strange day. it began on K5, being taken off at Lynn at 10.30 and then after attention, took over K17 at 13.45. This was not without incident though, as 572 was failed at Swaffham at 17.00 overheating. It was just a belt that needed replacing and after fitters attended , it was able to continue.
37157 took K5 forward and then later was called upon to replace 37567 on L12 as the latter was needed for a safety service. 157 took the 20.50 Lynn to Peterborough instead, mind it's rear destination is still blank as is that of 37568. Meanwhile 37567 which has run for most of its life with no rear route indicator has at last had this fixed at King's Lynn.
37160 was back on the X1 route today, but on arrival at Lynn tonight on L11 still appeared to be having problems overheating and the engine looked to have been throwing oil.
Lowestoft spare bus today was 37159.

Monday October 10th 2011 ~ Manic Monday Morning

2011-10-13T00:13:00.001+01:00

37158 seen at Lowestoft this evening arriving on the 12.05 from Peterborough, but already showing its return destination. Photo from Grahame Bessey.

The new week began with chaos at the western end, with a collision between an ambulance and a Royal Mail lorry at around 6am at the Guyhirn Sex Shop junction (sorry, can't recall its proper name - didn't it used to be Guyhirn Little Chef ?). This caused all manner of mayhem and I was texted at some early hour while still in the sack by Mark Chaplin to inform me of impending delays.
Setting out at my usual time, I met 37579 at Walpole Highway heading east only 1 minute late on K2, but of course, stupid me, it was in fact K1 running 31 late ! Things then began to get interesting. Cheryl catches Y6 to get to her new job in Thorney and today 37576 was her bus. Due to congestion it was eleven late from Wisbech and proceeded down to the Cromwell Road roundabout junction with the A47 bypass. Here the driver saw the queueing traffic and did a U turn back into town. Such was the heavy traffic that 576 passed me at 09.01 and came back at 09.20 before being glimpsed in the Old Market at 09.22 heading for Peterborough via Wisbech St. Mary.
The next two services westbound were alerted to the situation and both went via Wisbech St. Mary, these being Y7 with 37573 and L8 with 37567, the latter being seen about 4 late in the Old Market at 09.56. Judith then phoned to say she'd met two Geminis separated by a single car on Barton Road heading west. This turned out to be 37573 on Y7 followed by the delayed Y6 with 37576 !
Eastbound services meanwhile were all over the place, K1 as we said was 32 late at Walpole and next to appear was K3 with 37157 on its normal route passing me 17 late. 37569 on K2 then got through having travelled via the Wisbech St. Mary route and passed the Old Market at 09.28 (about 74 late). K4 had better luck taking its normal route and with 37575 was only 15 late. After this K5 was relatively unaffected with 37570 just 4 late, but next up, the late running Y6 had done very well to be just 22 late going east. The original intention was that this would go light from Peterborough to Lynn to make up time, but in the end it was 37573 on Y7 which did this, being seen by Jamie R on Wisbech bypass.
This evening 37576 on Y6 was 2 early at Walpole on the 19.10 from Peterborough, so all lost time was eventually regained.
20115 which had been a candidate for use on the X1 today, was probably collected by a Yarmouth driver as it didn't work and was not at Lynn this evening. Coming the other way was 37566 which Dale says expired in Dereham on Friday with an air problem. It was sent to Volvo and was back at Lynn today, but still in a bad way. 37566 regular readers will know, is the bus that was built on a Friday afternoon if you know what I mean.
37565 had its MOT today, but the disgraced 37160 was absent.

Sunday 9th October 2011 ~ A Rare Sight

2011-10-10T23:50:00.000+01:00

20115 in Vancouver Avenue this evening amongst the Geminis

After last night's surprise working by 20115, today saw all ten X1 diagrams with B9 Geminis. 37575/9 were still spare at King's Lynn, along with 37156/7/9.

Saturday 8th October 2011 ~ The Phoenix

2011-10-10T23:29:00.000+01:00

37158 and 37568 with adverts for 'Alone In The Wild' at King's Lynn on Friday evening.

So nothing of note happens for a whole week and then, a real surprise. This afternoon 37160 on K5 was in trouble in Great Yarmouth, reportedly with a loss of transmission oil and making some pretty awful noises. The result being that tonight, on what was an absolutely dire evening of torrential rain, 20115 worked to Peterborough on the 14.42 from Yarmouth. Bruce met it near Guyhirn and I saw it just leaving Wisbech, the destination display is so dim, I wasn't sure exactly what it was until I read the reg plate.
This was the first B10M to appear in service through King's Lynn since 20126 on August 10th. The last time 20115 appeared in traffic here on an X1 was five months ago on May 7th.
37575 was spare at Lynn today, with 37565 still stopped for MOT. 37566 was again absent, presumably at Lowestoft.

October 3rd - October 7th 2011 ~ Blogathon

2011-10-08T00:57:00.000+01:00

Well such is the paucity of news on the X1 of late, I thought I'd do a week in one go. Here is a snapshot of the week just gone.

Monday : 37563 had its MOT, 37564 was kept at Lynn for maintenance and Lowestoft spare vehicle was 37160, it was seen on the 14.08 X2 by Des. . 37156 & 37575 came out of Lowestoft with new ads for 'Contagion' (offside) and 'The Three Musketeers' (nearside). Y9 with 37571 ran 11 late on the 11.05 from Peterborough, but most other services kept time. 37566 was taken off K4 this evening and 37569 replaced it for the 19.35 Lynn to Lowestoft having come in on Y7. 37567 on Y6 had an oil light warning while working the 11.02 Lynn to Lowestoft, but this was a red herring and after its computer was reset all appeared well.

Tuesday : Most buses ran late today, though not by much. 37160 on L10 was 12 late on the 10.48 Wisbech to Peterborough and 37576 on the 14.18 was 14 late, however, it had regained most of this and was just 4 late returning. 37563 was released to traffic on K4, but its place in the MOT bay has been taken by 37565. 37156 was keeping it company on maintenance at Lynn today and 37579 was spare at Lowestoft.

Wednesday : Y6 was 37566 and Des took this forward on the 20.35 Lynn to Lowestoft. There were heating problems on board, with all demisters etc blowing hot air even though it was switched off. It was also the latest bus seen today at 11 late on the 08.48 Wisbech to Peterborough. 37575 was at Lynn for maintenance today and 37157 was the Lowestoft spare.

Thursday : The quiet week continued. A few services were late this morning, 37569 on Y6 was 10 late westbound, 37156 was 2 late on the 09.18 Wisbech to Peterborough, but had lost 13 minutes by the time it came back. 37579 on L10 westbound was 12 late and then things settled down. An accident near Acle may have caused some of these delays. 37157 remained at Lowestoft and K5 had 37576 swapped for 37160 at Lynn at 10.30.

Friday : Late running didn't appear to be an issue today. Apart from 37565 on MOT prep, all the other Geminis appeared in X1 duties today. 37157 reappeared on L12 and 37566 on K17 was unusually swapped at Lowestoft for 37564. Malcolm saw 37159 on K16, but K17 didn't turn up and then K18 arrived with 37156, so it seems likely that 37566 encountered an incident en route. This afternoon K15 had 37578 (due for an exam) swapped at Lynn for 37160 which had been undergoing an oil change.

Sunday October 2nd 2011 ~ Jet Propelled

2011-10-05T00:13:00.001+01:00

A nice shot of 37568 before it worked the 07.30 Yarmouth to Peterborough this morning. Courtesy of Des Speed.

The Indian Summer continued today and hoards of motorists flocked to the Norfolk coastal resorts. By lunchtime, punctuality of the X1 was adversely affected. The 12.45 from Lynn to Peterborough (L10)with 37572 was 19 late, but thanks to some smart work was only 4 late returning. An hour later the 13.45 (K1) with 37577 was 15 late heading west. Thanks to Bruce for the gen.
By tonight, things were quite bad and 37576 was seen on Nar Ouse Way departing King's Lynn for Peterborough at 20.31 (due 19.56) and therefore 35 minutes late. Later the same bus was seen returning into Terrington at 22.18, just 5 late and possibly having beaten the record for an X1 recouping time on this section. It must have been a remarkable bit of driving.

Saturday 1st October 2011 ~ More Sunshine , More Delays

2011-10-02T23:55:00.001+01:00

The record October temperature set at nearby March in 1985 was beaten today in Gravesend when it rose to almost 30'c. On the X1 there were some unexplained delays. Services through Wisbech westbound to Peterborough were well behaved, but coming back eastbound things were pretty awful mid morning. Noted heading for Lowestoft were 37579 on K5 running 5 late, 37572 on Y6 14 late, 37578 on Y7 worst affected being 38 late, L8 with 37564 evaded me and 37566 on L9 27 late. Things then improved with Y10 with 37567 being 19 late and 37565 on L11 just 8 late. What caused the delays is not known, but even Friday evening's late services were behind time, 37566 on L8 was 11 late into Wisbech on the 20.40 Peterborough - Lowestoft and the 20.50 Lynn to Peterborough (L12) was 10 late with 37156.
Several turns swapped vehicles today, possibly due to an afternoon road closure at Toftwood. 37564/5/6/7 all changed turns and this involved L8, L9, Y10 & L11.

Friday 30th September 2011 ~ A Successful Summer

2011-10-02T23:40:00.001+01:00

Traditionally (in railway terms at least), the last day of September equals the end of the Summer timetable. Looking back at the last few months, the days of B10M coaches regularly standing in for Geminis have become history. Availability of the Geminis has never been so good. Even when a bus has been sidelined for MOT work, such as 37563 this week, the two remaining 'spare' buses have been just that. Today 37565 was at Lowestoft and 37579 at Lynn.

The timetable often goes pear shaped on Fridays, but today pretty much everything ran 8 - 10 minutes late with all turns seen apart from K16 (see below). 37160 was plying its trade on K3 and was extremely noisy - usually it is the quietest of the B7s, but maybe this weeks temperatures have been a bit too challenging.

Des says "37568 was K16 and I was booked to take it from Lynn Southgates at 13.07 into the bus station then on to Peterborough. In the event 37568 diverted itself into Vancouver Avenue garage inbound at 13.10 due to tits oil level warning light showing. Checked and filled, we departed Lynn 25 minutes late at 13.40, K17 arriving as we departed. Arrival at Peterborough rail station was -31 at 15.00, having travelled in via Perkins and noted traffic queuing on the eastbound carriageway. I loaded passengers for Lynn and beyond and left at 15.02, 27 late non-stop to Lynn. We used Bourges Boulevard, but there were queues at B & Q. I was back at the Southgates (due 15.49) at 16.14, 25 late".

At least this explains why I didn't see K16 eastbound today ! At the eastern end, Malcolm viewed three successive arrivals from Peterborough at Lowestoft. Y7 with 37159 arrived 16 late, 37566 on L8 was on time and finally Y9 with 37573 was 8 late coming in.

Thursday 29th September 2011 ~ Sunshine = Delays

2011-10-02T13:57:00.000+01:00

Extremes of weather always seem to have a derogatory effect on X1 timekeeping. Today while many services ran roughly to time, others for reasons unknown were way off course. L8 with 37565 was not seen departing Wisbech to Peterborough at 09.48, I may have missed it, but was marginally early returning from Peterborough. L11 with 37579 managed to be 9 late in each direction as was K14 with 37157. K15 was 10 late with 37571, but then K16 encountered delays making it 27 late on the 14.35 from Peterborough, by which time 37575 on K17 was just 6 minutes behind it. Things then settled down a bit before K3 16.15 King's Lynn to Peterborough also turned up 26 late with 37160 - it had only been 5 late in the morning. Again the following service, K4 was hot on its heels, 37573 on this was 6 late.
The MOT on 37563 has been postponed until Monday, which may be to do with extra work being taken on from Norwich - today Solo 53118 had arrived at Lynn, also for MOT.
Temporary lights at Middleton were being set up today, but were not in operation when Des passed. 37156 was again seen in Norwich on the X2 at 12.45.

Wednesday 28th September 2011 ~ All Going Well

2011-10-02T12:48:00.004+01:00

My notes under my X1 observations which usually have something to talk about, said today simply 'Nothing Much Going On'. Oh Dear - all going so well that I will have to look elsewhere then ?

Here's a nice bit of X1 trivia, when the B9 Geminis were new they all had the First logo on the back lower deck window as seen above on 37579.
Now though 37563, 37567, 37573, 37575 & 37578 have lost the branding (see below)

This then prompts the question, has the logo simply worn away or fallen off or have all these buses had their back window replaced since new ? Whatever, replacement glass, particularly for the large front windows on Geminis is very expensive.

Peter wrote to me recently about the new vehicles bought by Stagecoach for the Cambridge to St. Ives (mis) guided busway. It is only a very short distance compared to the X1 route and yet Peter says "

To operate their services, Stagecoach ordered ten Eclipse/B7RLE single decker buses, to be manufactured by Wrightbus and Volvo, and ten Alexander Dennis Enviro400/Scania N230UD double deckers for the guided busway network. All of the new specially-branded vehicles are equipped with leather seats, air chill or air conditioning, real time information, and free Wi-Fi".

Some ideas for future X1 vehicles there then. In Summer you tend to either get the greenhouse effect upstairs on a Gemini or get blown away when the windows are open.

Another subject Peter mentions is the X1 route (or routes) into Peterborough "I know each driver probably has a preferred route, but it seems to me that about 90% go in via the A47 and Bourges Boulevard and about 50% go out that way, the other 50% using the Boongate route".

Today the only X1 seen appreciably late was L10 with 37158, due westbound from Wisbech at 10.48, it was 11.02 by the time it left. Other services ran near to time. There was a bit of a mystery regarding turns 15 & 16 though. I was told K15 had started the day with 37573 and K16 with 37157, however, at lunchtime K15 had 37157 and K16 37572, which doesn't really make sense as 37157 seems to have jumped from K15 to K16 which should be impossible !
Des reports that X1 driver changes are now taking place at the Southgates stop, five minutes after departure from the bus station. In charge of L8 15.25 Lowestoft - Peterborough, he says " I was on time until queueing traffic at Yarmouth - both bridges up and temporary lights on Yarmouth side of Haven Bridge. 12 late in and then my relieving driver had about 50 passengers to load and negotiate the queue. Noted today by the way, 37156 departing Norwich at 12.44 on an X2.

Tuesday 27th September 2011 ~ Warming Up

2011-09-30T00:08:00.001+01:00

The forecast warm weather coincided with some poor timekeeping today - may be there was more leisure traffic ? Although nothing exceeeded ten minutes in arrears through Wisbech, several services were affected. Malcolm saw 37160 on K18 arriving Lowestoft 17 late and departed 15 late back eastbound on the 10.55 departure. It was just 10 late by Wisbech so had managed to make up a little time.
37565 on L8 was taken off at Lynn for unknown reasons at 09.07 and the 09.15 to Peterborough proceeded with 37572, however, this just worked over the western leg and 37565 was back fit for the 12.02 to Lowestoft. 37159 was noted spare at Gasworks Road today by Malcolm.

Monday 26th September 2011 ~ New Diagrams

2011-09-29T23:57:00.003+01:00

New diagrams for drivers and buses began today. On the vehicle side, only two car lines seem to be affected. These involve Y6 which on arrival with the 19.10 Peterborough to Lowestoft previously retired to Gasworks Road, but now returns light to Yarmouth and L8 20.10 from Peterborough which now does the opposite and instead of running light to Yarmouth goes straight to Lowestoft garage.
Yesterday's derailment near Saddlebow resulted in several rail replacement buses being provided. Tonight Harrods and Towlers coaches were seen along with WLT916, a Leyland Olympian now with Ensign Bus (originally registered C816BYY).
There are no longer any First vehicles available for hire at Lynn, although a stranger here this week has been Norwich's 33248, a Dennis Trident registered LT52WVA which has been undergoing MOT.
X1 Gemini 37563 has started the MOT programme rolling again this week and it should return to traffic at the end of the week.
37159 was Lowestoft spare bus today and ended up working the 14.08 X2 to Norwich. On the X1 tonight, 37573 was unable to work the final leg of K17 back from Lowestoft to Lynn and 37158 off K16 depuitised.

Sunday 25th September 2011 ~ The Power of Advertising

2011-09-27T19:12:00.001+01:00

Recently I took a photo of a Gemini with an advert on the side proclaiming 'Conan The Barbarian'. I decided to use this title in my caption to the photo on my Flickr site - result ? It has had a couple of hundred hits rather than the handful I normally get. So it shows the power of advertising ! Speaking of which a few new campaigns are on the go at the moment as seen here, pictures taken with permission.

So a quiet day on the X1. In service were 37564/5/7, 37571/3/4/5/6/7/9. Sam texted early on though to say that 37156 was having a day out on the X2.

Saturday 24th September 2011 ~ Chasing the X1

2011-09-27T18:51:00.000+01:00

37565 storms out of Walton Highway on L12 12.35 Peterborough - Lowestoft today.

This morning began with a bit of a farce for me. Having agreed to give Mr. Robinson a lift to Walpole Highway to catch Y6 (the 08.33 to Peterborough), we were late leaving. To make sure he caught it, I diverted up West Drove to Walton Highway. We were just approaching the main road when 37576 went flying past a minute early ! Cue an X1 chase.... 576 went non-stop through Walton, so we continued following her to Walton Road where passengers were waiting and by which time it was 2 early. I pulled in in front of 576 and duly despatched my passenger off to work.
Everything seen today appeared to run to time and as we haven't had a rundown of duties lately, this is where the X1 Geminis were working today :
37563 ~ Y7   37564 ~ Y13   37565 ~ L12   37566 ~ L8 /King's Lynn spare   37567 ~ K2   37568 ~ L8 from 09.15
37569 ~ K4   37570 ~ Y10   37571 ~ L11   37572 ~ K17   37573 ~ K15   37574 ~ K18
37575 ~ K1   37576 ~ Y6   37577 ~ K5   37578 ~ King's Lynn Spare   37579 ~ K19
37156 ~ Lowestoft spare   37157 ~ K3   37158 ~ L9   37159 ~ K14   37160 ~ K16
The reason for 37566 being replaced by 37568 on L8 was to facilitate an exam on 566. The A47 at Eye reopened at about 19.00 last night after the excitement of yesterday afternoon.

Friday 23rd September 2011 ~ A Day of Two Halves

2011-09-25T17:16:00.000+01:00

Today didn't really seem like a day which would end in chaos, but then you never know with the A47 on a Friday do you ?
Up until early afternoon, everything had gone perfectly well, with only very minor delays. K15 which is normally a solid B9 turn, but which had 37158 on Wednesday, was today allocated 37156. I was surprised to find it almost on time on the 12.45 King's Lynn to Peterborough. When I didn't see it return, I assumed it might have taken an alternative route for some reason, or may be it had expired. In the end it became obvious that something was badly amiss, as then K16 (due past me at 15.20) and K17 (due 15.50) both failed to appear either. Going west, things seemed unaffected and buses ran as follows : K17 37576 1 late, K18 37573 1 late, K19 37563 8 late, K1 37575 8 late, K2 37570 4 late and K3 37157 2 late.

Eventually at 16.07, 37156 went past Lowestoft bound - this was K15 now running a huge 77 minutes late ! There was no sign of K16, but then K17 came back 48 late at 16.38, then the missing K16 finally turned up with 37159 arriving at Wisbech Horsefair at 17.06 (due 15.21) and consequently a massive (and possibly all time record breaking) 105 minutes late. Running closely behind it was 37573 on K18, itself 50 late. These two buses passed Walpole Highway at 17.22 and 17.26 respectively.
So what exactly happened then ? Well Cambridgeshire Traffic News cited a lorry on fire and a shed load of potatoes closing the A47 near Eye. Des did some investigations and found the exact location for us. He says "The road Westbound was closed at Thorney Bypass and traffic was going into Thorney and turning left towards Whittlesea. The road eastbound was closed at the Eye turn off near to the white Millstones, so traffic was being returned toward Peterborough through Eye Village.
37156 (K15) dep Lynn 12.45, should return to Lynn for the 15.32 to Lowestoft, actual arrival 16.45. This then operated by Lowestoft driver as K16 16.02 to Lowestoft. K17 16.32 Lynn - Lowestoft which is operated by a Lynn driver who keeps the same bus and returns to Lynn at 20.48 didn't run, but was supposed to go light to Lowestoft instead.
I was next up and my drive should have been XL05 (K18) - 37573 due Lynn 16.54. I was told to take the next bus that came in, which was expected to be 37159 (K16) , what turned up was 37576 (K17) at the Southgates at 17.04. The driver had come direct from Peterborough via Whittlesea and hadn't passed 37159. So, 37576 had somehow overtaken the bus 30 mins in front of it. One can only assume that the driver of 37159 had been caught in traffic immediately in the vicinity of the fire. I left as above and with light loading caught up with 37156 loading in Norwich bus station @ 18.50. He took a full load and I then pulled onto the stand to take the rest, some 12 passengers. I overtook 37156 on Norwich southern bypass to arrive in Yarm -4 (19.24). - So 37576 had overtaken the two buses that should have been running in front of it!
In short -
A bus was put in for the 15.32 leaving at 15.50
The 15.32 to Low became the 16.02 leaving at 16.50
The 16.32 to Low became the 17.02 to Yarm leaving at 17.11

Is this the latest X1 ever ? 37159 passes Walpole 106 minutes late this afternoon.

Well thanks for that lengthy explanation Des. Naturally buses ended up in the wrong places this evening, 37159 and 37573 which should have finished at Lowestoft and Yarmouth, were both returned to Lynn and 37563 & 37576 which had been supposed to come back to Lynn ended at Yarmouth. 37575 on K1 didn't work the 16.35 from Peterborough throughout and came off at Lynn due to excessive congestion. 37566 on the 19.10 from Peterborough was seen at Lynn Southgates about 10 late at 20.55, so by then normality seemed to be returning.
The actual location of the blockage is shown in the picture below ;

Thursday 22nd September 2011 ~ Shaky Start

2011-09-25T16:41:00.000+01:00

Des writes " My first duty today involved the 07.30 Yarmouth - Lowestoft then 08.15 Lowestoft - Peterborough as far as Lynn (Y13). The pre service check on 37563 revealed adblue tank empty, adblue system failure and engine derated. Everything was done to try and rectify, but to no avail. I said that I would drive 37563 in its present condition and Richard would arrange it to be changed at Lynn at 11.37. Then, at approximately 08.55, everything reset itself and we had a full adblue tank, no failure warnings and full power ! In th end 37575 replaced 563 at Lynn while Martyn, the Volvo engineer fitted a new adblue tank sensor on 563 at Lynn garage".

This was about the only incident on a remarkably quiet X1 day. Several services were up to 6 minutes late, but none had lost any more time than this. 37574 had an outing on the X2 from early on. Des saw it at Norwich at 09.45 and Michael Bryant then spotted it on the 11.08 ex Lowestoft and finally Malcolm reports it on the 15.03 westbound from Lowestoft too.
All other Geminis were in service apart from 37156 which was at Lynn for servicing.

Wednesday 21st September 2011 ~ An Old Favourite

2011-09-23T22:33:00.000+01:00

The Peterborough to Norwich section of the X1 rarely sees anything unusual these days, but east of Norwich it is a different matter with various vehicles appearing on the X1 'shorts' or 'shuttles' as they are sometimes known. These operate between Gorleston and Norwich and return at peak times.

This morning, Richard Adderson texted me to say that he'd viewed 34108 at North Burlingham on an X1. I did momentarily wonder if the 'Royale' had been let loose on a Peterborough working again - it last worked to the west end of the route on November 24th last year - but alas it was just on a short, the 08.52 from Yarmouth being driven by Des nonetheless. This is his photograph taken especially for 34108's greatest fan, Bruce.

The X2 borrowed a Gemini today with 37570 appearing on the 14.08 to Norwich, this was partly because 37156 had been used on L10 as it was required at Lynn for servicing. 156 was changed for 37160 which worked forward from Lynn to Lowestoft at 13.02.

Punctuality was good in the west today, except, unusually, first thing when services from Peterborough suffered delays. 37575 on K3 08.56 Wisbech to Lowestoft was 14 late in from Peterborough and then 37573 on K4 was 11 late and K5 with 37576 6 late. After this, services ran to time. L8 had 37577 taken off at King's Lynn just after 09.00 for unknown reasons, it was replaced by 37563.

Tuesday 20th September 2011 ~ Days Of Old

2011-09-23T20:31:00.000+01:00

Today I clocked up 35 years at my job, so feeling a little nostalgic, I dipped into my 1976 diary to see if there were any Wisbech bus references for 20/9/76. Indeed there were and noted were RL 720 on the 08.24 336 arrival (07.45 ex King's Lynn probably), LH533 on the 17.15 360 to Welney, LH902 on the 17.20 370 Wisbech town service, VR145 on the 17.23 336 (16.15 Peterborough - King's Lynn) and LS811 on the 17.40 354 to March. These were all operated by Eastern Counties - may be someone out there has some photos of these vehicles ? I went to work on the 08.05 Walpole St. Peter - Wisbech operated by Alan Towler of Emneth and on that date it was worked by LCK 752, the evening return trip being with GAH 329K. Thanks to the mighty Flickr photostream of John Law, the latter can be seen here :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmightycat/5874779978/

and LCK 752 here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmightycat/5874779980/in/photostream/

Nothing quite as exciting on the X1 today, just the usual Geminis minus 37563 and 37159 at Lynn for servicing and 37156 spare at Lowestoft.
Timekeeping was variable today, 37573 on Y9 turned up 13 late as was L12 with 37157, but in the afternoon 37571 on K17 left 2 early to Peterborough and K18 and K19 were both spot on time.

Monday 19th September 2011 ~ Clockwork

2011-09-22T18:07:00.001+01:00

The maintenance of all the X1 Geminis has now been carried out at King's Lynn for three months and it all appears to be running well to schedule. This morning 37158 and 37564 were present as required and 564 was ready in time to work K4, while K5 which began with 37566 was handed over to 37158 for the 10.32 to Lowestoft.
37567 was collected from Norwich this morning (not sure how it came to be there, but see Saturday's blog) and replaced 37572 on K2 at King's Lynn.
K15 was (again) the only turn which was delayed. It was just 4 late on the 13.18 Wisbech to Peterborough, but was 15 late returning with 37563.
37569 was spare at Lowestoft, but was not present at Gasworks Road when Michael went to look, suggesting it was out on an X2.
Nice to hear from Syd Eade again, he says "James and myself have been away on a week long expedition to Yorkshire, although day trips took us far and wide to look at both buses and trains ( the Parry people Mover at Stourbridge was a highlight! ) A couple of buses turned up that I thought may interest you.

Firstly 37562 surprised us by appearing in Oldham...it just gets everywhere doesnt it? James got the best photo, my efforts failed to get the destination illuminated.

The other bus with a very tenuous X1 link was 32000, which has also moved again,from West Yorkshire to South Yorkshire and was working on normal service in Sheffield. It has been spruced up and looked quite presentable.

I will be somewhat busy over the next few days( or weeks! ) sorting over 2000 photos, adding captions etc. and adding them to various sets".

Speaking of 32000, I ought to apologise to Colin White who wrote asking if it was still about, in fact Colin, it only remained at Lynn for a day in July before returning to Norwich.

Sunday 18th September 2011 ~ Buses on Show

2011-09-20T23:29:00.002+01:00

Today Bruce and myself had a day out courtesy of Norfolk Green. We were invited to travel aboard their black liveried Optare Spectra to Showbus at Duxford. As usual a grand day was had by all and the weather was considerably kinder than last year, in fact the showers managed to avoid us altogether.
Thanks to a friendly supervisor at First, we were able to enjoy the day without worrying about what was on the X1, having been furnished with a full list of the vehicles out in our absence.
We met Des, Andy, Richard, Terence and Michael B at various points during the day and here are a few pictures from the show :

YIL3196 (ex N133SJF), one of two Emblings B10Ms on show

RPU869M in Eastline livery must have been an X1 route performer at one time. Follow this link to see her at Ipswich in a 1983 photo by John Law
http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnmightycat/6006240239/

OVF 229 appears in the blog again, this time someone had kindly blinded her up for the 336 King's Lynn to Peterborough !

Here's Bruce and myself with a smart 30902, newly repainted following transfer from King's Lynn to Braintree. Photo by Des.

Great Yarmouth depot borrowed new Gemini 36179 from Norwich and gave her a polish

Bruce with a sister of his own Leyland Nationals

and an early birthday present from me and Des

Our transport for the day in its eye catching livery. NG Spectra YG02FWD

Both 37158 and 37159 were used on the X1 today, but this evening the 17.48 Lowestoft to King's Lynn was cancelled due to driver illness and 37159 remained at Lowestoft.
Many thanks to Andy, Des and all at Norfolk Green for making our Showbus day so memorable.

Saturday 17th September 2011 ~ Explanations and Mysteries

2011-09-20T22:38:00.000+01:00

37576 on K2 nearest the camera passes Y6 with 37569 at Faulkner's Tunnel, West Drove North this morning.

Yesterday's puzzle regarding 37157 and 37158 was explained today. K16 on Friday began with 37158, this was kept at Lowestoft where 37157 was sent back westbound, BUT only as far as Lynn where 37566 replaced it. This was to enable a modification to be made to 37157 at Vancouver Avenue. After concerns about the gear changing speeds on B7s, 157 was modified so that the change of gear takes place at 2000 revs instead of 1500. Des took it on a test run and it appeared to be a success. As a result, today 37156. 37159 and 37160 were all given the same treatment. I think 37159 was done early and was able to work K1, however, it was not seen through Wisbech this afternoon, so maybe it was done then instead of working the afternoon Peterborough leg of the turn.
Timekeeping ws quite good for a Saturday and the only turn seen running in excess of 10 minutes late was K15 with 37563. This was at least 15 late on the 12.45 Lynn to Peterborough and 26 late returning on the 14.05 service.
Tonight 37567 on Y13 was unavailable for some reason and the service was heavily delayed, eventually running with 37570 off L12.

Friday 16th September 2011 ~ Radio GaGa

2011-09-18T00:31:00.000+01:00

I was at the BBC today, so Bruce provided details of sightings. The usual mid afternoon collapse of timings occurred with K14 being 25 late and later K19 was 23 late. 37157/8 did something odd, but I'm not sure what !
Ian Cornwell contacted me today and said "I don't know whether you follow 'The Archers' on Radio 4 or not, but there is something you should know being the top X1 man in town ". Well, no, I don't follow it actually Ian, but he explains :
" This week Clarrie Grundy had a bout of depression and left Ambridge without warning. Upon her return we learned that she had travelled to Borchester and caught the coach to Peterborough ! Here she arrived late and spent the night in the bus station (the scriptwriters have obviously never tried this) and then intended to visit her sister in Great Yarmouth. In the event she didn't go, because their wasn't a bus until the afternoon !!!" Ian says " There is no need for me to tell you that clearly they hadn't done their homework, because as you know the X1 operates every 30 minutes".
In their defence, I suppose there isn't an advertised coach service to Great Yarmouth until the 308 at about 16.00, so maybe they were basing their script on that, rather than the X1. Mind you Cheryl tried to find the timings for the 308 (Birmingham - Yarmouth) the other day and failed miserably, there being no details on the net. In the end she had to phone National Express to find out !

Thursday 15th September 2011 ~ Benchmarx

2011-09-18T00:06:00.001+01:00

The rear ad applied to various X1 vehicles with miniscule lettering, belongs to Benchmarx who are attempting to promote their new King's Lynn branch. Somewhat unsuccessfully with this type of ad one would imagine.

37156 remained the Lowestoft spare bus today but was employed on the 11.08 X2 to Norwich. Elsewhere, the main event on the X1 route was an unfortunate accident involving 37579 on L11 12.05 Peterborough - Lowestoft. Shortly after leaving Terrington St. John, a branch fell from a tree breaking the front upstairs window of the bus. Glass was strewn throughout the top deck, yet miraculously and despite someone sitting on the front seat, only a minor graze was reported. The driver's windscreen was also badly cracked. Earlier 37577 on K3 had been taken off at Lynn for servicing and between them, L11 and K3 had 37567 & 37569 take over, although which did what turn is unclear.

Wednesday 14th September 2011 ~ Availability

2011-09-17T23:55:00.000+01:00

The X1 weekday service requirement of 19 vehicles from 22 available seems to be holding up well. Today 37574 was being looked at by Volvo at King's Lynn, 37569 was awaiting MOT and 37156 was the Lowestoft spare bus. 37574 was used later in the day to replace 37568 on Y6.
A rather punctual service today spoiled by 37158 on K16 which passed me 14 late to Peterborough and 11 late coming back. 37571 on K17 had also ben delayed being seen 10 late, but it gained 2 minutes on its return.
L10 with 37576 was not seen at 10.50 but returned just 2 late from Peterborough. I hesitate to say it didn't work on the 10.15 from King's Lynn, as it may have taken the Churchill Road or Old Market routes out of Wisbech.

Tuesday 13th September 2011 ~ Gone With The Wind (part 2)

2011-09-17T23:46:00.000+01:00

Yes I'd used that headline back in 2009, but it was about the most appropriate for today's blog. With 37157 & 37160 already travelling the X1 route minus offside adverts (very unusual these days), today they were joined by 37563 and 37571. The latter had lost an advert for 'Warrior' and 37563 had only been fitted with the 'Abduction' ad on Sunday, both had been loosened by the blustery winds in the region yesterday,
The wind abated today and the timetable was largely adhered to. Vehicle swaps were prominent today. K4 started with 37566, but it required a windscreen repair and was replaced by 37157 off servicing for the 10.02 Lynn to Lowestoft. K5 with 37572 saw this replaced by 37566 this afternoon, so that it could be taken in for servicing. 37569 as previously reported was stopped for MOT preparation work today.

Bruce tells me that Norfolk Green have been experiencing some overloading problems with schoolchildren in the mornings, but it turns out that this is chiefly due to the sheep instinct where kids want to be on the same bus as their mates. Strange to me because I was just the opposite as a child ! A 336 relief ran in the morning and evening shadowing the 06.45 Peterborough _ Lynn & 16.10 return, but starting / terminating at Wisbech, This was manned by a Wisbech driver and conductor (the likes of Freddy Hickling, Pop Horspool, Bert Barton and Gordon Seals were regulars) and I used it from when I started school in Lynn in 1969 until the reliefs were withdrawn in about 1972. Here is a picture of one of our regular buses used on the relief which was always a Bristol LC.

Photo courtesy of Mark Kirk : http://www.flickr.com/photos/26024754@N07/5552752760/

Monday 12th September 2011 ~ Abduction

2011-09-15T00:21:00.000+01:00

Timekeeping today was good and only K19 14.45 King's Lynn to Peterborough passed Wisbech notably late. It was 9 late with 37567, BUT, for some reason, L8 09.15 from Lynn westbound did not pass me. Maybe it took an alternative route for reasons unknown, however, it did return on time with 37579, bearing a new advert : 'Abduction' it said - so that was it, 579 had been abducted ?? Said new ad was accompanied by a new rear ad, which set a new record for small print - the text of which is impossible to read unless you are standing next to the bus with a magnifier. What a waste of money to whoever commissioned it ? Anyway , also noted abducted during the day were 37563 & 37574 and these too both had the illegible rear ad !
So we have L8 missing on the outward and then Y9 also failed to appear in either direction, despite having left the coast with 37564. These two absences remain unexplained. 37566 & 37570 were serviced at Lynn on the early shift and 570 was Ok to work K4, while 566 took over K5 at 10.32 so that 37569 could be stopped for its MOT work.
Des says "37159 was mine for the 15.42 Yarmouth to King's Lynn terminator. We departed -3 (15.45) and were then delayed at Norwich. Anglian no. 4 on the National Express stop, National Express partially on his stop and also blocking stop 2 with his rear. I did think of stopping at stop 1, but that had approx fifty passengers waiting for a Wymondham bus - to have then made my sixty or so awaiting passengers move stops would have been disastrous and delayed the Wymondham bus. Norwich -5 (16.30). Slow out of Norwich, slow on the A47 too, arrived Lynn -11 (18.18)".

Sunday 11th September 2011 ~ Diversionary Tactics

2011-09-14T23:56:00.000+01:00

An all B9 worked service today. Only late runner seen by me was 37578 17.50 King's Lynn - Peterborough which was 16 late at Walpole, Seemed odd for a Sunday evening, but as so often is the case, all is explained by Des who says "I was given 37578 for the 15.30 Great Yarmouth to Peterborough which I worked to Lynn. Departed on time with a full bus, as this weekend it is the Maritime Festival in Yarmouth. Resurfacing of the road on a short length of the normal X1 route meant a diversion (click on the map for a larger version) which although shorter than the normal route, was also serviced by the local service 8. My X1 was in front of this service and picked up large numbers of local travellers.

On to Norwich, where the football had just turned out at the same time as the shops closing, so I picked up a full load, departing 4 late at 16.14. I took time to warn the driver of the 16.15 to Lowestoft not to use the Bracondale/County Hall route as it was very congested.
I then encountered heavy congestion on Newmarket Road, because many were leaving the County Showground 'Norfolk Gala Day'. Arrival at Easton was 15 late at 16.40 and we then became embroiled in a slow moving A47 convoy along whole route due to old cars, old buses and horse boxes : Hockering -20 (16.50), Dereham -20 (17.04), Swaffham -18 (17.32), Arrived Lynn -20 (18.04) - This was given over to Ray who you saw Gerard running 16 late".
For a report on the gala day, please visit Andy's blog at http://andysbusblog.blogspot.com/

Saturday September 10th 2011 ~ 37156 in Trouble Again

2011-09-14T01:43:00.000+01:00

37563 makes haste through Walpole this afternoon working the 13.15 King's Lynn (09.55 ex Lowestoft) to Peterborough (K16)

Des reports : "Originally - 37579*64*156*69 were scheduled out of Yarmouth this morning, but 37156 returned to the depot with a broken indicator stalk and 37569 was able to step up a turn and take over, although this meant that the 07.15 James Paget Hospital to Peterborough started at Yarmouth due to time overtaking events. No indicator stalk was available at Yarmouth or Lowestoft, so a replacement was sought from Lynn to be delivered to Lowestoft.

There was no tacho fitted bus available to replace 156 at Yarmouth and the driver refused to take 156 light to Lowestoft. This then meant that Y13 07.30 Yarmouth - Lowestoft was cancelled. I was meant to travel passenger to Lowestoft, but drove 37156 and its driver to Lowestoft, "Not In Service".

The Lowestoft spare bus. 37160 was available to work the 08.25 to Peterborough'.

At Lynn 37571 was kept in for windscreen attention along with 37565 and 37569 on Y10 was due to finish at Lynn for MOT prep.

Friday September 9th 2011 ~ A Red Letter Day

2011-09-12T23:55:00.000+01:00

Well, it's all very well me running a blog on the X1, but not very good when you consider that I've never travelled east of Norwich on the route !!
Today it was time to rectify that situation and armed with my First VIP pass, I decided to do the whole route and meet up with Des for a day out.
The weather was pretty depressing at Walton Highway at 08.00 with a fine drizzle. My first bus of the day was easily recognisable when it rounded the corner from Wisbech - a narrow font destination display meant it must be 37579 and so it proved to be.
The driver was bemused by my pass and asked why I was a VIP - I told him it might be something to do with the X1 blog which I write online, to which he replied "I don't even know what a blog is ". well, he's certainly not alone there - us who are fairly up to speed on computers and the like sometimes forget there are still thousands of folks who seldom, if ever touch one. Once aboard, we proceeded at a fairly rapid rate - clearly he might not be up to speed with computers, but he certainly knew how to make the most of a Gemini.
It occurred to me that I was on the successor to the bus I used to travel to school on from 1969 - 1974. This was due at Walpole Highway at 08.05 having left Peterborough Bishop's Road bus station at 06.45 and into Lynn (on paper at least) at 08.30. In practice this was never achieved and 08.50 was the usual arrival time because of the long queue into Lynn - this was in pre-bypas days of course. Today's X1 turn K1 departs Peterborough Rail Station 15 minutes later at 07.00 and is into Lynn at 08.24. Today we were well on time at the South Gates as Bob our relieving driver remarked. The departing driver duly informed him that "We have a VIP on board". This left Bob (below) quite unphased - not surprising considering that he is the only one of the nine original X94 drivers to have remained on the route since its inception.

Leaving Lynn on time, the fact that we were running before the 09.30 deadline for pensioners passes soon became obvious - I was the solitary upstairs passenger and our timetabled diversion off the A47 through Narborough was unnecessary, with nobody to alight or pick up there. Swaffham saw seven passengers embark plus another at Necton. En route so far we had passed the following : K5 at Terrington with 37565, Y6 on London Road with 37568, Y7 with 37567 arriving as we departed King's Lynn, L8 at West Bilney with 37569, while Y9 arrived at Swaffham soon after we did with 37573, but with nobody having ventured upstairs. L10 was next, passed near Wendling with 37577, At Toftwood, a pensioner tried using her bus pass, but it was still before 09.30, so she had to stump up at least some of her fare to Great Yarmouth.
The first delay of the morning didn't affect us, it was L11 which arrived at Dereham as we were leaving at 09.38 with 37159 running about 3 late. At Hockering we met 37563 on L12 and noted on Newmarket Road as we headed into Norwich was a broken down Volvo / Wright Eclipse single decker, 66950 receiving fitters attention whilst on its way to Wymondham. Scania 65556 was a few yards behind, so presumably took the stricken passengers forward.
By now it had become obvious that we had an experienced driver at the helm and our journey was proceeding at a comfortable but relentless pace. At Norwich, Des Speed joined me for the journey into the 'Far East'. We met 37157 on K14 as we left Norwich bus station ( I guess I must have blinked and missed Y13 somewhere). At North Burlingham, K15 went by with 37566 but then there was an extended gap before a wedged 37160 was seen leaving Yarmouth on K16 and running about 13 late. Yarmouth bus station at Market Gates had a somewhat gloomy air with the concrete structure overhead - it reminded me of Birmingham New Street rail station ! A glimpse of the putrid puppet man and we were away again encountering 37570 on K17, then 37156 on K18

and finally K19 with 37574 at Gunton St. Peters.

It was good to have Des as guide from Norwich as he was able to point out all the local landmarks.
Bruce had phoned earlier and reported 37578 in Lynn garage together with another B9 (37571 as it transpired) in the back over the pits. Back with 37579, Bob delivered us into Lowestoft on time. Lynn driver Wyn Parry was to take 579 back west and obliged with a wave as he left (below)

Des had kindly arranged with the local maintenance controller for permission to visit the garages at Lowestoft and Yarmouth during my visit, so armed with a loaned hi-vis from Richard in Lowestoft control, we made our way on foot down to Gas Works Road, or as the sign on the opposite side of the road states 'Gasworks Road'. One word or two ? Who knows ?
The staff at Lowestoft depot were very welcoming and once signed in, we were able to tour the site which was opened around 1985. Prior to this, the garage had been down by the bus station and I was told that the original site is now occupied by shops. I certainly recall watching Bristol LFS' being tested on the skidpan here in around 1971/2 - quite spectacular to a teenager at the time. We were able to get some good photographs here and X1 regular 37158 was being held in reserve for possible use on the X2 later.

From here it is but a short walk to Britain's most easterly point. In complete contrast to Lands End and John O'Groats, this is situated at the back of an industrial estate and there are no gift shops, ice cream vans and the like, just a large metal engraved circle indicating distances and directions to places far and wide. Fascinating none the less and worth a visit.

Going back into town it was time for fish and chips and how excellent they were - the finest I've tasted for years.
A quick dash back to Lowestoft bus station saw us waiting along with a sizeable queue for the 13.55 X1 departure. 37565 was there blinded up and ready, but no sign of a driver. Eventually our man ambled up and then the Lowestoft lady cleaner arrived and gave 565 a cursory inspection before passengers began to board. In the end we departed 6 late. Apparently the driver had only just had time for his allotted break, hence the delay. By the time we got off at Gorleston, things were not looking too good for K5 which was by now 10 late and still had to encounter the Friday afternoon traffic en route westbound. It was later seen arriving at Lynn from the west about 17 late.
A visit to the Speed household was next and I had the delight of meeting Mrs Des who made me very welcome. After enjoying a drink on the patio, it was time to continue our travels and this time it was a short walk down the road to catch a number 8 through to Caister Road garage. What we hadn't bargained for was the time of day and when our Volvo B7TL arrived it was wedged with school pupils, so standing along with many others was the only option. 30889 smelt strongly of hot brakes but was nevertheless a good steed and eventually we arrived at the stop near the garage unscathed. At this point I ought to mention that the school pupils from Cliff Park High School in Gorleston were very well behaved and a credit to their families and teachers.
Having signed in at Yarmouth garage, we met Ryan and with Des I was given a guided tour of this pretty massive establishment. Of note for X1 fans was 20126 being given attention and undergoing an MOT, so good news there. In front of it on jacks was 20109 and this may explain why in Lowestoft we saw driver trainer and ex X1 stalwart 20122 being driven by a fitter.

As if three B10Ms wasn't a surprise, we also saw 20115 occupied on the 878 contract and X1 shuttle, so all in all relatively healthy news.
Back at the bus stop, we awaited a service 8 to take us back to town and up popped 30889 again, this time with plenty of room on board thank goodness. The driver engaged in some banter with Des and was pleased he'd made up quite a lot of lost time.

So to Yarmouth and a short wait for my homebound X1. Whilst waiting Mr. Woodhouse arrived driving 37572 on Y13 which I'd missed seeing earlier and next was my bus, 37577 on L10 driven by James who gave an impressive performance in handling the B9. Top speed was attained on several occasions and arrival at Lynn was fractionally early.
On the way I noted that services from Peterborough had obviously been in the wars, 37157 was packed when viewed at Acle running 21 late on K14. Next was 37566 noted departing Norwich bus station at 17.51 (26 late). With Bruce having texted to say 37160 was almost 40 late at Tilney on K16, it was a major surprise to see it departing Norwich 30 seconds early, still on K16. Presumably it had run light from Lynn to Norwich ?
Whilst at Norwich, the second broken down bus of the day was sighted, this time an Optare Solo belonging to Neaves which had been due to work a Happisburgh service.
37570 was sighted on Newmarket Road on K17 and K18 with 37156 was just entering Easton pretty near to time at 18.29. 37574 on K19 was also punctual leaving Dereham, but after this K1 went missing - it was eventually passed near Necton, still with 37579, but running 26 late with 'not in service' on the front. Passengers had to wait for K2 which was 12 late into Swaffham with 37576.

With 37575 having been glimpsed at Lowestoft on K3 (above) , this just left K4 outstanding and it was seen leaving Lynn about 5 late with 37564 on the 19.35 to Lowestoft.
Bruce later told me that 37156 on K18 had not gone to Peterborough this afternoon and instead, at 15.15, it was resting at Vancouver Avenue, so another service gap which is disappointing.
37577 left Lynn on time, but the relieving driver didn't seem very interested in getting away from the South Gates driver change very swiftly. As a result we were 7 late by Walpole Highway where Bruce was in situ to kindly deliver me home.

So in my opinion, a good day out meeting some friendly staff and enjoying the fine views afforded by the upper deck of the Geminis.

Thursday 8th September 2011 ~ Spot On

2011-09-12T00:18:00.000+01:00

Today was just about as good as it gets on the X1 from an operators point of view, all on time (or thereabouts) and all low floor Geminis.
37575 had attention for an electrical fault today and despite this, is probably still at the top of the mileage table. By today it had run 340,666 miles. 37156 was the other spare at Lynn today and although older than the B9 Geminis, it has amassed 289,660 miles - the lower figure being because of its initial use on Norwich City services, rather than long hauls. Lowestoft kept 37158 as spare today.

37576 after arrival at King's Lynn tonight off K5.

Wednesday 7th September 2011 ~ Training the New Recruits

2011-09-08T21:23:00.000+01:00

The likelihood of B10M coaches returning regularly to the X1, now that just 20115 and 20126 remain as possibilities, is remote it would seem. Occasionally though 20109 is seen in use as a driver trainer, back on June 15th, John W saw it in Gaywood and on Monday it was seen by Malcolm in Gorleston.
The X2 seems to be using anything available at the moment and yesterday Malcolm reports Dart 43463 on the 14.38 Lowestoft - Norwich. Today Michael Bryant phoned to say 37571 had surprisingly appeared on the 12.38 after 37156 was called back to Lynn for servicing. Michael says that as far as he is aware, 571 is the only B9 Gemini never to have appeared on the X2 - until now that is. In addition 34157 was on the 10.38 today.
Timekeeping on the X1 was exemplary today with very light road traffic levels, three morning services from Peterborough were either early or on time into Wisbech, these being L8 10.35 with 37574, Y9 11.05 with 37576 and L10 11.35 with 37567. The only hiccup occurred late afternoon when K17 with 37156 (having replaced 37571 - see above) was 10 late on the 15.05 ex Peterborough and then K18 which had been just 2 late going west with 37157, must have encountered a problem en route as it was 16 late returning.
37160 was the Lynn spare bus today with 37575 sidelined for Volvo attention at Lynn on Thursday.

Tuesday 6th September 2011 ~ I Don't Know How They Do It !

2011-09-08T21:07:00.000+01:00

The reliability of the Geminis now seems higher than ever - remarkable when one considers the vast mileages they amass. Failures in service are almost unknown and gaps in the service are almost always caused by traffic delays. Today I didn't see the 12.18 Wisbech to Peterborough (Y13), but it was on time returning east with 37564. That one I can put down to it being on time westbound (I was late at my vantage post), but this afternoon K18 was an absentee in both directions - it should have been 37572.
L11 was the only service which ran appreciably late today, it was 19 late from Wisbech at 11.37 westbound with 37569. The driver was clearly making an effort though and it was just 10 late coming back.
New ads for more films manifested themselves on the sides of the Geminis today, this time for Warrior and I Don't Know How She Does It ! 37160 was noted in traffic today with just half its Apollo 18 ad remaining on the side and 37157 currently has no advert on the offside which is unusual.
37563 and 37159 were spare at Lynn today after servicing and 37156 was likewise at Lowestoft.

Monday 5th September 2011 ~ Missing Lincs

2011-09-06T23:37:00.000+01:00

Yes the second of two days at Long Sutton for me, so thanks to the usual suspects for keeping me informed ! Only one swap today as far as I can ascertain, 37575 on L8 being changed for 37564 fresh off servicing. 37156 remained at Lowestoft today.

Today was the first day of operation of KonectBus route 1 - Watton - Swaffham - King's Lynn, photographed by our man on the spot and also noted on X1 vehicles today was new legal lettering on the side as seen here on 37577

Sunday 4th September 2011 ~ Olympic Cast Offs ?

2011-09-06T23:23:00.000+01:00

New vehicles for the X1 which we reported as being in the pipeline, are allegedly going to be initially used for the Olympics in London before transfer ! Well we will see, but several of the B9s are now approaching mileages of 340,000, so something will need to happen before long.
37579 working the 15.50 King's Lynn to Peterborough was 13 late this afternoon while at some point 37566 was changed on K1 for 37157. This evening 37574 was 3 early on the 18.10 ex Peterborough, an unusual occurrence these days. Malcolm reports 37566 working K1 and 37573 arriving on K2. This afternoon 37568 worked K5 and 37572 arrived on K6 before working the 15.10 service 1A to Martham.

Saturday September 3rd 2011 ~ Coachless

2011-09-06T23:09:00.000+01:00

A postscript to Friday first of all, it would seem that timekeeping did get a bit chaotic in the afternoon, as Bruce reported a trio of eastbound X1s passing him as follows : K16 37157 at 16.17 (42 late), K17 with 37158 having replaced 37571 at Lowestoft earlier at 16.24 19 late and then K18 with 37159 at 16.47, 12 late. So three consecutively numbered B7s passed him in a 30 minute period.
Late on Friday evening a 'First' driver from Scotland arrived in King's Lynn and after a Travellodge overnight, he reappeared this morning and took Profile coach 20352 at 06.00 to Aberdeen. This leaves 20115 and 20126 as the only available coaches for X1 work.
Saturday was an all low floor service with some late running at times. Even early on, K2 and K3 07.35 and 08.05 from Peterborough were already late to the tune of 6 and 7 minutes by Wisbech (37565 & 37564 respectively). A pretty good morning ensued, but by lunch delays were increasing. L9 with 37157 which had been 8 late to Peterborough was 14 late returning, Y10 had 37159 8 late and returning 13 late. K14 with 37577 was 15 late westbound and 10 late returning and even by late afternoon when services are normally more punctual, the 15.48 Wisbech to Peterborough (K1 with 37578) was 15 late and the 15.05 from Peterborough 17 late with 37566.
Spare today were 37158 and 37160 at Lynn and 37156 at Lowestoft. Hitherto not reported was 37158 on Thursday 1st doing a full day's stint on the X2.

Friday September 2nd 2011 ~ Out of the Picture

2011-09-03T21:22:00.000+01:00

I was banished to Long Sutton today, but having been informed what was working what early on, I made a list of what I expected to be visible in King's Lynn garage tonight and was (most unusually) spot on. No swaps occurred during the day it would seem with 37569 and 37579 both spare for servicing requirements. At Lowestoft, Malcolm saw 37158 at Gordon Road not in service and says timekeeping was better today. 66959 arrived at Lynn for attention as expected.

37567 arrives at Wisbech as the 05.50 Great Yarmouth to Peterborough this morning.

Thursday 1st September 2011 ~ Visitors

2011-09-03T21:07:00.000+01:00

One thing I forgot to mention since the blog returned, is that even though King's Lynn garage now has sole responsibility for maintaining the X1 fleet, the amount of work still doesn't equate to what it was when it operated the local town fleet. It is probably because of this that vehicles from Norwich are now making appearances at Vancouver Avenue for repairs. John W, you may have to come out of retirement !
As reported previously, one of the Routemasters had its MOT carried out here and somewhat surprisingly was actually shown on a recent fleet list as being allocated to King's Lynn. It has gone now though and last week Trident 33235 was present. Currently Wright Eclipse bodied single decker 66959 (once an occasional sight on the X1) is expected.
Rob Brooks also emailed me with a matter we left outstanding. The coach he viewed at Welbourne's yard in Wisbech was 60031 - R346GHS and there was also another white liveried B10M which was not 20102. Rob sent this picture taken from the perimeter fence having been advised that admission to get a closer one would almost certainly be refused.

It is worth mentioning at this point that there is an X1 connection here as withdrawn B10M 20140 was R342GHS.
Back to the X1 today then and this morning several services appeared marginally before time, these were K5 09.05 from Peterborough with 37568, Y7 08.45 Lynn to Peterborough with 37160 and Y9 11.05 from Peterborough with 37575. By afternoon though delays were occurring. 37157 on L11 was 9 x 10 late at Wisbech, K16 14.35 from Peterborough was 15 late with 37565 and 37566 on K18 was 9 x12 late westbound and eastbound respectively.
At Lowestoft Malcolm reports 37576 arriving 14 minutes late on K2 and departing westbound 10 minutes late, all of which had been recouped by the time I saw it at Wisbech at 16.20. 37159 arrived on time on K3 continues Malcolm and spare vehicle 37158 worked the 14.08 service X2 to Norwich followed by Dart 43465 on the 14.38 service.
Coach 20352 began the day on K3 as usual, but by this evening 37159, fresh off repairs had replaced it. 37574 was spare for servicing at Lynn today and 37577 had its MOT completed.

Wednesday 31st August 2011 ~ Blink and You'll Miss It

2011-09-02T00:28:00.000+01:00

Twice today services seemed to go awol from their Wisbech stops. This morning the 09.48 to Peterborough (L8) failed to appear, although it did return just 3 late on the 10.35 from Peterborough with 37563. As a consequence, 37578 on Y9 10.18 westbound from Wisbech was as wedged as I've seen a Gemini, all seats taken. This afternoon, I must have blinked because I definitely missed K19 15.18 to Peterborough - it did appear though eastbound as 37570 6 late for the 16.56 Wisbech to Lowestoft.
All in all, punctuality was less than spectacular today. 37568 on Y7 09.18 Wisbech to Peterborough was 1 early, but after that it was all downhill. 37565 on L11 was 9 late in each direction, then 37156 on K14 managed to be 17 late westbound, however, it had (surprisingly) made up some of this loss to pass through eastbound only 8 late on the 13.35 from Peterborough. K16 14.35 from Peterborough, which is notorious for late running, was 13 late into Wisbech with 37158. K1 westbound was 17 late with 37575 having lost time en route as Malcolm reports it just 2 late from Lowestoft, whereas perversely 37564 on K2 16.18 Wisbech to Peterborough passed me just 2 minutes in arrears, when earlier it had been 16 x 7 late from Lowestoft. Passengers who missed it had a long wait, as 20352 on K3 was noted passing Bruce's bungalow 36 minutes late and Malcolm reports the coach as being 8 late in and 5 late out of Lowestoft. The added delay may have been down to an accident which affected the Hardwick roundabout. K4 did run too though and 37573 was 9 late, or to put it another way, just 3 minutes behind the Profile.
37566 had started the day on K4, but it had an appoimtment with Marty, the Volvo engineer at Lynn, so 37573 came out to work forward on the 10.02 to Lowestoft. Our man at the wheel, Des Speed says " I was driving 37574 on the 09.25 ex Lowestoft as far as Lynn. Nicely on time until coming out of Norwich, Newmarket Road being down to one lane controlled by auto boards, this made us 4 late at Easton (11.17), then stop go boards at Toftwood helped to make us -3 at Swaffham (12.10). Arrival in Lynn was 6 late at 12.43. Heading back east 37160 was on time on K18 17.02 from Lynn to Yarmouth".

Tuesday 30th August 2011 ~ Normality Resumes

2011-09-01T00:04:00.000+01:00

Several subtle changes have occurred during the blogs absence. 37569 has had its destination displays changed to the standard large font, this happened around 13th August and leaves 37579 as the only one retaining the narrow font style. Various new ads have appeared including ones for the new films 'One Day' and 'Apollo'. Today a new scheme for 'Team Milk' appeared having been fitted to buses stabled at Lowestoft over the weekend. Noted with this were 37564/567/574.
Back at the office window, punctuality was under the spotlight. Successive departures from Wisbech to Peterborough were bang on time this morning, Y6 had 37573, Y7 was 37160 and L8 37578. Later there were a few delays with 37567 running 9 late on L10 (the 10.48) and Y13 with 37156 10 late on the 12.18. L11 with 37158 lost ten minutes on the western section, 3 late x 13 late returning. 37565 on K14 was 12 late but this had reduced to 8 late on the 13.35 from Peterborough. K15 (37574) was 21 late at the Southgates on the 12.45 from Lynn to Peterborough and later passed Wisbech 13 late on the 14.05 ex Peterborough. As the afternoon progressed, so timings improved.
20352 was once again in use on K3 and it looks as if King's Lynn will miss this vehicle when it departs, such has been its reliability this time round. Not out today were 37577 on MOT prep and 37159 still awaiting repair to its fuel tank. There was a swap at Lowestoft on Y9 which these days is very rare, 37569 was changed for 37566 in order that the latter could be in position at Lynn tomorrow for servicing and attention from Marty the Volvo man.
Because of the Bank Holiday, the servicing requirement at Lynn has become congested. K4 started today with 37157, but this came off at 09.57 for freshly serviced 37572 to work forward enabling 37157 to be dealt with. Y6 then had 37573 due for attention removed for the aforementioned 37157 to take over. 37570 was also serviced today doing the regular 'off maintenance' turn, K5.

August Bank Holiday Review

2011-08-30T22:28:00.000+01:00

Another omnibus blog entry as I continue to catch up with things.
Thursday was a poor day for sightings all round, but 37157 was seen by Malcolm working the 15.03 X2 off Lowestoft.
Friday saw 37159 stopped with a fuel tank leak and it has been off the road right through until today (Monday). Delays on Friday were heavy at one point. At 18.05 Bruce passed four X1 vehicles following each other up London Road in King's Lynn heading out of town. 37576 was on Y6 and then came 37157 heading for Lowestoft, 37571 not in service and 37569 also heading for Lowestoft !
37579 which had been on Y6 in the morning found itself ob the 15.03 X2 to Norwich instead.37575 was stopped at Lynn for rear end collision repairs. Des reports "Acle Straight closed from approx 11.00 am till 16.00. All X1 services via A1064. I was with 20126 on the 17.10 Norwich - Gorleston short, we departed on time but on the inward journey I had spotted an accident on Trowse bypass (A146). I had seen 37564 leave Norwich on time (16.55). I decided to take the A140 route out of Norwich. I caught and overtook 37564 @ Gorleston Library @ 18.12. He was approx 20 late."
Saturday saw my annual trip to Peterborough beerfest and my journey was aboard 37157 on the 10.48. Our departure from Wisbech was about 3 late and our amenable driver did well in the busy traffic. Shame the same can't be said about the top deck internally - look at the muck in here :

Travel back from the beerfest was in a fast car and a total of only four out of 19 X1 turns accounted for, so onto Sunday......37160 was out on the 10.30 ex Yarmouth, seen near Tilney running 14 late. Remainder of the service worked by 37563/4/5/6/8, 37571/2/3/9.
Bank Holiday Monday saw heavy delays due to the traffic. 37579 on the 13.50 Lynn to Peterborough had at one stage earlier in its journey lost nearly 40 mins, but this had reduced to 20 by Walpole with some smart driving. The service was B9 worked apart from 37160 on K6 which does the afternoon Martham service. The 10.20 Lowestoft - Norwich X2 was viewed with 37158 by Malcolm. 37575 was ready for return to service at Lynn after minor rear collision damage and 37577 is now stopped for MOT prep work.

Sunday's 13.10 from Peterborough to Lowestoft near Walpole with 37565 being amongst the majority of X1 Geminis without any rear advertising now.

Thursday 25th August 2011 ~ The Return of the X1 Blog !

2011-08-26T13:56:00.000+01:00

Well just when you thought it was safe, the X1 blog returns. After two weeks without a phone and then a further absence with me on holiday, I thought it was time to resurrect the old thing.
The period I have missed doesn't seem to be one where a great deal has happened. All the usual rumours are rife, but little has changed and loan Profile coach is still seeing almost daily use despite the Gemini fleet being back to full strength.
Here is a brief listing of the main goings on ...
Wed 3rd August : 37158 on the 11.08 X2, 37573 at Volvo. Malcolm reported 37565 15 late on K1, 20352 25 late on Y9 and 37160 17 late into Lowestoft on L11 and it was then 10 late departing westbound.

Thu 4th August : 37567 released off MOT straight onto K14 15.02 Lynn to Lowestoft replacing 37578. 37156 had a full day on the X2 between 06.45 and the 14.38, 37579 to Volvo and 37158 taken off L10 with a wiper fault, 37572 replacing it.

Fri 5th August : 37564 sent to Volvo with a rear axle problem. 37578 was 14 late into Lowestoft on K19, but a swift operation saw it just 3 late departing.

Sat 6th August : Due to an adblu fault with 37578 on K14, 37569 replaced. 37566 had to be taken off K2 at Lowestoft to have a window replaced, I think 37159 was the replacement.

Sun 7th August : 37571 stopped for MOT work. 37159 on K6

Mon 8th August : 20352 unusual on K16

Tue 9th August : 37569 failed at Dereham on Y13, so 37575 was sent out by Lynn having come in on L11 and this did the 21.50 last bus to Peterborough. 37156 was already 22 late on Y6 14.55 ex Lowestoft by Acle. Temporary lights at Bilney church all day caused delays.

Wed 10th August : Y13 was in trouble again, this time 37577 came to a halt at Norwich with one wheel temperature reading 35'c and the other 135'c ! The nearest tacho fitted suitable vehicle was 20126 at Yarmouth and this ran empty to Lynn to resume Y13. The evening part of Y13 had 37576 which had a swift turn around off K14. 37577 was taken to Volvo after cooling down. 37157 was meanwhile working the 10.08 X2 from Lowestoft.

Thu 11th August : L12 began the day with 37574 but ended up with 37571 fresh off its MOT. Six diagrams were not seen today.

Fri 12th August : Ten of the nineteen turns were viewed, all seemingly without incident.

Sat 13th August : At some point L9 had 37563 changed for 20352. K18 had 37158 changed for 37157 at Lowestoft. In Norwich traffic was diverted with the A11 closed at Daniels Road Roundabout all weekend. X1s in and out via A140.

Sun 14th August : 37157 did Y8 and Y7 was 37159, slightly unusual for a Sunday.

Mon 15th August : L10 had 37569 swapped for 37566 at lunchtime and later 37576 didn't complete Y13 because it hit a deer east of King's Lynn around 21.00. K15 with 37574 was 22 late westbound and 16 late eastbound through Wisbech this afternoon. Des says "Points of interest today -
In Norwich @ 06.50 road closed signs for A11 closed @ Daniels Rd roundabout closed (A11/Ring Road) as per all weekend, in place, but A11 open.
In Dereham @ 07.30 - Road signs for Market place closed from 09.30 - In reality, cenotaph roundabout partial closed, all traffic, in and out via inbound route under control.
(On afternoon journey, managed to negotiate Dereham, under board control, quicker than by normal traffic lights!!!)
Norwich - 15.55 to Low, bus 37159 (small luggage area) - 1 ridden wheelchair, 1 closed wheelchair, 4 extra large suitcases, 1 medium suitcase & 1 large holdall, do not fit into such a small space!!! Front O/S seat needed to accommodate all this luggage.

Tue 16th August : 37564 at last returned from Volvo to King's Lynn. K4 with 37569 had this swapped for 37578 at 19.30 because of an oil leak. Malcolm saw 37568 being attended to by a Volvo fitter at Lowestoft depot this afternoon and when 37157 arrived at 14.00 on K5, its scheduled departure at 13.55 was cancelled and it eventually left at 14.27 'not in service'.

Wed 17th August : 37576 complete with new light cluster was ready for traffic again this evening. K5 had 37567 swapped for 37564 at 10.30. 567 then had an exam before taking up Y6 early evening from 37578. Malcolm saw 20115 on the 09.10 Norwich - Yarmouth shuttle.

Thu 18th August : 20352 did K3 for the fourth successive day with 37568 & 37574 stopped at Lynn for safety servicing. 37567 was 20 down with the 11.15 Lynn to Peterborough.

Fri 19th August. L8 started with 37159, but it was swapped at Lowestoft for 37572 - had the B7 continued, refuelling would have been required. 37158 was 22 late on K3 16.15 Lynn to Peterborough, 37573 was 26 late on K15 14.05 ex Peterborough. 37568 on K5 was terminated at Norwich at 15.25 with Adblue pump failure, top speed 30-35 mph.

Sat 20th August. Chaos in the west at lunchtime. L11 was 3 late westbound but 19 late on the 12.05 ex Peterborough. L12 with 37159 was 15 late, then 34 late returning on the 12.35. Y13 was seen on the 13.05 ex Peterborough running 39 late. K14 was 36 late on the 12.15 Lynn to Peterborough and because of this it was terminated at Wisbech with passengers then waiting for 37571 on K15 which itself was 18 late. K16 with 37156 wasn't seen but K17 14.18 Wisbech to Peterborough was 14 late and very well loaded, perhaps indicating that K16 hadn't appeared.

Sun 21st August. Des reports "37566 15.30 Yarmouth to Peterborough (me off at Lynn), depart -2 (15.32), Large crowd to load - Traffic in and out of Norwich (football and shoppers). Depart Nor -7 (16.17). Queued out of Norwich, Arrive Dereham - 25 (17.09) - Arrive Lynn - 23 (18.07) Should depart for Peterborough at 17.50."

Mon 22nd - Thu 25th August - all is quiet !

Many thanks to Bruce Billingham, Malcolm Hicks, Des Speed and many others for keeping me informed.

Update

2011-08-15T10:45:00.000+01:00

Well still no home phone or internet - good old BT Openreach ! My AOL address book seems to have been hacked in my absence too which is infuriating. I have changed my AOL password in the hope that this will stop my contacts receiving spam. Plenty to report when the full blog returns including a case of hot wheels and the return of 20126, somewhat briefly. My line is due to be restored today (Monday) ...... and last Friday and last Wednesday and last Monday........................Not holding my breath !

Telecommunications

2011-08-08T12:40:00.000+01:00

Sorry for the lack of updates since Tuesday. My home telephone line has been down since Friday and I'm therefore writing this at work ! I hope the BT people will reconnect me sometime today (Monday) and then we will have a summary blog for the days I have missed. regards to you all, Gerard.

Tuesday 2nd August 2011 ~ Barbarians & Cowboys

2011-08-05T00:50:00.000+01:00

I am once more indebted to Des and Bruce for holding the fort for me today. I did, however, go for a drive out tonight and noticed the ad-man affixing new boards to the Gemini fleet. The two new schemes are predictably for films and were it not for this source of income, I suspect 'CBS Outdoor' - the huge advertising company responsible for these contracts - might have gone bust years ago ! 'Conan The Barbarian' proclaims one and 'Cowboys & Aliens' , the other.

37567 undergoing MOT work and now fitted with a striking new advert.

There were two diagram swaps today, firstly K3 saw 37570 (Volvo bound) give way to 37572 for the 09.32 Lynn to Lowestoft, while K17 had 37573 taken off at 16.27 and 37565 ex Volvo worked forward. All other turns seemed well behaved and 37160 was spare at Lowestoft.
20352 is not being kept on such a tight leash these days and today it 'escaped' again on K18, normally a B7 turn.

Monday 1st August 2011 ~ Banished

2011-08-05T00:34:00.000+01:00

So another new month dawns without sight of a B10M Premiere on the X1. The last such working (excluding the Gorleston - Norwich shuttles) was 20126 on 15th June. Yes July passed without any coaches working save the borrowed 20352. This was back on K3 today, though surely its loan must be nearing an end with 37577 now back on the road ?
One thing I forgot to mention was Rob Brooks identifying the mystery Excel coach seen at Shoebridge's in Wisbech, it was not a First Eastern example. I'll confirm its identity with Rob and let you all know, having succeeded in losing his original text !
Bruce was blogger in chief again today, providing a full list of sightings and nearly all punctual. His main query concerned the non-appearance of 37565/6/7. Well this was because 567 is on MOT prep and the other two were involved in the Volvo gearbox modification programme.
Grahame Bessey noted 37577 departing Lowestoft on L12 this morning and points out something I forgot to mention, this being that it is now minus 'First' logos on the front and is therefore easy to spot from a distance. 37159 is also in this condition, but in B7 livery of course. Malcolm noted 37157 on K5 arriving 9 late into Lowestoft this afternoon and a comprehensive list of weekend sightings too, helping me piece things together. Des reports 34109 on the 08.52 Yarmouth - Norwich shuttle & 09.40 return.

Sunday 31st July 2011 ~ Sunday Service ?

2011-08-03T20:09:00.000+01:00

The only X1 turn I hadn't accounted for today was L10 and here it is with John driving 37573 near Weasenham Lane, Wisbech at just after 13.25 today. [Rob Brooks]

37570 required a front windscreen repair after working K3 yesterday, but it also seems to have been serviced today (can't remember that happening before on a Sunday !). With all the work done, it was fit for working K6 today. This is the turn that does Lynn - Peterborough - Lowestoft and then works the Martham service.
37156 was viewed on K1 15.10 ex Peterborough this afternoon, which is also unusual. It transpired that it had replaced 37568 at Lynn on the 13.50 westbound after passenger illness.
37567 is off the road until Thursday now for MOT prep work. An accident at Tuddenham caused some delays to afternoon X1s today.

Saturday 30th July 2011 ~ Completing the Jigsaw

2011-08-03T19:52:00.000+01:00

On days like today where I don't get to see the service much, many of you combine to give a full picture of events. Going back to yesterday, Marcus says that some of the delays were caused by an A47 accident between Guyhirn and Wisbech during the morning.
Des reports that the overheating problem with 37156 seems to have been cured - today its temperature gauge was reading a normal 78, rather than the 90 which has been commonplace of late. 37156 was working Y10 today and was seen this evening heading for Peterborough 15 late at Tilney.
This delay seems to have been the exception rather than the rule today though. One other late bus was Y7 with 37576 which was 19 late from Lynn on the 11.32 to Lowestoft, but had made up 7 minutes of this by Yarmouth.

37577 with outdated advert for 'Rio' exiting Vancouver Avenue depot today after an unscheduled stop on the 11.15 King's Lynn to Peterborough (L12). [ Des Speed ]

With 37577 returned and 20352 still on the route, there was a surplus of buses today (yes honestly !). 37564 and 37159 were both kept at Lynn for oil and axle checks, while 37571 was spare at Lowestoft - no reports so far of it being in use though.
After its escapades around Lowestoft, 20352 returned to the X1 today, being used on L9 which finishes at King's Lynn. The quick turnover of Geminis at Volvo for the gearbox mods saw 37566 absent for attention today, it is also having its 'drive green' settings sorted.