Monday 29th December 2008 ~ Is That a Scania Gromit ?

The Wisbech public take a closer look at 20126 arriving on Y14 today !

Anyone interested in the history of transport in this country will probably agree with me when I say that it is often the case during periods of cold weather, that the new fails to function and the old is called upon to assist. Eastbound departures from Wisbech this morning were interesting. My observations commenced with K1 07.48 ex Peterborough which was seen 1 minute early at Walsoken with the late lady driver sporting a new blonde hairstyle and in charge of 20105. Rob Brooks was a passenger on K2 08.18 ex P'bo which was also on time with 37576 and actually stood for 2 minutes waiting time at Thorney, a very rare occurrence on the X1. The surprise came next however, with Scania/Wright 65540 again dead on time on K4 08.48 ex P'bo. How far it got is unclear, but it seems as though it may have gone all the way to Lowestoft and back to Lynn before being removed, more of which anon. K6 09.18 Peterborough - Lowestoft had 37579 which was 4 late into Wisbech. Coming from the coast, Y8 06.02 from Yarmouth was on time with 37565, Y9 06.32 ex Yarmouth was 3 late with 37564 (but on time from Wisbech at 20.09 and by the time it passed Walpole was 2 early), J10 06.40 from Gorleston was right time with 37571, J11 07.05 ex Gorleston 2 late with 37578, L12 07.15 from Lowestoft 9 late with 20107 but 19 late returning, 37574 on L13 07.45 ex Lowestoft was also 9 late going west. There was another surprise on the Y14 08.25 ex Lowestoft, the turn which begins with the 07.32 Yarmouth - Lowestoft when it turned up with 20126 running 12 late. The lateness had increased to 18 minutes on the 12.48 ex Peterborough, but it would appear that it came off this turn at Lynn as it was later noted on K4 16.29 Lynn - Peterborough in place of 65540. Y14 tonight was 37563 which is believed to have replaced whatever went forward from Lynn instead of 20126.

Other westbound X1's noted by Bruce and myself were 37566 7 late on K15, 37569 17 late on K17 and 20109 19 late on K18. Later in the afternoon, K5 15.48 ex Peterborough was an unidentified B9 running 13 late, which is appreciably better than the delays it was suffering pre-Christmas.

Tonight I followed L13 19.59 King's Lynn - Peterborough with 20107 on time from Walpole to Wisbech where it was boarded by Rob B who reports the driver ringing through for a replacement due to lack of heating. The next turn it does is the 23.00 Lynn - Hunstanton. Rob also saw K20 20.18 from Peterborough which was 37577.

Going back to Saturday now and Pat travelled outward to Peterborough on J11 10.31 ex Wisbech with 20103 and says the reason for its heavy delay was because the driver entered P'bo via Dogsthorpe instead of Eye and then got caught in the queue of traffic going into Queensgate car park. She returned on K5 15.48 to Great Yarmouth with 20351. Once again she commented on how comfortable the coach travel was as opposed to the Gemini experience.