Monday 8th December 2008 ~ Confusion Abounds

You might think with Bruce, John, Terence and myself on the case today that we would have a concise list of X1 workings. Yes reports flew in from far and wide and yet the full picture is still not known as during the morning their seems to have been a major delay west of Lynn which threw the booked diagrams into chaos.
The trouble seems to have started early on, so let's look firstly at the eastbound services. K15 05.42 Lynn - Lowestoft was 37570 and this stuck to the turn all day and actually seemed least affected by the days events. It was 4 late at lunchtime and dead on time out of Wisbech on the final westbound service at 22.31 tonight. K16 was 37574 and this had lost 18 minutes by lunchtime. K17 had 20353 which was only 7 late at Walpole Highway at 13.27 going west and K18 following was 10 down with stalwart 20107. K3 had also only lost a little time with 20351 and K5 which does the 05.24 Lynn - Peterborough etc was 21 late passing Bruce on the 11.25 from Lowestoft. K7 kept fairly good time with 37578 and was only 15 late departing from Wisbech on the 15.31 to Peterborough.
K1 07.48 Peterborough - Lowestoft with 37572 was the first service delayed by the unknown incident. it was only 7 late from Wisbech (08.39 sched) but had somehow lost 40 minutes when John saw it leaving Lynn at 09.53. The following service, K2 , had 20111 as power and was only 6 late passing Bruce at Walpole on the 08.18 ex P'bo, but had dropped 17 minutes on arrival at Lynn. Interestingly, Terence saw these two services in Gorleston later and by that time the B10 had overtaken 37572 although both were together !
Things then get complicated and the next eastbound turn (K4) which was 37576 was 17 late at Walpole but then got caught in the major delay and arrived at Lynn at 11.06, 59 minutes late !! The following K6 which itself was 16 late passing Bruce with 37569 somehow made a diversion and actually overtook K4 arriving at Lynn shortly before it and duly departing to Lowestoft at 11.04 (22 late). 37576 on K4 had made up time by this evening and was only 10 late at Wisbech for the 17.01 to Peterborough. 37569 also stuck to its turn and was about 10 late this evening on the 18.18 ex Peterborough.
The first westbound turn originating on the coast is Y8 06.02 Yarmouth - Peterborough and this was slightly late and again took the alternative route out of Wisbech owing to the over-running roadworks on Cromwell Road. The new Lidl supermarket (opposite Tesco) was due to open today, but despite threats from Tesco to sue over loss of trade, the temporary traffic lights which have caused chaos for the last few weeks remained in situ today. 37579 was the bus on Y8 and this took the diversion in both directions and avoided other delays and managed to depart Lynn for Lowestoft at 11.14, just 2 minutes late. Tonight however, it had lost time and was seen on the 18.48 Peterborough - Lynn at Tilney All Saints at 20.14 running approx 20 late. Y9 with 37564 fared better this morning being only 4 late returning from Peterboro' on the 10.18 to Lowestoft.
What happened next is a bit of a mystery, J10 appears to have been 37577 seen by Bruce running about 10 late on the 10.48 ex P'bo, but when John arrived at Lynn bus station at 09.55 he saw 37565 departing for Peterborough and naturally assumed this was J10 westbound running 26 late. 565 was next reported by Bruce at Walpole en route to Peterborough at 10.42, so it lost 28 minutes on this stretch due to the unknown incident. Bruce of course assumed this was J11 !! Complicated or what ? The obvious answer would seem to be that J11 due off Lynn at 09.59 had an eager driver and left 4 early at 09.55, but then we find that John witnessed 37573 leaving for Peterborough on time for J11 at 09.59 ! Somehow we seem to have gained a bus !
The huge delay affected 37573 also and this didn't pass Walpole Highway until 10.53, having lost 35 minutes. Now I don't expect those of you unfamiliar with the X1 timetable to understand a word of this, but I'm explaining things chiefly for the benefit of those who kindly submitted their observations.
37573's driver decided to stick to the booked route negotiating the Wisbech roadworks in both directions and as a result I saw it arriving at Wisbech bus station at 13.08 on its way back east. So as we simply don't know what turn it was on, all we can say is that if it was J11 it was by now 64 minutes late and if it was L12, just 34 mins in arrears. How far it worked is unclear, but 37573 was at Rowan Road tonight and I suspect the service may well have been terminated at Lynn and passengers transferred to L13 which was only 13 minutes behind - see below.
The equilibrium (and try spelling that at this time of night), seems to have been settled by there being no 10.29 westbound from Lynn and instead at 11.02, 37567 arrived at Lynn to do the 10.59 to Peterborough (L13). The obstruction which had hindered preceding services appears to have been cleared as this was about 6 late from Lynn, 9 late at Walpole outward and 13 late at the same location returning east.
Services now resumed some semblance of normality with Y14 08.25 ex Lowestoft which had 37575 as far as Lynn where it was removed for servicing and replaced by 37571 off K20. 571 then proceeded to astonish all and sundry by being 10 late going to Peterborough and returning on time !! My bet is that it failed to go to P'bo rail station, but may be I'm just a cynic. 37575 continued on K20 after its booked maintenance.
There was one final twist in this saga of B9 supremacy. 37568 had a service at Lowestoft today but Syd says before this it worked the 09.11 service 99 from Southwold ! Anyway it was back at King's Lynn tonight as were 37565/67/77 , so I'm guessing that one of these must have replaced smokey 20103 on K19, the X2 turn. Finally (really they cried ?) what of the only Gemini not featured so far today, 37566 ? Well this turned up on L13 16.55 from Lowestoft tonight while 37567 which had been on this turn came in 30 mins earlier on L12. So all the B9s accounted for today then, I think I need a stiff drink after that lot.
On a sadder note 20500/01 left for First Essex today, while 37574 needs a new drivers seat, 37563 has intermittant CCTV and random bodywork leaks, 37577 also has leaks, 37565 has tacho issues and leaks and 37571 has a failed ad blu sensor. Oh well, that's progress for you.