Thursday 26th March 2009 ~ The Best Made Plans......

The trouble with the B7 Profiles is that the fleet numbers are not in favourable positions for viewing unless head on. 20353 following its collision repairs, is easily identifiable as Bruce pointed out yesterday, as it has no 'First' branding on the front. I always recognise it as it has a very small fleet number on the front. 20351/2 however are almost identical, although I seem to think that only one of them has yellow backed mirrors, I must check. Anyway, this is all a roundabout way of saying that I cocked up good and proper with my report on the B7s activities yesterday. 20352 had a peculiar day in that it did indeed do L11 as stated, but in fact came off for a service at Lynn at 12.37 and it was this coach which then went east on K20. L11 looks to have received 20351 in its place, so a rare B7 for B7 swap there. Today's B7 workings were much more orthodox with 20351 doing K3 and 20353 on K17, both bang on time this afternoon as was the other one 20352 on Y10 this morning. There is a twist to the tale though, see below.
The reason for the list of Lowestoft's B9s scheduled maintenance services appearing at Lynn garage is in fact because the installation of new pits at Lowestoft depot has meant that Lynn has had to take over maintenance on the Lowestoft B9s until work is complete. This explains various strange goings on, in particular the removal of 37569 from L12 on Tuesday and 37563's use on K4 yesterday - it was serviced at Lynn overnight.
37571 has now gone to 'Full Circle' as mentioned earlier this week and 37570 is believed to have been the B9 which began K7 yesterday but then had to be replaced by 20121. 570 was taken to Norwich Volvo for repairs. It was collected this morning by a King's Lynn fitter and performed faultlessly returning home. After a service it was sent out on L9 11.42 King's Lynn - Lowestoft in place of 37579 which had a faulty windscreen wiper. 570 was in trouble again though on the return leg and warning lights appeared as it left Norwich westbound. In the end it expired at Dereham and had to suffer the indignity of being towed back to the Volvo dealership. As a result of this L9 was cancelled between Dereham and Lynn. 20103 which had done L12 (reported by Judith leaving Wisbech at 12.39), came off at Lynn at 13.07 so that it could do a Hunstanton schools turn was then sent out to resume L9 as the 17.59 Lynn - Peterborough. 103's place on L12 was given to 37574 which had done the Norwich out and back, K20. This left Lynn short for K20 this afternoon and this was viewed at 20.17 tonight heading east with an unidentified B7, presumably 352 off Y10. This means that K20 may have had 37579 this afternoon, but this was in Vancouver Avenue over the pits tonight. It was actually on the MOT pit, so it is possibly the next B9 to undergo this.
Timekeeping was overall good today, but there were some glaring exceptions. Firstly 37563 on K6 contrived to lose 28 minutes by the time it was seen arriving at Wisbech to work the 10.09 to Lowestoft. By this time 37564 on Y8 was not far behind, it being only 6 late. 564 has somehow avoided the advert men and still sports its ad for 'New In Town' on the drivers side. 37565 on Y14 was seen departing Wisbech 17 late on the 13.39 to Lowestoft, although it had regained all of this by this evening. 37573 was 19 late into Wisbech with K7 16.18 Peterborough - Lowestoft. Several Geminis hitherto without any advertising are now carrying the Mars Planets ad and these include 37569/574/578.
B10Ms sent out from Lynn today, both returning this evening were 20109 on K4 and 20118 on K19. The reason for 103 having to cover Hunstanton schools today was because 20131 was stepped up to 41s. Decker 30900 was absent at Bexwell for MOT hence the shortage. The other two schools turns had 20105/121.