Tuesday 28th April 2009 ~ Settling In

The new X1 vehicle requirement is as I predicted (pause for head to expand !) now for 19 turns rather than the 21 used previously. The turns can be classified and best explained as follows ;

1. Turns which start and end at King's Lynn : K3, K5, K15, K17, K19. It will be interesting to see if any of these end up being allocated Profiles on a regular basis or whether they will now be used indiscriminately.
2. Turns which begin at Yarmouth / Lowestoft and terminate at Lynn : Y7, and turns 9 - 13 inclusive. Of the three turns which start at Gorleston, it is not known yet where they originate.
3. Turns which begin and end at Yarmouth / Lowestoft : Y6 and Y8
4. Turns which begin at King's Lynn and end at the coast : K1, K2, K4, K14, K16 and K18.

As you may have seen in 'comments', Des was involved in yesterday's delays which were caused by an A47 accident. K14 with 37564 was so late arriving that 20121 was sent out in its place and a cascade then took place with 564 becoming K15, 577 off K15 became K16, 568 off K16 was then held over and replaced 20121. Thanks to Des for explaining things.
Today was quite eventful too. K5 with 37574 was very late arriving at Wisbech for its 08.18 departure to Peterborough and because of a problem with the doors not closing it was terminated and passengers transferred to the first through westbound service Y6 05.50 from Yarmouth which (rather unfortunately from an accommodation point of view) was Profile 20352. Jamie R reports that it was very full. 574 was repaired and was able to continue eastbound at 09.56.
An accident at Guyhirn about 08.15 also meant some services were diverted via Wisbech St. Mary and Tholomas Drove.
Y13 08.15 from Lowestoft had a B10M for the second day running. This time it was 20104 which was removed at Lynn and replaced by 20131 which then did a quick spin to Peterborough and back before 20104 took up its booked turn. Sam reports 104 "departing Norwich for Lowestoft at 16:25 full and having to leave people behind. Good start!"
37564 worked K2 07.30 Peterborough - Lowestoft but it was swapped there for 20107 which then did the 12.25 return. Sam then saw 37564 on the 15.38 Lowestoft - Norwich X2.
The two available B7 Profiles were in use today, 20352 as mentioned above and 20351 out on K17 which now begins with the 06.52 Lynn - Lowestoft.
The biggest surprise of the day though was undoubtedly the use of Scania/Wright 65526 on K3 16.15 King's Lynn - Peterborough and 17.40 back. 37570 had been on the turn but was despatched to the garage where it was due to be serviced. All the B10Ms were in use on either schools or Hunstanton services and 20126 which arrived late last night was out of service having its door sorted out (again !) and having attention to its gears which were slipping. What is even more unusual is that 65526 was used on Park High School (that's Gaywood Park for us oldies) contract this afternoon as reported by Andy. Now I wonder how they managed without seatbelts ? Shhhh !
It was a bad day for A47 accidents as the 17.10 from Peterborough with 20107 lost 25 minutes thanks to another smash near Guyhirn, the 17.40 with the Scania was similarly affected as was K4 18.10 with 37563 and Angela on board who sent a text to say she was most definitely not impressed with the standard of comfort afforded by the B9.
Last night 37567 was seen at Terrington with its destination display having changed to support the bold font as found on 37575/6/8/9 and today 37574 had been similarly re-programmed.
The little men with sticky posters appeared at King's Lynn last night and plastered small rear ads (not sure quite what for yet as I've not seen one at close quarters) on 37563/6/79 and no doubt others too. . 20131 also has a drivers side ad affixed at the rear again now.