Wednesday 8th April 2009 ~ The Magnificent Seven

20109 approaches Walpole Highway on K15 today - a very notable working. If you click on the photo to enlarge it, 37573 can be seen heading east in the background.

It is now almost 6 months since the first B9 Geminis entered service and today was the most noteworthy day since that occurrence. The guys from Volvo turned up at Lynn and the CCTV was sorted out on several B9s, while others were inspected. This could not have been carried out in the schools term due to the requirement for B10Ms, so today was as good a day as any. The upshot of this was the appearance of no less than seven Premieres on the X1 standing in for grounded Geminis. The full tally was as follows ;

20104 K19 to LFT, K4 13.25 LFT - PBO, 17.48 PBO - KLN

20105 K7 until 14.54 (replaced by 37570 off CCTV repairs)

20107 Y8 06.02 YAR - PBO etc all day finishing at KLN at 20.07

20109 K15 until 14.37 (replaced by Gemini - either 37563 or 37576 at KLN)

20121 K4 07.29 KLN - PBO, 08.48 PBO - LFT, K19 back to KLN

20126 Y21 17.25 LFT - KLN

20127 L13 07.45 LFT - PBO etc all day finishing at KLN at 22.37

The use of 20109 on K15 was exceptional and this turn has been almost exclusively Paragon and more recently Gemini worked. It has only produced a B10M for its 05.42 start on a handful of occasions over the last four years. Almost as rare was the use of both 20126 and 20127 on the main X1, something which I haven't recorded since late October and certainly a rarity following 127s transfer to Yarmouth. 20126 was a pleasant surprise on Y21 this evening and 37575 had been expected.

Bruce travelled to Dereham this morning by car and noted 37570 on Y14 and 37576 on K16 amongst others. By the time these turns reached Wisbech they had 37578 and 37574 instead. John W says "Went by Vancouver Avenue this morning with no time to spare - 37578 was outside, nothing unusual in one being outside BUT inside were 3 smart clean elephants, all in a line as if ready to go". 37578 had in fact done K20 and then took Y14 forward from 37570. 570 itself was repaired in time to relieve 20105 on K7 at 14.59 to Peterborough. L11 and L12 from Lowestoft both changed B9s at Lynn, 37564/574 off for 37573/567 forward. Later at 12.07 37563 came off Y10 and 37564 went forward to the coast. K6 09.18 ex Peterborough with 37565 had a change at Lynn with 37571 working east at 10.42. Later this evening Rob B and myself both saw 37565 heading for 'Owestoft' on K20. 37576 was removed from K16 at 12.54 and as already mentioned 37574 took over. 37576 is believed to have then gone to Full Circle for bodywork repairs, however, with 20109 coming off K15 at 14.07, it looks as if either 37563 or just possibly 37576 took over. As if all these swaps weren't enough, K1 went east this morning with 37569 only to return west with 37568.

Despite all this frantic changing of vehicles, only one service was heavily delayed, this being K2 which was 27 late going to Peterborough this afternoon at 16.58 (due off Wisbech at 16.31) with 37577. 20104 was close behind running on time.
Sorry no details. The only X1 vehicle I noted was 20107 , incoming for the 08.29 to Pboro. Special thanks to Bruce and Rob B for helping unravel today's mysteries.