Saturday 30th May 2009 ~ Question Time

In the shade, 37572 near Faulkner's Tunnel on Y13 13.05 Peterborough - Lowestoft today.

and in the sun...... 37566 seen near Walpole Highway on K18 10.55 from Lowestoft.

I saw the man in charge tonight and we had a long chat which helps to answer some recent queries. Several people have pointed out that in a clip on Look East on Thursday, a B10M was seen arriving at the scene of the accident at Thorney from the east. Turns out this was 20118 which was supposed to have been sent from Lynn to reach the accident location from the west side and extricate the two passengers who didn't need hospital treatment (in fact the two guys interviewed on Look East). Due to an error in communications, 118 arrived from the wrong direction much to the consternation of all concerned, however it did rescue the two passengers and transfer them to a following service. The damage to 37571 is quite extensive and the front looks quite twisted which may not be good news for its longevity.

Other Gemini news involves 37570 which was collected from repair at Volvo last night and after checks was used on K5 today, but not before 20118 had done the first leg to Peterborough and back. 37578 is now off the road, it did L12 yesterday but has been grounded with No. 2 injector failed and it also requires a new water pump.

Profile 20353 remains on No. 1 pit at Vancouver Avenue, a position it has occupied all week due to its disabled ramp having packed up. One of the reasons for its delay in returning to service is that Lynn has suffered a maintenance staff shortage this week. This has been exacerbated by another Dart arriving from Bury St. Edmunds for MOT. Meanwhile at Rowan Road the tally of vehicles needing repair increases. Scania 65528 has been delicensed there for some time, but now 65525 needs major attention also. B10Ms 20106 (suspension + servicing) and 20121 (battery / cutting out) are still at the back of the queue. 20118/123/131 are earmarked for schools use this coming week with 20105/9 as X1 spares. Whilst on the subject of 20105, last Sundays outing on private hire was to Newmarket. Earlier this year 20105/9 both travelled to Nottingham on similar work. 20109 is reported to have suffered in the same way as the other restricted B10Ms, in that the seats have been damaged whilst being used on the Hunstanton schools jobs.

The X1 seemed to run fairly well today. King's Lynn had to produce no less than four B10Ms this morning to stand in for non-available B9s. K1 had 20103, K4 had 20109 to Peterborough and back before 37573 could take over. K5 as reported above had 20118 which was then changed for 37570, while K3 had a coach all day in the shape of 20105. From the other end, 20126 was standing in all day on Y6 which should end up at Lowestoft tonight. 126 had been seen just before lunch about 20 late heading east, but by this evening it had made all that up. 20351 did L9 and 20352 was on K19. The short turn (L12) had 37563 and this may not be coincidence as 563s availability is definitely lower than comparable B9s. 37575 looks to have been spare at Lowestoft today, it didn't come back to Lynn on K15 last night and 37567 off K14 did the last leg.