Friday 3rd July 2009 ~ Keeping The Show On The Road

Taken from Bruce's driveway this morning was this picture of 20105 making haste on L11 07.15 from Lowestoft. About a minute later 20118 passed by eastbound.

The 10.05 from Peterborough passes the Fair Green turn today with 20118.

After the weather broke today there was some pleasant evening sunshine being enjoyed by the passengers on 37563 which was working L8 15.25 Lowestoft - Peterborough.

The daily efforts which go on at First to keep advertised services running are often glossed over. Credit must be given to Richard and his team at King's Lynn today for doing just that. Initially this morning things looked OK, but at 07.50 the driver of 37577 on K1 rang in from Thorney Toll to say his charge had broken down with an oil leak. Volvo engineers attended and after repairs it was able to return to King's Lynn garage. Thanks to Andy James for alerting me to this. Meanwhile a replacement vehicle had to be found and 20351 which had been sidelined for MOT preparation had to be used as the 08.32 to Lowestoft. This afternoon 351 was taken off so that repaired 37577 could continue eastbound on the 18.02 to Great Yarmouth. Things were pretty desperate on the schools contract front too. 20106 required a new radiator after doing the morning part of Contract 2 and 20123 was planned to be repaired in time to do the afternoon part, however it was back in Vancouver Avenue tonight, so whether it worked is unclear. 20109 and 20131 were the other two coaches used, but 131 was seen departing on a 40 to Hunstanton at 12.53 sounding very unhealthy. The low floor service on this route was clearly abandoned today as a minute before this a 41 left for Hunstanton with vintage Olympian 34933.

The shortage of vehicles for schools contracts was chiefly because two of the regular coaches were working on the X1. 20105 on L11 and 20118 on Y7. In addition two of Lowestoft's B10Ms were out, these being 20103 on K2 and 20104 on K16. Whilst on this subject I should make a correction regarding 20115 which Sam points out has in fact returned to Norwich where it is based and not Ipswich as I said yesterday.

37575 returned to traffic today, but 37566 which Bruce says was sounding very rough on the last couple of occasions he has seen it was kept at Lowestoft today, as indeed was 37565 which has not been out on the X1 since Monday. 37578 is also still off the road as no seatbelts have yet been forthcoming. 20352 was K15 today and 20353 L12. Timekeeping was fairly good for a Friday. Thanks to Bruce and Rob Brooks for regular reports this week.