Saturday 4th July 2009 ~ Wedding Excursion

Jamie Vendy sent in this picture of 37575 on K2 in Peterborough this afternoon.

Here's a rather unusual angle of 37566 at Peterborough railway station this afternoon on K1. Photograph by kind permission of Jamie Vendy

One of those events which are unavoidable today - yes a family wedding which took place at King's Lynn Town Hall. This at least meant I was not too far away from the X1 route to keep tabs on things. This morning though it was Bruce who did all the work, he logged 20118 on K5, 20104 on Y6, 37576 on Y7, 37573 on L8, 20103 on Y9, 37569 on Y10, 37568 on L11 and 37577 on the out and back turn, L12. So from this we can already see that three B10Ms were plugging the gaps.

Peter sent a text just after 13.00 to say that three X1s had left King's Lynn in close proximity, these turned out to be Y13, K14 and K15 which are due to depart at 11.45, 12.15 and 12.45 ! These were all B9 operated with 37563/4/79. Reason for the delay is unknown. Rob Brooks was at Wisbech in the afternoon sun and reports :

20353 K16 1348 Wisbech - Peterborough seen off route on Churchill Road 1400

37563 Y13 13.56 Wisbech - Lowestoft 30 late

37564 K14 arrived Wisbech 1436 left 1438 to Lowestoft 12 late

37572 K17 1418 Wisbech - Peterborough arrived 1436 left 1440

37566 K1 1635 Peterborough - Yarmouth

37575 K2 1705 Peterborough - Lowestoft

20118 K5 1840 Peterborough - King's Lynn!! Finally I get a coach to travel on!!

37576 L8 1922 Wisbech - Peterborough arrive 1926 (driver blondie)

Well a few things to comment on here. Why 20353 was on the A1101 is unknown. 37563 had obviously made up quite a bit of time on Y13 to be only 30 late. This diagram is the Saturday quick turn round at Lowestoft (due in at 17.40 and out again at 17.48) but was nevertheless on time arriving at King's Lynn tonight. I know about 37572 Rob, it almost ran me off the road en route to the wedding at the Tilney roundabout in its efforts to regain time. K1 had begun the day with 37567 but had changed at Lowestoft for 37566. The eagle eyed amongst you may have noticed that L8 had also changed from 37573 when viewed by Bruce this morning to being 576 tonight. This was because on arrival at Lynn at 18.45, 573 was failed with a broken alternator belt and help had to be summoned. Kerry who'd just refuelled and washed 37576 off Y7 sent this out in its place.

Other unscheduled changes today involved 37577 which failed at Thorney Toll yesterday and today was unable to continue eastbound from Lynn on the 14.02 to Lowestoft. Judging by its absence, the vehicle which went forward appears to have been 20123. Another change this evening was on K4 where 37570 was taken off at 19.25 and 20103 which had just arrived on Y9 was substituted for the journey back to Lowestoft. Whether the removal of 37570/7 was down to component failures or requested for maintenance reasons is unknown.

Other X1 duties of interest today not mentioned thus far were K3 having 20105 and K18 with 20352. The advert man was busy tonight affixing 'Keep Britain Tidy' rear ads to B10Ms 20109/21/31.