Thursday 23rd July 2009 ~ Heckles from Beccles

This location is one of my favourites for photographing X1s, but the Geminis manage to blot out the telegraph poles ! 20107 was scooting along on K16 at 13.35 today.

Actually there hasn't been any heckling from Beccles, but I wouldn't blame them as in my Anniversary blog last evening, I completely forgot to thank my two X2 men, Sam Wickham and Michael Bryant for their contributions to the blog. Apologies to both of you chaps and thanks for all your assistance. There was something of a surprise on the X2 today when 20115 which had been reported as back at Norwich produced on the 15.38 Norwich to Lowestoft. This might seem logical, but this turn like most on the X2 is supplied by Lowestoft. The mystery deepens as the latest fleet list dated 1/7/09 shows 20115 and 20123 as allocated to Lowestoft.

Today was day one of the Lowestoft Air Show which increasingly attracts huge crowds. The X1 seemed relatively unaffected but tonight 37563 on L12 20.50 Lynn to Peterborough was 10 late which can probably be attributed to congestion around Lowestoft where it is booked to depart at 17.48. 563 was once again operating with its destination equipment blank and at lunchtime was observed arriving at Wisbech with a printed card propped up in front of the drivers desk proclaiming 'Peterborough'.

All the Lowestoft based Geminis were in action today although 37564 only appeared this afternoon after replacing 20104 on K4. Lynn allocated 37570 had a day off today for servicing and 37574 was again out of service following its incident on Monday. 37573 did return to service and was kitted out with an advert for G Force overnight. It began the day on K5 but this afternoon was replaced at Lowestoft by the errant 20118 which had gone over last Friday. Whether this swap and that of 20104 were due to late running in connection with Air Show traffic is unknown.

With all the bad news about B9s, in contrast 37572 seems to be trying to set a new record. It re-entered service on Saturday 6th June after attention at Volvo and hasn't had a day off since ! That's 48 days in a row by my reckoning which is pretty impressive by any standards. Its scheduled safety services have been fitted in between its X1 work.

37569 has acquired the dropdown advert for G Force and a rear one for the Lifeguarded beaches as per 37579.

20103 worked today for the 11th successive day and did L10. 20106 came back from the coast on L11 and 20107 performed on K16. This is in addition to 20104/118 which we've already mentioned. All three Profiles were back at King's Lynn tonight with 20352 due for a low emissions test in the morning.