Tuesday September 1st 2009 ~ Troubled Times

Michael F had a day out today and reports : "I had a pleasant journey on 20103 on the 9:55 departure from Lowestoft to Norwich (K16), which, by the time it left Yarmouth was full. Passing westward services were as follows in order K17 20352/K18 60863/K19 37578/K1 37567/K2 20127/K3 20351 followed while observing in Norwich by K4 20107/K5 20118/Y6 37568. So out of the 10 westward services seen only 3 were Geminis! I had a comfortable run back to Lowestoft on 34108 which was back home on the 12:38 X2 today".
Thanks for the comprehensive report Michael and this only leaves turns 7 - 15 which were viewed by Bruce and myself as follows : Y7 37575, L8 37563, Y9 37566, L10 37569, L11 37574, L12 20106, Y13 20104, K14 37570 & K15 37579.
So, from this it would appear that only ten out of seventeen Geminis were in service. There was more to it than this however. Let's start by returning to yesterday then and mention was made of 20352 unexpectedly being on the 16.48 from Lowestoft. This was because in the morning 37572 had failed for the 10.50 Lynn to Peterborough on arrival from Yarmouth with a suspect injector. Tests were carried out today and an oil problem was also found. More tests should be done tomorrow when hopefully it can return to traffic. This morning another Gemini in trouble was the normally ultra reliable 37564 which started out on L12 but was failed at Norwich and sent to Volvo for repairs, but no fault was found. This was the reason for Lynn digging out 20106 for the 11.15 to Peterborough and it carried on for the rest of the day. As if all this wasn't enough there was yet another B9 failure this afternoon when 37570 had to be taken off K14 13.35 Peterborough - Lowestoft with an oil leak and its place was taken by 20105. With 37573/6/7 still at Volvo, the situation tonight was quite acute with in total eight off the road.
The heavy post Bank Holiday traffic coupled with resurfacing work near Tilney meant delays in the middle of the day. Worst affected service was Y13 which was 18 late going to Peterborough and 25 late returning. Neil saw 20118 on K5 tonight along the Guyhirn bank and it looks set for another stint on the X1 tomorrow. 20121/23/31 remain at Rowan Road and 20109 is still awaiting a slot for repairs at Vancouver Avenue. 37578 appeared with a new advert for the film 'White Out' on the passenger side today while a late recipient of the 'Daily Star/Daily Express' ad is 37575. 37568 which had a small rear ad for Flick & Son is now running devoid of a replacement.