Wednesday 16th September 2009 ~ Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel

This was Bruce's idea for a headline. "I can't use that" I said, "We've used it before". Incredibly, though, it transpires we haven't ! Things were desperate today though. There were sufficient vehicles as long as everything behaved, but to start with 37159 was not allowed out on the X1 and instead Andy reports it doing Hunstanton duties and the Gaywood Park to East Winch schools contract. This meant that yet again Scania 65528 was the bail out vehicle and as in previous days it did K3. It was a couple of minutes late this morning and 16 late tonight. Fortunately this turn is not involved in the rush hour in Norwich or Yarmouth, so overcrowding is unlikely. The day passed fairly sedately with most services on time, 20103 was 12 late going to Peterborough on K4 this morning, but smart work by the driver saw it cut the loss to just 3 minutes on its return, thanks to Bruce for the info.
What happened to L10 this morning is as yet unknown, but the 10.15 Lynn to Peterborough and return didn't run. Elimination points to 20351 as being the expected vehicle, but tonight the continuation of the turn, the 19.50 Lynn to Peterborough was Scania 65526 which got a rare outing on the X1, in fact, only its second such foray this year. So that's two Scanias and also out along with 20103 were 20104 on Y7, 20106 on L12 confirmed as still on the diagram this evening by Rob B plus the return of 'The Beast', 20107 on L11. 103 which has had a few starting problems of late was replaced at Lowestoft by Gemini 37569.
Sam says "Both Yarmouth coaches were out on short runs today. 20127 left Norwich for the JPH at 17:10 while 20126 was ready to do the 17:40 to Gorleston".