Tuesday August 24th 2010 ~ Winning & Losing

You know that feeling, just when you think you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, another pitfall you weren't expecting puts you back to square one. It must have felt a little like that at X1 control today......

John W says " Hey Gerard, something a little odd this morning surely ? 37156 and 37157 both standing in the middle on Lynn bus station at 09.30 showing 'not in service'". Well yes John, I don't know if 37156 had been borrowed to work Hunstantons after its window repair (see Monday's blog) or if not why it was there. As for 37157, well I think a driver shortage seems the likeliest explanation for it being taken off Y9 09.45 to Peterborough. This service didn't run as a result. Obviously late running was not the reason, as 09.30 means it was in well early for the 09.45 departure.
With 37157 now awaiting its return at 12.32 to Lowestoft, the opportunity was taken to remove 37578 on K4 for MOT prep and put the spare 37157 in its place. This meant that a vehicle had to be found to take Y9 to Lowestoft at 12.32 and lo and behold, a miracle, 37573 is magically returned from Volvo to do same ! It must give a glowing sense of satisfaction to the controllers when something like this happens and full marks from us here at the blog.
Well you can guess what happens now can't you ? Bruce says " I can't understand it - I was outside the bungalow in view of the route this afternoon and can catagorically say that K16 did not run, we had 37567 about 13 late to Lowestoft on K14, K15 with 37576 delayed by about the same margin and then a gap until K17 with 37577. This latter turn had managed to be 26 late in both directions, so for those just missing 37576 a 75 minute wait ensued until 577 appeared. Oh Dear !"
Now I can't exactly say at this time what happened to K16, but what I do know is that an X1 broke down at Thorney this afternoon and it seems almost certain that this was 37564 on K16. The nature of the breakdown is currently unknown, but suffice to say that it was sufficiently serious to warrant the B9 being towed in and this had not happened by 20.30 ! Meantime it was arranged for the spare B7, 37156 - see above if you've forgotten already - to work (empty I think) at about 17.00 from Lynn to Lowestoft to cover the vehicle shortfall caused by the demise of 37564.
Meanwhile, after a quiet day yesterday, things livened up considerably today. Royale 34108 provided a pleasant surprise on the 07.45 from Lowestoft (L12), but with it being reallocated to Yarmouth in the big Royale / President swap, this afternoon the opportunity presented itself to change 34108 at Yarmouth for 'The Beast' 20107.  So at 16.40 the B10M returned to its old haunts and should end up at Lynn tonight.
37563 & 37565 which were absent today should be available at Lowestoft tomorrow, so it is likely 20107 will be taken off, but you never know.  As for 37564, well it could be terminal or more likely, it could be repaired and out tomorrow ! There is also 37571 which surely must be close to re-entry to service now. 20514 worked K3 today after a day off for bodywork attention yesterday.
Punctuality as I've already hinted at, was pretty poor today due to the various riots. Thanks very much to Tony, Bruce, Grahame and RD for recent observations.