Wednesday 9th February 2011 ~ The Curse of 37566

I always try and give a balanced account of proceedings and one thing which never ceases to amaze me is the vast number of casualty free miles amassed by the B9 Geminis. Their reliability can only be described as excellent, however, there is always a bad penny as they say. In this case it surely has to be 37566 ? I don't know if anyone at head office is supersticious, but if so, alarm bells must have been ringing very early on with 566. It was involved in two minor accidents after a very short time in traffic and since then has gained the ugly duckling reputation of being out of traffic more than any of the other members of the fleet.
After being replaced by 20107 yesterday, it was serviced but today it appeared at Yarmouth garage in a bad way yet again. (See the blog entry for November 11th last for another occasion when this happened). This time it sounds quite serious. The o/s drive shaft was leaking. Further investigation by the roving Volvo man (Marty) showed that the 'diff pinion bearing' was shot. Bruce seems to think this could be a bit of a so and so to access and it would seem that a part will have to be sourced abroad.
Meanwhile, the rest of the B9 fleet fared better and apart from 37575 receiving a service at Lynn, the rest were all in action.

37568 had an interesting day again today. It worked Y7 06.10 Yarmouth to Peterborough and then the 10.05 Peterborough to Lowestoft. I have a sneaking suspicion that 568 actually terminated at Wisbech on the 06.10, as I didn't see it in either direction, but it definitely passed through Walpole Highway on the 10.05, which may consequently have started at Wisbech. It was then due to be serviced, but a vehicle shortage saw it pressed into further use instead. Syd writes "37568 had a run out this evening on one of the remaining 99 runs to Southwold. As far as we are aware this is the first instance of a B9 working a late journey, and with only weeks until withdrawal of the 99,  will almost certainly be the only occasion.  37568 was firstly used on a couple of X2 journeys, including the 1803 Beccles short. It was still parked in the Bus Station when 42450 had problems with the air brake pressure prior to departure to Southwold at 21.15 and 568 was substituted. Enclosed are a couple of pictures taken by our man on the spot, James Race".



37568 departing to Southwold this evening.




...and here's 568 refuelling at Lowestoft Gasworks Road at 23.15. Copyright James Race

 A little bit of history captured there then, but back on the X1, 'The Beast' had a funny day too. Having worked K14 05.37 Lynn to Lowestoft, the driver to take the 08.55 back to Peterborough failed it as being too cold. 37567 was hastily found and took over. 20107 hadn't finished though and when 568 was stopped on Y7, it filled the breach and worked back to King's Lynn on the 14.55 service. Incidentally, it wasn't the only B10M out locally today as Stagecoach P108 FRS was viewed on a driver training run at the South Gates at 12.01 and at Wisbech at 12.54... but back on the X1 again, L8 had the dubious distinction of being worked by the sluggish 37156. This was its first appearance on the X1 this month, Y6 had the noisy 37569 taken off at King's Lynn tonight and 37573 worked forward.
Des had a good day today viz :
37570 - 07.30 Yarm> Low - On time
37570 - 08.15 Low > Pet (me off at Lynn) - On time
37574 - 13.02 Lynn > Low (me off at Yarm) - On time
37159 - 16.40 Yarm > Low - On time
He adds "On the first part of my shift I drove 37570 from 07.20 out of Yarmouth Depot until 11.37 at Lynn - 4 hours 17 mins, yet the digi tacho showed a driving time of 3 hours 50 mins. The digi tacho takes out all of the waiting at various points".
Delays were few and far between today as Des suggests and only K4 08.35 from Peterborough upset the figures, 37563 being 11 late into Wisbech.