Thursday 30th June 2011 ~ Trials and Tribulations

37568 has another bath - this time at King's Lynn this evening. it started out on L8 today and finished the day on L11 having skipped a few turns

If yesterday's quiet start to the Royal Norfolk Show was a surprise, may be today was a bit more like we expected.
Des reports " I was in charge of 37578 from King's Lynn on the 09.32 to Lowestoft. We were on time until finding queueing traffic between Dereham & Hockering. This table shows our progress from that point ":
Depart -
10.39 Dereham 2 late
11.18 Hockering 31 late (traffic flowed quicker)
11.28 Easton 30 late
11.40 Showground 40 late
12.00 Norwich 40 late
12.37 Yarmouth 37 late
13.16 Arrive Lowestoft 36 late

As 37578 was then supposed to continue as the 12.55 back to King's Lynn, it came as a bit of a surprise when this service passed Bruce and myself only about 5 late with Blondie Karen waving cheerily.
More delays occurred at lunchtime when Cheryl phoned to say that 37159 on Y13 12.18 Wisbech to Peterborough had, by all accounts, been struck by an errant disabled buggy at wisbech Town Bridge traffic lights (see picture below). The police had to attend and the passengers look to have been transferred to K14 which was next along with 37566. The disabled person was not seriously injured and 37159 is believed to have restarted its turn as the 13.56 Wisbech to Lowestoft.

The scene at Wisbech just after 13.00 today with the 12.18 to Peterborough having been overtaken by 37566 on K14, police in attendance. Photo C. Cleary.

Peter texted to say "Something odd going on here, 37574 just departed Peterborough rail station 'not in service' at 15.05 with 37571 on its heels". Bruce reported nothing coming back from Peterborough between 37566 on K14 at 14.35 and K17 with 37571 filled to the gunnells at 16.15 (10 late). Turns out that 37574 was K15 which obviously went to Lynn empty and K16 with 37160 didn't appear at all.
There were wholesale changes to diagrams today and very few turns remained with the same vehicle they started with. Coach 20352 had to have attention to an airbag before working K5, but it ended up coming home on Y7. It had been seen at Lowestoft Tesco by Matthew heading into town at 13.56, so was still working on K5 at that point, but running 25 minutes late.
King's Lynn managed to service 37565/75/76 today by swapping vehicles as required.
Evening services were still experiencing the fallout from the traffic delays. 37563 on L8 was seen leaving Wisbech for Peterborough at 19.37 (15 late), L10 with 37579 was 10 late at Walpole and L12 with 37569 arrived in from Lowestoft at the Southgates crew change stop (below) at 20.54, departing for the bus station at 20.57. It is due to depart from here to Peterborough at 20.50.

37156 was back from Volvo this afternoon and undergoing further repairs at King's Lynn.