16th September 2012 - 22nd September 2012 ~ New Liveries and Old Friends

Sunday 16th September.

It all ran well today with no vehicle swaps. I paid a visit to Showbus with Bruce courtesy of Norfolk Green.
The 'First' contingent at Great Yarmouth borrowed Gemini 36166 from Norwich and it is seen (left) before departure from the garage. Thanks to Des for the picture.
Today the X1 buses were located as follows : 37563/4/5/7/8/9, 37571/2/3/9 in service. Garaged : 37566/570/5/7/8, 37156/7/9 King's Lynn ; 37158 Great Yarmouth and 37574/6, 37160 at Lowestoft.
The X1 was behaving at Lowestoft, but Malcolm says the Martham service due to form the 14.10  service arrived 22 late and left 24 late with 32209, all other buses were on time.

Norfolk Green have just begun to repaint their fleet in new colours as seen here on our Spectra which brought us to Duxford. Many thanks to the NG staff for their hospitality.

The new general  'First' livery is shown on this entrant from First in Ipswich.

Monday 17th September

New advertising campaigns mean that you are quite likely to see your X1 arriving with 'Savages' or 'Sinister' emblazoned on the side - at least some have another Milk advert which is a refreshing change from all the violence and gore. On the road it was a nice simple day with the maximum lateness at Wisbech being 10 minutes. K4-XL10 swapped 37569 for 37564 and L8-XL14 37565 for 37573 (off Y7-XL13). As neither 565 or 569 were due maintenance, this must have been for some other reason. At Lowestoft, the 101 town service now seems to get double deckers on a daily basis, today Malcolm viewed 34155, 30886 & 30889 all on this duty at various times.

Tuesday 18th September

An exceptional day for punctuality with many services bang on time. K16-XL03 with 37160 managed to lose 9 minutes on the 13.15 King's Lynn - Peterborough but otherwise things ran like clockwork. Add to this all buses sticking to their turns and it must have been the best day on the route for some months.
All X1 buses now require a 'running board' which is used in conjunction with the new ticket machines. There have been a few teething troubles with the new system and occasionally a bus is left without a running board, meaning the driver has to go on a hunt for  it. This situation led to 37567 departing Lowestoft 14 late this afternoon on L8-XL14, the 15.25 to Peterborough.

Wednesday 19th September

Here's a nice shot of our old friend 34108 which was chased down Bracondale by Dave who took this picture of it on one of the X1 shorts this morning. [D. Hodkinson]

Another relatively good day for timekeeping, however 37160 on L11-XL17 came into Lynn 26 late from the coast only a couple of minutes ahead of 37568 on L12-XL18. It looks like 37568 went fast from Wisbech to Peterborough and returned as L11 coming back into Wisbech 12 late. 37160 meanwhile slipped a turn to become L12. This apart, things went well, although I somehow missed seeing K14-XL01 & K18-XL05. Bruce spotted the latter running 19 late returning to Lowestoft on the 15.35 ex Peterborough with 37159. In Lowestoft all the X1s seen by Malcolm were running to time except K16-XL03 which had 37156 arriving 19 late and departing 12 late.

Thursday 20th September

Well what a nice easy week to report, Thursday continued this trend with only K16-XL03 running appreciably late through Wisbech,due to depart to Peterborough at 13.48, 37158 got away at 14.00. Elsewhere, Cheryl reports 37578 on Y6-XL12 08.48 to Peterborough waiting for departure time which is almost unheard of. Tonight after a visit to Elgoods beer festival, I was walking back to my sisters when we were passed on North Brink at 22.57 by L12-XL18 with 37566 having for some reason run via Wisbech St. Mary. 37564 was noted running today without advertising on its passenger side revealing the white panel and X1 route destinations.
Interesting sights on the X2 were Palatine 34156 on the 15.03 to Norwich and 66346 with new green line branding on the 13.40 from Norwich. This was after Dart 43435 had broken down on an X2 in Bracondale on Wednesday evening. Syd adds that it even worked the 21.00 X2 to Norwich tonight and came back with the return working !

66346 in Lowestoft this evening. Photograph by kind permission of James Race.

More pictures at :
http://eastnorfolkbus.blogspot.co.uk/

Friday 21st September

Y6-XL12 with 37570 at Norwich at lunchtime.  I wonder how the passengers on the top deck like being referred to as Savages ! [Dave Hodkinson]

and there were savages going to Peterborough too ! 37573 working K19-XL06 takes on passengers at Norwich bus station. Thanks to Dave for providing the photographs.

Surely Friday would provide some more incident ? Well naturally punctuality suffered a bit as always seems to be the case on Fridays. Y9-XL15 with 37157 left Wisbech westbound 12 late and was 13 late returning, L10-XL16 & L11-XL17 were near enough on time and L12-XL18 with 37563 was 15 late westbound and 11 late coming back. K14-XL01 did well though and was only 8 late in to Wisbech for the 14.26 to Lowestoft with 37567, K15-XL02 (37569) went west 14 late but then got held up returning at Weasenham Lane where a two vehicle accident caused long queues. It eventually got through and passed me 28 late. 37569 had replaced 37579 at King's Lynn at 12.45 but was so late returning that Lynn garage sent out 37575 to do the 15.32 to Lowestoft with 37569 retiring on arrival. Not for long though as K2-XL08 with 37566 which was 18 late to Peterborough was then taken out of service and 37569 came out again to do the 18.35 King's Lynn - Lowestoft. K17-XL04 which was 10 late to Peterborough with 37564 also became mixed up in the delay and was exactly 30 late returning when seen by Bruce at Walpole Highway. finally 37574 had a fault and had to be taken off K5-XL11 in favour of 37565 this morning.
66346 continued its holiday in Lowestoft and was operating the 101 service.

Saturday 22nd September

This morning I saw 37569 at Walpole Highway running 14 late on L8-XL14, but other services were pretty near time. L9-XL15 came along with 37567 just 4 late and going westbound Y13-XL19 with 37578 was about 6 late. Somehow L9 ended up overtaking L8 and so the two turns had swapped duties when seen by Malcolm late this afternoon.

12th September 2012 - 15th September 2012 ~ Fans, demisters and adblu !

On  Wednesday a minor water main leak at Walpole Highway which had first surfaced last Thursday was attended to and three way traffic lights were installed adding a few minutes to some X1 journeys. 37156 was used on K5-XL11 for the third consecutive day for some reason. Punctuality was good except for K18-XL05 which is getting a bit of a reputation for delays in the afternoon. This time 37568 was running 12 late through Wisbech in each direction. It was followed by 37160 on K19-XL06 which passed me going to Peterborough at 15.19, a minute early and with only three passengers due to its proximity to the preceding service. K19 had begun the day with 37576 but 37160 took over at 14.45.
At teatime 37564 on K4-XL10 westbound was 15 late largely due to congestion into Wisbech and later 37570 on L8-XL14 staggered into Lynn from Swaffham at much reduced speed because of engine derate caused by a lack of adblue. 37569 which had arrived in Lynn on Y7-XL13, the first terminator, replaced it on the 18.50 to Peterborough. L12-XL18 20.50 King's Lynn - Peterborough was seen departing from the Pullover roundabout 10 late this evening with 37564 being driven at a surprisingly leisurely pace.
Thursday seemed to be the quietest day of the week. L8-XL14 09.15 King's Lynn - Peterborough managed to evade the collective stares of Bruce and myself, but was noted coming back on time. It may have run slightly early or travelled light to Peterborough. Either way Y9-XL15 09.45 ex King's Lynn had every seat taken when it departed Wisbech, mind you this is always a popular service. L11-XL17 with 37577 was 7 late from Wisbech on the 11.18 to Peterborough, but it was later seen at Guyhirn returning empty 'not in service' running about 20 minutes late. 37575 joined 37571 (demisters) and 37563 (MOT) off the road today. May be it will have the noisy fan fixed. Several of the B7s are now running quieter, although 37157 seems to be noisy most of the time, may be because it is always in service, or so it seems.
At last a Friday where the timetable could be believed. After a couple of weeks where heavy traffic had made running to time impossible, today was much better. Only two diagrams ran over 10 minutes late, L11-XL17 with 37159 was 6 late to Peterborough but 19 late coming back and K15-XL02 had 37570 23 minutes later than its 13.18 advertised departure westbound from Wisbech, but a slightly better 19 late returning to Lowestoft.
Bruce saw 37573 on Y13-XL19 being followed into King's Lynn from the Hardwick by 37563 which had passed its MOT. Later 37563 was back on the road replacing 37578 on K4-XL10 and another swap was Y6-XL12 having 37564 replaced by 37579 after the latter had completed K5-XL11.
Michael reports a Palatine standing in on the X2 on three consecutive days this week, it was 34156 on at least one occasion, while 20115 was standing in on a Bernard Matthews contract last night.
I enjoyed a little trip out to Wisbech on Saturday using the X1. A look at the handy Southgates webcam showed me that my bus, the 11.33 from Walpole Highway (L12-XL18) was 20 minutes late arriving in King's Lynn. Congestion meant that by the time 37579 arrived to pick me up it was 23 late. I did notice though that driver John had managed to cut this to 17 minutes on arrival back in Lynn. I came back with 37157 on Y10-XL16 driven by long time X1 chauffeur Bill Evans. This was 8 late into Wisbech from Peterborough and by the time we had loaded and then stopped for some more passengers at Walsoken, we were 11 late. After this Bill really wound 157 up to a fine tune and by the time he dropped me off at Walpole a minute had been gained on what is a very tight schedule. As we have often mentioned before, making up lost time with a B7 is almost impossible. By this evening though, 37157 was on time into Lynn to work the 19.50 to Peterborough. Malcolm had seen it arriving in Lowestoft 11 late and departing 5 late.

37157 ready to depart from King's Lynn Southgates for Peterborough tonight.

Other lunchtime services seen included 37568 on Y13-XL19 running almost on time and K14-XL01 with 37576 which was 16 late westbound. Des Speed was back on the route today after return from Australia. 37159 was his bus on K5-XL11 13.55 out of Lowestoft, this was late arriving at 13.50 and then delayed departing with a ticket machine problem until 14.09. At King's Lynn 37159 was removed and replaced by 37571 which was having its first trip of the week following its demister problem. 37572 on L9-XL15 15.00 Yarmouth - Lowestoft ended up stopping at all points to cover for 32210 which had expired on a Service 1. This evening 37577 on L8-XL14 18.50 King's Lynn - Peterborough was changed for 37563 which had come in to Lynn on Y7-XL13.

9th September - 11th September 2012 ~ Intrepid Travellers

The sudden heatwave saw Saturday's heavy traffic repeated on Sunday with consequent delays to X1 services. Mid afternoon the 14.10 Peterborough - Lowestoft with 37565 was running 16 late although the 11.48 from Lowestoft which should pass it at Walpole came through first only 5 late with 37577 (below) which had replaced 37574 at King's Lynn.

The bulk of the traffic was returning westbound and 37573 was seen twice, firstly arriving at King's Lynn 17 late as the 14.48 from Lowestoft and later coming into Lynn on the 19.10 from Peterborough 13 late. 37579 on the 16.48 from Lowestoft was seen at the Pullover roundabout 14 late in a queue of slow moving westbound traffic and 37569 on the 20.10 from Peterborough was 15 late at Walton Highway. Evening services on Sundays are rarely late.
Monday dawned with various Geminis sporting rather disturbing looking adverts for the film 'Savages' ! 37575 was the first X1 I saw and with a very noisy fan (unusual for a B9) this was working K3-XL09 which was 8 late into Wisbech. The corresponding westbound service, Y6-XL12, was 11 late with 37568, but only 3 late returning. Indeed several services were a few minutes late to Peterborough, but almost all had regained the lost time when passing me eastbound. The only mystery involved L11-XL17 10.45 King's Lynn to Peterborough which was booked to be 37160. Instead the service wasn't seen by Bruce or myself westbound and then came back east about 4 late with 37158. I think there must have been a problem with 37160 as it was seen arriving at the Southgates from the east at 12.47 (over 2 hours late), though this may have been a test run from the garage ?
Now something else unusual happened on Monday so I will let Chris take up the story :

 My friend Robin and I (known to ourselves alone as 'Them Two Old Geezers' or 'The Last of the Summer Beer') decided on Monday to undertake what we have christened The X1 Challenge. 

Starting in Dereham on the 9.37am we headed east to Lowestoft arriving some 5 minutes late, giving us just enough time to go to the bus station loo - a major worry for blokes of our age. A day of possible loo-deprivation also involved us strictly limiting our intake of liquid refreshment for most of the day, resulting in near dehydration by the time we got home.

Suitably relieved, we clambered aboard the same bus for the journey to Peterborough. Neither of us were looking forward to having to tell the driver we were travelling all the way through and were extremely grateful that we could scan our bus passes, thus avoiding that minor embarrassment. Arriving practically on time in Peterborough, we decided not to stay on the bus and return straight to Dereham, but to give ourselves a half hour break for loos and a drink. It took most of that half hour for us to regain a vertical position and to re-learn to walk in a normal looking fashion as our knees had become locked in sitting mode. I guess the purist would have stayed on the same bus thus undertaking the whole trip on the same vehicle, but by this time we were almost beyond caring about such niceties. Also, we realise that we failed to undertake the Peterborough bus station to rail station and return section, but promise to go back and do the missing link soon, or maybe not. (As it happens my wife thinks I have many missing links).

On the journey between Peterborough and Wisbech we were idly chatting when I casually said I wondered how many buses there were on the route. To our delight and amazement, a very pleasant young woman in the seat in front turned to us and said, 22, but only 19 out at one time. We were staggered that someone who seemed so un-annoracky should have such arcane information at her fingertips. She then, of course, told us about your blog and I promised to email you . We were also pleased to realise that you have friends!  The bus arrived about on time, I think, in Dereham. Had I been previously aware of your blog and the importance placed on running to time I would have taken closer note of precise seconds of lateness or earliness, so excuse my lack of attention to detail.

We were talking at one point en route about how people can focus on a particular facet of life (we all do in some way, I guess) and how this becomes very meaningful to them and can illuminate things for others. Is this a peculiarly British, even English thing, we wondered. I don't know, but thank you for creating the blog as, late on in our trip, just the knowledge of it's existence, brought to us by your friend, added to our enjoyment of the day.

Well, as you can imagine I was highly delighted to get such an email from someone with the same warped sense of humour as myself, so here is my reply :

What a great email - just my sense of humour. My friend Cheryl is pretty much a daily X1 traveller hence her knowledge of the subject and the fact that she spent about 10 years working with me !

Fancy you not knowing about the X1 blog ! We were on Anglia TV and in the national press last year, but then again it probably wasn't because I was considered 'normal'. Never mind, I was delighted to read of your long distance jaunt - now there's dedication for you. You will also be fascinated to learn that your journey from Dereham to Lowestoft and then back to Peterborough - (actually no, I still can't believe you did the whole journey in one go, even the drivers don't do that) - was on Gemini 37566, the rarest of the X1 beasts by virtue of its misfortune to be involved in mishaps and breakdowns more often than the other 21 buses. It is one of three which I've never yet manage to travel on ! Your other steed was 37578 which is common by comparison.

Do keep me informed of any future X1 expeditions and I hope that you'll get that elusive beer next time, loo breaks permitting.

Right there is just time to tell you about Tuesday on the X1. Once again all buses ran to within 10 minutes of the timetable except one. This was L11-XL17 which is due to depart from Wisbech to Peterborough at 11.18. Today 37567 was 15 minutes late, but with the A47 behaving at this point, some smart changeovers resulted in it departing King's Lynn for Lowestoft just 5 late at 13.07. So with all going well, all it needed was a collision between a bus and a lorry at Guyhirn roundabout at about 15.30 to disrupt things. Delays were not too severe, but westbound from Wisbech, at least K1-XL07 & K2-XL08 took the diversionary route via Wisbech St. Mary. Due to gas main roadworks closing the short stretch of road from Freedom Bridge into the Old Market this then entailed a further diversion down Leverington Road past Asda and then left down Harecroft Road to regain the diversion onto South Brink. I spoke to X1 driver Malcolm this evening and he said that K5-XL11 also took the diversion. Tonight 37579 on L8-XL14 was required at Lynn garage for attention to its on board security cameras, so freshly serviced 37159 went forward to Peterborough at 18.50
Finally an update on 37571. The fire damage was not particularly serious, although it did fill the bus with smoke and this was why it came to a sudden halt in Gorleston. The fault was with the demisters and it is thought that it may be something to do with the long period that 571 spent out of service following the accident at Thorney a couple of years back. It is hoped that 37571 will be back on the route in the next few days.

5th -8th September 2012 ~ Back To Normal

Extra X1 services were run in connection with the Sundown Festival at the Norfolk Showground on September 1st. Grahame Bessey kindly sent this picture of Norwich Gemini 36168 on one such service. 

Not quite such a long wait for the blog this time. Firstly apologies to X1 driver Jason D (and any other drivers called Jason) just in case anyone thought that the comments about the drivers' seats were being attributed to him. I should have said Jason Warren to make it clear !
King's Lynn currently have 35 drivers for the X1 which is one less than usual. This combined with drivers being away on Olympic duties plus the usual holidays and occasional sickness has led to supervisors stepping in on odd occasions of late.
Tuesday saw the route return to relative normality after the emergency repairs to the A47 between Wisbech and Guyhirn were completed. 37569 was off the road for MOT work and 37572 for a safety service leaving 37571 undergoing attention for some body repairs.  There don't appear to have been any swaps either and all  buses completed their turns as booked. Punctuality was fair with many services running around 6 minutes late. There was just one bad patch with westbound services from Wisbech early to mid afternoon - these ran as follows : K16-XL03 37156 13 late, K17-XL04 37574 on time, K18-XL05 37159 21 late and K19-XL06 37577 2 late. Once again the B7s letting the side down. 37567 was out on K15-XL02 fitted with one of the new drivers seats.
On to Wednesday and I was absent at Chappel Beer Festival. I drove to Norwich to catch the train and stayed overnight. En route to Norwich I passed several X1s, all running pretty much to time and well loaded, no doubt due to the fine weather. Bruce and Andy B kept an eye on things for me. Only swap was K5-XL11 changing 37574 for 37567 at some point.
Thursday was uneventful except for some vehicle swaps to facilitate servicing requirements and timekeeping was fair.
Friday was remarkable in that everything seemed to run almost on time, despite the heavy traffic and fine weather. Y7-XL13 was seen going to Peterborough 5 late at Terrington at 09.05 and was 13 late returning, but this seemed to be the exception. By afternoon, even bankers for a heavy delay like Y13-XL19, K14-XL01 and K16-XL03 were all punctual. K18-XL05 with 37157 was slightly late but that was about as bad as it got over here. At Lowestoft though, Malcolm noted Y7-XL13 with 37575 15 late in (as seen by me earlier) and 5 late departing westbound, then L8-XL14 came in just 6 late with 37573 followed by some B7 bedlam with 37160 on Y9-XL15 which was 20 late leaving for Peterborough. On the X2 services were on time except the 13.40 ex Norwich with 32655 which was 15 late in.

K17-XL04  passes Bruce's bungalow with 37566 on Friday afternoon. I had the camera at completely the wrong setting - I'm blaming the 2012 weather, I'm just not used to sunny conditions. Apologies to Steve, I thought this was going to be a good shot !

...... and this is what it should have looked like ! I then had half an hour chatting to Bruce and getting the camera on the right setting until K18-XL05 came by with 37157 which seems to get more than its fair share of pictures in this blog. Note another sociable driver :+)

K15-XL02 was in trouble though when 37571 suffered an electrical fire. 37578 which was being serviced was made available to replace it. Again there were several vehicle swaps, K4-XL10 changing 37564 for 37577 and Y6-XL12 37572 for 37579 amongst others. Tonight Cheryl took 37575 on L12-XL18 eastbound which was late into Thorney. Alan who was driving explained that he had been diverted and apologised for the delay which was a nice touch.

After a quiet Friday, everyone seemed to take to the roads on Saturday for the crawl to the coast. This upset the X1 big time as you might expect. Jamie decided to take Y7-XL13 into work in King's Lynn, so I joined him for a quick spin on my golden ticket ! We arrived at Walpole Highway at 11.01 to find Bruce texting us to say that we'd just missed 37576 on Y6-XL12 which had gone eastbound at 10.59 (23 late). Westbound we saw 37568 on L12-XL18 almost on time which was encouraging. Eventually James turned up with 37577 heavily loaded and running 16 late. With us due into King's Lynn bus station at 11.24, I had planned to return on the 11.45 (Y13-XL19). This was not going to be possible though, as once we rejoined the A47 at Tilney, we tottered along in the traffic up to the Pullover Roundabout where we became embroiled in a queue which stretched all the way up the Bypass to the Hardwick. After a delay we managed to escape the caravans and chaos and joined Nar Ouse Way which was clear. Approaching the South Gates I espied Y13-XL19 just arriving from the coast at 11.45 (14 late). This then stopped at the South Gates for a driver change and we pulled in behind it for the same reason. I took the opportunity to nip off 37577 and join 37573 in front. Only problem was that Y13-XL19 is supposed to change drivers on the outward rather than inward, so our driver hadn't yet appeared not realising the change of arrangements. The Yarmouth man who had brought Y13-XL19 in was getting a reduced break owing to the late running, hence the change of plan.
We set off at around 11.50 and were 16 late departing the bus station. Having said that we fared better than some other services. En route westbound we passed 37569 on L8-XL14 at Eau Brink running 26 late and then 37567 on L9-XL15 just as we came into Walpole Highway 14 late. Our driver, Ray, slowed down to alert the eastbound drivers to travel via West Lynn/South Lynn to avoid the congestion on the A47.
Things got worse before they got better, eastbound services from Peterborough at lunchtime passed Bruce at 13.14 (Y10-XL16 with 37157 running 39 late) and 13.52 (L11-XL17 with 37579 17 late).
 With 37563 now stopped for MOT and 37571 still awaiting inspection following its fire, this just left 37564 spare which was in situ for a safety service on Monday morning. The late running by 37157 meant 37564 had to be extricated from the depths of Vancouver Avenue to work Y10-XL16 forward at 13.02 with 37157 then retiring after its late arrival. After all this things returned to normal very quickly and by mid afternoon everything was on time within a minute or two.
Later 37158 was taken off K5-XL11 and the 17.15 to Peterborough ran with 37157, this was to get 37158 ready for a service on Monday. Depending on the severity of 37571's fire damage and apparently it doesn't seem bad at all, with 37563 stopped for MOT too, there will only be one bus spare for the next few days.

27th August - 4th September 2012 ~ More A47 Woes

Welcome to the blog where our bus service would run perfectly if it were not for the A47 ! I'm sure in years to come people will find it hard to believe that the main road between Norfolk and the Midlands was still chiefly single carriageway in 2012. More of which anon..
Our 22 faithful Geminis seem to be more reliable than ever, in fact it is now well over 4 months since a replacement coach appeared. The new ticket machines have been causing some consternation for drivers as senior citizens are struggling to grasp the concept of scanning their passes into the new equipment. Most common complaints are that they do it too quickly or don't hold their passes in the right place. Oh well, maybe in time.

Time to have a look at the past week or so then and on Monday 27th the usual Bank Holiday hourly timetable was in force. Two turns had to swap vehicles, L10-XL16 started with 37566 but presumably due to heavy traffic this was swapped at Lowestoft for 37569. K5-XL11 also changed 37575 for 37576 at some point. 37574 was given the whole weekend off after arriving in King's Lynn on Thursday evening.
It was back to the normal timetable on Tuesday, The maintenance backlog was swiftly dealt with at King's Lynn. Exams were undertaken on 37564 & 37158 (not completed due to waiting parts), while 37159 was ready in time to do K5-XL11 and 37563 was taken off K15-XL02 at lunchtime to be serviced and was replaced by 37573 which had been in for repairs to a water leak. Considering this was the day after a Bank Holiday with heavy traffic, nothing much ran in excess of ten minutes behind time. Y13-XL19 with 37565 arrived into Lynn 12 late from Lowestoft for the 11.45 to Peterborough and it was noted 14 late returning from there. Only K1-XL07 ran badly out of course and it left Wisbech 22 late on the 15.48 to Peterborough with 37569 and must have run late all day as earlier it had been 13 late into Lowestoft.
Wednesday saw a teatime swap with 37575 being replaced by 37563 for K3-XL09 16.15 King's Lynn - Peterborough. The only late runner in the west was was 37566 on K17-XL04 13.45 King's Lynn - Peterborough which ran 26 late with 37566, surprising as both K16-XL03 & K18-XL05 either side of it ran on time. 37578 on L8-XL14was 13 late arriving in Lowestoft but all other services seen by Malcolm were on time, so overall a good day.
On Thursday 30th only one turn swapped buses, this was L8-XL14 which came into Lynn at 09.07 with 37570. This was then taken off and replaced by 37576, then this evening another change occurred with 576 itself being  replaced by 37564 off Y7-XL13. Another reasonable day for punctuality with only L11-XL17 (37159) and K16-XL03 (37574)  spoiling the log by running 14 late.
Friday saw several changes, 37566 on Y7-XL13 was into King's Lynn at 08.35 but then retired to Vancouver Avenue with 37576 working forward. The next swap was L10-XL16 and 37568 came off for 37571, probably because 37568 had seen a 6 minute delay departing on the 10.15 Lynn - Peterborough increase to 15 minutes on its return., then K19-XL06 saw 37570 changed for 37578 and there was even time for another swap when K3-XL09 had 37569 changed for a repaired 37566 on the 16.15 King's Lynn - Peterborough. We have already mentioned 37568s delay and following it was L11-XL17 with 37579 which was 20 late throughout. Afternoon services eastbound from Wisbech ran as follows : K14-XL01 37157 11 late, K15-XL02 37567 4 late, K16-XL03 37158 22 late, K17-XL04 37565 7 late and then a big gap from 15.59 to 17.03 before K18-XL05 arrived with 37159 about 40 late. At the eastern end punctuality was better and only the Service 1 to Martham was badly affected.

37158, 37159 & 37160 - still in the picture for now,  both 37158 and 37160 have had repainted front panels.

On Saturday 1st September 37565 was unable to complete K15-XL02 and 37160 took over. The day began well but chaos soon ensued with a collapsed manhole between Wisbech and Guyhirn causing heavy delays and the consequent diversion of X1 services via North Brink and Wisbech St. Mary to reach Guyhirn. L9-XL15 ran outward via the normal route departing Wisbech 5 late with 37157 and coming back via the diversion 19 late.The last service seen using the usual route westbound was L11-XL17 at 11.29 (9 late). For much of the afternoon eastbound services arn around 20 late due to the delays caused by the diversion. Work on the manhole problem commenced around 19.30 just as six boy racers decided to have a pile up having been unable to slow down sufficiently for the temporary lights ! A shortage of drivers which had seen supervisors standing in resulted in the 17.15 K5-XL11 King's Lynn - Peterborough being cancelled and 37570 retiring to Vancouver Avenue.
Sunday services mainly took the A47 with lighter traffic, but come Monday morning everything was back to running via Wisbech St. Mary. The day began badly when 37577 which was running empty to Wisbech to work K19-XL06 07.21 to Lowestoft failed en route with a water leak. 37160 was rapidly despatched to replace it. 37569 is on Mot prep this week so this then left only one 37567 spare, however 37577 was soon repaired and was later able to replace 37570 on K5-XL11 at 10.32. Thanks to Bruce for monitoring the service today. There were various other swaps today, chiefly for servicing commitments and as a result of late running.