Saturday 22nd - Friday 28th December ~ A Star from the East ?

Well a short week, so a short blog but with a few more pictures. The weather has hardly been conducive to good photography lately with some really dark dismal days.
Saturday 22nd supplied us with a pre-Christmas surprise. 37564 managed to get 'lost in the system', presumably a pre-Christmas hangover. In its place, passengers on L12-XL18 had surprise transport today in the shape of Paragon coach 20514. This was particularly noteworthy as it was the first coach to work to Peterborough since April 20th and only the third this year. As usual the weather was dire, so instead of photographing it, I took a little video of her splashing her way back to Lowestoft :

Now just in case the video fails to work, here's a picture of 20514 taken by Bruce in the appalling weather conditions :

Not surprisingly on such a busy Saturday, punctuality suffered on some services. L11-XL17 12.05 from Peterborough passed through Walton Highway with 37572 21 minutes late and 20514 on L12-XL18 (above) followed running 13 late. 37572 was changed over for 37575 at King's Lynn and this did the rest of the turn. the B7s were also late runners with 37159 on K15-XL02 (it had taken over from 37576 at 12.45) returning 10 late and going west the two regular B7 turns, K16-XL03 & K18-XL05 passed through 25 & 20 late respectively with 37158 & 37160.
On Sunday 23rd, 37574 was in trouble again, this time with a faulty adblu sensor and 'lumpy' gears. It was in use for most of the day but was eventually replaced at King's Lynn by 37569. This had started the day on diagram 10 and was itself replaced by 37156. 37578 is having a scheduled brake modification carried out at King's Lynn, so may not be out for a while.
So to Christmas Eve and an early shutdown as usual. This meant Y6-XL12 and L8-XL14 terminated at King's Lynn and K17-XL04 & K19-XL06 at Yarmouth and Lowestoft to compensate. 37568 on K14-XL01 was seen at lunchtime with a faulty destination display which resembled a snowdrift. Timekeeping was good except in the case of K19-XL06 which swapped 37564 for 37566 this afternoon and then ran 18 late to Peterborough. Later services were delayed by a fatal accident at Wendling which resulted in an unscheduled diversion. The X1 vehicles spent Christmas at King's Lynn except for 37565/71/75 & 37159 at Great Yarmouth and 37566/68/70/77 at Lowestoft.
A normal weekday service resumed on Thursday 27th and the morning service ran very well. Services from Peterborough were delayed in the afternoon though with L12-XL18 (37566) which had been just 8 late going west returning 19 late, then came 37571 on Y13-XL19 12 late, 37160 on K14-XL01 26 late, 37569 on K15-XL02 6 late and 37156 on K16-XL03 23 late before things got back to timetable. Two turns changed buses for maintenance purposes, L10-XL16 had 37568 taken off for servicing and attention to its destination display at 10.15 and 37573 worked the rest of the diagram. Later 37574 was taken off K19-XL06 and 37157 went forward to Peterborough at 14.45. Over on the X2 there was a nice surprise with 32655 returning to traffic in its new colours.

32655 with X2 branding and route detail seen in Norwich this lunchtime. Photo : Kieran Smith

Typical of recent weather,  37564 dashes away from Walton Highway on Y13-XL19, the 14.04 to Lowestoft on Friday afternoon.

Friday 28th was fairly straightforward with 37579 being changed for 37568 on K15-XL02 and most services running reasonably to time. That said, 37157 came through Walton Highway 18 late on the 14.15 Lynn to Peterborough (K18-XL05).
Although this blog concentrates on the 'through' X1 services, the shuttles from Great Yarmouth and Gorleston can still produce almost anything as shown by the pictures below, all taken by Kieran on the afternoon of the 27th.

Photographs by courtesy of Kieran Smith.