Tuesday 4th June 2013 ~ More Time

37574 in the sunshine at Walpole on Saturday May 25th

I ought to explain the reason for the long time since I last posted. I have been caring for my Mum at home and she passed away on Monday, so this will probably allow me to make more frequent blog entries from now on. Thanks to those of you who have been in touch with your sympathies, much appreciated.
I won't make this a very long posting for obvious reasons and the best way to show what the buses have been up to is to show a chart in this respect. Click on this for an enlarged version.

All in all things have been behaving well and the only surprise was on Sunday last when 37575 suffered a water pump failure and Norwich Gemini 36168 came into King's Lynn on the late 00.44 arrival. The Norwich bus was taken back on Monday and exchanged for 37575 which had been repaired at Vulcan Road. 37566 has returned from a tidying up of bodywork at Full Circle and 37564 is also expected to return shortly from the same treatment. On Spring Bank Holiday Monday, 37576 failed at Blofield and 37158 was sent out from King's Lynn to replace it on the 09.50 from Lowestoft.

37160 on Southtown Road, Great Yarmouth on Thursday 23rd. Photo : Joe Leathers /NBP.

You can't win them all as they say and on Friday 24th, 37565 on the first westbound service from Yarmouth (XL12) was taken off at Lynn and replaced by 37575. This then came to a halt at Walton Highway with a fault and passengers waiting at Wisbech for the 08.48 to Peterborough had to wait around 50 minutes for the next bus which was very busy. My friend Kim and her family decided to use the X1 to travel to Peterborough station and then catch the train for a weekend in York. They missed three trains due to the incident with 37575 and I had to assure her that this type of event is quite uncommon.
The same day XL02-K15 was not seen west of Wisbech and 37160 was noted on XL03-K16 carrying a double load in both directions. Friday 31st was the only other day with heavy delays, culminating in XL05-K18 running 28 late from Wisbech with 37156. XL06-K19 following was 37574, running 17 late and things then got back to normal.
Finally I have been sent some pictures of the ex Ensign buses stored at Dagenham awaiting repainting etc