Friday 13th November 2009 ~ An Elephantine Effort

An all low floor service almost came to fruition this morning, spoiled in the nicest possible way by 20107 on K2. Commencing with the 08.48 from Wisbech to Peterborough (Y6 with 37569) every service was B9 worked until 107 took the 16.18 westbound. 37159 then took K3, 37570 K4 and 37160 K5. The day finished with two more replacements though. 37159 was unable to continue on K3 at some point and 20106 turned up on the 16.15 Lynn - Peterborough, while 34108 made a welcome return on Y9 tonight having replaced 37564 at Lowestoft, the latter requiring a service.
Bruce reports some strange goings on this morning : L8 which is due to pass Walpole Highway westbound at 09.33 didn't appear, although it did go past his vantage point on the return trip 9 minutes late at 11.45 with 37568. In contrast, L10 due through at 10.33 went by three minutes early with 37567 trying to break some records. By this evening there were some delays as expected and 20106 on K3 was 20 late from Wisbech going west and 37570 following on K4 was 26 late passing the B198 roadworks.

Thursday 12th November 2009 ~ Examinations and an Extermination.

You may have noticed that every other Thursday we get plenty of diagram swaps and this is because six of the Lynn B9s are due safety checks over a two day period each fortnight. This is usually executed in quite an organised fashion. Today for example, 37572 had its service completed before doing K5, 37579 was kept in during the morning for the same reason and at lunchtime, 579 replaced 37577 on Y13 so that it could also be attended to. 37570 came off L10 during the morning for servicing and B7 37160 took over the turn. The other two B7s were also out on K3 (37158) and K17 (37159).
20104 remains out of service at Rowan Road and Sam informs me that 20103 arrived at Lowestoft last night with a blown engine and has been withdrawn !! This will be a sad loss to the X1 and 103 has been a solid performer since it arrived on the route in August 2007. Yarmouth are believed to be loaning 20126 to Lowestoft to cover for the loss of 103.
Only one B10M coach managed to work today and that was 'the Beast', 20107 on L12. A correction to events on Tuesday now and 37573 suffered a puncture at Swaffham during the afternoon and this was why 20106 worked.

Wednesday 11th November 2009 ~ A Joint Effort

Today was a joint effort observation wise between Bruce this morning and me this evening. Tomorrow Bruce is otherwise engaged - all part of running a busy farm, so possibly a truncated version of events tomorrow. Anyone with obs tomorrow, your info will be gratefully received as always.
Both 37158 and 37160 were in use on the X1 today on K17 and K3 respectively. Tonight they were joined at King's Lynn by the long awaited arrival back of 37159. 14th October was the last occasion that all three B7s were out on the route. 20104 appears to be repaired now and looks set to return to service tomorrow. 20107 was seen by Michael B on the 11.08 Lowestoft - Norwich X2, while 34108 was in charge of Y6 which ends at Lowestoft.
At some point during the day it looks like 37566 was removed from K4 at King's Lynn for repairs to a water leak and it is possible that a B10M filled in on a trip to Peterborough and back in its place.

Tuesday 10th November 2009 : One Year Later : Part 3

A year ago today, Geminis 37570/2/4/7 were all set to work on the X1 for the first time and some semblance of a service operated by the new vehicles was taking shape. One year later and it must be very satisfying to the people who decided that B9 Geminis were the answer for the X1 that all but four services were covered by the new regime.
In the twelve months under review, the mileages accumulated by the vehicles above are as follows : 37570, 112,200. 37572 116,400. 37574 111,400 and 37577 107,500. All four of these vehicles have also experienced extended periods out of traffic during the year, otherwise these figures would have been even higher. These figures are taken from the hub meters fitted which it would seem, in some cases, were not fitted until after about 1,500 miles had already been run. It is doubtful whether there are vehicles of this type (which are clearly more suited to urban work) attaining higher annual mileages anywhere in the UK. One thing I am frequently challenged about is the lack of prominence given in the blog to the huge mileages amassed by the B10M coaches used on the X1. One can only guess at what actual mileages these venerable vehicles have attained, but I hope to feature an article on this before long.
King's Lynn rostered 37573 on K1 this morning and 37567 on K4, but something went amiss and Bruce reports K1 seen this afternoon with 20106 and K4 was 13 late returning from Peterborough this morning with 37573. By this evening 573 was in King's Lynn garage so it looks like 567 took over at some point ! Tonight 20106 was taken off K1 at Lynn at 18.00 and this turn looks to have continued coastbound with 20107 which had come in on Y7, the first Lynn terminator. Royale 34108 was available for punters today and did K18, while the previous service, K17, had 37160.
As expected 37568 was serviced today and its place on L10 was taken by 20127. With 37564/7/9 all due for the same treatment in the next few days, it remains to be seen if we see more replacements drafted in. King's Lynn also has a large servicing requirement this week with 37570/2/3/4/7/9 all due for inspections. 37573 was presumably dealt with today

Monday 9th November 2009 ~ No News Is Good News ?

The X1 continues to take a diversion near Wisbech due to the improvement of the flood defences on South Brink. Here 37575 heads down Weasenham Lane with the 15.22 departure from Wisbech on Sunday afternoon.

Not sure about the wisdom of that header actually ! The colder weather once again saw 16 B9s working today and without incident too. Excellent for those in charge, but it doesn't make for a very interesting blog lol. 20107 was today's sole B10M involved on the X1, the 'beast' did K4, but Michael B did see 20127 working off Lowestoft on the 12.08 X2 to Norwich. Bruce's Big Beautiful Bus (aka BBBB), 34108 was in action on Y13 after a day off yesterday. B7 37160 was the other stand in and this did K17.

By far the most exciting thing to happen today was the arrival of an email from Peter R about the B198 roadworks. Peter contacted NCC and the official reply is copied here :

"Thank you for your interest in the works being carried out on the B198 at Walsoken. The works are for the installation of a roundabout at the junction of the Walpole Highway Rd to provide a safer environment and reducing accidents at this location. Works are due to be completed prior to the christmas closedown. The works are being carried out by the Councils in-house workforce at a cost of approximately £100,000".

So a roundabout it is then and a big sigh of relief from us locals. This was the junction where 20142 came to grief a couple of years back and is one of Norfolk's major accident blackspots. Thanks to Peter for taking the trouble to find out what was going on.

Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th November 2009 ~ They Did It !

Grouping two days together is quite unusual for this blog, but such was the lack of incident this weekend, it seemed the best option.

Saturday : With all sixteen Geminis available in service, this just left three turns uncovered. These were : K3 37160, L9 20107 and K18 34108. The only odd thing here is that the Royale was sent on a turn that finishes at Yarmouth rather than Lowestoft. 20104 remained at Rowan Road awaiting attention, while possibly in connection with this, 20118 remains at the eastern end to balance things out.

Sunday : Today's service was provided by 37563-6, 37568, 37572, 37574-579. Services generally ran a few minutes late due to the roadworks and diversion around Wisbech. Gemini 37574 has totted up 36,100 miles since July 27th - surely a record ? It had a rare day off today.

Friday November 6th 2009 ~ Was Today Really a Friday ?

Today has to be one of the most successful Friday's in 2009 for the X1 operators. Sixteen B9 Geminis out for the second day running and the remaining three turns were K2 : 20127, L11 34108 and K17 37160. Bruce phoned me to say he was amazed by the excellent timekeeping too. Y13 is notorious for Friday delays, but today was on time in both directions with a certain blonde haired lady at the helm of 37575. It wasn't until late afternoon that delays really became apparent, although K14 13.35 from Peterborough was 14 late with 37563. 37576 on K3 was seen trying to get out of Wisbech Horsefair at 17.08 (20 late) and K4 following was about 15 late with 37568. This evening I saw L12 with 37567 passing Walpole 1 early at 21.07 and the corresponding eastbound service with 37570 conveyed Mr. Robinson and was just 2 minutes down. Next week a large proportion of the B9s will require safety services, so whether the current trend will continue remains to be seen.

Thursday November 5th 2009 ~ Sweet Sixteen

Gemini 37574 is still about the most reliable B9. it worked K15 today and is seen near Walsoken at lunchtime.

Thanks to Jamie Vendy for sending this picture of Royale 34108 at Queensgate today on K16 14.35 to Gorleston James Paget Hospital. The destination shown is thus a little inaccurate, but near enough I suppose. Note the rather uninspiring advert warning about the dangers of excessive salt consumption !

Jamie also captured this nice view of a rather tidy 37160 at Queensgate on K17 15.05 to Lowestoft

All sixteen regular Gemini B9s were out on the X1 at some stage today, which is a pretty rare phenomenon these days. 37573 spent most of the day at King's Lynn garage being attended to by Volvo staff and was declared fit to work the 16.45 X1 to Peterborough on which it replaced B10M coach 20106 which was on the turn. There are two corrections to report from yesterday. Firstly 20118 worked throughout on the 09.35 Peterborough - Lowestoft and remained there. Surprisingly it didn't return today either. 37564 which I said had jumped turns from K18 to K19 hadn't. K18 was merely running very late.

Oddities today were 34108 on K16, 37160 on K17 and B10Ms 20107 & 20127 which worked the first and second parts of Y7 respectively. Sam says "Saw 20127 leaving for Lynn on Y7, 20126 was on 878 contracts once again. 20107 did the 15:38 Low - Nor X2". Ah so that's where it got to Sam. Michael Bryant reports 20127 on the 10.08 X2 from Lowestoft and 20103 on the 12.08, so that's three coaches on this service today which is quite an unusual event these days. Just a thought but I suppose 20127 could have replaced 20118 en route yesterday which would explain where it came from. One coach not working today was 20104 which has been at Rowan Road since yesterday with a partial suspension failure.

Wednesday 4th November 2009 ~ What A Morning !

Apologies for yet another B10M photo. This is 104 and 103 at Vancouver Avenue on Sunday evening.

Things began quite normally this morning - thanks to Bruce for the observations as I was away again - K1 had 37569, K2 37572 and K3 37576 the latter two services just 4 minutes late, but going west it was a different story. Y6 failed to appear and Y7 with 20106 was 2 minutes early. Westbound services then ran approximately 10 minutes late for the remainder of the morning. After seeing 37576 on K3 heading for Lowestoft, K4 was next but was 26 minutes late with 20105 which is normally employed on schools services. Even more of a surprise then when 37575 which was due on K5 never arrived and the next eastbound sighting was another school bus, 20118 running as Y6 just 2 minutes late. 20107 had actually come over from Yarmouth on Y6 but was unable to continue and 20118 must have done a Walpole bypass move to save time. On arrival at Lynn, I think 20104 relieved 20118 at 11.02 but this afternoon Y6 came back west with 37566, the fourth vehicle on this turn today.

K4 changed vehicles at King's Lynn at 10.02 with 20105 coming off so that it could do its afternoon schools turn and a revived 20107 working forward. What exactly did the three Hunstanton schools turns this morning is a mystery, but 20121 did one of them and probably 20118 did one before dashing out on Y6 to Peterborough.

Amongst other things of note today were the reappearance of Royale 34108 on L12 (20103 had been expected) and 37564 on K18 came back on K19, so 37578 on K19 either stayed at Lowestoft or itself became K18 as sometimes happens due to late running where one diagram overtakes another. There was confirmation today of fuel problems with 37573 and this kept it out of action today. 37158 was out on the 43s at Lynn while 37160 did K17.

Tuesday November 3rd 2009 ~ Invisible Buses

There appears to have been some sort of incident between Wisbech and Peterborough this morning which caused a fair amount of disruption to punctuality. Bruce reports 37565 on K2 a fraction early for the 08.31 Walpole Highway to Lowestoft. The next eastbound service after this is due at 09.06. This turned up 22 late with 37575, things then got worse with K4 due at 09.36 running 33 minutes late and K5 & Y6 10.06 & 10.36 not appearing at all ! Both 37160 & 37569 (for twas they) must have done a runner down the bypass to make up time. Normality resumed with 20104 on the 11.06 (Y7) which was on time. By lunchtime, services were within around 5 minutes of the timetable, but L11 with an unidentified B9 was 14 late. Somehow the vehicles on Y6 and L11 were swapped today and 37569 and 37566 had changed places by this evening. Quite how this took place is a mystery. One other B10M graced the X1 and this was the Beast, 20107, on K1. Sam reported 20103 getting a rare day off from X1 duties and it was seen departing Norwich on the 10.08 to Lowestoft via Beccles. B7 37159 is still receiving attention at Volvo and with 37158 being kept back for local duties at King's Lynn, 37160 was the sole B7 on the X1 today.

Monday 2nd November 2009 ~ Premieres Hanging In There

The B10M coaches are still providing a useful service to X1 passengers and the contrast between these and the Geminis must be bewildering to regulars. The diversion because of the flood defence roadworks at Wisbech is in fact via Weasenham Lane to join the A1101 and not the Wisbech bypass, so a rare opportunity has arisen to travel on this stretch by public transport. Delays seem to be slight which is all the more surprising because the B198 junction at Walton Highway still has three way temporary lights. Whether a roundabout is being constructed here or traffic lights installed is still unknown. Perhaps that nice Mr Elworthy at the 'Wisbech Standard' can do some investigative journalism for us to establish exactly what they are doing. Speaking of his esteemed organ, last Friday's issue featured an item on the demonstration by Wisbech cab drivers against the proposal to move the taxi rank away from the bus station. Amongst the photographs on the front page was one of 37563 awaiting departure to Lowestoft which I take it John included for our benefit !
Timekeeping was not too bad today K14 with 37566 was 19 late returning from Peterborough on the 13.35 to Lowestoft and was viewed by Bruce who once again came to my aid on the sightings front. Both K1 (37569) and K5 (37160) were eleven minutes late going east this morning. Coaches out today were 20103 on K2, 20104 on K4 and 20107 on Y13, plus a bonus trip by 20109 on the 14.45 King's Lynn - Peterborough after 37573 had to be removed from the duty. Reports indicate that 573 was fit to relieve 20109 for the 17.33 to Lowestoft.Finally 37564 on L11 was changed at Lowestoft for 37565

Sunday 1st November 2009 ~ What Can You Say ?

All Geminis today !! Not much else to report really, so to enlarge on this, here is the whereabouts of the 16 available B9s today ;

37563 Lowestoft spare

37564 Lowestoft spare

37565 Lowestoft spare

37566 K8 08.35 King's Lynn - Lowestoft etc (ends KL 23.44)

37567 K3 08.50 King's Lynn - Peterborough (ends LFT 23.30, goes empty to YAR)

37568 Y9 09.30 Gt. Yarmouth - Peterborough to King's Lynn (arr 11.44) Broken window

37569 K6b 09.48 Lowestoft - Peterborough etc (ends KL 00.28)

37570 K2 07.50 King's Lynn - Peterborough etc (ends LFT 22.30, goes empty to YAR)

37572 K7 07.37 King's Lynn - Lowestoft etc (ends KL 22.44)

37573 Y5 08.30 Gt. Yarmouth - Peterborough etc (ends KL 22.28)

37574 K6a 06.35 King's Lynn - Lowestoft only, goes empty to YAR.

37575 King's Lynn Vancouver Avenue spare

37576 K1 06.50 King's Lynn - Peterborough etc (ends KL 00.44)

37577 Y4 07.30 Gt Yarmouth - Peterborough etc (ends LFT 00.30)

37578 Y9 09.30 Gt. Yarmouth - Peterborough from King's Lynn etc (ends KL 23.28)

37579 Lowestoft spare

Saturday 31st October 2009 ~ Do The Shuffle

In time honoured fashion, the end of October has seen some vehicle reallocations. These don't seem to directly affect the X1 service, but the arrival of 20500/1 is still awaited. It is believed that they will be King's Lynn allocated and primarily used for Rail replacement contracts. The fact that they are to retain their white livery also suggests that use on the X1 will not be out of the question. Locally King's Lynn is losing its miniature Darts in exchange for the troublesome longer length ones in the 434xx series.
There seemed to be a number of changes to duties today. Dealing with them chronologically, K1 began the day with 20104 but finished with 37577. The swap is thought to have occurred at Lynn at 08.30. K4 started with 'Beast' 20107 but by the time it arrived at Norwich this turn was 20104, again indicating a Lynn changeover, this time at 10.00. half an hour later a further change took place, K5 arriving with 37158 and most unusually going forward with 20107. This turn finishes at Lynn at 20.00 but 20107 was conspicuous by its absence there at 20.30. What was seen at 20.30 was Y6 arriving with 37570 flashing up fault indicators and this was replaced by 37563 which had come in at 20.00 on L11. The problem with 570 it seems was a faulty bank of lights and low fuel. Late running in the middle of the day saw Y13 13.05 from Peterborough 25 minutes late at Walpole with 20103.

Friday October 30th 2009 ~ Passing the Milestone

The last two B9 Geminis to pass the 100 thousand mile mark did so this week, these being Lowestoft's 37566 and King's Lynn's 37573. Just a reminder that at this stage last year there were only eight B9s in service and two of these were 566 & 573 !
There were two B7s out today, 37158 beginning the day on K17 and 37160 on K5. more back up was provided by 20103 on K2, 20104 on L10 and 20107 on L12. 20109 was down to work K15 this morning, but 37573 ended up on this turn and there is some doubt as to whether 109 worked at all.
37574 returned to action today following attention at Volvo and relieved 37158 on K17 enabling the B7 to return to local work. Late tonight 37576 on K18 was turned round at Yarmouth and came back to Lynn on the last leg of K19 with 37572 retiring to Yarmouth garage off K19.
Michael B reports 20115 being seen in Norwich, but, "it didn't appear to be doing anything". Michael also confirms that 37160 did complete its turn on Monday, so 37567 just magically appeared at King's Lynn on Tuesday morning - a bit early for Halloween.
Not many daytime services were seen today, but FST seemed to have gained a foothold early this afternoon when 37573 which had been 16 late at Walton Highway going west, was seen by Bruce 37 late returning. The previous turn, K14 was a mere 26 late coming back from Peterborough !

Thursday 29th October 2009 ~ Diversions Commence

As from this morning, the South Brink at Wisbech is closed for strengthening the flood defences, so between Wisbech Horsefair and the Cromwell Road roundabout the X1 is now being diverted via the A1101 and Wisbech Western Bypass. Timekeeping was not adversely affected first thing as I met 34108s attractive frame looming out of the mist at Walpole Highway this morning just a minute late, shortly before it passed the first westbound through service from Yarmouth (Y6) with 20107 which was bang on time. The 08.56 Wisbech - Lowestoft (K3) was seen departing on time with 37570, but I then had to go to work at the South Lincs establishment which curtailed my viewing. With Bruce out at Nottingham today, it was left until this evening before a picture of the days events could be drawn. Only turn unaccounted for in the end was Y13.
K4 this morning began with 20106 and this went Lynn to Peterborough and back while 37579 was serviced, the Gemini is thought to have taken over at 10.02. 20109 was at Lynn tonight, I think off Y9 and 20103 sat in the bus station centre with X1 Peterborough on the blinds, so may be a swap took place somewhere. 37158 worked K17 for the fourth consecutive day.
For the second night running, the 19.50 Lynn - Peterborough (L10) was 12 late tonight, 37565 was the vehicle.

Wednesday 28th October 2009 ~ Nothing Untoward

About as normal a day as one gets on the X1 today. Bruce saw all but two diagrams and the only delays were this evening when the 19.50 King's Lynn - Peterborough and 19.05 Peterborough - Lowestoft were both 12 minutes behind time.
B10Ms were seen on K1 : 20107, K2 20104 and L8 20109. Royale 34108 worked L11 from Lowestoft this morning ending up at Lynn this evening. Once again only one B7 was active on the route, this being 37158 which was again on K17, but 37160 is now back at King's Lynn and also confirmed as back in traffic is 37564 which worked Y6 today.

Tuesday 27th October 2009 ~ A Christmas Carol - What Already ?

A visit to King's Lynn tonight, with me feeling much recovered in order to due a massive grocery shop and a look in at the bus station and garage. Sitting resting in Vancouver Avenue having arrived earlier was 37568 complete with an ad for 'A Christmas Carol' sponsored by Morrisons. Have I really been absent that long ? Oh well, it's only 59 days to Xmas after all ! So what of the 300th day of 2009 ? Well firstly Gemini 37574, the one which set a record for consecutive days in traffic, has expired at last. It came in on Saturday evening and has had to go off to Volvo for a replacement injector. For the record it worked for 88 out of 89 days from July 27th until Saturday which is excellent by any standard.
There were lots of swaps at Lowestoft today, presumably due to late running. The first arrival from King's Lynn (K14) came in with 37568, but departed for Peterborough at 08.55 with Royale 34108. Things then settled down until lunchtime when K1 07.00 from Peterborough due in at 11.40 arrived with 20103 and then departed at 11.55 with an unknown quantity !! This is believed to have possibly been the errant B7 from yesterday, 37160. 20103 was then diverted on to the X2 and Michael Bryant reports it working the 12.08 Lowestoft - Norwich.
Next change also involved a B10M, King's Lynn's pride and joy 20109 was sent out on a safe turn (K3) which sees it back home for an early bath at 18.58, however, that was sabotaged by Lowestoft as after it arrived at 12.40, it was also switched to an X2 turn departing at 13.08 to Norwich. 37568 which had been spare one assumes since arriving on K14 at 08.40 then took K3 back westbound at 12.55. It will be interesting to discover if 37160 did do the second part of K1, as the only other possibilities are 37159 which is due out of Volvo and 37564 which has been absent since last Wednesday. I am being posted out to South Lincolnshire for a couple of days now, so all sightings will be welcome at the usual address. As for today many thanks go once again to 'the eyes at Walpole Highway', Bruce Billingham and also to Michael in Beccles.

Monday 26th October 2009 ~ Right Hand Man To The Rescue

I was in a lot of pain this morning and when I manged to finally get to the PC, I found the following email from Bruce addressed to me and a few others :
Can't find the Blogmeister so far today so watching more carefully than usual.

So far today at 11.09:-
K2 a B10M running a couple of minutes early(Curses!)
K3 20109
K4 THE BEAST!
K5 37160
Y6 579
Y7 563
L8 578
Y9 575
L10 570
L11 20103

This was later added to thus :
Well I have found the Blogmeister - he still has gout (like all retired Colonels in the Household Cavalry)
Anyway to complete the picture (late evening swaps excluded):-

K1 569
K2 20104
L12 perpetually late 568
Y13 572
K14 566
K15 577
K16 576
K17 37158
K18 565
K19 573

Now whats for tea?

A thorough rundown there then and it only remains for me to fill in the swaps, of which there only seems to have been one. 37160 on K5 was kept at Lowestoft (tut tut) and 37567 came back in its place. An email from Sam and Jamie V alerting me to the fact that 37575 had expired at Gunton Tesco on the last leg of Y9 came to nothing as 575 came into Lynn as expected. Thanks once again to BB for all his hard work today.

Sunday 25th October 2009 ~ A Flying B10

An entirely B9 worked service was prevented today by dear old 20105 which worked turn Y5, viz 08.30 Yarmouth - Peterborough, 12.10 Peterborough - Lowestoft, 16.48 Lowestoft - Peterborough & finally the 21.10 Peterborough - King's Lynn on which it was seen flying along at just after 22.00 tonight. Meanwhile the reason for 105s working, 37565 was in Lynn garage having received a replacement top windscreen.

Saturday 24th October 2009 ~ Driver Wanted

We haven't seen 20115 on the X1 for a while and last Sunday (17th), Jim Long photographed it after it had unexpectedly arrived in Ipswich !

I kept a fairly low profile again today, but our regular contributors kept me up to date. There were two 'incidents' to report. Firstly 37565 working turn K18 had a bird smash its top deck windscreen in the Necton area and it had to be replaced. This meant the rare sight of 20105 on express duty again and this worked back on the 15.35 Peterborough - Yarmouth. Then this evening 37566 arrived at King's Lynn as the 16.25 from Lowestoft (Y10), but there was no driver to take the service forward to Peterborough at 19.50, so it was cancelled as was the 21.10 Peterborough - King's Lynn. Rob Brooks was one of the passengers waiting at Peterborough, so he retired to the pub and then took the 22.10 with 37573 along with various obnoxious characters on the top deck which seems to be a regular hazard of late night X1 travel, particularly at weekends.

Gemini 37564 has now not been seen since Tuesday and this follows a similar 'disappearance' by 37563 which is now back and worked L9 today. Diagrams not worked by B9s today were : K5 37158, L11 20104, Y7 20107 and K3 20109 in addition to 20105 mentioned previously. Michael Bryant saw B7 Geminis 37156/7 still at work in Norwich today.