‘Scene’ at Showbus 2014-‘Routemaster’s

There was so much to see at Duxford this year that to try and cover it all in one ‘Blog’ would not do justice to anything. I shall return as time and space allow me to in further ‘Blogs’ with other aspects that on the day caught my eye.

 

The Routemaster is 60 years old this year and to celebrate the event it was intended to have 60 examples present to celebrate the occasion. Just how many turned up, I am not sure but here are a few that drew my attention.

 

VLT 7  RM 7

 

VLT40  RM 40

 

VLT 44  RM 44

 

VLT 158   RM158

 

VLT 254  RM 254

 

A close up of the immaculate engine.

 

VLT 291  RM 291

100 BXL  RM 1000

 

138 CLT  RM 1138

254 CLT  RF 1254

461 CLT  RMC 1461

 

699 DYE  RM 1699

 

OWJ 112 (Ex 822 DYE)  RM 1822

 

ALM 33B  RM 2033

CUV 208C RM 2208

 

CUV 233C  RCL 2233

CUV 272C  RML 2272

 

CUV 334C  RML 2334

 

JJD 368D  RM 2368

 

JJD 412D  RML 2412

 

NML 616E  RML 2616

 

SMK 660F  RML 2660

 

Finally, for all those of you who are by now sick of looking at ‘Old’ Routemasters, I will finish by giving you a ‘New’ Routemaster.

 

Love them or loath them, they are going to be around a for long time and I suspect that they will finish up being as iconic as the ‘Old’ RM has become. 

 

Wether they last for 60 years or not, only time will tell.....!

 

LTZ 1256  LT256

 

'Scene' in Eccles

A day out in the Greater Manchester (GM) area with members of my local U3A group recently enabled me to get a good cross section of images.

 

I live in Derbyshire and am able to buy the ‘GM ‘Wayfarer’ ticket on the train. The nearest qualifying railway station for me being at Grindleford. 

 

The ‘Wayfarer’ ticket is excellent value for money at £11 for adults and £6 for child and seniors concessions.

 

A look at any of the many maps that GMPTE have online will give a flavour of what is available.

 

The first generation of modern trams were Italian built Ansaldo Firema T-68/T-69‘s. Dating from the early 1990’s They have now all been withdrawn.

 

‘Metrolink’ the operator have replaced them with new Bombardier ‘Flexity Swift 5000 Light Rail Vehicles’ (trams to you and me).

 

84 units have been delivered and another 32 have been authorised to be delivered up to 2016. Costing £2,000,000 each they are fast, powerful and comfortable. The trams alone are worth the cost of the ‘Wayfarer’ ticket. 

 

But then there are also trains, buses.............!

 

3077A

 

Seen at the ‘Eccles Interchange’ The bus station is just behind the tram to the right. The building to the left is a Morrisons supermarket that do quite reasonable food and drink.

 

Eccles, a suburb of Manchester is the home of the ‘Eccles cake’ which is still produced in the town and very tasty they are too.

 

MX07 BPY

 

A Volvo B9TL  with Wright Gemini bodywork, operated by ‘First Manchester’ (FM).

 

MX07 BTF

Another of the same but painted in the traditional ‘Salford City Transport’ livery.

 

‘First’ have adopted a policy of painting buses into the ‘Heritage’ liveries of the companies that now constitute ‘First Group’.

 

This is one of a number of ’retro’ liveries and ‘First’ are to be commended for introducing them.

 

MX06 VPW

 

A Volvo B7RLE with Wright Eclipse Urban bodywork. Another ‘FM’ bus seen with Eccles bus station in the background.

 

MX13 AFE

 

A Volvo B5LH with Wright Gemini 2 bodywork. The major difference between the Gemini 1 and 2  lies in the much shallower roof line which I believe is being produced exclusively for ‘Arriva’ at this stage.

These last images are all taken with Eccles bus station in the background.

MX55 FHF

Another Volvo B7RLE with Wright Eclipse Urban bodywork working out of the Bolton depot.

CX57 CYU

An Optare Solo working in what I consider the traditional (and in my view, the best) ‘Arriva’ livery working in the ‘Arriva North West’ fleet.

 

YJ61 JHU

An Optare Versa Diesel Electric Hybrid which I believe is owned by ‘Transport for Greater Manchester’ but being operated by ‘FM’.

 

MX08 UBT

A Dennis Trident 2 with Alexander Dennis Ltd. Enviro 400 bodywork working out of Stockport depot.

Another Day out with Dennis to Uttoxeter

This set of images is to illustrate an article written for a magazine called ‘All Things Local’.

This community magazine is produced and distributed from a base in Kilburn, Derbyshire and covers large areas of the towns of Ripley and Belper.

 

The first bus of the day will be one of ‘trentbarton’s ‘tb’ ‘red arrows’ if you are traveling from the Ripley area or one of the same companies ‘the sixes’ buses if you are traveling from the Belper area.

 

From Derby to Burton on Trent you stay with ‘tb’ on board one of its ‘the villager’ liveried buses. These carry images of farm animals so underlining their ‘rural’ credentials.

So far if ‘tb’ are using vehicles branded for the services, you have been traveling on Swedish built Scania chassis. In the case of the ‘red arrow’ with coach bodies largely built by a Spanish company called ‘Irizar’. On ‘the sixes’ and ‘the villager’, the bus bodies come from Wright’s of Ballymena in Northern Ireland.

 

At Burton you switch to the Uttoxeter service provided by ‘Arriva’. I have known this service to be run with double deck buses but recently they have been using Wright bodies again but this time fitted to DAF chassis. These are made in Holland. The company is also known as VDL.

 

It’s back to ‘tb’ for the trip to Ashbourne aboard one of their ‘the swift’ liveried buses. Yet one more Wright body on another Swedish chassis this time produced by Volvo.

 

You can elect to stay with this bus back to Derby or the alternative is to change to ‘yourbus’ for the run to Belper from Ashbourne.

 

This is a bus which is supplied in its entirety by Wright’s again and is called the 'Streetlite'. 

 

‘Scene’ at ‘Showbus 2014'- Olympus

No doubt this will be the first of a number of ‘Blogs’ that came out of my visit to ‘Showbus’ yesterday.

 

My trip there was with ‘Transpire’ the Chesterfield Bus Society.

 

The ‘Olympus’ body has had a checkered build background during its relatively short production life. Starting out as an ‘East Lancs Coachbuilders’ product. Then coming from ‘Darwen’ until finally finishing up in the ‘Optare’ stable.

 

Whoever the builder was what I think that the ‘Olympus’ was probably the the most visually attractive of all the double deck bodies produced in the last few years.

 

Seen here in the livery of ‘Midland Classic’ who operate in and around Burton on Trent.

 

The livery is a classic of its own kind being recognisable as a style of livery that has graced buses for many years. Long may it continue.

JB10 MCL on a Scania chassis.

 

 

 

 

Coaches ‘Scene’ in the ‘Southwest’

 

A few days holiday based in Weymouth allowed me to have a look at what goes on in that part of the world. The buses of the Southwest will feature in a later ‘blog’.

 

Many coaches in this part of the world are like me and just visiting. We start however with one that ‘lives’ there.

 

JSK 262

A Volvo B10M-62 with Plaxton Paragon bodywork was new to ‘Plymouth citycoach’ as Y314 NYD in 2001 and gained its dateless registration in 2011.

 

‘Plymouth Citybus’ of which ‘citycoach’ is a part has a history dating back a hundred years and for most of them it was owned by Plymouth Corporation. These days however it is part of the ‘Go-Ahead’ group having been purchased by them in 2009.

 

SJ08 WAC

 

A Volvo 9700 of ‘Platinum Express’, a Wolverhampton based operator.

 

At one time it was 08-G-805 operated by ‘Callinan Coaches’ of Claregalway, County Galway in Southern Ireland. At that time it carried a ‘Eurolines’/‘National Express’ joint livery.

 

YT13 AMU

A Scania K380EBF with Irizar i6 bodywork of ‘Solus Coaches’. ‘Solus’ are a Tamworth, Staffordshire based operator.

 

With a history going back only as far as 2014, they have come along way in a short time with a current fleet of over 30 vehicles.

 

2011 saw them take over ‘Protours’ of Swadlincote and revert the company back to its original name of ‘Viking Coaches’. A widely known and respected name in the East Midlands with a history dating back almost 90 years.

 

YJ06 LCY

A VDL SB4000 with Van Hool Alizee bodywork. It has been with ‘Mid Wales Travel’ of Penrhyncoch since new in October 2006.

 

 

NH06 GEH

A Volvo B12M with Plaxton Panther bodywork operated by ‘National Holidays’ who these days are part of the ‘Shearings’ group.

FJ10 DPX

A Volvo B12B with Jonkheere bodywork new to and operated by ‘Brent Thomas Coaches Ltd.’ of Tonypandy in South Wales.

 

GIL 8494

Another VDL SB4000 with Van Hool Alizee bodywork working for ‘Pencoed Travel’ of Pencoed in South Wales. 

 

Before gaining its dateless registration it was YJ54 CHG and was new to ‘Bradshaw’ of St. Annes on Sea.

 

HSK 654

A Volvo B9R with Plaxton Elite bodywork operated by ‘Parks of Hamilton’ on ‘National Express’ work.

 

Seen in the rather bleak confines of Bridport bus station the dateless registration has been used before most recently on another Volvo/Plaxton product a B12M/Panther.

 

WA14 EJK

A Mercedes Benz Vario with Plaxton Cheetah bodywork working for ‘Sewards Coaches’ of Axminster in Devon.

 

R555 JVA

A Volvo B10M with Plaxton Premiere bodywork. currently working for Somerset based operator ‘Chivers’ (JVA Sunseeker Tours) of Midsomer Norton.

 

It has an interesting history being new to ‘The Londoners’ as R986 MGP in 1996. Moving to ‘Hearn’ of Harrow weald in 2001 as R1 HRN before finally moving to ‘Chivers’ in 2007 and being given its current registration in 2008.

 

It is surprising to me that whilst being given a new identity in 2008, they didn’t go the whole hog and give it a dateless registration.

 

HY53 DVO

A Neoplan N316SHD Euroliner of ‘South Coast Travel’ (SCT) seated to carry 70 passengers (presumably children). ‘SCT’ are based in Bournemouth.