A short visit to Sutton Coldfield part 4

NXWM operate a number of high frequency routes (usually six buses per hour) for which the allocated buses are route branded. Each route gets a different colour superimposed over the fleet livery. The West Bromwich route 5 being in yellow.

W114 DOP 

Another Volvo B7TL  with Plaxton President  body again allocated to WB illustrates the point.

 

Single deck members of the NXWM on ‘parade’ on the day started with.

 

 

BX12 DDO

A Volvo B7RLE with Wright Eclipse Urban 2 bodywork. An AG garaged vehicle seen working route 71 which comes in from Solihull to terminate at SC railway station.

 

S669 VOA 

A much older Volvo B6LA with Wrights Crusader bodywork. A WA bus working in from its home town. When delivered this bus was part of a batch of 60 or so buses, many of which have now been withdrawn.

Part 5 to follow shortly

 

A short visit to Sutton Coldfield part 3

BU51 RXG 

A Volvo B7TL-57 with Alexander ALX 400 bodywork seating 74 works out of NXWM’s PB depot and is seen on layover in SC.

 

BV57 XLA 

Another PB bus. This time a 76 seat Scania Omnicity 230UD working the 914 from SC to Birmingham which is a fast journey via Kingsbury Road, Good Hope Hospital and the Aston Expressway.

 

BJ03 EXL

Wright’s Eclipse Gemini body with 73 seats on a  Volvo B7TL-57 chassis again from PB depot which once more goes to Birmingham via the Aston Expressway. This time being routed via Erdington, Gravelly Hill and again Good Hope Hospital. 

 

Part 4 to follow shortly

A short visit to Sutton Coldfield part 2

A modern electronic departures board keeps intending passengers up to date. 

The identification of the operator requires a bit of explaining. ARR is obviously Arriva, CEB is Central Buses whilst the two letter codes refer to the NXWM garage that operates this particular route. The list of all NXWM garage codes are,  AG Acocks Green, BC Birmingham Central, BY Bordesley Green, CV Coventry, PB Perry Barr, PE Pensnett, WA Walsall, WB West Bromwich, WN Wolverhampton, YW Yardley Wood and XS which is for buses that are stored.

 

I always tend to think of the big fleets (such as NXWM) as being highly standardised but within a very short space of time, I was presented with 5 different double decker types to photograph. As will also be seen, they come in a wide variety of colour schemes which are variations on the red, white and blue theme.

 

W113 DOP A WB based Volvo B7TL with a 74 seat Plaxton President body looking immaculate for a fourteen year old bus, about to depart for its home town.

BU07 LGX a PB based bus is an Alexander Dennis Ltd. (ADL) Trident 2 fitted with ADL’s Enviro 400 bodywork seating 77.

 

Part 3 follows shortly…