‘Scene’ in K & H Doyle of Alfreton’s fleet part 3

It is now one year since ‘Doyle’s shut down. I do not know why they did.  What I do know is that for a period of 25 years or so, they brought extra colour and interest to the East Midlands transport scene.

 

Time then before memories fade for a retrospective of the company.

 

The early buses in the fleet were a beige colour and some never made it into fleet livery. In addition one or two appeared in advertising liveries. 

 

After that, there were two distinct liveries adorning the fleet. The lime green and purple and the overall green. 

 

My son Andrew likened the lime green and purple livery to 

 

     “Looking like a fading bruise”.

 

I was fortunate to meet Mr. Doyle on a number of occasions. The first time was on a ‘Transpire’ (The Chesterfield Bus Society) visit to his premises in Alfreton. It was an evening visit and he was kind enough to conduct us around and then to give us the run of the place to take whatever pictures we wanted. Some of them appear here.

I have dealt with the other liveries in additional blogs. See blogs dated 14 and 16 January 2015.

 

S287 UAL

 

A Mercedes-Benz (MB) 814D with Plaxton Beaver 2 bodywork.

 

It was built for ‘Trent Buses’ and fitted with Dual Purpose seats. One of 7 so built the other 18 being bus seated. The thinking was that they could be used on long, thinner routes where a bit more comfort was desirable.

 

This particular bus worked for some time on the ‘Ilkeston Flyer’ service and another, R275 RAU worked on the X38 service from Derby to Burton-on-Trent.

 

I don’t know wether any other ‘MB’s made it into the green livery.

 

R556 UOT

A Dennis Dart with UVG Urbanstar body is seen waiting departure in Belper. The Urbanstar  was also marketed as the ‘Caetano Compass’.

 

V331 CVV

A Dennis MPD Dart with Plaxton Pointer 2 bodywork seen in Ripley. It has since gone on to work for ‘Leven Valley’ in the Middlesborough area.

 

Y866 TGH

 

Another Dart MPD/ Plaxton Pointer 2 combination seen leaving Nottingham Victoria Bus Station. Previously it worked in London for ‘London Central’.

 

W975 ETW

Another of the same albeit the longer version. This time seen in Mansfield’s new (April 2013) bus station. 

 

Prior to being with Doyle’s it worked for ‘Bus Eireann’ in Southern Ireland registered 00-D- 84191.

 

Since leaving Doyle’s it has moved on to ‘Ridgeways of Glamorgan’.

 

P301 HDP

A further Dart/Plaxton vehicle seen in the Alfreton depot.

New to ‘Limebourne’ in London. Before Doyle’s it had worked for ‘Metrobus’ in London and after Doyle’s it moved to

‘Irvine of Law’ in Scotland.

 

YJ54 UBP

An Optare Solo seen at the Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham.

Before joining Doyle’s it had a spell with ‘Wilfreeda Beehive’ operating in the Doncaster area.

 

X791 NWX

An Optare Solo seen outside Derby’s Council House. At one time it worked for ‘Fair Rider’ of Huddersfield. It subsequently went to work for 'McEwens' of Mansfield on some of Doyle's former routes..!

 

Y812 KBP and W296 EYG 

Two Optare Solo’s (almost) for the price of one seen in Sutton-in-Ashfield bus station. Formerly with ‘Courtney’, Bracknell. W296 EYG used to work for ‘EST’ Buses in South Wales.

 

YN53 SVJ

An Optare Solo seen in Derby bus station. At one time it worked in Perth for ‘Stagecoach’ and for ‘The Harrogate Coach Company’.

 

W296 EYG

The front side of this bus as opposed to its backside 2 images up. Seen in Sutton-in-Ashfield again.

 

 

P308 HDP

A Plaxton Pointer 2 bodied Dennis Dart on its way from Ilkeston to Derby.

 

New to ‘Limebourne’ in London, It then went to ‘Metrobus’ also in London from where it was loaned for a time to ‘Go-Ahead London’ before coming to Doyles’ in 2009.

 

It has since moved to Scotland with ‘Irvine of Law’.

 

 

T183 CLO

A Dennis Trident with Alexander ALX 400 bodywork. Seen ‘laying over’ in Mansfield bus station.

 

It previously worked as fleet number TA 83 for ‘Metroline’ in London.

 

Since leaving Doyle’s it has been reported as working in Worthing for ‘Compass Bus’ entering service in ‘Doyles’ livery.

‘Scene’ in Derbyshire on routes 143 and 144 and a bit of the 142 (formerly K&H Doyle routes)

These two relatively rural routes provide a vital service linking as they do the towns of Ripley and Belper via Ambergate (143) and Ripley and Crich (144).

 

Crich being best known as the home of ‘The Tramway Museum’ or ‘Tramway Village’ as it now prefers to be called.

 

The normal practice has been for both routes to be interworked with 1 bus. 

 

When I first came to live locally, the Ripley-Belper service was operated by ‘Trent’ as its service No. 95 using Leyland Tiger Cubs with Metro Cammell-Wweymann or Saunders-Roe bodies. 

 

The Ripley-Crich service on Saturdays only was run by a company called ‘Mylady Coaches’ who at that time ran it with Duple bodied Bedfod OB’s. During the rest of the week it was the province of Trent and its service No. 96 (Thanks to

Chris Barker for clarification re the 96 and 'My lady Coaches').

 

Over the years, the routes have stayed much as they were but as might be expected the operators and vehicles have changed.

 

At the start of 2014 the operator was K & H Doyle of Alfreton. Doyle’s began as a Ripley based operator in 1986 but moved to Alfreton where they found more suitable premises.

 

R556 UOT

A Dennis Dart  SLF with UVG Urbanstar body is seen waiting departure in Belper. The Urbanstar  was also marketed as the ‘Caetano Compass’.

 

On the 13th. of January, Doyle’s ceased operating. I new something was amiss when on the 14th. I saw a Doyle’s route being run by ‘yourbus’.

 

‘yourbus’ (yb) a relative newcomer in central Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire has in the last few years have built up quite a portfolio of routes operating out of their base in Heanor.

 

Asked to cover these and other routes on an emergency basis, ‘yb’ quickly stepped in using mainly ‘Wright Streetlite D/F’s.

 

MX62 GXE

A Wright 'Streetlte' D/F

 

Things seemed to be settling down with the new arrangements.

 

I was surprised therefore to see in Derbyshire County Council’s ‘Forthcoming changes to bus services’ to find that as from 30th March the operator was to change again. This time to ‘McEwens Coaches of Mansfield’.

 

‘McEwens’ were established in 1998 and in late 2013 came under the control of ‘Skills Coaches’ when Skills purchased a majority interest.

 

‘Skills’ are a well established coach operator dating back to 1919. In recent years they have also built up a substantial contract hire fleet of double deckers.

 

I am not aware of ‘McEwens’ operating in this part of Derbyshire before so it will be interesting to see how it works out.

 

MX07 BBZ.

An Optare Solo previously operated by ‘Robert’s of Hugglescote in Leicestershire

 

 

 

Intriguingly whilst waiting for the Crich bus to depart another ‘McEwens’ Solo turned up with 143 in its route number box.

 

X791 NWX

Which was previously operated by ‘K & H Doyle of Alfreton’. As the saying goes, ‘What comes around goes around’..........!

 

Almost as a postscript to this article, I was in Belper the following day and X791 NWX turned up again this time on the 142.

 

The 142 is a ‘yourbus’ route with 5 departures a day between Belper and Alfreton. ‘McEwens’ operate just one service per day on the 142 and this was it.