‘Scene’ at the Buses Festival 2021 More Shades of Blue on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’

The annual ‘Buses Festival’ in 2021 was held at the ‘East of England Showground’ which is near Peterborough.

 

PM19 JAM ‘Marshalls of Sutton on Trent’ No. VDL119.

VDL FHD20-106 Futura 2

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’

 

 

 

 

S574 TPW ‘BlueBus’ No. 574.

Scania L94UB / Wright Access Floline

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’ 

 

New to ‘First Eastern Counties’.

 

 

 

 

YX10 BFK ‘Whippet Coaches’ No. WS345.

Alexander Dennis Ltd. (ADL) Enviro200 / ‘ADL’ Enviro 200

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk'

 

New to ‘Centrewest’ as No. DML44148.

 

 

 

 

AF52 VMD ‘Go Whippet’, Huntingdon.

Scania L94UB / Wright Solar 

on Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk’

 

‘Scene’ in Harrogate on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk

Harrogate is one of the most attractive and elegant towns in England. The bus station is a simple one way in and one way out and is adjacent to the railway station.

 

The bus services are many and varied.

 

The most visible operator is ‘Transdev’ group with a number of its operating companies on view.

 

 

 

Service 36 which runs from Ripon to Leeds is the highest profile offering which uses new coach seated double deckers.

 

BL65 YZA ‘Harrogate & District Travel Ltd.’ ’36’ No. 3626 Volvo B5TL / Wright Eclipse Gemini

on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk

 

 

 

YK04 JYJ ‘Harrogate & District Travel Ltd.’ No. 1703 Volvo B7RLE / Wright Eclipse Urban

on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk

 

 

 

PO51 MTZ ‘Harrogate & District Travel Ltd.’ No. 1086 Volvo B10BLE / Wright Renown

on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk

 

New to ‘Lancashire United’ .

 

 

YC51 LXX ‘Harrogate & District Travel Ltd.’ No. 305 Volvo B10BLE / Wright Renown 

on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk

 

 

 

YJ12 MZN ‘Harrogate & District Travel Ltd.’ No. 277 Optare Versa V1100

on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk

 

 

 

X569 YUG ‘Harrogate & District Travel Ltd.’ No. 569 Volvo B10BLE / Wright Renown

on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk

 

New to ‘Keighley and District’.

 

 

P168 BTV ‘Harrogate Coach Travel’ Volvo Olympian / Northern Counties

on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk

 

At one time it was local to me working in Derby for ‘Arriva Midlands’ as its 4668. It has also had a spell with ‘Bullocks of Cheadle’.

 

 

T563 BSS ‘Harrogate Coach Travel’  Scania L94UB / Wright Axcess Floline

on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk

 

New to ‘First Aberdeen’ as its 563 and then with ‘First Leeds’ as its 60217.

 

 

 

YN05 GXA ‘‘Harrogate Coach Travel’ Scania L94 UB / Wright Solar

on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk

 

New to ‘Reading Buses’ as its 1001and it had a spell with ‘Eddie Brown Travel’ in South Yorkshire.

 

 

XEZ 3357 ‘Harrogate Coach Travel’ Optare Solo

on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk

 

New to ‘Ulsterbus’, it had a spell with ‘Star Travel’ of Aylesbury.

 

 

 

S600 SLT ‘Harrogate Coach Travel’ Scania CN94UB Omnilink 

on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk

 

Formerly with ‘South Lancs Travel’ (SLT) hence the registration. 

 

In March 2015 ‘SLT’ was taken over by ‘Diamond Bus’ (itself part of the ‘Rotala’ group) becomimg ‘Diamond Bus North West.

 

This bus has appeared on my blog previously when it was working in Bolton in full ‘SLT’ livery. See blog dated 04/08/2014.

 

 

9936 UB ‘Harrogate Coach Travel’ Scania N94UB OmniCity

on ‘Dennis Basford’s railsroadsrunways.blogspot.co.uk

 

New to ‘Bullocks of Cheadle’ as YN05 GZY.

 

 

‘Scene’ in St. Ives (Cambridgeshire) Bus Station

Sitting at the Northern end of the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway (CGB), St. Ives has a compact bus station flanked by these brick built structures which resemble lodges built at the entrance of a great estate.

 

Behind them however are 3 bays which accommodate the local services together with lay-over space for half a dozen buses.

The operators I saw during my visit were ‘Stagecoach East’ (SE) and ‘Go Whippet’ (GW) who  provide the services on the nearby ‘Busway’ and other services that do not access the ‘Busway’.

 

‘GW’ has its origins in the company ‘Whippet of Fenstanton’ who have a history dating back to 1919.

 

The company was taken over by Australian company ‘Tower Transit Systems’ in 2014.

 

BF63 HFC

 

A Volvo B7RLE with Wright Eclipse Urban 2 bodywork.

 

Close study of the front wheel will show the guide wheels that control the buses steering whilst in use on the ‘Busway’.

 

YN64 ANU

 

A Scania N230UD with ‘Alexander Dennis Ltd’ (ADL) Enviro 400 bodywork working for ‘SE’.

 

Seen traveling South on the ‘Busway’ away from St. Ives.

 

H303 CAV

 

A Volvo B10M-50 fitted with Northern Counties bodywork that was new to the company in 1990 working for ‘GW’.

 

X636 LLX

A Dennis Trident 2 with Plaxton President bodywork again with ‘GW’. This bus started its career in London when it worked for ‘Metroline’ as its VPL 136.

 

AE09 GYN

Another Scania N230UD with ‘Alexander Dennis Ltd’ (ADL) Enviro 400 bodywork working for ‘SE’.

 

Although this bus wearing ‘bio bus’ livery is equipped with guide wheels, I did not see any of the buses in this livery working on the ‘Busway’.

 

V183 OOE

A Volvo B7TL with Alexander ALX 400 bodywork working for ‘GW’. It is another bus with a London connection in that it first worked for ‘Transdev London United’ as their VA 67.

 

W136 EON

 

One more Volvo B7TL with Alexander ALX 400 with ‘GW’. Again it came from‘Transdev London United’ where it was VA100.

 

X57 XAW

Another of the same and again one with ‘Capital’ connections. The capital in question however is Dublin who’s livery it still carries. In Ireland it carried the registration 00-D-70104 which dates it to the year 2000.

 

On a personal note. If anybody out there found a pair of black gloves on the upper deck of this bus recently, They are MINE.

 

H13 WCL

 

A Scania L94UB with Wright Access Floline bodywork once more with ‘GW’. For some reason ‘GW’ have re registered this bus from T354 JWA.

 

 

 

 

‘Scene’ in Hanley bus station, ‘First Potteries’.

I was familiar with the old Hanley bus station and I had not yet seen the new one that opened in 2013 so a visit was long overdue. 

 

Although it was only a weekday, it seemed crowded and a driver told me to come back at tea time when it would be gridlocked.....!

 

However, I was only there to take pictures so here they are.

 

There is a vogue for painting modern vehicles in Heritage liveries of which I heartily approve. It brings a level of added colour to the present fleet and illustrates to today's public how things used to be.

 

In many case, the Heritage livery is an improvement over the current regime however I do not think that in the case of the two buses pictured here that this is the case. I always thought this livery a bit ‘gaudy’. 

 

I would have preferred the red and cream that ‘Potteries Motor Traction’ (PMT) painted their buses in in BET Federation days.

 

Maybe there is hope on the horizon. Rumours coming out of the Potteries suggest a hybrid scheme using a part of ‘First’s current scheme with a lot of red is being considered. 

 

YN05 HCL

A Scania CN94UB with Scania bodywork also known as the Omnicity. 

MX05 CGK

A Volvo B7RLE with Wright Eclipse Urban bodywork that migrated South from 

‘First Manchester’.

The ‘Gold Service’ branding carried by these buses.

 

The ‘Caetano Nimbus’ body has never been widely spread in the UK, so to find buses of two different lengths from different backgrounds in the same fleet is unusual.

 

EU06 KDK 

An Alexander Dennis Ltd. (ADL) Dart SLF.

 

Which has quite a varied background being new to ‘SM Coaches’ of Harlow (Essex) before moving to’ Poppleton’ of Pontefract in 2007. Then on to ‘Travel Master’ of Carrington (Manchester) in 2010 before joining ‘Bodman’ of Worton (Wiltshire) in 2011. It joined ‘First’ in 2013.

LK03 LMF

Another ‘ADL ‘Dart SLF which  was new to ‘First Capital’ before coming North in 2012.

 

S561 JSE

A Scania L94UB with Wright ‘Access Floline’ bodywork which worked previously for 

‘First Manchester’. 

 

The old livery ‘First’ seems to be alive and well in Hanley.

 

X261 USH

Another Scania L94UB with Wright ‘Access Floline’ bodywork. 

YN06 WMF

A couple of Scania Omnicity’s from the same batch displaying the different ‘First’ liveries.

 

YN06 WMP

 

KP54 LAO

A Volvo B7TL with Wright Eclipse Gemini body. It was new to ‘First Northampton’ and had a spell in Leicester.

 

 

P126 NLW

A Dennis Dart with Marshall Capital bodywork. An eighteen year old bus that was smartly turned out.

 

 

There cannot be many fleets in the country that does not have the Optare Solo present.

 

VX57 CYO

Was new to ‘Astons’ of Worcester part of the ‘Veolia’ group at the time

 

X299 FFA

Further photos can be seen on my Flickr