Dennis Basford's Rails, Roads and Runways

Tuesday, 2 February 2016

‘Scene’ in Bournemouth, ‘Wilts & Dorset’ (WD)

My wife (Barbara) and I have been holidaying in Bournemouth for over 35 years. During that time I have watched with much interest the comings and goings in the bus fleets locally.

For most of that time, competition for ‘Bournemouth Corporation Transport’ has come from ‘Wilts & Dorset’ (WD).

With a history going back to 1915 ‘WD’ was at one time part of the ‘National Bus Company’ and these days is part of ‘Go South Coast’ which is a subsidiary of the ‘Go Ahead’ group.

In 2012 ‘WD’ adopted ‘More’ branding for its Bournemouth and Poole area operations whilst adopting ‘Salisbury Reds’ for its Salisbury area services.

Bournemouth and Salisbury are linked hourly by service X3.

HJ63 JKE

A Dennis Trident 2 with Alexander Dennis Ltd. (ADL) Enviro 400 bodywork which is based at Ringwood.

HJ63 JJV

Another Dennis Trident 2 with Alexander Dennis Ltd. (ADL) Enviro 400 bodywork which is based at Ringwood.

An earlier generation of double deck bus is represented by

YN03 DFL

A Scania N94UD Omnidekka with East Lancs bodywork seen in the ‘More’ livery.

HF05 GGJ

A Volvo B7TL with East Lancs Myllennium bodywork seen in the blue ‘New Forest Tour’ promotional livery.

The lugs along the roofline are for removing the roof to allow the buses in this batch to operate as open toppers.

HF05 GGY

A Volvo B7TL with East Lancs Myllennium bodywork seen in the old ‘W&D’ livery.

HF05 GGP

A Volvo B7TL with East Lancs Myllennium bodywork seen in the green ‘New Forest Tour’ promotional livery.

Apart from their own services, ‘W&D’ operate services on behalf of ‘Bournemouth University’ (BU) in ‘BU’ livery.

HF59 FAK

A Dennis Trident 2 with ‘Alexander Dennis Ltd,’ Enviro 400 bodywork in the ‘Bournemouth University branded livery’.

HF58 GZL

A Scania N230UD OmniCity with East Lancs bodywork in the ‘Bournemouth University branded livery’.

‘W&D’s service 50 the ‘Purbeck Breezer’ operates between Bournemouth and Swanage via the Sandbanks chain ferry and is one of the ‘Must Do’ journeys in the UK.

To be held up on a double deck bus by a cross channel ferry as it sails out of Poole harbour is an experience not to be missed !

Operated with a fleet of Scania 230UD’s with Optare Visionaire bodies which can work in open or closed top layout depending on the weather.

The Swanage terminus and ‘W&D’s depot is located in the old railway yard and is at the side of the preserved ‘Swanage Railway’ of today.

HF59 DMO (This image was taken in Swanage with the station building behind the bus).

HF09 FVV

The bread and butter routes are the m1 and m2 which operate from Poole to Bournemouth and then on to the Castlepoint shopping complex (m1) and Southborne (m2).

Operating with buses up to every few minutes across the day and night.

The majority of the buses in use are Volvo B7RLE’s wit Wright Eclipse Urban 2 bodies but there are also Scania CN230UB’s OmnCity’s in regular service.

HF12 GWM

A Volvo B7RLE/Wright Eclipse Urban 2.

HF12 GVR

Another Volvo B7RLE/Wright Eclipse Urban 2.

The livery is quite stylised however at least one of the B7RLE’s wears a silver variation on the standard livery in celebration of 10 years of the m1 and m2.

HF58 HTO

A Scania CN230UB OmniCities.

HF58 HTP

MX57 CAV

An Optare Solo.

Saturday, 30 January 2016

‘Scene’ at Bruntingthorpe Airfield 1

Located South of Leicester, the present Bruntingthorpe Airfield opened as RAF Bruntingthorpe in 1942 and in its service days served both the RAF and the USAF.

These days it serves a multitude of purposes ranging from storage facility to a flight test centre.

Several times a year some of the veteran aircraft that are based there are allowed to perform a fast taxi down the runway and at the point of becoming airborne, their throttles are closed and instead of taking off, they come to a gentle halt.

It might sound frustrating, however the attending enthusiasts (and there are many) are treated to the sight and sound of multi engined aircraft at some speed.

Not as good as seeing the aircraft in the air but the next best thing.

ZD 241

A Vickers Super VC-10 1151

Built in 1968 as G-ASGM an airliner for British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) being delivered in March of that year.

Withdrawn and sold to the RAF in 1981, It was stored at Abingdon until 1991 when it was ferried to Filton (Bristol) for conversion to a K4 Tanker for the RAF which was completed in 1995.

It was finally withdrawn and flown to Bruntingthorpe in March 2013.

XV 226

A Hawker Siddeley Nimrod MR 2.

It was built in 1968 as Maritime Reconnaissance (MR)1 and was one of 35 that were re built to MR 2 standard in the late 1970’s.

It was retired and came to Bruntingthorpe in April 2010.

XM 715

A Handley Page Victor K2.

Built in 1962 as a B2 bomber.

It was delivered in December of that year to 100 Squadron (Sqn). Later it went to 543 ‘Sqn’ before conversion to a K2 Tanker started in 1970 which was completed in 1975.

As a K2 it served with No.s 55 & 57 ‘Sqns’. until withdrawal in 1993 and preservation at Bruntingthorpe in that year.

XW 544

A Hawker Siddeley (originally Blackburn) Buccaneer S2B.

Built and delivered to the RAF in June 1972. It served both both 15 and 16 ‘Sqn’ at Laarbruch in RAF Germany.

The entire Buccaneer fleet was grounded for 6 months in 1982 following the crash of

XV 345 whilst in the USA.

It continued with 15 ‘Sqn’ until 1982 when it was withdrawn and became ‘Maintenance Airframe’ 8857M.

Finally withdrawn in 1985 and sold into private ownership.

It came to Bruntingthorpe in 2004.

XR 728

An English Electric Lightning F6.

First flew in March 1965 and was delivered to the RAF’s 23 ‘Sqn’ at Leuchars in November 1967.

A major overhaul followed in 1971 before joining 56 ‘Sqn’ at Wattisham in 1975 then on to 5 ‘Sqn’ at Binbrook in 1978.

Finally moving to XI ‘Sqn’ before withdrawal and coming to Bruntingthorpe in June 1988.

66654

An Aero L-29 Delfin

A 2 seat jet trainer built in Czechoslovakia.

Seen in Romanian Air Force colours.

WT 333

An English Electric Canberra bomber.

Built as a B(I)8 model in 1956 and delivered to the Armament Department of the ‘Royal Aeronautical Establishment ‘ (RAE) as a trials machine.

It spent its working life with various Experimental and Research units including the ‘Weapons Research Establishment’ and the ‘Radar Research Establishment’ before being sold as G-BVXC to ‘Classic Aviation Projects’ in 1995.

Its final flight (to Bruntingthorpe) was on 9th. January 1995 where after being sold again it is still maintained in taxi-able condition.

XL 565

A Hawker Hunter T.7.

Built at Hawker’s Kingston on Thames factory in 1958 being the third T.7 to be built.

After being used by ‘Rolls Royce’ on engine development work it was used initially by the RAF with various Squadrons in Aden.

Repatriated to the UK in 1965, after overhaul it served at RAF Valley as an advanced trainer and with 237 Operational Conversion Unit for training Buccaneer pilots.

Between 1981 and 1984 it was in use by the Royal Navy’s ‘Fleet Requirement Unit’ at RNAS Yeovilton.

It then went to the ‘Institute of Aviation Medicine’ unit at Farnborough before being retired from service at RAF Lossiemouth in 1993.

After a number of civilian owners, the aircraft came to Bruntingthorpe in 2002 where it was restored to taxi-able condition in the livery it had worn in Aden.

Quite a career !.

XP 672

A Hunting Percival Jet Provost T.4

Built for the RAF in 1962.

Serving with a variety of training units including No. 2 ‘Flying Training School’ at Syerston, ‘The College of Air Warfare’ at Manby and the ‘School of Refresher Flying’ at Leeming it became ground instructional airframe 8458/C at Halton in 1989.

Sold as G-RAFI, after various owners it came to Bruntingthorpe in 2011.

F-BTVG

Developed from the Boeing C-97 which in itself was derived from the Boeing Stratocruiser. This In turn was a new fuselage wedded to the tail, wings and engines of the Boeing B50 which was a derivative of the B-29. The 'Atom Bomber'.

Further developed with turboprop engines, a new tail and an enormous fuselage extension to become the ‘Super Guppy’

Used by ‘Aero Spacelines’ to deliver outsize loads.

G-CPDA

A De Havilland DH-106 Comet 4C.

It first flew in September 1963 as XS 235 and was delivered to the ‘Royal Aircraft Establishment’ (RAE) in December of that year. Named ‘Canopus’, whilst there.

It served for many years at the ‘Aircraft and Armaments Research Establishment’ at Boscombe Down from where it was retired in 1996.

Its last flight was to Bruntingthorpe on 30th. October 1997.

ZE 705

A Lockheed L-1011 Tristar

Built for ‘Pan American ‘and delivered as N509PA in July 1980 as ‘Clipper Golden Eagle’.

To the RAF in July 1984 for conversion to C2 tanker. It came to Bruntingthorpe in March 2014 for storage along with 5 others.

It was re-registered N703CS to ‘CSDS Aircraft Sales & Leasing’ in May 2014.

It is presumed that eventually the aircraft will be exported to the USA. Maybe for further service??

Monday, 25 January 2016

‘Scene’ whilst out and about Monday 25/01/2016

Most weeks my wife (Barbara) have a day out usually by bus and Monday was it.

Most people who know me know that I have been writing a series of articles for some years about days out by bus for a local (to mid Derbyshire) community based magazine called ‘all Things Local’.

This requires some research and todays outing took me to Bakewell, Chesterfield and Sheffield.

This short selection were the pick of what I saw.

First then was Bakewell.

EK51 XXE

A Dennis Dart with Plaxton Mini Pointer Dart bodywork working for ‘Hulleys of Baslow’.

This now elderly bus has been around a long time and has worked for ‘South Lancs Travel’ of Atherton amongst others.

For its age, it looked quite tidy and sounded well.

YX65 RFZ

An Alexander Dennis Ltd. (ADL) Enviro 200 of ‘High Peak Buses’ (HPB) working on the ‘Transpeak’ service from Derby to Buxton.

This is a ‘short’ working. The full route runs from Derby to Manchester.

‘HPB’ it will be remembered is a joint operation owned by ‘trentbarton’ (tb) and ‘Centrebus’.

PIL 6648

A Volvo B10M with Van Hool Alizee bodywork of Tideswell based operator ‘Andrews’.

It was new to ‘Wallace Arnold’ as K804 HUM which according to my reckoning makes it 24 years old !

For its age it looked superb.

FD53 WWH

A Scania L94UB with Wright Solar bodywork of ‘TMTravel’ (TMT) working its ‘Peak Line 218’ service to Sheffield via Chatsworth House.

‘TMT’ being part of the ‘Wellglade’ group.

The bus was new to fellow ‘Wellglade’ group member ‘tb’.

This particular bus took us a s far as Sheffield.

Where ‘Star’ of the day was this.

SM65 EFF

A Wright StreetDeck of ‘First South Yorkshire’ working on and branded for the X78 service from Sheffield to Doncaster.

One of 22 buses so painted.

I have been critical in the past about ‘First’s choice of liveries but I think that this livery is superb.

So, back via Chesterfield then, where I am treated to another superb livery.

YN64 AOE

A Scania N230UD with ‘ADL’ Enviro 400 bodywork of ‘Stagecoach Yorkshire’ working on the X17 service from Sheffield to Matlock via Chesterfield.

The ‘pronto’ service from Chesterfield to Nottingham via Mansfield is a joint operation between ‘tb’ and ‘Stagecoach’.

‘tb’s rolling stock is usually branded Scania L94UB’s with Wright Solar bodies although I have seen a lot of fleet liveried buses in service recently.

The ‘pronto’ has always been in shades of pink but I think that in the last year, buses have been painted in much darker shades of the two colours.

FJ03 VWA

An Optare Solo

Another ‘TMT’ bus caught at a crew change.

Seen wearing the colours of another ‘Wellglade’ group member ‘Kinchbus’ of Loughborough from whom it has been transferred.

Sunday, 24 January 2016

‘Scene’ in Bournemouth, ‘Yellow Buses’ (YB)

My wife (Barbara) and I have been holidaying in Bournemouth for over 30 years. During that time I have watched with much interest the comings and goings in the bus fleets locally.

The major operator in Bournemouth (although not by much) is ‘Yellow Buses’ (YB).

‘YB’ has its roots in ‘Bournemouth Corporation Transport’ dating back to the tramways days in the early 1900’s.

Buses came to be used as feeders to the trams which in turn were replaced by trolleybuses.

By the time I discovered Bournemouth, the trolleys had followed the trams into history.

Sold by Bournemouth Borough Council in 2005 to ‘Transdev’, ‘YB’ became part of the French ‘RATP’ group in 2011.

Variety has always been the attraction to me in Bournemouth and I can say that I have never seen the degree of variety present in the ‘YB’ fleet as there is today.

The first three images all show Wright Gemini bodied buses but look at the detail.

HF03 ODW

Is built on a Volvo B7TL chassis and displays the deep windows on both decks together with the simple head and sidelight combination.

HF11 HCX

This time built on Volvo’s 9TL chassis. This Wright Gemini 2 bodied bus has unpainted window frames and a revised front panel to present the ‘smiley face’ beloved of current bus designers which I think Irizar introduced on their ‘Century’ series coaches.

BF15 KFE

Is A Volvo B5L with Wright Gemini 3 bodywork.

The upper deck windows are markedly shallower whilst the front panel although still keeping the ‘smiley face’ is revised again.

HJ02 HFF

A Volvo B7TL with East Lancs Vyking bodywork.

HF04 JWK

A Volvo B7TL with East Lancs Myllennium bodywork. Similar to the Vyking but different. (the upper deck front windows, the front bumper and the drivers offside window).