ETC Rally Old Buckenham

Hardly seems a year ago i attended this rally with Chris Speed and the first outing of Eastern Counties Heritage liveried ALX400 32479. This year my mode of transport was AEC Swift 85 WEX685M with Danny Beales & Chris Speed taking it to her first Rally since they purchased her a couple of months ago, included in the trip was a free cloth and the ability to give 85 a quick wash and brush up before we left!

85 & 59 sit in Attleborough Town Centre

85 was accompanied from Caister Road by GYT liveried ALX400 32059 with Mr. Speed Senior at the wheel. Nice to see Great Yarmouth represented at a local rally once again alongside a few Eastern Counties vehicles no strangers to the scene and not forgetting Leyland PBJ2F from Lowestoft complete with "I am not a Routemaster" poster in the window, explaining to the uneducated the difference in vehicle types!

32479 (VA479) & 32059 (59) alongside each other in the sunshine

Plenty of familiar faces were around to chat with and a couple of trips around Attleborough were had aboard 85, the first trip was pretty much a full load and a lot of kind words for the appearance of the bus today.

A trio of RM's now living in Norfolk

Another recent arrival to Norfolk was also on show today with RML SMK737F becoming the second of the type for Bus and Us from Melton Constable. The usual array of preserved ECOC buses were also in attendance with current fleet member 32100 joining them from Norwich and 32479 from Ipswich of course!. Around Thirty vehicles were in attendance on the day with a wide variety of vehicles running the shuttle services into Attleborough Town Centre, some running along the old FEC X95/X52 route.

Patrick Burnside's superb Bristol 3003AH

I have too many photos to share here but will provide a link to my Flickr page once i have uploaded them. The day was finished off nicely with 85 being voted the winner of Best Vehicle on the day and the trophy was awarded to a very happy Danny & Chris!

The winning owners receiving their trophy!

A good day was had by all, thanks to Chris and Danny for the trip and even managed to get home before the rain.      Grahame