Olympian Exodus

Earlier this morning saw an exodus of Volvo Olympians from First's Great Yarmouth depot at Caister Road - well three actually!

Olympians 34113 W433CWX and 34109 W436CWX ready for their final journey.  Photo Jamie Skinner

As I was on my way there this morning anyway (more of that later) I received a message from Grahame that Alpha Recovery was on the scene to extricate two of the Volvo Olympians from the depot to begin their last journey to the scrapyard

Olympian 34109 loaded up and ready to go

When I arrived the two deckers had already been prepared for their move and I was fortunate in being able to get some of the last photos of them at Caister Road before they left

34110 W437CWX awaits its lift

However, the main reason for my visit was to see the safe removal of the soon to be preserved 34110 W437CWX, which was still in the corner of the yard when I arrived. As you will have seen from the earlier post it is destined for the Yeldham Transport Collection in Essex under the ownership of Colin Thorne

An American style recovery truck arrives to assist with the move

Tight fit!

At almost precisely ten o'clock the VG Nash & Son towing truck arrived to take the Olympian to its new home. It wasn't what I expected though and I later found that it was a '1987 American 8x4 tag axle Freightliner recovery vehicle with Zack-lift under reach equipment'!

Having connected everything up, the main concern was whether it would get underneath the rear entrance to the depot. After lowering it a few notches, the driver of the tow truck successfully negotiated the bus through the gap quite easily

Then it was brought through the depot and onto the front forecourt before considering how to proceed further to gain access to Caister Road and Lawn Avenue

On one side was ex Leicester Gemini 32629 whilst on its left was one of the Wright StreetLites.

34110 begins its journey to its new Essex home

Its progress on leaving the depot was also hampered by the parking of Volvo B12M 20501 opposite the depot entrance

Towing vehicle and 34110 crosses all four lanes on Caister Road

However, a plan was hatched which would  mean it would cross all four lanes of Caister Road (and a footpath!) before proceeding on the wrong side of the road to enable it to gain the correct side after passing one set traffic lights

34110 proceeds wrong lane past the traffic lights on Caister Road

After saying our farewell to Colin, he then had to dash off to beat it to Great Yeldham to arrange for its arrival at the museum later in the day

34110 heads off along Lawn Avenue for the A47 on its long journey to Great Yeldham

My thanks to Danny Beales and his staff at First for their assistance in allowing me to gain access to the depot to get the photos. My appreciation also goes to Jamie Skinner and Colin Thorne

The departures now leaves just three withdrawn Olympians in the rear yard in the form of 34108/12/14 (W435/2/4CWX) with 34111 W431CWX still remaining in active service

Roy