First Wessex Newcomer

Ken Aveyard noted in his visit to the Plymouthian Transit blog at the weekend that a post had been put up on our site concerning the movement of Volvo B7RLE's from First Wessex.

He was in Ipswich the previous Wednesday when he saw First Eastern Counties 69010 AU05 DMY outside the station, noticing it had guide wheels attached. He 'understands these older Eclipses from 2005 need replacing and Wessex are sending some of their 2012 examples as replacements as they're the newest Volvos in the south of England and you can't fit guide wheels to Streetlights.

When new these were used on the Eclipse busway in Gosport moving to Weymouth in 2017 as the Eclipse had a 5 year age limit. Some ran in Weymouth in Eclipse livery before getting either light green or dark green fronts for the 2/10 services. 69550 was one of two that later got blue fronts for the 4.

I won't overload you with pictures but seeing as 69550 has been pictured on arrival, here it is in 2014 in Gosport, 2017 in Weymouth with a green front and again in 2019 with a blue front'.

Thanks Ken for the email and photos.

Roy