MNR Bus & Coach Day

I attended the Mid-Norfolk Railway Bus & Coach Day at Dereham earlier today and a successful event it turned out to be.



The Park and Ride service from Cherry Tree Car Park to the Station site was operated by a Konectbus providing an aptly branded Park & Ride Alexander Dennis Enviro 200MMC 200 YX69 NPE.



Sanders Coaches chose the event to publish the arrival of its brand new MCV eVoRa bodied Volvo BV23 NNZ. Numbered 530 in the fleet, it will mainly confined to Fakenham services. Apparently the North Norfolk operator is also expected to take delivery of some triaxle double deckers during the coming week.



An interesting visitor was Towlers of Emneth's EJD 510. A Duple Vega bodied Bedford SB which was new to Essex County Coaches in May 1952.



Next up is Chambers of Bures' Leyland Olympian/ Alexander RL double decker G864 XDX. The 1989 bus was at its first show in its newly restored original livery.



A local operator making an appearance at the event was Rollesby-based Jubilee Coaches who sent along 1984 built Bedford YNT/ Plaxton Paramount TIG 1295. It was acquired from Birchnall & Campbell of Besthorpe as A838 PPP in September 2017.



An unexpected visitor was the Wells Beach Bus Leyland Tiger PS1 open-top single-deck 840 XUJ. It very much reminded me of the Flying Banana buggies operating on Great Yarmouth seafront. Apparently the one acquired by the Eastern Counties Preservation Group is scheduled to appear at the Stoneham Barns Big Bus Show in August.



SALEC Travel's Van Hool bodied Volvo B10M OKZ 6144 also attended from Shipdham. Previously with Carters Coaches, it was new to Shearings as P827 GBA in March 1997.



Hiding in a corner was former Hackney CT Plus Dennis Dart / Caetano Nimbus KV03 ZFE



Our final photo features G E Sykes 1976 Bristol LH/ Plaxton Supreme III RGF 231P. One of its original operators was Epsom Coaches.

I took a large number of photos so I had much difficulty in deciding what to include in the post and what not to!  All of the photos taken on the day now appear on our Flickr site

Finally thanks to the event organisers and supporters who made the event so successful. It also gave me the opportunity to catch up with some old friends and it was good to see you all again.

Roy