Why Aye Man

One vehicle attending the recent ECW event at the East Anglia Transport Museum arrived only following towing assistance from another vehicle to get to there.

It required a little TLC in order to be readied for a return 'tup north'. The vehicle in question was South Shields Corporation's Bristol RE ECU 201E, which was absorbed into the Tyne and Wear PTE fleet in 1970.

The vehicle was originally preserved in South Shields Corporation colours but currently wears the subsequent PTE livery and on the Saturday the opportunity arose to see the bus alongside Newcastle BUT trolleybus 628.

My thanks to Tim Major for the report and photo

Today's Activity

Looked in at Great Yarmouth's Beach Coach Station early this afternoon and Shearings Volvo B12M 810 (MX06AMK) was one of the nine present.

Also evident was that the construction of the new access was proceeding well with the first asphalt dressing being delivered.

Elsewhere, First Eastern Counties continues to use its two AEC Routemasters on the seasonal 3/3a routes between Hemsby and Great Yarmouth holiday centres.

RML 2480 (JJD480D) was noted, at around 14:50, passing the Britannia Pier for the turn into Marine Parade, prior to heading for Vauxhall Holiday Park.

Unfortunately the sun retreated just before I took the photo!

Reynolds Revisited

Regular contributor Grahame Bessey recently visited Reynolds of Caister's site at Ormesby Road in the village.

2011 arrival Dennis Javelin KBZ3617, repainted into Reynolds' livery in April this year, has since received the name Lady Patricia and gained fleetnames

Previously registered N142 CVP when new in April 1996, it has seen use in the Birmingham area with Flights Hallmark being one of its previous owners.

Two other vehicles joining the fleet during

2012 were also present including Toyota/ Caetano 22 seater FJ54MOA, which was also photographed by Grahame

Formerly with a Greater London operator, this vehicle is now also in Reynolds' colours and is named Lady Jodie

The second 'newcomer' was Mercedes Vario 0841D W600JSB still in white and also without fleetnames.

My thanks to Grahame Bessey for allowing me to use his photos on the blog.

Another Anglianbus Arrival

More Scania Omnicity's from London's Metrobus continue to appear with Anglianbus.

The latest arrival is 444 (YH05HFF) captured by Grahame Bessey at Gordon Road in Lowestoft working the newly introduced 601A route to Pleasurewood Hills Amusement Park.

So far three of the five buses have been noted in service in Anglianbus livery but do not appear to have been allocated fleetnumbers in any particular order.

The three recorded in service so far are     442 (YN05HFH)     443 (YN05HFJ)      444 (YN05HFF).
Yet to be noted in service:are YN05HFE and YN05HFG.

Eastnorfolkbus will provide pictures of the new vehicles as soon as they are seen operating  in service.

My appreciation goes to Grahame Bessey for supplying the above photo

Eastern Coach Works 2012 Event ~ Special Feature

I know it's been ten days ago since the East Anglia Transport Museum held their ECW 2012 Event but I have received reports and photos from regular contributors Tim Major and Grahame Bessey

The event, held at Carlton Colville over the weekend of the 16th and 17th June, was used to mark the 25th anniversary of the closure of Lowestoft bus factory Eastern Coach Works.

Vehicles started arriving on the Friday before, with the first being a Southern Vectis Lodekka from the Isle of Wight.

The LD6G, registered

SDL268, is shown alongside former Eastern National K 1407 (VNO859) - complete with BE allocation plate.

The next photo shows Alder Valley Leyland Olympian Olympian B578LPE. 

Numbered 1510 in the fleet, it is the first 'commuter' style ECW coach bodied Olympian to be restored to its original appearance.

Also appearing was former Lincolnshire Road car Company's VR 1904 (JVL619H)

New to the operator in August 1969, it passed to PVS Carlton, dealer, towards the end of 1989.

It was subsequently secured for preservation in May 2002 after further use as a play bus and fun bus in the Milton Keynes area.

The last vehicle to be built at the works
was Olympian D367JJD, latterly with Blackpool Transport.

A feature on this vehicle appears on this blog.

Some former Eastern Counties vehicles featured at the event in various liveries.

Grahame caught LK374 (KNG374) arriving back at the museum from an outing displaying Yarmouth as its

destination!

Normally to be found at the Ipswich transport Museum, LK374 was new to Eastern Counties in 1949.

It was one of the standard lowbridge double deckers needed due to the number of low railway bridges in the area.

The second former East Counties bus is another Bristol VR.

172 (NAH135P) was new in April 1976 and lasted 20 years before withdrawal in December 1996.

It subsequently spent some time in the care of the Eastern Transport Collection before being acquired privately.

The final vehicle featured is RE 896 - one of my favourites!

A Bristol RELH 40 seater coach it was

delivered in June 1969.

SVF896G was one of many similar examples operating tours out of Great Yarmouth's Wellington Road depot for holidaymakers.

Following the closure of the museum on the Saturday evening, all the ECW bodied vehicles travelled to the site of the former Coach Works, which is now the North Quay Retail Park.

The entourage then proceeded to North Parade for a photo stop before returning to the museum.

Speaking on behalf of the museum, Tim says the event 'was very successful and it enjoyed some very favourable weather, much better than the previous weekend!'

My thanks to Tim and Grahame for their reports and accompanying photos

Market Gates Activity

A spare quarter of an hour to kill this morning at Market Gates Bus Station whilst awaiting a call from the garage regarding the car.

The first photo is of First Eastern Counties Volvo Olympian 34187 (S687AAE) heading into the bus station working an additional X1 from Norwich

Following closely behind was one of Ambassador Travel's Volvo B12/ Jonckheere Mistrals about to take up its National Express 490 duty to London.

It was 180 (FD54DGU) heading for the Troll Cart stop ready for an 09:55 departure for the capital via Norwich

We're Back!

It's great to be back again after more than two weeks away touring the USA. More about that later.

On my first visit to Great Yarmouth since returning from holiday at the weekend I passed the town's Beach Coach Station and saw that work had started on building the 19 homes planned for the northern part of the site.

A new access to the coach station was included in the plan and its construction at Nelson Road North is shown in the lower photo

One wonders if the new access will work ok as Nelson Road North can sometimes build up with traffic during the rush hour.

The local newspaper, the Great Yarmouth Mercury, carried a report about the scheme including an artists impression and this can be viewed by clicking here