Reynolds ICZ6697

One of the two recently acquired former Kent Top Travel vehicles was noted at Reynolds Coaches premises early this morning

Grahame Bessey observed Volvo B10M/ Caetano Enigma ICZ6697 freshly painted in Reynolds livery

The 53 seater was originally new to Ulsterbus and has been named Lady Karen

The second Kent Top Travel vehicle acquired was Plaxton bodied Volvo B10M-62 S200VHO which can be seen here on my original blog posting

Another piece of news from Reynolds is that Bova Futura BIG6220 has been renamed Lady Kristina.

My appreciation goes to Grahame for the report and photo

My First, My Last ..............

SLF 42446 P446TCV on Lowestoft Town Services in happier times
Copyright JAMES RACE

Regular contributor Syd Eade reports that SLF 42446 P446TCV) left Lowestoft this afternoon heading towards Essex.

She was driven by a First driver with its destination blinds removed.

It seems the 'Green Drive' system has also been removed from the bus so it may be for component recovery rather than further service.

Eastern Counties LKD227 OVF227 at Kessingland Beach
Copyright SYD EADE

Syd remembers 42446 with great fondness

She has a special place with me as she was the last bus I drove in passenger service before giving up stage carriage work (the first bus was LKD181 after passing my test on LKD227!)

A good excuse for a photo of LKD227 taken in November 1972 (just a few months before I passed my test on her) at Kessingland Beach whilst I was the conductor. 

The photo doesn't show how cold it was!! My driver wasn't very keen to come out of his warm cab in the winter months.

My thanks to Syd for the report and to both James and Syd for the photos which are both copyrighted

Volvo Citybus A290TSN

Over the past few weeks Grahame Bessey has observed the use of a Volvo B10M Citybus to regularly transport agricultural workers to a farm in Ormesby - a village to the north of Great Yarmouth

Registered as A290TSN, it has an East Lancs body in light/dark blue livery.

After some time trying to obtain a photo of her, Grahame finally caught up with her at the farm on Saturday

Keeping the Volvo company were a couple of white Mercedes minibuses

A290TSN spent much of its early days in the Tayside Regional Council fleet based in Dundee

In recent years she migrated south of the border and was last noted working for South Gloucester Bus & Coach in April this year

Any details of the current owner and its history would be welcome

My thanks to Grahame for the report and photo - it shows that perseverance pays off eventually!

First Bus Recent Changes

As the dust begins to settle after the introduction of Enviro 200s into active service in Lowestoft, it seems very apt to review/summarise vehicle activity in the East Norfolk/East Suffolk coastal strip over the past month

As I was about to prepare this, I received a summary from Grahame Bessey also highlighting the recent changes and they are reproduced here

20115 has been acquired by a private buyer in Essex

Vehicles In

20514 WV02EUP - Great Yarmouth
20515 WV02EUR - Great Yarmouth
44512  DK57SXF - Lowestoft
44513  DK57SXG - Lowestoft
44928  EU08FHB - Lowestoft
45116  VT09JPT - Lowestoft
45117  ST58JPT - Lowestoft
45118  ST09JPT - Lowestoft
45119  RT09JPT - Lowestoft

Vehicles Out

20102 N602APU - Great Yarmouth - Withdrawn & Sold
20115 N615APU - Great Yarmouth - Withdrawn & Sold
42429 P429ORL - Lowestoft to First Essex
43453 P453RPW - Great Yarmouth - Withdrawn & Sold
43469 R469CAH - Great Yarmouth to First Essex

Transfers

42448 R448CCV - Lowestoft to Great Yarmouth     43433 P433NEX - Lowestoft to Great Yarmouth
42451 R451CCV - Lowestoft to Great Yarmouth     43435 P435NEX - Lowestoft to Great Yarmouth

20102 and 43453 have been sold to dealer Alpha Recovery of Weetslade, Northumberland. First Group are apparently no longer using Erith Commercials for disposing of vehicles.

On the positive side 20115 has been sold to a private buyer in Essex, who collected some spare parts for her from the Caister Road depot on Friday last

My appreciation goes to Grahame for the summary (saving me much work!) and to Ryan for the vehicle disposal information

AnglianBus More Repaints

Former Brighton & Hove Trident T815RFG at Anglian's
Ellough premises in mid-August

A now for something completely different .................

With First's Enviro 200s forming the major part of many of the recent posts on the blog, I thought I would report on a different subject and update you on the latest position regarding the repaint of Anglian's recently acquired vehicles

Former Brighton & Hove Trident T815RFG is in the paint shops for conversion into Anglian's yellow and blue colours

At the same time ex Metroline Scania YN03WRJ is also in for door conversion and a repaint.

Both are scheduled to be completed sometime next week

My thanks to Tim Miller for the report and to Paul Bennett for the photo

Enviro 200s Latest Activity

Enviro 200 44512 DK57SXF at Norwich Bus Station last night
Photo © James Race

With all the Enviro 200s now entering service at Lowestoft, it seems that there is now a bus photographer on every street corner in the town!!

Nevertheless, just to bring you all up to speed with the latest developments, 44512 DK57SXF entered service on Wednesday and on its second day made it to the fine city of Norwich - the first of the larger Enviro 200s to appear there

James Race photographed her at Surrey Street Bus Station last night having arrived with the 2100 hours X2 from Lowestoft

The other former Townlynx bus 45513 DK57SXG arrived in Lowestoft yesterday and should be out in service today (Friday)

Their arrival has led to the movement of two Darts to First Essex. Lowestoft's SLF 42429 P429ORL has had a reprieve from the scrapman and was driven south yesterday afternoon. She will be joined in the county by Great Yarmouth's 43469 R469CAH

Finally, another Lowestoft Dart has moved to Great Yarmouth with SLF 43435 P435NEX returning to the Caister Road fleet

My thanks to Syd Eade and Ryan for the reports and to James Race for the photo

Last of the Enviros

The last of the recently refurbished Enviro 200s, 44513 DK57SXG, was noted on the Caister Road forecourt this morning.

It is suspected that it is being made ready to head over to Lowestoft today

Meantime sister vehicle 44512 DX57SXF was at work on the 101 in Lowestoft yesterday as Grahame Bessey's picture shows.

My thanks to Grahame for the update and photo