Volvo Coach on the 7

First's route 7, between Great Yarmouth's Market Gates and Belton, can often be relied on to provide the unusual.

It is where the old Caister Road Olympians could often be seen in use and there was also the sighting of a Routemaster during October last year. The 7 had also seen the odd very rare working by one of the Volvo coaches and yesterday saw a repeat of that with 20501 AO02RBY on the 13:50 departure for Belton

My thanks to Syd Eade for the information and photo

Roy

Stranger In Norwich!

Regular contributor Syd Eade took former Lowestoft Corporation PBJ2F out for a pre season leg stretch earlier today

Ex Lowestoft Corporation PBJ2F on Castle Meadow opposite First's Travel Centre.   Photo: Daniel Peart

PBJ2F in St Stephens Street.   Photo: Syd Eade

The Massey bodied Leyland PD2 paid its first visit to Norwich City Centre and photos were taken of it in Castle Meadow and St Stephens Street

Syd says 'It certainly caused a stir and we had lots of photos taken by passers-by and some interesting discussions with them too. We will be taking her to the North Norfolk Railway and the East Anglia Transport Museum events during July' So there will plenty of opportunity to take a ride on the bus

My thanks to Syd for his report and to Syd and Daniel Peart for the photos

Roy

Rail Replacement ~ Norwich Station

Belle Coaches Setra LIL9454  heads the line of coaches on rail replacement work at Norwich Station today

During Saturday and today many rail services between Norwich and Diss were being replaced by coaches due to emergency bridge repair works

Freestones Coaches Setra LIB3768 awaits its turn for rail replacement work

When I looked in at Norwich Station this afternoon it appeared that most of rail replacement journeys were being provided by Belle Coaches and Freestones Coaches. The former were present in the form of Setras LIL9454 and OJI4756 whilst Freesetones sent along Scania YN08JBX Setra LIB3768 and VanHool M16UEA

Roy

Where Are They Now? ~ S116JTP

Wright Renown S116JTP when with First Eastern Counties

Another post in the occasional series of Where Are They Now? which looks at buses that previously operated in our area and at what has become of them now

At the beginning of last year three former Great Yarmouth Volvo B10BLE Wright Renowns, then withdrawn, had made their way to a new home with First Devon & Cornwall.

One of them was 66126 S116JTP which spent a considerable amount of time operating from Caister Road depot. It was new to First Southampton in August 1998 where it received fleet number 116. The saloon had its engine rebuilt in June 2013 and also spent a short period on loan to Lowestoft in late 2012

S116JTP with new owner and registration F13HOW on rail replacement earlier this year .  Photo: Gareth Hughes

After six months use in the south west, it turned up for sale on eBay with an asking price of £2,600 'straight from service'. It has since been acquired by Springfield Bus & Coach of Warrington where it has been re-registered F3HOW and received its new owner's livery

My thanks to Gareth Hughes for his permission to use the photo above

Roy

East Anglia Transport Museum ~ 1940's Weekend

Another date for your diary

The East Anglia Transport Museum's new website can be found at eatransportmuseum.co.uk

Revisited Great Yarmouth 2006

The latest instalment of revisited goes back ten years to 2006 and a look at a selection of photos some taken near Market Gates, i believe they were taken after i had finished work one evening!

First up is former First PMT Dart 40113 M952SRE which arrived in Barbie 2 livery with full branding for services in the potteries and entered service still wearing it, handy if you wanted to go to Crewe or Heswall!. It was repainted into a newer version of the corporate livery with a smaller willowleaf at the rear shortly after the photo was taken.

Longer SLF Darts were a large part of the Yarmouth fleet at the time and many gained a new branding called "Get around in Great Yarmouth" which was also carried on the three Volvo B7RLE here at the time 66950/57/59 which have since worked in Norwich and now at Ipswich. Former Cornwall Dart 42450 R450CCV is seen here on the 8A in the evening sun.

Ambassador Travel operated the East Link Village Shuttle service 606 or ELVIS as it became known using its fleet of Optare Solo's, a couple wore branding for the service, one of which was MX54WME.

The final photo is of a recent arrival at the time, Leyland Olympian 34337 H137FLX, seen here at Caister Road after returning from the paintshop, the former First London vehicle still had London blind boxes fitted and special blinds were made for local services, the bottom blind in the photo was still a London one!

Grahame.

Another Arrival at Yarmouth

Yesterday saw another arrival from Norwich enter service from Caister Road. Trident 33007 LK51UZE was put into use still wearing all its Norwich branding.

33007 at Caister Road having a break in the Sunshine.

33007 has joined other Norwich vehicles 33004 & 33151 at Yarmouth with another example expected shortly. After a conversation with First i have been told that 4 Plaxton Presidents from Yarmouth will be transferring to First Kernow in Cornwall along with 5 from Norwich.

Thanks to Chris for the updates.

Grahame.