Troubles in Torpoint

Since the news that the Engineer (fitter) at First Devon and Cornwall's Torpoint depot was made redundant there have been a lot of goings on with the fleet at Torpoint concerning the bus' health. At the end of last year and early this year problems were often occurring with the Varios. This saw as many as 3 Marshall Varios moved to Torpoint at one point to cover these. These being 52596/7/8 all ex-Essex vehicles.

This also saw Torpoint Vario 50306 on trips on the 2 hour+ 93 to Dartmouth. Something usually covered by route branded Tridents. Just the wrong branding on this bus. While coming into Plymouth the bus was packed and is no where near big enough for the amount of people that travel on the service.

More recently the Tridents have had to make a trip into Plymouth to be repaired. Though this has caused problems with workings at Plymouth and Torpoint. ON a Coombe Dean school duty 32756 replaced the more usual Volvo B10M Citybus, either 38015 or 38016. This therefore also went onto the routes this would then carry out 2s for the day. This would have confused Torpoint travelers as the terminus for the 2 is the same stop as where the 81 picks up from! This happened again a couple of days later with 32760 being used on 2s and 3s in the day.

Next on the list was 40002. Routine Maintenance would often be able to be undertaken at Torpoint but now this does mean a trip to Plymouth. This bus was kept in the depot and not on any other routes. Though this did mean a bit of an Olympian revival with Olympians replacing her on all of her duties that week. Also pictured is 50306 working one of her duties when an Olympian was not available.

Photo courtesy Louis Rawlings.

This therefore leads me onto the next and most recent event. This was 34817 regarded by most drivers as the best Olympian in the depot. Though problems with her obviously meant a trip to Plymouth. When fixed she was kept for 2 extra days. She was therefore seen on the 2 and even more amazing the 83! Nice to see a proper bus on the 83 instead of the more usual Volvo B6.

So so far its been going pretty bad at Torpoint and its probably costing just as much to keep sending them over to Plymouth. Though has been very interesting to observe the happenings at Torpoint and un-doubtabley there will be more to come!