Plymouth Catch-up

Because the weather hasn't been fantastic over the past week I thought it best to stay local this weekend. So it was into Plymouth on the 8:45, where an Olympian is guaranteed! Its the service I always opt for if I have the choice and on Saturday it was in the hands of K802 ORL. Amazingly I haven't actually had a trip on this bus since August of 2009, on a morning I was particularly disappointed to see it turn up after wanting a Leyland on the 08:45! K802 actually performed surprisingly well on the run into Plymouth. They finally sorted out her niggles (particularly the sharpness of the throttle and breaks!) and now she glides along like a dream, in fact I may be as brave to say she is now my favourite of the batch.

Continuing the Olympian theme the K-ORLs were very much out in force on Saturday. On reaching the Torpoint Ferry K802 and K804 travelled together across the river due to only 2 of the Torpoint Ferries being available and therefore K-804 was a ferry behind. 

On arrival I walked down to Bretonside to be greeted not only by K804 but also K801 which had escaped on the 83! Both are pictured below. K615 LAE had just arrived from a Dartmouth trip and gave a nice comparison shot between the Leyland and Volvo variants of the Northern Counties bodywork. 

A short while later Western Greyhound's 'mini' Solo - WK59 CXC entered the bus station. Not sure which route it had come off though as the blind was simply displaying 'westerngreyhound.com.... '. 

The 94 was out of the hands of the usual Vario and was instead being run by Mercedes 709 N95 BNF. N278 PDV is pictured behind and gave a nice shot of what is really now a bygone era! 

The two aims of the day were to photograph some of the B7s before they disappear which was fairly successful, I ticked most of them off! But more importantly I wanted a ride on Citybus' Volvo B6 with Plaxton Pointer bodywork - the Volvo pretending to be a Dart! And indeed I was lucky enough for M52 HOD to turn up ready to work a 47A to Derriford. Now the older Dennis Darts are fast, but this was in a whole different league! The B6 coupled to a lightweight body absolutely flew along! I must admit I was very much taken by surprise. Of course FDCs B6s are renowned for being pretty much the slowest buses on the streets today, due to that heavyweight body always seeming somewhat underpowered. But with the Plaxton Pointer it was quite an amazing 'transformation'. 


The presence of B7s disappearing was felt on my way back into Plymouth where one of the S-SUX Darts was on the 15. Already some are de-legaled and ready for the off. Two possibly more of the Enviros have now arrived so have a look at Plymothian Transit for a photo! 

Last thing to note was the presence of a preservation legend. Some of you may know Roger Pinder from Loddiswell who used to own the Loddiswell Inn, used to work for Tally Ho!, and is currently the town crier of Kingsbridge. He also owns one of the Ex-Tally Ho! Bristol LHs which he is currently restoring. Anyway to the point the picture shows him at work with FDC driving W609 PAF on a 2 to Mount Batten! 


So there we go, always something interesting to see, even on a dull day!