Bus bay being retarmaced

Today saw 2 tipper trucks, 2 road rollers, a van, and the all important tarmac laying vechical decend on Cremyll. None of the bus companies were warned about there being re-surfacing going on today and this did cause some problems for Olympians and Tridents turning in Cremyll, even in a Vario it was a challenge. It also seemed like they were trying to get it done in one day with the amount of machinery and men there and it being the weekend but only the staff car parking bit was actually completed in the day. So a lot of wasted effort I think was made bringing all the machines down when they were all gone by 4pm. Will be interesting to see when they return!!

Sorry about the quality of the pictures, they were taken with the phone!

A day out with Louis (Part 4)

The next thing on the list well non bus related was having a nice pasty!

Then it was off to see driver Mike Hudson who had just pulled in on a 39, driving Optare Solo 53007 in place of the more usual Vario on route. There was also a man from the council on the bus doing a survey on how many people used the bus, where they were going and why they were there. So we confused him a lot. The question was "Where are you going", we're going to Royal Parade, "But your in Royal Parade", yeh we're going to Southway and back "So your getting off at Southway" no we're getting off at Royal Parade. And this went on until we came to the right conclution!

After that the trip was largely uneventful but was interesting to know that Mike's VR (XDV 608S has now been sold on to someone at the Plymouth Citybus Preservation group.

More to come

A day out with Louis (Part 3)

Here are a few interesting coach pictures from Saturday. A few interesting things turned up and there seems to be an increasing number of tri-axel coaches around.

R.I.T 34809

News has come to me of the absence of an Olympian at Torpoint. C409 HJN has now left Torpoint and has moved into further retirement in Truro. 34809 was the first Olympian to be tranfered to Torpoint back in 2005 when LFJ 847W came to the end of her working life. She has been a very reliable and brilliant edition to the depot and I am very sad she has gone.

More recently she has become what I would call the best Olympian at the depot. With 34812 spending all its time off the road, 34813 becoming unreliable and 34817 the same, 34809 has been hardest working of the lot. A great shame she was the one that has gone.

So therefore this looks like the end for the Olympian's life at Torpoint and very likely soon to be the end of there working life. To think this time 4 years ago they were the newbys in town, now I can't imageine Torpoint without them.

The film shows her departing Cawsand on one of her last weeks of service, film is quite fitting seeing her disapear from our bus scene.

R.I.T 34809
(Rest in Truro)

A day out with Louis (Part 2)

Continuing the story from Saturday.

The next event of the trip was when we reached the Torpoint ferry. I got off to take photos of the buses disembarking. Unusually there were 4 different buses on the ferry. These being 2 MOD Volvo B10Ms, a Dennis Trident and a Mercedes Vario. Though when 50306 went to start up a huge cloud of smoke arose. The picture was taken about 10 seconds after the startup so I'll leave you to imagine what it was like at first!! The video below also shows the other 3 buses coming up the ramp and more fumes coming out the back of the Vario. You will also notice the suspension is somewhere lower than usual. Does show that this one is pretty shot and likely at the end of its life unless a major overhaul is undertaken, similar to the other 2 Torpoint Varios which have already had this overhaul.

Trident troubles

Talking to driver Tony Body yeseterday, it came aparent that since the buses have been working in Torpoint they have been more mistreated and used in different ways.

32760 and 32759 were seen in Plymouth because of differnet parts going wrong. Obviously the work would usually have been carried out in Torpoint though the 2 were sent to Plymouth. As another of the Plymouth Tridents were already off the road parts were taken from 32760 to get it back on the road. later when 32759 was brought in and more parts were taken from 32760. So it seems like the bus is already being cababalised even though it is perfectly roadworthy and only 4 years old!

Poor old 812

Breaking news has come to me that my favorite Leyland Olympian C412 HJN has again broken down. I saw her with driver Tony Body at around 6:30 this evening at the Torpoint ferry on a run to Crafthole. But it was quite literally Crafthole. When Tony went to pull off again the drive belt snapped and left him stranded in the pooring rain with a leaking bus which was immobile. As there are no fitters at Torpoint now a support van was sent out from Plymouth. As they don't bother with spare parts for Olympians anymore therefore a drive belt from another bus had to be used. This can only therefore be temporarily to "Limp" her back to the depot. She is now awaiting a new drive train. All of the Olympians have recently been becoming very unreliable and they do seem to have finally well are coming to the end of there working lives. If i'm honest as I have always thought drivers do really need to learn the ropes when it comes to driving an elderly bus like that. Drivers espeically the newer ones just do not know how to treat an Olympian anymore. I could literally count on one hand the drivers who can still 'drive' at Torpoint, including Tony Body, Mike Jacobs and Johnny Walker (soon to retire).

Trip with Louis will be continued in a quiet gap possibley 2 days.

A day out with Louis (Part 1)

Hello!

Saturday saw myself and good friend Louis Rawlings take a trip out as usual, but this time staying in the local area! And we never though you could have so much fun in a day in Plymouth!

My days started out catching the 8:45 81C from Cawsand. Sadly it was a Trident but was the best one at least (32758). It didn't take long for troubles to start though. Coming towards Witsand bay holiday camp, 10 minutes into my journey we came across an Ambulence. I know it has every right to park where it was but if I'm honest it was inconsiderate parking as you can see in the picutre. If he had parked just a few feet further back, driver Terry could have threaded her through with no problem. But after an unsucessful attempt we reversed back and waited. After going down to the beech wear I alearted local "1st responder" Brian he came up and explained the situation to terry. Terry then convayed this information to the passengers saying that a young boy had, had a heart attack on Witsand bay and the crew of the ambulence were too busy. Brian could not move the Ambulence because of scrict rules.

A few passengers cam eup with alturnatives while we sat there. Such things arose as "Can you bring another bus from the depot. The responce was that no other buses were avalible (though 52557 was sitting in the depot) and that no other drivers were avalible. Another idea was reversing back down and going via Millbrook like the old 80B used to do back in the good old days!!! Though Terry rejected this after declaring it too dangerous to perform a reversing monover. Another idea was when the bus bound for Cremyll arrived we could switch to that one alturnate buses taking alturnate passengers either side of the Ambulence. Though there was not a bus for another 45 minutes. Therefore this meant a wait of around 45minutes until the Ambulence was moved and we could proceed.

Terry therefore drove at a fast pace to try and make up time, also shouting to the passengers "Is there anyone for Great Park". No was the responce and as 40002 had just turned up that way Terry took the desistion to miss it out to make up time. By the time we reached the ferry we had caught up around 40 minutes and missed our feryr by around 5. Therefore after trying to hard we lost another 10 minutes after waiting for the next ferry.

Something to be learnt from the expierience though was while terry was trying to contact control to let them know he would be delayed there was no one in control, and no one at Torpoint depot. This meant terry having to ring up the fitter at plymouth to let them know the situation. really control should be managed at all times the buses are out though this is rarely the case.

Luckily Louis was also late after oversleeping and his 11 not turning up!! Ahh buses these days!!

More to come tomorow!

A-Line update

To start with I have to correct myself on the new routes. The 80 is how I said though 80A is a Cawsand to St Germans service and 80B is a St Germans to Trago Service. I have done this with a driver now and the route is very well timetabled and is very convienient for the users meaning they can go and do shopping in multiple destinations.

The school contracts were also slightly wrong. Because of timings the Torpoint Narkus is actually Antony-Narkus with FDC providing the link between Torpoint and Antony. And there is actually a Cremyll, Cawsand, Witsand bay school service and is not seperate as stated before.

This has also meant that sadly M152 LPL has not been brought out of retirement. The picture shows her current state in A-Line's depot and she will sadly very likely not be used in service again. School buses are operated by either of the 2 coaches and the Narkus is operated by X891 YGU, leaving R651 YCR to operate the services.

E920 EAY has now had branding put onto her in the smart new A-Line livery as seen on the Varios. I will hopefully get a picture of this soon.

And lastly welcome to new driver Steve who now drives many of the afternoon 80s and is soon to start the 80As and Bs aswell, so good luck to him.

More news to come when it happens.

More problems at Torpoint

More problems have been happening at Torpoint this week with several buses that have been unseen by myself.

On Wednesday while in Cremyll driver Mike Jacobs had a failed C413 HJN before doing the Cremyll to Torpoint School run. This bus wouldn't get going after layover in Cremyll after the run from Torpoint that morning. More details will hopefully come avalible as I get them. You can also note that for the past month odd she has had a dent where the fleet number is. Likely on a tree or lampost etc.

Thursday saw either a broken down or very late Millbrook school bus. The bus usually reaches Millbrook before my 80 service gets there though it was not seen for the 10 mins we were in the village. Again I will hopefully get more details on this in the near future.

Talking to a driver today (non FDC) we both came to the decision that 3 of Torpoints buses have disapeared. Olympians 34812 and 34817 have not been seen by either or us for the last week 34817 and 2 weeks 34812. Any sightings please let us know. But I would guess again these are in Plymouth for the same reasons as has been highlighted in the previous post.

50306 has also been seen in Plymouth, reading Plymothian Transit it looks like with the wrong destinations aswell!

(New driver in the picture above, its ok no one can see who you are)

PTOTPA will keep you informed of all the happenings at Torpoint in this time and as previously said I'm sure there will be many more.

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!

Route changes at A-Line

For many many years A-Line travel have been operating the 270 between Cawsand and Cremyll and the 270 Cawsand to Trago Mills. Bus recently major route changes have happened and expantion has taken place on school buses so here is all the up to date news!

Starting with the school buses! When the new contracts came up A-Line jumped at the chance of taking over 2 of the routes currently run by FDC. These were taken over because the contract prefers seat belt fitted vechicals which A-Line have on all of there buses. Therefore 2 extra contracts were signed. A-Line will now operate:

Cawsand-Torpoint-Cawsand school bus

Cremyll/Anderton-Torpoint-Cremyll/Anderton school bus

Narkus-Torpoint-Narkus

Now to the services! There has been a lovely new timetable produced. very smart and very imformative. It even includes the times of the ferries that each bus to Cremyll links up to. I great help for ferry users! So the bus to cremyll is now called the 80 and now runs from 6am till 9am and then again from 3pm till 7am a brillient coverage of the day and a very good oposition to FDC. Then there is 80A which is once daily Cawsand to Torpoint and back. Then 80B Torpoint to St Germans and back once daily and then 80C St Germans to Trago Mills and back twice daily! though all are only operated Monday to Friday!

The R reg Vario has now had its new electric blind fitted and is working very well!

And with the new routes this will see the re-intrduction of our good old friend M152 LPL will be glad to have her back!

So well done A-Line keep up the good work !

B7s visit Plymouth

A Volvo B7 has been spotted in Plymouth depot by driver Paul Revell! This apeared late last week though with only a very shakey picture. I then did some research to find out that it is ex First Somerset and Avon 69350 registration YJ08 CFE! With further infestigation (reading the FDC employee newsletter) I found out that these would now be being transerfered from them to Cornwall to replace aging Darts on routes 14 and 18 in Cornwall. Definately something out of the ordinary then for Cornwall and probably most of the south west! Will be interesting to see how these fair in the coming months! Picture in service with Somerset and Avon can be found on the link below

http://buspicssouth.fotopic.net/p52156470.html

And its goodnight from her

C344 FTT has served A-Line Travel for many years.

She started life when new to Seawards Coaches in 1986. Thought after this very little is known about her history so if anyone could help with news or maybe even an old photo of her that would be much apericiated.

I don't know when she joined A-Line travel all I know is that she replaced the older bedfords that used to operate there.

She was in frontline service but was mainly used in her life for the Cawsand-Torpoint school bus. But don't think she was mis-treated. Even after many years operating this she is in very good condition. Always has been a very strong and reliable bus. But shortly (i.e. within days) after this photo was taken she was driven away for......scrap!

I was to be honested shocked and dismayied that this desistion was taken as she was still such a good little runner and was in very nice condition. I'm sure someone would have taken her on for use in service, as a camper or maybe even preservation. I was even tempted to buy her but the scrap dealer wanted over £1000 for her which I wasn't prepared to pay. So sadly she is just a memory broken up into many pieces.

What a waste of a brillient bus. And now she's in that big bus depot in the sky. R.I.P C344 FTT

A167 VFM is alive!

Ex Torpoint Leyland Olympian A167 VFM has been recently sighted working in Truro!!! Famous man of youtube Simon aka Video47. She as reported by Derrick Cuff has been transfered to the newly taken over Truronian routes. He had a ride on her while operating a T1 service so maybe it'll be worth a trip down there on my local community bus to go and find her!

Reported by Simon she has been making knocking noises though is looking very smart as has had a minor overhaul of the interior and as said before the grill and other minor touch ups.

Will post more on her as it comes to me!

Driver to leave the depot

On Sunday 24th August Derrick Cuff will drive his bus out of the depot at Torpoint for the last time. This comes after months of needing change from his daily routine for many years with First and living in the area.

Told to me last week by his new employeer Jim Goodard, that he will be coming to him on September 1st to start at his company, A-Line travel. He will run his routes and school services in place of the other drivers to give them a well earned rest after the resent expantion of rotues which I will write about in a further post.

Though this is a tempory move. Soon he will be house hunting in Bristol, his home city, where he will work the Airport Shuttle buses from Bristol airport. These will be the bendy and non bendy near new Mercedes Citaros which get people around the airport. With only two stops on route he says " At least I won't be being asked do you go to plymouth!"

So it will be sad to see him go but I'm sure he'll have a far better time up there. Even though he won't be driving our Olympians, and seeing many of the friends he has built up in his time down here.

So farewell Derrick. We'll miss you!!

A-Line travel's new buses!

It was only around this time last year I was writing about local company A-Line travel getting a new Mercedes 709 to run the routes.

Since then big things have happened and a grant for £40'000 was aproved earlier in the year.

Soon after this Jim got to work bus hunting. He was after a Mercedes Vario with wheelchair capeabilities. I low floor Dart was not an option because of the route into St John on the way to Torpoint where it gets very narrow. And of course running costs would be higher!

So within months the first new Vario arrived. An extremely smart looking X891 YGU was sitting in the depot as I came down to it on a proper summer's day in April! Not like the weather we have now. This bus had the wheelchair lift, had just 30'000km on the clock I think it was, was amazingly clean and tidy inside and out, very comfortable, with a very strong engine! This waited in the depot along with the old Bedford which I will post about in the near future!

Then later on came another Vario. This time with different bodywork. R651 YCR was a elderly person's transport vechical in Bristol. One of a large fleet being sold off. X891 YGU was also used for that kind of thing though not in Bristol.

There is very little known to my knowledge about the 2 buses and if anyone could help with some history that would be much apericated. But who would have taken a photo of an old folk's bus!

Both have also now been painted in A-Line's brand new livery, much more of a corperate image has now been built up.

He's back!

Yes friends I am going to try and restart this silly old thing I used to do. I know I know I never told you I was even going to stop sorry about that. but time just wasn't on my side! Now I'm a bit more organised so hopefully we'll get some nice constant blogging in the near future!

So Lets kick things off!

A trip to come on LFJ 862W

l


News has come to me that preserved ex Devon Genaral Bristol VR LFJ 862W owned by James Pratt will soon be doing a trip from Exeter around Devon.

I received news from a friend that James was inviting fellow enfusiasts like ourselves to to come up to Exeter on the 24th of this month to come and have a long distance trip around the country roads of Devon for a Sunday afternoon with a difference. The bus will depart Exeter at 10:00 and will not return for another 7hours and 30 minutes pulling in at approximately 17:30. So a very good trip to look forward to and might turn out very popular. Contact James for further details.

She's away and she can stay away

The Dart of Torpoint 40002 (S764 RNE) is currently away from the depot having her MOT. She has been away since Wednesday meaning that my Thursday evening bus I get was my favourite Leyland Olympian 34812, my favourite bus at Torpoint. She will stay away probably until Wednesday but well in my opinion she can stay away as long as she wants. She is seen here with her new blind and a new driver (well back then he was) in Cremyll on 81B