Snap on Sunday: The Looe Valley Explorer

Today saw myself and Louis Rawlings take the chance to ride on a vintage steam locomotive (This being a Pannier Line for the first time in 50 years (excluding last weekend!!). This was part of the ongoing programme of events to celebrate the 175th anniversary of the Great Western Railway. 


The fare for this railtour was very cheap at just 25 pounds a head! Sure enough it was only an hour, give or take a few minutes, but it did include 2 classic modes of traction, this being the afore mentioned Pannier Tank and a classic Class 37, this being 37685. Both drivers gave them a really good running along this really picturesque line, and with the GWR style signs that have been in place along the Looe Valley Line for some time now by FGW, you really felt you were back in the Golden Age! A really fantastic time was had by all with many travelling some distance to get there, luckily for us it was only 'down the road'. 

Western Greyhound's new Citaro

Today I had a lucky moment when I met Western Greyhound's new Mercedes Citaro BU53 ZWZ on Union Street this afternoon while walking up through. Here she is working when she has been bought to do, the 576. The WG service has proven very popular and its not uncommon to see people standing when the '59' reg Solos are operating the route. Of course the Citaro will be able to provide additional capacity on the peak journeys. I must admit this one really does look stunning complete with the green LED blind. A real breath of fresh air with the rather drab colours of buses in Plymouth. Its also great to see WGL doing so well and being able to invest further.  

Another WHOTT weekend

Kingsbridge September 2009 077
Originally uploaded by bristolvrboy

Indeed its that time of year again, where the 'WHOTT weekend' takes place in Devon. For the 3rd year Saturday's event will be held in Kingsbridge from 10 o'clock followed by the Exeter Westpoint Rally on Sunday. I must admit Kingsbridge is the rally I do look forward to most on the calender. It always brings a great mix of vehicles along with some really interesting routes, and simply generally a really well planned and interesting rally that shouldn't be this. As a 'bonus feature' to this year's rally, they will be celebrating with a 50 anniversary event for Bristol SUs with 6 expected to be running/attending.


As to Exeter, this is now in its 8th year and often draws a large crowd. Exeter is quite a diverse rally with a lot of variety old and new to be found on exhibit, as well as trips around the showground and Westpoint, into Exeter City Centre, and mystery tours during the day.


So do go along for an action packed weekend!

Another K reg lives on

With thanks to Matt McWheeney I can bring you this photo the 2nd PCB Dart that has made it to Halifax, this being K110 SFJ. Of course unlike L126 which had only recently been withdrawn, K110 has been out of action for a while now. Interesting that both the buses sold weren't from the K reg batch. Maybe other members of the K reg clan were too far cannibalised to be sold on. No doubt many of the spare parts for the L and M reg Darts that are still in use have been taken from K regs that have been out of action for a while. Of course K107 does still solider on on a variety of tasks. K110 SFJ will be used alongside L126 on the 36 and also on this Sainsbury's shopper bus, which she is pictured working here. Again this one looks like she's very much been rushed into service with odd bits of old and new livery applied to her. I would guess that section of the front has come from another Dart to make it look more presentable when it does get painted into Halifax's livery. 

Darts on the move

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With huge thanks to Nathan Jenner (who also supplied the photos) I can report that more Ex-Plymouth Citybus Darts have been finding a new life at other bus companies recently. The latest is L126 YOD which has now joined the 'Halifax Joint Committee'. Unfortunately, though these are seen as the old and interesting here, these have infact replaced B reg MCW Metrobus' in Halifax. A real shame to see them go. As you can see L126 has been very much rushed into service still in as withdrawn condition from PCB. The only addition is the blind taken straight from one of the Metrobus' in the front window. Hopefully no one will still try to ring Dial A Cab from Halixfax though! I reckon the people on the other end would be highly confused why they would pick them! Another one of the Darts has also joined to run alongside L126. A post will follow on which this is in the near future.

Citybus Travel Shop Re-location

Plymouth Citybus will soon (if not already have?) be changing the location of the Travel Shop from above the bus station on Exeter Street to this section on the top floor of Debenhams department store. Of course this will make it much cheaper than owning/renting out a whole shop premises but surely there will be a loss of trade? Will people really bother going all the way upto the top floor to pop in for some timetable information etc? I suppose there may be more 'passers by' it being in a major department store but it will be interesting to see if it does get used as well in this new premises. 

Snap On Sunday

I nearly forgot to post about this!


This photo was taken on the M4 if I remember rightly. This is of course one of the K-LAE Leyland Olympians, this one being K618 LAE. Many of you will recognise her as she did indeed work in Cornwall for a while but has been laid up in Cambourne for a while now. She was the one that had a run in with a tree and even from this angle the damage to the nearside top deck is very visible. The damage can be seen better when viewing Anthony's PHOTO.


So here she is being dragged away by an Erith Commercials Wreaker on her very last journey. Shame it couldn't be one that she could make on her own. The K-LAEs have been one of those batches that seem to have made it the length and breadth of the country and it is a shame that the last of the Leylands are now being withdrawn and scrapped. After some 16 years of hard service its a sad end for this old Bristol girl which of course started off life at *Bristol Cityline* (Thanks Derrick) in 1993. R.I.P K618!

Good news travels fast

I shall first apologise for the irregular blogging this week. This may be the case form now on now I'm back at school and the real hard work has begun. Of course A-Levels are no joke to begin with, and we've been told to expect at least 20 hours of homework or more (equating to 4 hours per day). And along the increased difficulty in gaining a place at Universities these days, the A-Level is becoming more and more crucial for success in getting a place. 

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Anyway on to what this blog is supposed to be about! Some good and bad news to report in this A-Line update today. Firstly we'll get the bad over and done with. Long term school bus driver Roger will be making his last trip with the company next week driving the G reg on the Torpoint to Cremyll school bus. Roger has been very much liked by all that travel aboard his coach and I'm sure he'll be sorely missed by the pupils of Torpoint particularly. 


This has meant Derrick Cuff will be mng back to working at A-Line after a spell working at Parcel Force in and around Callington. Cuffy will take on Roger's school duties as well as runs to Trago Mills. It is also hoped he may also take on some of the morning and evening service 80 work and private hire. 


In further good news A-Line will soon be taking on another disabled access Mercedes Vario. The registration is yet to be confirmed but this will be used as as the 'spare' if anything goes wrong with either 'Bertie' (R651 YCR) or 'Gemma' (X891 YGU). Bertie has worked all of the 'new' service 80s so far with no mechanical problems. Things may finally be coming good for the unreliable one! Maybe she enjoys the non stop rush of the 30 minute frequency now which has proved very popular among customers (who know what's going on!). Unfortunately the real time display in Cremyll still displays the old 80 and 81C timetables. I've been asked on many occasions now if an A-Line is actually coming!


UPDATE:
Derrick Cuff has now started a new website for the company. Find this at www.alinecoaches.co.uk

New Darts on the road!

Here we go! This is the first of 4 'new' R reg Darts to hit the streets of Plymouth today. The bus in question is R401 FCC the first of the batch delivered new to Oxford. I must admit the Wright body really does suit this livery, the bus looked really smart. I doubt many would be able to tell that this bus is now some 12-13 years old! Look out for more on the road in the coming weeks!

Snap on Sunday

Still hiding
Originally uploaded by BranksomeChine

A true Western National beast in disguise! This is of course E215 BTA which has now been converted to Open Top format. This photo has kindly been supplied by 'BranksomeChine' on Flickr, aka Matt. E215 will likely replace the VR in what is said to be her final summer of service. Though as has been pointed out, we've been hearing that for years!

The red arrows as always put on a fine display at the event showing real skill in the air. I'll let the photos do the talking on this one though!

Dawlish Coaches effects being felt

As many of you will know Dawlish Coaches has sadly gone into liquidation this month. A great shame seeing as they operated a highly modern fleet with very well presented vehicles. The town service has now passed to Countrybus and this Mercedes 709 was seen operating it during the air show. 

This also left the Park and Ride vacant of an operator and therefore Dartline stepped in to run these services with a large range of their coaches.

Air South West at Dawlish Air Show

Plymouth based Air South West brought along a Dash 8 to display at the air show this year. Pilot Nick was at the helm and gave a really good display of what these commercial machines can really do! He was very brave with some of the manoeuvres he carried out. The aircraft was a credit to the company and looked very presentable amongst the classics of the air. A video of her in action is also posted below.


If the video has failed then please search "Air Southwest Dash 8 at Dawlish Air Show 2010"

Snap On Sunday

For a treat at the Air Show, 2 sets of Class 67s were brought down to run the shuttles between Newton Abbot and Exeter St Davids. As usual plenty of spotters were out to see them. Both sets ran 6 journeys each in the top and tail format and gave some interesting noises passing through, especially when planes were overhead. 

Mid Life Refurbishment at Go Ahead

As I mentioned last week there was an interesting article in last month's 'Buses' on Mid Life Refurbishment at several different main operators. Of course Go-Ahead struck me as the interesting one to have a read about their procedure. 


Go Ahead say that they generally run on a 5 year cycle where buses get renovated to bring them back up to standard with the more modern buses every 5 years. The interesting part of this lies in the buses that they feel are 'worth it'. They state that they would renovate the heavy weights such as Scanias and Volvos, much like what was done with the Volvo B7 deckers that Citybus received. Of course this was actually before the Go Ahead takeover had been confirmed but this is likely what would have been seen by Go-Ahead if they had been in charge at that point. 


The interesting bit comes when we read further on where Go Ahead state "We don't feel its worth investing in lightweight buses like Darts". This was particularly interesting seeing as the majority of the Plymouth Citybus fleet is the Dennis Dart. Enviro 200s would also likely come under the bracket of 'Dart' as well. So what will be interesting is does that mean the Darts at PCB will simply be left in their present state and not have any renovation work done to them? It seems silly to have to replace an entire fleet of Darts because they don't feel its worth it. Maybe the policy will differ from that at Go North East but in these tough economic times maybe they will stick with this policy at PCB. True though that the Ex-Oxford Darts are going through some renovation at the moment, but who knows how long they have gone without being spruced up a bit. 


Having a look at First generally bus older buses receive little care and attension other than a re-paint. Mechanical work is often only done when it is really felt necessary or cost effective. Take Torpoint's Dennis Dart S764 RNE for example. This bus has really only just finished its total transformation from standard Barbie 3. First came the re-paint. Then some new wing mirrors. An electronic blind was later fitted. And now the seats have been re-upholstered. A process that took around 5 years to complete. As for the rest of the FDC fleet other than the odd re-paint of Darts or B6s here and there, and the addition of Ugobus branding very little has changed for the buses over the years. There has never really been any mass renovation to the fleet simply what is needed is done. 


An interesting topic brought up and definately something that has got my mind in a muddle. 

Dawlish Air Show ... The mayhem!

Well what can I say other than both of these incidents couldn't have had worse timing!

Firstly came news from Louis Rawlings who I was travelling with upto Newton Abbot that the set of 43197 and 43031 had failed in none other than Dawlish itself leaving the whole stretch of line blocked! Of course the down line was available but with no loop section available to be used by up traffic a queue started to mount behind the stranded HST at Newton Abbot. Voyagers, HSTs and Pacers lined the platforms. 2 Cross Country services were joined together to combine into one service. The HST was turned around and sent to Penzance. The 2 local services were also joined together and the wait began. 3 hours after the incident was reported the trains were finally on their way again. Newton Abbot was at capacity as the picture shows. 

So we boarded one of the many trains to come down to Dawlish, but what happened next! Signal failure at Teignmouth! This therefore meant all lights were set to red and at each point drivers had to phone Exeter signal box to let them know they needed to pass. This had to be done for all the trains trying to use the line and it really slowed up the mass movement of trains on the up section. So some 4 hours after we'd actually set off from Plymouth we did arrive in Dawlish! Luckily, this was still before the show got under way!

Bendy Bus arrives

With big thanks to Dan Marker I can bring you these exclusive photos of the Mecedes Citaro G 'Bendy Bus' arriving at Milehouse depot yesterday evening. Mike was there egerly awaiting the arrival at 2044 yesterday evening. The Citaro is London General (of course part of the Go-Ahead group) with fleet number MAL112, registration BL57 OXP. 


The bus will now take on some driver training before being trialled on routes in the city. It will be very interesting to see how Plymouth handles these beasts. As to which routes it will be on I honestly don't know, but routes such as the 43 seem logical with no real 'difficult' corners on the route. 


Unfortunately I won't be able to have a ride on one because of my absence from the country, so if anyone does have a ride on it feel free to write a guest post for the blog which I can publish on my return. 


*UPDATE*
With thanks to Jamie Limb I have been informed that the bus will be trialled on The George Park and Ride (PR1) tonight, and then should be out on 21s tomorrow.

Snap On Sunday

Snap on Sunday this week was taken at a well recognised spotting location up at Dawlish. This was taken on the air show day. I used the same location to look the the planes as well which was ideal. It also gave a very interesting view of the thousands that lined the sea front to watch along with being able to spot the various traction operating that day. Here we can see a Pacer with a Class 150 as well as a 67 in the station. The Pacers are due to start being withdrawn in September with more 150s on the rain, so snap them while you can!

Dawlish Air Show

Well the Dawlish Air Show always throws up some interesting news. This can incorporate 3 transport types. Of course planes, but also trains and buses/coaches in the area. 


So that's why I shall start this drip feed of stories by posting this photo of Class 159, 159003. No this is not a photo last year. In fact this was a FGW hire in for extra capacity. The 159 was operating Paignton to Cardiff Central. This is usually operated by a Class 67 set but 2 were being used on the Newton Abbot to Exeter shuttle services. So the 159 was borrowed to run this service. I must admit its strange how I missed seeing these around East of Exeter and was actually quite a treat to see it operating again, albeit for just one day. 


Further news as well as other stories will start to be drip fed to you likely on a 2 day basis from Monday onwards. I'm off on holiday for 10 days so I'll write some stories in advanced and fingers crossed they should publish themselves automatically over the 10 days. 

Ilfracombe Depot Fire

With thanks to David Sheppard and Nigel Dennis I can tell you that the now dis-used depot at Ilfracombe situated next to the bus station caught fire this afternoon around 6pm. It is thought to be an arrsonist attack in which there has been a string of events over the past weeks and months in the area. Naturally the surrounding area was cornered off because of several hazardous materials and liquids that may have been left in the depot after closeur.

Of course many of you will remember the final day when OTA 290G travelled up to work some the last serve ices from the depot before the operations transferred to Barnstaple. The building was then simply left in a fairly original state. The whole complex has been crying out for renovation so maybe this may kick start the process. Such a shame though to see a true Western National building detroyed in such a brutal and thoughtless manner.