Day 4 of 4: Returning home

Very little travel today compared with the last three days.

I caught the SWT Brockenhurst train from Parkstone to Brockenhurst at 0818 in the form of 444 032, arriving at Brockenhurst at 0854. Then I boarded the Virgin Trains Cross Country service at 0901, arriving Birmingham New Street at 1145. The one-way journey cost me a total of £15.85, using my Young Persons Railcard, which I though to be exceptional value.

Predictably, the VT service was overcrowded and we ran late, almost certainly as a consequence. I planned a 4 hour break in Brum, during which time I'd visit colleagues at National Express's HQ, No. 1 Hagley Road, Edgbaston. I'd planned to meet a colleague called Gary, who works in the Service Support department. He asked me to make my own way to Fiveways and he'd meet me there. Luckily trains to Fiveways are every 10 minutes so I found myself on the 1204 Central Trains service, alighting at Fiveways 3 minutes later. The train was 323 216 and yet again I was ticket-less. In my defence I'd travelled numerous times on CT routes in Lincolnshire and they openly admit to offering the complete range of tickets for sale from their conductors, though in the West Midlands this does not seem to be the case! As I ascended into the street above I caught sight of numerous signs warning of the pentalty for not having a valid ticket. Whoops!

After a very enjoyable 4 hours I caught the 1615 NX Service 339 home, from Digbeth coach station in the city. As ever a regular work horse on that route was again providing the vehicle in the form of a First Devon & Cornwall Volvo B12M/Plaxton Paragon C49Ft, WV52 FAO. Pete joined me at Leicester (he travelled a little later from Poole on Stagecoach Yorkshire's NX service 310 to Leicester, bagging a Scania/Levante the lucky thing!) and we made steady progress into Lincolnshire with Peter alighting at Wragby then waiting his bus home to Skegness, and I stayed onto the very end at Cleethorpes for 2050 before walking home.

Day 3 of 4: Weymouth

Peter had hit upon a great wheeze which saw our whole day cost nothing in terms of travel if we doubled back on ourselves to Bournemouth on the National Express Service 205 (Poole - Gatwick) and then got on the summer only Service 316 (Portsmouth - Exeter) alighting at Weymouth. The 316 also calls at Poole though intercepting it here would mean a £1.80 bus fare on the M2 and the time on board the bus was megligable. The downer was that, catching the 205 from Parkstone to Bournemouth, meant a 20 min walk to the coach stop, much of it being uphill. Peter really isn't built for hills! Not dissimilar to a vintage bus, the slightest incline makes him near enough stop!!

Still, full laden with an internal, digesting full, english breakfast, we set out on foot to board the 1015 NX Service 205 to Bournemouth for 1030. The vehicle in question was operated by Excelsior and was another of their Volvo B12Bs though this one had Jonckheere bodywork and registered A16 XEL, carrying fleet number 916. We arrived in Bournemoth and the sun was shining, the birds singing and the temperature pretty high!

The summer only Service 316 is also operated by Excelsior and vehicles in their yellow/light mustard livery. YN05 VSM was our chariot on the 1055 departure. It was a Volvo B10M with Plaxton Paragon bodywork and very welcome climate control. We alighted in Weymouth bang on time, at 1210.

The bus rally in Weymouth was commemorating 40 years of the rear-engined bus in the town and over 70 vehicles were parked towards the end of the harbour. They'd been positioned fairly well for the sun and the photography was good. Luckily, the area where the buses were parked was off the beaten track, so having the wait for people to move out of the way was almost non existent. The event also marked a Royal Blue running event from Cheltenham the day before, with the vehicles parked in the rally. Additional to the static vehicles, a timetable had been organised, offering free services to three localities nearby: Route 21 made use of 1960s coaches attending, taking people to Abbotsbury; Route 22 used rear-engined buses, taking passengers to nearby lighthouse Portland Bill; and Route 23 utilised open top buses for rides along the seafront. Pete and I managed a ride on Route 23, which was in fact a Bristol SUL4A, registered 675 COD, and is one of only three known examples preserved; the run to Portland Bill was on a Western National liveries Leyland National, HTA 844N. I remember very vividly travelling on Leyland Nationals as a kid, during jaunts in East Midland and Chesterfield Transport territory, so travelling on this vehicles was a fairly momentous moment for me - similar to when people my dad's age relive their childhood memories of travelling to college on a Lodekka.

We didn't return immediately on the LN, but waited for the penultimate journey of the day - a Southern National liveries Bristol VR, VDV 122S. Lincolnshire RoadCar operated a plethora of VRs in my native Lincolnshire when I was a child, though I rarely travelled on them, unlike Peter, who, even in adulthood, travelled regularly on these vehicles.

Weymouth is unusual in that it has a railway line running through its main shopping area. Its last known use was in 1999 when it took a charter train along its length. Built linking the rail station in the town to the harbour, the trains using it would carry those booked on boats/ships to the Channel Islands that departed from Weymouth Harbour. A chap would walk in front of it waving a flag to warn motorists of the obvious danger approaching. Like everything, the chances of it ever being used again are virtually nil; in 2002 the local paper carried an article claiming the rails will be taken up in the near future. Another piece of nostalgia gone for good when this happens.

Our return coach to Poole, NX Service 333, operated by John Shaw (Travellers Choice) of Carnforth, Lancs, was at the stop awaiting our arrival 10 mins before we were due to leave. Nearly new Volvo B12B/Caetano Levante FJ56 PDU was operating the service and despite a spirited run by the driver, we were late arriving in Poole! Peter had opted for a reverse of the outward route though I said we'd be better risking a free ride on the train, as on a Sunday evening, the chances of being caught on a 4 minute rail journey were almost nil.

And lo it came to pass that two adults from Lincolnshire boarded the 1932 SWT service from Poole to Parkstone without a valid ticket for the journey. As predicted nothing was said. The train was 444 020 and as we alighted there was an almighty thunderstorm so we made use of the pub adjacent to the station for an hour before dodging the rain drops back to the Blue Shutters guest house.

Day 2 of 4: Ringwood, Poole & Swanage

The plan for today was the following:

Milton Keynes Coachway 0120 on the National Express 230 to Gatwick Airport (south terminal) for 0350

Gatwick Airport (south terminal) on the National Express 205 to Ringwood for 0905

Ringwood 1140 on the National Express 205 to Poole for 1220

Poole 1245 on Wilts & Dorset open topper 152 to Sandbanks Ferry Terminal for 1305

Foot passenger on the Sandbanks Ferry 1310 to Shell Bay 1315

Shell Bay 1445 on Wilts & Dorset open topper 150 to Swanage for 1505

Swanage 1640 on Wilts & Dorset 143 to Poole for 1750

Poole 1845 on Wilts & Dorset m2 to Blue Shutters Guest House, North Road for 1858

Very luckily indeed, and despite arriving 9 minutes after my next coach should have left, I still made my connection, no longer having to face the prospect of a 90 minute wait at Milton Keynes Coachway in the wee small hours. I arrived at 0129 - a whopping 49 minutes late - off the Silverdale B12B, as a direct result of the overnight roadworks on the M1 between junctions 6 & 10. Unbelievably, all the coaches that had departed Victoria before mine were yet to arrive! Except for one, which had to go via Luton Airport, all the others had opted to stick with the congestion on the motorway rather than divert off. I was staggered.

I chatted to a normal-looking couple with cases who both confirmed the 230 service to Gatwick hadn't passed through as they were waiting for it. This coach arrived a meagre 22 minutes late, at 0142, in the form of Veolia Nottingham's FJ54 ZDH, another Volvo B12B with Plaxton Panther bodywork. I managed to secure a double seat to myself near the rear and tried to get some sleep as we backtracked along the M1 southbound, although there was no staggering congestion in this direction. It was a nice, smooth ride and we managed to arrive at Gatwick's south terminal early at 0338 (scheduled 0350), though much of this was as a result of calling here first - before the north terminal.

If you're planning an overnight jaunt on National Express coaches to save shelling out for accommodation, I would urge you to opt for a connection at Gatwick over Heathrow. Amazingly, Heathrow Airport has bugger-all open in the way of refreshments in the small hours, whereas Gatwick's south terminal has a Costa Coffee (Costa Lotta!) and a Marks & Spencer open 24 hours. I wasn't particularly hungry so partook of an egg sandwich and hot chocolate with marshmallows and creme to fill the time as my next coach wasn't departing until 0530. Suitably fleeced for the privilage, I made a very interesting discovery in the gents toilet in the form of a Dyson Hand Dryer. It was specially shaped so that you actually insert your hands into it and it guarantees a 10 second total dry. I was fairly impressed by its bold claim, so totally saturated my hands and threw them into the dryer for a second go and, yes, 10 seconds later my hands were bone dry!

It's amazing how technology can astound you at 0430hrs!

I was going to sample my first ever ride on a coach operated by Excelsior of Bournemouth. The operate only Service 205 (Gatwick/Heathrow - Bournemouth/Poole) and also a summer Service 316 (Portsmouth - Cornwall) and a Friday/Sunday service from the south coast to Birmingham I think. I was on their 0530 departure on Service 205 to Ringwood (bound for Poole). The coach was 910 (A18 XEL), a Volvo B12B with Salvador Caetano Enigma bodywork. This was the pre-cursor to the now prevalent Levante bodywork and Dunn-Line and Yellow Buses both sampled some for NX to assess them. Excelsior bought an entire batch by the looks of things and they don't impress me! They didn't when I caught one on the 767 from Stansted to Nottingham 2 years ago and they've not improved. My main "beef" is the seat backs are about 6 inches shorter than the norm, so anyone my height or taller (5'-10") has trouble relaxing back. They also have no seat pouches so no Excelsior vehicles display the National Express Customer Information Card.

The driver - a Yorkshireman, managed to do the impossible and have a blazing row at 0515 with an Asian minibus driver and actually cause congestion in the airport. There are 6 pick-up stops at the south terminal and before 7am the notice says coaches will depart at any of them. Well this guy was going to stop at stop number 6 if it killed him, nevermind the other 5 in front - a quarter of a mile of bus stops - were all unoccupied. Course the Asian guy was part-parked on stop 6 so a huge row erupted. How unprofessional I though.

After about 7 minutes or argey-bargey, the minibus finally left and the driver parked the coach, undid the lockers and left us all stood there while he disappeared inside. I turned to one of the 4 others waiting to board and said, "I don't think I want to get on his coach now!" They laughed but agreed! This guy also did a full announcement on the microphone as we left - with 5 people on board - in a very nasty, out-to-get-you attitude, reminding us that he'd throw us off for smoking and that alcohol is illegal on board "any coach in the UK", which is incorrect. We had the same announcement as we left Heathrow and the last thing I remember before falling to sleep was him banging on about what position the interior door catch in the toilet needs to be in to avoid it locking from the inside.

We were very punctual and had 15 minutes to wait at Southampton (it's the only journey on the 205 that calls there) and matey got back on the microphone and said that there were drinks machines in the bus station but not to hassle staff for change. Back to sleep I fell again and we arrived into Ringwood at 0902 - 3 minutes early.

I spent the next few hours taking photographs of locations used in the town when it doubled for much of the 1990s as Whitbury Newtown in the BBC comedy, The Brittas Empire. I did managed to partake of a full English breakfast at a greasy spoon down the main High Street. It was called a Jim's Breakfast and was perfect for my preference - 2 bacon, 1 egg, 2 hash brown, 2 fried bread, 2 sausage, beans and a mug of tea. No soggy tomatos in sight or mushrooms!

My next coach was another Excelsior vehicle, this time sister to the first, 912 (A20 XEL), another Volvo B12B/Caetano Enigma coach. This guy was foreign and running a few minutes late as the 1140 departure was at 1147. We ran a few minutes late throughout, arriving into Poole at 1227, still 7 minutes down. It was in Poole bus station that I met up with Pete, who'd done an overnighter the night before me and had spent the day in Poole and Bournemouth photographing, hoping to snap as many Bristol VRs as he could before they're withdrawn - Wilts & Dorset being one of the very few operators to have Bristol VRs in service now.

We then jumped aboard an open top vehicle on Service 152 from Poole Bus Station to Sandbanks Ferry Terminal. Operated by Wilts & Dorset, the vehicle was quite possibly the newest open topper I've ever travelled on, numbered 401 and carrying registration HF54 KXT. It departed punctually at 1245 and we arrived at Sandbanks at 1305.

The crossing on the Sandbanks Ferry is 90p per person (if on foot) and change is not given. The automated machine seemed not to be working so Pete paid the chap in the kiosk, which happened to be open. I foolishly assumed that the guy would give change, so was a little shocked when Peter handed him two £1 coins and received no change. Normally human intervention assures you of change! The guys on board the 'ferry' were red hot in asking for your tickets, too; I'd half expected us to have ridden across unchallenged, though this was not the case. The Sandbanks Ferry runs on hidden chains, under the water, and so there is no real reason for a captain. All this chap does is to slow it down or speed it up. It was an interesting experience though.

Once at the other side, Shell Bay, we awaited the only bus service in Britain to travel on a ferry - the one we'd just travelled on. Service 150 travels from Bournemouth to Swanage via Compton Acres and Sandbanks/Shell Bay to an hourly frequency in summer months only. However, the crossing at 1315 we only photographed, in the form of Wilts & Dorset 3157 (M645 RCP); it was the 1415 departure we'd catch to Swanage, and this was formed by 3150 (M19 WAL).

At Swanage we had the customary alcoholic beverage in a local hostelry and then had a wander along the tourist railway line in the town. Whilst stood on a bridge just behind the Wilts & Dorset depot we were lucky enough to witness a steam loco pass beneath us and duly photographed it. Also, visible from our vantage point, were around 6 roofs that W&D engineers had cut from their double decker vehicles that are now open toppers - two seemed to be from their 54-reg vehiocles, one of which we'd travelled on route 152; the other four seemed to be from their M-reg vehicles that were working the 150 route.

We returned to Poole via the land, on route 143 with vehicle 3147 (M947 KRU), departing Swanage at 1640, arriving in Poole at 1750. The route was very scenic and undulating and especially picturesque from the top deck. For the routes we caught today operated by Wilts & Dorset, we bought one of their Explorer tickets, in advance, in the form of a scratch card costing £8.50.

Whilst in Poole we saw a W&D Bristol VR parked up on its layover in Poole bus station, fresh from returning on Service 5; we also called at the depot, just behind the bus station, and saw at least 3 other VRs parked up there, before going to Wetherspoons for a well-priced drink. Peter, having slept in a bed the night before, opted to go VR-hunting for another hour or so, with the aim of using his Explorer ticket to jump on one such vehicle, irrespective of its destination. I, meanwhile, caught the 1900 Service M2 to the Blue Shutters guest house in Parkstone - a suburb of Poole. The vehicle was HF54 HGP, a standard Scania/Wrightbus Eclipse Gemini single decker though with air conditioning!! Despite leaving 3 minutes late we arrived at the stop for the accommodation bang on time at 1855.

Day 1 of 4: London

Today marks the first of four days away from home, travelling in and around Weymouth, Dorset, on the south coast of England. The break has been planned to coincide with a bus rally taking place on Weymouth seafront on Sunday 18 June, celebrating 40 years of the rear-engine bus in the town.

Today's itininery was as follows:

Home - Hull on the 0812 Stagecoach Grimsby-Cleethorpes Service X1, arriving 0940

Hull - London Golders Green on the 1025 National Express Service 562, arriving 1535

London Golders Green - Chelsea World's End on the 1655 First London Service 328, arriving 1759

Chelsea World's End - London Victoria Coach Station on the 1805 London General Service 11, arriving 1819

London Victoria - Milton Keynes Coachway on the 2330 National Express Service 440, arriving 0040

My first leg was from home in Cleethorpes to Hull aboard Service X1. Readers of this blog will have read that I've travelled on more than my fair share of non-standard vehicles allocated to this service. Normally, four of a batch of 5 Volvo B10M-55 buses with Plaxton Paladin bodies operate this service exclusively, though today was to prove yet another exception for me as RoadCar-liveried 25810 (PIW 4457) arrived in something of a light monsoon! Aboard I went and said hi to the driver, one I knew (Cooky) and sat back attempting to look outside through the very misted-up windows. The rain was nothing short of torrential and as we travelled along Wellington Street the driver of an X1 opporating in the opposite direction told Cooky that the subway along Ellis Way had been closed due to flooding. "Typical!" I thought, "They're closing Grimsby around me!" We headed up Freeman Street but to no avail - the traffic came to a standstill for a good 5 minutes so we meandered the side streets and onto Cleethorpes Road then over the Flyover and down Victoria Street into the bus station.

We were only 7 minutes late leaving and made good progress out via Laceby, Keelby the A18 and Humberside Airport. The surface water was incredible on some the sections of road, and at the Humber Bridge toll booths Cooky was informed that some bodywork around his front offside wheel arch had been forced out and was potentially dangerous. As we got to the terminal stop in Hull city centre (Anne Street, where there isn't even a bus shelter!) Cooky and I took some time to make the vehicle safe before he dared to drive it back to Grimsby. We ended up pulling the beading off one section to allow the bodywork to be bent inwards.

Still lashing down, I attempted to find George Street, which is where my next coach would leave from - the National Express service to London. In the teaming rain which was certainly not abating, tentatively darting from one shop canope to the next in order to stay dry was proving impossible as a mere second in the rain was drenching me thoroughly. While the new transport interchange is being constructed in Hull the bus and coach stops are spread throughout the city centre and whilst timetable cases showing the Hull network map are in plentiful supply, details of where other services depart from at stops other than the one you're waiting at are not! Not only was George Street outside of what I considered to be the city centre, but the stop NX were using quite a distance down it and, what a surprise, no bus shelter. I ended up stood across the road from the shop, underneath a very leaky shelter, though did manage to photograph the coach as it arrived in the pouring rain.

East Yorkshire Motor Services of Hull operate the NX service 562 and had recently replaced their V & W-reg Volvo B10Ms with 7 brand new Volvo B12B vehicles with the Salvador Caetano Levante bodies that are now the standard for new NX vehicles. This was one readon why I opted to travel north to Hull in order to then travel south to London, in order to try one out.

65 (YX07 HJG) arrived from Beverley a couple of minutes late and we left with 17 passengers on. According to the driver, the flooding had closed Anlaby Road, meaning he had to take a different (more direct) journey out of Hull, missing the Fiveways and Hessle stops out. The route saw me cross the Humber Bridge for a second time in 90 minutes and then via the A1077 passing Winterton to Scunthorpe and then the M181/M180/M18 to Doncaster and the relatively new Interchange in the town centre. This was the first time I'd been in the new Interchange and it certainly lives up to SYPTE (or Travel South Yorkshire, as they prefer to be known now) standards for cleanliness though in my opinion is fundamentally floored in being totally underground and despite their best efforts, looks very dingy and unwelcoming. Still it must be a great step forward in eradicating the need for both a north and south bus station (as before) with quite a gap between the two.

Our driver made adequate announcements and we arrived at Leicester Forest East Services on the M1 at 1315. He made it clear that a new driver would be taking over and that if passengers saw him in the services it did not mean the coach hadn't left. We left at 1345 with our new driver, Craig I think, bang on time and with all 25 passengers back on board.

I've spotted this Craig guy before; a very abrupt chap with an upfront manner with the passengers and with a broad Hull accent makes for a less than satisfactory experience. His announcements were something else! They were, well, posh. It was soooo funny to hear this guy shout at a bunch of 20 Japanese passengers wanting to board his coach at Milton Keynes Coachway in a nasty, quasi-Yorkshire (dire Hull) accent and then speak in a tone on the microphone that was so posh it made the Queen sound like a commoner. The congestion around J20-19 was bad so we were running about 35 mins late, and I got off in Golders Green at 1609, and was promply told off for photographing the coach in the bus station. What I needed to do was to take 5 stepts to my right and I'd be ok to continue. Hmmm.

Driving National Express coaches through Golders Green regularly allows me to see, and get used to, the different routes and vehicle types used on them in that area and I'd always wanted to have a ride on Service 328 since mid-2004 when it was upgraded from 35-seater low floor single decker to Volvo B7TL/Wright Eclipse Gemini double decker. The destination always appealed to me, too, Chelsea World's End.

So it was that at 1655 I boarded VNW32398 (LK54 FNP), an identical vehicle to that supposed to be now used on this route, operated by First London, and travelled to Chelsea through West Hampstead, Kilburn, Maida Hill, Notting Hill and Kensington. The service has a peak vehicle requirement of 19 vehicles with a mere total route length of 8 miles! An alleged 6 minute frequency operates on this service on Mondays to Saturdays though with official end-to-end journey times ranging between 39 and 80 minutes, curtailing late-running services often occurs. The service is operated from First's Westbourne Park depot, who operate a total of 617 vehicles in total from their garages within London, accounting for 8.56% of bus services.

As I'd assumed, the World's End is indeed a pub and so it was here that I waited for a bus to get me to London Victoria. The only direct option from this stop was Service 11, operated by London General, and this arrived at 1805 in the form of WVL146 (LX53 AYW) in an overall livery promoting London Schools. It was another Volvo B7TL/Wright Eclipse Gemini double decker whose Oyster reader was not working so the driver wanted to physically see each passenger's Oyster card to prove they had one before letting them past. I alighted at the stop outside Victoria Coach Station on Buckingham Palace Road at 1819.

After a quick 6 inch sub in Subway it was to the Victoria Apollo theatre to see the new West-End musical, Wicked, for the second occasion. Afterwards, whilst on the phone to Pete, who should I almost physically bump into but actress Susie Blake herself (who plays Madamme Morrible in the production). Unwittingly I was stood by the Stage Door.

My next coach was the 2330 National Express Service 440 to Derby, though I'd alight at Milton Keynes Coachway at 0040. This journey is operated by Nottingham-based Silverdale the vehicle was FJ55 DYW, a Volvo B12B/Plaxton Panther, and was 15 mins late leaving due to arriving late on its inbound journey. Also late leaving was the 426 to South Shields and the 421 to Blackpool as well as the 465 to Halifax. Yes, it had most certainly continued to rain up north after I'd left Hull earlier in the day, causing considerably hassle on the motorways!

By J7 of the M1 we diverted onto the A5 passing through the centre of Hemel Hempsted and Dunstable and back on at J11 I think. By now it was 0110 (i.e. 30 mins late) and my next coach left Milton Keynes Coachway at 0120 and we were still 29 miles away. I was sure to miss it and be stranded at J14 of the M1 in the very small hours of the morning........

Peterborough Bus Rally

Both I and m'colleague visited the Peterborough Bus Rally today, at Sacrewell Farm, on the A47 at Wansford. The location is ideally suited for such an event - so accessible from the A1, plus the site is a fair distance back from its entrance on the A47 that it becomes very quiet and secluded. The vehicles had all be parked facing south in order to allow the best photographic opportunities throughout the day, and they'd all been well spaced.

The latter may have been as a result of only 24 vehicles confirmed as attending on the rally's website last night when I checked. In reality today only 19 vehicles and 4 stalls were to be found.

The rally was sponsored by Stagecoach in Peterborough, who provided their Bristol FLF Lodekka 19552 (JAH 552D), to act as a shuttle bus between Peterborough city centre and the site - a journey taking about 20 mins, much of it flat-out on the A47 dual carriageway.

This was to be my first trip of the day as I boarded 19952 on the 1245 departure from Sacrewell Farm to Peterborough. There were only three of us on the top deck - two middle-aged gents at the front and Mr Invincible at the back. What an experience! I had to take my hat off for fear of it disappearing into the countryside as the wind was so strong. Normally I'm used to travelling at around 20mph on open toppers along the seaside not at 50mph on the A47!

In Peterborough we met a mutual friend and returned to Sacrewell on the same bus at 1315. Another driver had turned up and had been allowed to drive the bus back though by the Castor turn off we pulled onto the hard shoulder and Inspector Joe (who had been driving) continued as the guy was struggling to find the gears.

I purchased two books from the LOTS stall - both to do with the Harry Beck Underground Map - cartography being my specific passion within the bus industry - and also a Corgi model bus of a Strathtay MetroRider - now a defunct company and livery!

Next was a ride on RM2213 (CUV 213C) to Wansford Rail Station. This Routemaster was showing Service 6 to Trafalgar Square and riding down the A1 on a RM was an experience. At Wansford Station we witnessed a steam train pass through hauling a rake of carriages, as well as see Nene Valley Railway staff practice with their Mail Train carriages. We returned on RMC4 (SLT 59) in full Green Line livery and exceptional comfort was to be had inside.

There wasn't much more to do by 1530, so we returned to Peterborough on the 1545 open topper and then home via some watering holes in Boston and Burgh-le-Marsh.

Had more vehicles and stalls attended the whole event would have been far more enjoyable, but on the tiny scale that it was, I had a good day. It will be interesting to see if they repeat it again next year. No local operators sent vehicles - there were no vehicles sent by Kimes, Delaine, Cavalier/Huntingdon & District, Peterborough City Council or Fowlers which was a crying shame.

My first Paladin!

I'd been thinking recently that, of the three occasions I'd travelled on the new Service X1 linking New Waltham - Cleethorpes - Grimsby - Laceby - Humberside Airport - Hull, I'd never managed to use a vehicle intended to operate the route! On all three occasions I'd travelled on Leyland Tigers with East Lancs bodywork (re-bodied in 1992) from the RoadCar fleet based in Grimsby - Stagecoach Grimsby-Cleethorpes of course being the operator of Service X1.

I had planned to catch the 1648 Service X1 home from Bradley Crossroads last Monday, but after waiting 29 minutes opted for a boring ADL Dart on Service 13 to Manchester Street instead. As it turns out I would have copped my first Paladin-bodied Volvo B10M-55 on that occasion had it not broken down in Hull!

Today though I was very pleased to see 20284 (R724 RPY) arrive punctually at the stop near my house! Moments earlier 20286 (R726 RPY) passed in the opposite direction, very on time (if you get my meaning) in a new coat of paint! It looked very smart. But enough of that, on my fourth ever occasion on the new-look X1 I boarded a Plaxton Paladin bus!

The vehicles are very rare in another sense as they were the last examples of the Paladin body built; initially named Northern Counties Paladin, the company passed to Plaxton as this last-ever batch were produced, seeing them officially badged as Plaxton Paladin, reputedly the only ones in existance. Grimsby depot now have 5 of these to operate the 4-vehicle X1 service and are as follows:

20282 (R722 RPY)
20283 (R723 RPY)
20284 (R724 RPY) - all are Volvo B10Ms with Plaxton Paladin bodies and 48 bus-style seats
20285 (R725 RPY)
20286 (R726 RPY)

They seem to be a good compromise for the route in question - they have enough power to manage travelling at top speed for a fair distance along the A15/A63 north of Barnetby, and yet have suitable accessibility for older passengers and the infirm when operating through the back streets of Cleethorpes and the residential housing centres. They certainly don't appear any less accessible than their predecessors, ex-London N-reg Dennis Darts. Their overall length and monsterous rear overhang is likely to be the only problems drivers will encounter.

I travelled a mere 10 minutes into Grimsby bus station though my return journey was from Stand E at 1504. I'd planned to get off opposite my house at 1512, though found myself on board right to the very end, at the terminus stop in New Waltham. This vehicle was 20282 (R722 RPY). The driver, a guy with a Geordie-accent, as it turns out, had been on the same rota until its recent demise as I'd been on until I left to work for National Express in November 2003: The Peter Sheffield Rota, latterly the "Chicken Run" rota, on account that the main contract worked was to/from the 2 Sisters Chicken Factory in Scunthorpe.

He confirmed my suspicions, during the 8 minutes stand time he had at New Waltham, about the length of the vehicles causing problems along Mill Road, Fairview Avenue and Bentley Street, and was also pleasantly critical of the top-speed of the buses, citing it as "barely 55mph". Certainly, with a Volvo B10M engine you'd expect at least 60mph, if not a limited top-end of 100km/h (62mph); I've driven examples in Chesterfield, though with Alexander PS bodies, that were capable of 62mph and they were L & M-reg examples.

The vehicles, now 10 years old, had spent their whole lives operating in Hull and before that Stockton-on-Tees, to urban routes and timings, and had never been regularly sent on lengthy quasi-express services with no stopping points for miles and miles and where a top speed had been required.

There seems to be a lot of time at the Cleethorpes end of the route compared to how it was when I drove the then Service 12 with initially Mercedes-Benz 709D/Alexander Belfast B25F minibuses; then Dennis Dart SLFs/Alexander ALX200 B37F "lo-liners" before they left and N-reg Dennis Dart/Plaxton Pointer B40Fs were used.

The timings used to be:

New Waltham 05
Belvoir Road 13
St. Peter's Ave 25
Fiveways 33
Bus Station 40
Laceby Square 55
Laceby X Roads 00

This saw a 20 min overall time for travel between New Waltham - St. Peter's Avenue, now 25 mins is given (ex New Waltham at 45, arr St. Peter's Ave 10). It seems only fair the additional time has been given as the vehicles are a lot bigger and have come from Hull with plentiful occasions for delays to occur en route

The vehicle interiors seemed in pretty good shape, too, with full, new-style Stagecoach seat trim throughout and no outward signs on grafitti in either of the two vehicles I travelled on today. There is an odd rear-facing seat on the offside immediately before the rear and the lack of a suitable provision for luggage is the other "biggy" I identified, though the number of passengers who actually used the old coach-style X1 to transport their luggage at the same time never appeared to be massive. This may put some travellers off, and as a National Express driver I know all too well how badly-stacked luggage inside a coach can cause serious injury to others.

To summarise, the new X1 service provides a very punctual, efficient service between all points en route I've hitherto partaken; loadings seem very encouraging and the vehicles adequate. My initial reservations about mixing an express and a local, intricate bus service haven't disappeared completely as I know all too well how little it takes for the Humber Bridge to be closed to buses and the likely chaos this would have on the reliability of the X1 as a whole. The luggage situation needs to be closely monitored, otherwise the service, drivers and publicity for the route can do no more in order to attract new patronage and allow the X1 to thrive - far more than it was doing 18 months ago when Stagecoach threatened to axe the route due to the then high Humber Bridge tolls seeing the route operate at a loss.

33 more ties

I went to the house of the painter at Stagecoach's HQ in Lincoln last night. He's called Sam and is the chap I gave £40 to for 20 ties I bought from his extensive and unique collection at the LVVS Rally on Easter Sunday.

I'd arranged to meet him again to perouse the collection further and after finishing work last night went to his home near Lincoln. I sorted the ties into three piles - "no", "maybe" and "yes!" but it soon became clear that there was no need for a maybe pile as this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, so I included them all into the yes pile.

The collection does not belong to him but to the former Operation and Engineering Director of Lincolnshire Road Car Company Limited, Derek Bradley, who retired at the end of last year. This was the exquisite collection Derek had collected throughout his career within the bus industry, known towards the end as Mr RoadCar himself.

I purchased 33 ties in total and gave Sam £60 - money that's going towards an ex Lincoln City Transport Leyland Olympian (645) he's restoring. Money well spent and going to a good cause in my opinion!!!