Monday November 24th 2008 ~ Geminis Off Route

After yesterday's snow, today was a sunny winters day and 20104 made a fine sight storming over the A47 flyover near Walpole on L12 this lunchtime, dead on time too !

There are a few turns which take the B9 Geminis off the Lowestoft - Peterborough route which are of interest. There are two maintenance turns at Lynn, these being K6 which does the 07.59 to Peterborough, but beforehand is diagrammed to do a service 43 to North Wootton and back. Recently this turn has been a poor timekeeper and today for example 37565 was 30 late at Wisbech, unheard of in the old days. Y8 following with 37579 was 13 late. K20 turn as previously mentioned in this blog does a Lynn - Norwich commuter turn, then returns light to Lynn for maintenance before heading east empty again at about 15.45 to do the 19.19 Norwich - Peterborough. This turn also used to cover the West Winch schools turn at about 15.00, although it is unclear whether it still does this, but John W reports seeing 37576 at 14.35 in Lynn bus station today with 'contract' on the front. By 15.00 it had left, so it may have been used on schools after all. 20131 was also present to start with, but had also gone by 3pm. L13 turn finishes its X1 duties at Lynn at 22.37, but is then required to work the 23.00 service to Hunstanton. This is quite often a B10M as initially drivers expressed reservations about tree clearances in the Heacham area.

The vehicle on K19 turn is used on the X2 in the day, but this is normally a B10M, however, the evening part has been seen with Geminis. Y21 involves work on the Gorleston - Norwich X1 shuttles (not exactly off route, but worth mentioning) before working the 17.25 Lowestoft - Lynn.

No less than 5 B10Ms were noted west of Lynn today, these being 20117 on K2 08.18 Peterboro' - Lowestoft running on time, 20127 on J11 07.05 from Gorleston which was 10 late but only 5 late returning east, 20104 on time on L12 07.15 ex Lowestoft & 11.48 ex P'bo, 20111 on Y14 08.25 ex Lowestoft on which it must have come on at Lynn and 24 late past Bruce, presumably delayed by the late running incoming vehicle, plus finally 20109 on K18 10.25 ex Lowestoft almost on time. Sam saw 20103 running light on the X2 route, so this was believed to have done K19 while 20107 was also in service on the X2.

20109 only bore its 'Architects of Fashion' ad very briefly and is now devoid of such embellishments, meanwhile 20127 has two new side ads for Market Gates shopping centre (Gt Yarmouth) and another which I think is for a mobile phone network. The latter ad is also now on 20104 (see picture above) replacing the 'Just Jobs Suffolk' one which had been in situ for some time. Sam saw 20142 in Norwich today - it has not been back to Lynn since it began its rail replacement stint.

This afternoon 37570 was noted by Rob Brooks on the Wisbech bypass heading for P'bo on K3, perhaps why Bruce didn't note it passing ? Meanwhile another B9 off route was 37571 on K5 15.01 Wisbech to P'bo which left via the A1101 Churchill Road to join the A47 bypass, thus avoiding the Cromwell Road traffic lights. The contractors here are under severe pressure to complete the work here by the first week of December.

A final glimmer of hope was experienced this evening when Gemini 37577 passed through Walpole one minute before time on the 19.18 Peterborough - Lowestoft (Y9).