Tuesday 19th April 2011 ~ From Our Reporting Team

John Wilson tells me he has decided to retire from bus observations when the Norfolk Green takeover of former Eastern Counties King's Lynn area services takes place. He adds though,  "Morning Gerard -As my pencil does not hang up until 12th June, I have pondered on your point re Lowestoft B7 use at Lynn.
You may be correct re Sunday use, but if a Bank Holiday Monday counts with you as a Sunday, I will mention that 37157 was seen plodding to Hunst'on on May Day Monday 3 May 2010". Thanks for that John, it was something I'd completely forgotten.
Michael F was also in touch and writes "Hi Gerard, I can confirm 20102 out on the X1 this morning... seen arriving at Norwich bus station at 10:20 on the 08:55 ex Lowestoft bound for Peterborough - What a beautiful sight !" Indeed it was Michael and here she is at Walsoken on the aforementioned 08.55 (K14) complete with a white card in the window proclaiming 'PETRBORO' !

Earlier in the day Cheryl had decided to take an X1 trip from Wisbech to King's Lynn, she took K2 at 08.21 and Bruce and myself were witness to her passing with 37567 as shown here.....

37567 on K2 this morning with a beaming Cheryl on the lower deck

The missing 37159 reappeared today and it is thought to have worked L11 to King's Lynn where it was removed for servicing. 37572 worked L11 forward. 37160 which had spent yesterday on the X2 (it worked the 11.38 and 14.38 off Lowestoft according to Michael Bryant) was today back on the X1 working L8. It came of this turn at 18.43 and the 18.50 Lynn to Peterborough left with 37576 which had come in on Y7.
Laine from Lowestoft sent in a report of an interesting 20 minutes or so at the bus station this afternoon :  "No less than three B9TLs turned up at Lowestoft at around 14:30. 37566 had arrived 'not in service' and was parked up in the southbound 101 bus stop layby. This was quickly followed by 37569, which formed the 14:25 X1 (Y6), leaving about 15 minutes late. Behind this came 37576, which promptly formed Y7,  the next X1 working to King's Lynn, however, just before this, an empty 20115 turned up with X1 on the blinds. Despite this, it was parked in the bay for the X2 and then worked the 14:38 X2 to Norwich, replacing a ill-sounding 32213".
37563 which was due at Lowestoft for servicing, instead had a day off at Yarmouth and I suspect they may have carried out the necessary servicing on behalf of its home depot. The only other Gemini not in use was , as Laine said, 37566. Michael B occasionally sees former X1 regular Royale 34108 and yesterday afternoon it was employed on a Bernard Matthews contract.