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08/02/2012

Saturday February 4th - Tuesday February 7th 2012 ~ Colder & Colder

Saturday 4th February

Wintry weather has so far not been an issue this year, but this evening it began snowing at the west end of the route around 18.30. Conditions rapidly worsened as the snow fell and by 23.00 driving was very difficult. Y6 19.10 Peterborough - Lowestoft with 37577 was seen battling against the blizzard at Tilney this evening running about 13 minutes late. K15 had 37574 which was in trouble again with its recurring Adblue problem and arrangements were already in hand at 20.00 for the 21.50 King's Lynn to Peterborough to be 37572 in its place. Servicing and repairs to 37571 continued at King's Lynn today and 37159 was stopped for its MOT prep. It is confirmed that 37576 has joined the other accident victim 37156 at the Full Circle workshops. 36180 was used on K17 today.

Sunday 5th February

The region woke up this morning to up to 6 inches of snowfall. Drifting had occurred in places and the routes through Toftwood and Narborough were particularly difficult to negotiate. Nevertheless, the X1 seemed to continue in almost normal fashion with all services seen being pretty close to time. We do have some pictures from today from Des and myself :
Brrrrrrrr........ 37573 awaits departure from Caister Road garage

Just to prove it really was cold !

As Des puts it "Two old ladies I saw in Lowestoft".
37573 at the Southgates changeover stop.
Piles of snow at Walpole being passed by 37577 on the 09.48 from Lowestoft, running within a couple of minutes of time.
37573 returns eastbound through Walpole Highway just 8 minutes late. 

Monday 6th February

Surprisingly temperatures remained slightly above freezing overnight, so a slight thaw of lying snow continued today. At some point 37564 & 37157 swapped turns on L10 & L11 today, this meant 37157 ending up on L10 and it had to be refuelled to cover the additional mileage. In the morning, Bruce didn't see 37157 in either direction, so whether it worked through to Peterborough is debatable. The afternoon saw King's Lynn a driver short to take Y13 14.32 to Lowestoft. Instead, 37158 was garaged and a Yarmouth driver sent out to Swaffham with 20115 to resume the turn there at 15.04 to Lowestoft. Thanks to Julian for the sighting. The coach returned on Y13 as far as Norwich, but the service was cancelled here and 37564 was used to work the 21.50 King's Lynn to Peterborough, leaving the Norwich to Lynn section as 'lost mileage'. 37571 was used on a test run this morning and 37574 on K5 was still having adblue problems. 37578 on L12 11.15 Lynn to Peterborough also required a visit to Vancouver Avenue before proceeding westbound. Malcolm reports 36180 leaving Lowestoft 10 late on Y7 this afternoon.

Tuesday 7th February

The cold snap intensified this evening and by 20.00 the temperature was already minus 5'c, however this was shortlived and through the night it stabilised at around freezing point. At least everything behaved on the X1 with the only spare bus, 37574 having its problems diagnosed, a nox sender fault being the technical term. Many services ran around 10 minutes late this morning including L8 which unusually had B7 37160. 37578 was seen 8 late on K2 07.35 ex Peterborough with a bold new advert proclaiming 'This Means War' - a new film and nothing to do with Konectbus !

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