16th September 2012 - 22nd September 2012 ~ New Liveries and Old Friends

Sunday 16th September.

It all ran well today with no vehicle swaps. I paid a visit to Showbus with Bruce courtesy of Norfolk Green.
The 'First' contingent at Great Yarmouth borrowed Gemini 36166 from Norwich and it is seen (left) before departure from the garage. Thanks to Des for the picture.
Today the X1 buses were located as follows : 37563/4/5/7/8/9, 37571/2/3/9 in service. Garaged : 37566/570/5/7/8, 37156/7/9 King's Lynn ; 37158 Great Yarmouth and 37574/6, 37160 at Lowestoft.
The X1 was behaving at Lowestoft, but Malcolm says the Martham service due to form the 14.10  service arrived 22 late and left 24 late with 32209, all other buses were on time.

Norfolk Green have just begun to repaint their fleet in new colours as seen here on our Spectra which brought us to Duxford. Many thanks to the NG staff for their hospitality.

The new general  'First' livery is shown on this entrant from First in Ipswich.

Monday 17th September

New advertising campaigns mean that you are quite likely to see your X1 arriving with 'Savages' or 'Sinister' emblazoned on the side - at least some have another Milk advert which is a refreshing change from all the violence and gore. On the road it was a nice simple day with the maximum lateness at Wisbech being 10 minutes. K4-XL10 swapped 37569 for 37564 and L8-XL14 37565 for 37573 (off Y7-XL13). As neither 565 or 569 were due maintenance, this must have been for some other reason. At Lowestoft, the 101 town service now seems to get double deckers on a daily basis, today Malcolm viewed 34155, 30886 & 30889 all on this duty at various times.

Tuesday 18th September

An exceptional day for punctuality with many services bang on time. K16-XL03 with 37160 managed to lose 9 minutes on the 13.15 King's Lynn - Peterborough but otherwise things ran like clockwork. Add to this all buses sticking to their turns and it must have been the best day on the route for some months.
All X1 buses now require a 'running board' which is used in conjunction with the new ticket machines. There have been a few teething troubles with the new system and occasionally a bus is left without a running board, meaning the driver has to go on a hunt for  it. This situation led to 37567 departing Lowestoft 14 late this afternoon on L8-XL14, the 15.25 to Peterborough.

Wednesday 19th September

Here's a nice shot of our old friend 34108 which was chased down Bracondale by Dave who took this picture of it on one of the X1 shorts this morning. [D. Hodkinson]

Another relatively good day for timekeeping, however 37160 on L11-XL17 came into Lynn 26 late from the coast only a couple of minutes ahead of 37568 on L12-XL18. It looks like 37568 went fast from Wisbech to Peterborough and returned as L11 coming back into Wisbech 12 late. 37160 meanwhile slipped a turn to become L12. This apart, things went well, although I somehow missed seeing K14-XL01 & K18-XL05. Bruce spotted the latter running 19 late returning to Lowestoft on the 15.35 ex Peterborough with 37159. In Lowestoft all the X1s seen by Malcolm were running to time except K16-XL03 which had 37156 arriving 19 late and departing 12 late.

Thursday 20th September

Well what a nice easy week to report, Thursday continued this trend with only K16-XL03 running appreciably late through Wisbech,due to depart to Peterborough at 13.48, 37158 got away at 14.00. Elsewhere, Cheryl reports 37578 on Y6-XL12 08.48 to Peterborough waiting for departure time which is almost unheard of. Tonight after a visit to Elgoods beer festival, I was walking back to my sisters when we were passed on North Brink at 22.57 by L12-XL18 with 37566 having for some reason run via Wisbech St. Mary. 37564 was noted running today without advertising on its passenger side revealing the white panel and X1 route destinations.
Interesting sights on the X2 were Palatine 34156 on the 15.03 to Norwich and 66346 with new green line branding on the 13.40 from Norwich. This was after Dart 43435 had broken down on an X2 in Bracondale on Wednesday evening. Syd adds that it even worked the 21.00 X2 to Norwich tonight and came back with the return working !

66346 in Lowestoft this evening. Photograph by kind permission of James Race.

More pictures at :
http://eastnorfolkbus.blogspot.co.uk/

Friday 21st September

Y6-XL12 with 37570 at Norwich at lunchtime.  I wonder how the passengers on the top deck like being referred to as Savages ! [Dave Hodkinson]

and there were savages going to Peterborough too ! 37573 working K19-XL06 takes on passengers at Norwich bus station. Thanks to Dave for providing the photographs.

Surely Friday would provide some more incident ? Well naturally punctuality suffered a bit as always seems to be the case on Fridays. Y9-XL15 with 37157 left Wisbech westbound 12 late and was 13 late returning, L10-XL16 & L11-XL17 were near enough on time and L12-XL18 with 37563 was 15 late westbound and 11 late coming back. K14-XL01 did well though and was only 8 late in to Wisbech for the 14.26 to Lowestoft with 37567, K15-XL02 (37569) went west 14 late but then got held up returning at Weasenham Lane where a two vehicle accident caused long queues. It eventually got through and passed me 28 late. 37569 had replaced 37579 at King's Lynn at 12.45 but was so late returning that Lynn garage sent out 37575 to do the 15.32 to Lowestoft with 37569 retiring on arrival. Not for long though as K2-XL08 with 37566 which was 18 late to Peterborough was then taken out of service and 37569 came out again to do the 18.35 King's Lynn - Lowestoft. K17-XL04 which was 10 late to Peterborough with 37564 also became mixed up in the delay and was exactly 30 late returning when seen by Bruce at Walpole Highway. finally 37574 had a fault and had to be taken off K5-XL11 in favour of 37565 this morning.
66346 continued its holiday in Lowestoft and was operating the 101 service.

Saturday 22nd September

This morning I saw 37569 at Walpole Highway running 14 late on L8-XL14, but other services were pretty near time. L9-XL15 came along with 37567 just 4 late and going westbound Y13-XL19 with 37578 was about 6 late. Somehow L9 ended up overtaking L8 and so the two turns had swapped duties when seen by Malcolm late this afternoon.