Issue nr. 224
Wednesday, October 19th 2022
Editorial
Not an easy week for your Editor as I have had to pend quite a few contributions until the next issue. My apologies if your submissions are missing.
We have the final episode of 40 years driving from Gavin Francis and a record of buses in Abingdon on Fair Day from Jack Cooper.
The Oxfordshire Bus Enthusiasts Society announce their first meeting in many months and the local news reports problems in Oxford with a shortage of bus drivers.
Sad news is the passing of Richard Worth well known for his leadership of Worth's Coaches, Enstone. There is. an Obituary below.
Coverage of the Routemaster heritage service in London and other London items are also included with pictures from Eire by Nick Ross.
Finally we have the final part of Tony Bungay's visit to York and Whitby.
40 years of driving buses and coaches – Part VI
It is now 2017 and in the early part of the year 3 Oxford Tube drivers were
asked by our manager if we would be willing to take part in the years UK Coach
Awards. We would be entered in the Top UK Express Driver category. This involved
a lot of paperwork, taking photos and when we were told we were down to the last
few it also involved having a secret passenger on board which was a bit worrying
for the next few weeks.
The awards were held in a hotel in Manchester in late May and after going
through the nominations for our section I am pleased to say I was announced as
the winner.
The trophy was presented by BBC Breakfast weather presenter Carol Kirkwood and
overall was a very enjoyable evening.
I receive the award from Carol Kirkwood, alongside me is Oxford Tube Manager
Dave Rouse
We now move onto 2020 and the time had again come to renew The Oxford Tube fleet
and it was to be a change of supplier. Plaxton had by now designed a double deck
coach based on the Interdecker which it had been producing for many years,
indeed Stagecoach had bought nearly 100 of them for its Megabus services so it
made it logical to buy a new coach where the supplier would remain common.
An initial order was placed for 34 coaches, this
would be the largest fleet The Oxford Tube had ever had. Since the last order
was placed the X90 service run by Oxford Bus had ceased and Oxford Tube were now
covering their journeys. Fleet numbers 50421-50454 were allocated and on the 6th
November 2020 the first one appeared at Oxford depot.
50421 parked in engineering on the day it arrived.
As always these coaches had new features and these included individual charging
points at every seat, table top charging points and although bikes had always
been carried this time the coach had a specially designed storage area for them
Each seat now had not only USB charging points but also wireless charging, a
coat hanger, pull down table and individual reading lights.
Because by now there were Covid restrictions in place
there was a small launch ceremony held in Broad Street on November 18th
where a 50424 was parked for some time for the public to view.
The first coach ran in service on the morning of 28th
November 2020 and appropriately numerically the first coach 50421 was used.
50421 at Lewknor on the first Plaxton coach trip to London.
Over the next few weeks more new coaches started to
appear but in the background a major worldwide problem had begun to appear with
the 2nd wave of Covid sweeping across the country and it was decided
to suspend the service for 3 months starting at the beginning of 2021. By then
24 new coaches had been delivered and the balance were diverted for use in
Scotland. This was because when the service restarted it operated at a reduced
level until passenger numbers increased enough to warrant more coaches.
Since then passenger numbers have more or less returned to pre-Covid levels with
services at the weekend being particularly busy and even more so on train strike
days of which there have been many recently.
We have never seen the 10 coaches which went to Scotland so instead have a small
number of Van Hools to supplement the service at busy times.
From time to time the chance came to get involved in special duties which could
vary from single day events to as described in earlier articles many days away.
These included Silverstone Grand Prix, Cheltenham Races, Fairford Air Show and
occasional events such as The Ryder Cup.
On the January 22nd
2022 Stagecoach organized an Oxfordshire Local Heroes Day where we took many
people who had been involved in the Covid pandemic on a trip to London, a tour
round the sights and then afternoon tea at The Mandarin Palace Hotel in
Piccadilly.
50431 at
Thornhill Park and Ride collecting passengers
and
parked outside The Mandarin Palace Hotel.
Over the years Oxford Tube have sent a coach to
Showbus but decided in 2021 to attend a local event so on the 31st
May my colleague Martin and myself took 50444 to Quainton Railway Centre for
their Bank Holiday Bus and Coach rally.
50444 leaves Quainton at the end of the day followed in complete contrast by RT
1777 about 70 years its senior.
Publicity is an important part of promoting The
Oxford Tube and on 8th June 2021 I spent the day with a professional
photographer not only taking pictures of the coach but also at lots of locations
all around Oxford City Centre.
50437 poses at Network Oxford for publicity shots.
This year it was decided that we should make a short film for social media so
over
two
days a professional film crew was brought in and I worked with them to produce a
short film (about 30secs) to show off the service which was subsequently used on
Facebook etc.
The first day was mainly in Central London with endless trips around Marble Arch
and Hyde Park Corner to try and get unobstructed views.
The second day a team of actors was brought in to highlight the interior
features of the coach.
Some of the exterior shots were taken at Thornhill Park and Ride.
A lot of the interior shots were taken on the move to highlight the speed of the
coach through the windows.
My last day working at Oxford was to be Sunday August
21st 2022 and I was given Duty 804 a bit of an unusual one as it is
only 1 round trip, so started at 04.53 and finished at 10.15.
I was allocated coach 50432 for my last trip and here it waits at Gloucester
Green before departing last trip to London.
I am pleased to say the trip went without incident so it was time to bid
farewell to my colleagues for the last time and make my way home
One last look back at Oxford Depot as I left and it was all over.
40 years seems to have gone by in no time and working in the bus industry gave
me the opportunity to go to a lot of places and meet many colleagues who I hope
will remain friends for a long time to come.
I have renewed my license for another year so let’s see what happens!!!
Nigel Peach
Can I also say a big thank you to Gavin for the "40
years of driving buses and coaches" articles each week. I haven't always been
able to read them straight away, but had a spare evening last week and caught
up. Very interesting and fascinating to read - especially your experiences at
the Olympics. Much appreciated.
Oxfordshire Bus Enthusiasts Society
Tuesday, November 15th from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the
Norman Brown Room 1 at Rose Hill Community Centre, Carole's Way, Oxford OX4
4HF,
Matt Bullock will give a talk on:
"Recent Photographic Discoveries - Oxfordshire
and beyond 1950-1990"
There is a bar at the centre where we can meet before the
talk.
Oxford Bus Co Route 3 passes the
door, and Routes 3A and X40 pass along Rose Hill (5 min walk). There is parking
at the Community Centre.
We hope to see you on November 15th.
Bus driver shortages in Oxford
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-63255759.amp
Abingdon Fair bus routing from Jack Cooper
Abingdon Fair
666 turning from Radley Road to Oxford Road, to work normal route from Our
Lady's Abingdon Oxford Road stops.
369 working down the Oxford Road, about to make the left turn onto the Radley
Road
to pick up the normal 13 route towards Oxford from Our Lady's Abingdon.
909 making the left turn out of Bath Street onto Stratton Way having operated
via Spring Road / Faringdon Road / Bath Street as Ock Street and the top of
Stratton Way are home to the fair.
907 making the right turn from Stratton Way to Bath Street. A turn that is
usually not possible due to the no right turn from Stratton Way to Bath Street.
855 waiting time at Bridge Street heading towards Didcot.
Usually the 33 would wait time on the High Street and Stratton Way, however both
roads were closed.
859 seen making the turn from East St Helens Street to St Helen's Wharf also a
33 towards Oxford.
905 and 672 both on the Faringdon Road, at the Godwyn Close stop.
672 would turn left onto the Wootton Road to pick up normal route, and 905 would
turn right onto Bath Street.
These pictures show how many diversions are required for this event. Ed.
Obituary
Richard Edmund Worth
It is with great sadness that I have been informed of
the passing of Richard 'Dickie' Worth aka 'The Old Chap' this morning, 15th
October 2022. As the proprietor and Managing Director of Worth;s Motor Services
at Enstone, I had known Richard for over 42 years since I sold him ex. COMS
TJO56K in 1980. Always looking for a bargain he continued our relationship and
went on to purchase over a dozen more 'quality' examples of used buses from the
COMS/OBC fleet over the years and always with the added sarcasm but genuine
satisfaction of receiving a good deal. I'm sure he will be very much missed by
his loyal staff and not least his family who I'm sure will strive to see this
famous and important independent operator of North Oxfordshire survive these
ever changing challenges that confront the bus and coach industry. It has been a
pleasure for me to have been a small part in Richard's contribution to his
business and I express my sincere condolences to his family, as I hope all the
followers of the O&CBP will also.
I am indebted to Paul Worth who invited myself and my
wife to take part in Worth's Centenary celebrations at Hook Norton Brewery on
12th August this year which included Richard's 80th Birthday where we were able
to once again able to share and exchange a bit of the usual banter, as we used
to!
A very genuine character who valued the people around him and a sad day for many !
Jack Cooper
Some nice pictures from Jack taken over the past week.
Oxford and Abingdon between October 9th and 14th
Coach visitors to Oxfordshire
David Beynon.
One of Johnsons latest acquisitions seen on October 13th.
Jack Cooper
Fastline YN12BNZ in St-Aldates on October 10th.
Fleet News and developments
Pleased to include the latest allocation list.
Arriva fleet lists/Arriva period 9.ods
save and use excel
Nigel Peach
I paid my first visit for some months to Arriva's Cressex
depot this afternoon. I was surprised to see that there are lots of withdrawn
buses still there including DAFs 2782/6/7, burnt out Citaro 3043 and the last
two of the DAF double deckers 4819 and 6000.
Picture attached of withdrawn DAFs 4819 and 6000, and
Citaro 3925 which was receiving attention.
Nigel Peach
I don't know if you have come across the website "Next
Door". We subscribe to it, but it is usually people going on particular bad
experiences with this or that, or complaining about the government or local
council.
Occasionally though there is good news, and I thought I'd
share this post with someone saying how wonderful Carousel's PickMeUp service
is. I've copied the link, so hopefully you can read it yourself, though I
appreciate you wouldn't be able to share much of this on your pages.
nextdoor.co.uk-comment of Wycombe PMU
Back at the beginning of August, the main road through Flackwell Heath (Straight Bit) was closed for a few days and buses were diverted. A friend form one of the nearby cul-de-sacs was surprised to see a bus in his road, and sent me this picture.
Carousel's 940 (now with Thames Travel), on the 36 (since transferred to Arriva)
and had taken the wrong road when using the diversion.
Gavin Francis
The picture of OBC 599 on your latest page reminded me that not long ago there was another identical 599 which OBC had when the ST routes began.
Seen on July 18th 2019 working the ST2.
Jack Cooper
I am not sure if it has been reported in recent weeks but
ex hybrids 300, 302 and 306 have all recently returned to
service from conversion. 300 has been back a few weeks now. 302 and 306 have
returned to service this week and still have
city4/city35 branding on them
when I had last seen them earlier on this week.
222 working an X40
Variety in St Aldates on October 10th.
More variety on the same day. Also some off
branded route.
One wonders how long these will last?
Jack Cooper
The five remaining Interdeks are getting very regular use until the new
Tourismos arrive.
Jack Cooper
The first of the remaining Scanias not converted
to open top.
873 in Thames Travel livery on October 14th.
Jack Cooper
TSE uses this Levante on services including the
160
Mark Turner
Harry Potter buses at Watford Junction
Harry Potter Bus on Monday, October 17th LG22AYA heading back towards Harry
Potter after pulling out from Watford Junction.
Gavin Francis
More variety working the 40 here E17RRT on
October 15th in Stokenchurch.
According to www.bustimes 47904 and 47910 are still based at Witney unused for many weeks .
Christopher Lowe
Recently former Oxford
Hybrids, 12015, 12018, 12023, 12024 and 12025 were all reinstated from
Stagecoach Manchester reserve fleet but have re-entered service at Sharston
Garage not Hyde Road as they were previously.
Jack Cooper
Stagecoach also use a variety of buses on city routes
as seen above on October 10th.
The S3 sees variety as well with unbranded 10684
leaving Gloucester Green on October 12th.
Jack Cooper
Wet weather and 50269 makes a trip out on October
14th.
A sunny day sees 50427 in St Aldates inbound from
London on October 10th.
Jack Cooper
Mighty
Travels Birmingham OW15 WKE was working a Megabus M34 through Oxford on
Wednesday. This coach is one of the ex Oxford Bus Interdeck, formerly 77 (OX15
BUS) and then later used at Go North East on the Xlines X9
/
X10 given fleet number 7155 and reg plate X10 LNE.
OW15 WKE still wears the base Xlines livery.
London operations
Andrew Webb
Fashion brands continue to dominate the overall adverts being applied to London's buses. Levis' new store in Regent Street is now open, promoted on several New Routemasters with this blue based scheme.
London United's
LT673 shows off the advert as it passes Hyde Park Corner on 15 October.
Gant is an American Swedish clothing brand.
Go Ahead's LT875 is one of
several to carry this busy design promoting the brand, seen on The Strand on 15
October.
Stuart Weitzman is a luxury footwear brand.
Go Ahead LT438 carries this
wrap, seen at Tottenham Court Road ready to head for Penge on route 176 on 15
October.
Away from the fashion scene other sectors also advertise on London buses.
London United's BCE47016 is the only bus to carry this wrap for Codorníu, the
oldest and second-largest producer of Cava.
It is seen at Shepherd's Bush
on 15 October at the start of a trip to Clapham Junction on route 49. It
is notable that the wrap covers the front of the bus, most adverts applied to
vehicles other than New Routemasters retain the red front.
The red front is still visible on the front of Stagecoach's StreetDeck 18905 at
Stratford on 15 October.
It is carrying an advert for apprenticeship provider MetaGedu.
This is one of the vehicles which joined the Stagecoach fleet following the
company's takeover of Tower Transit, whose fleet name is still prominent.
Manchester Bus Tours, trading as 'Londoner Buses', started Route A on 15
October. The commercial venture links Waterloo with Piccadilly Circus via
Parliament Square and Trafalgar Square to offer tourists a view of the capital's
key sights.
RM1941, once at home on the TfL 15H, is seen at Waterloo on the first day ready
to work a short to Trafalgar Square.
Route B is an unadvertised alternative route for times when Route A is unable to be served owing to road closures. It connects Waterloo with St Paul's via Waterloo Bridge. Two or three journeys operated on the route during the first day including one run by RM871 seen after arrival back at Waterloo.
RM 871 Its ultimate blind has already been reset for a journey on Route A.
The
modern interpretation of the Routemaster in the form of LT128 passes, making for
a comparison of designs spanning 60 years.
Single decker buses on sightseeing routes are comparatively rare, the main draw of the routes being the chance to view the sights of a city from the (often open) top deck of a bus. Stagecoach's City Sightseeing London operation has recently introduced the Green Shuttle linking the London Eye with the hotels around Tavistock Square.
Two Enviro 200s have been branded for the
service,
including 36369 seen rounding the IMAX Cinema at Waterloo on final
approaches to the London Eye on 15 October.
Gavinn has also provided a significant number of pictures some of which will have to be held over for a future issue. However Gavin got some more pictures of the Routemasters mentioned above. Ed.
The three buses in use on the tours showing them in a previous life.
The picture of the RM in Carlisle should be attributed to Paul
Bateson
This is the legal used on these tour buses.
Michael Wadman
A few photos I took early one
Sunday morning in August when, having time to kill before my train left, I found
a fine collection of coaches parked on Buckingham Palace Road either having just
arrived or waiting their next turn on various express services. Unfortunately
the light was a bit awkward so there are some nasty reflections.
Weavaway IRZ 707, an Irizar i6s, waiting to work National Express service 550 to
Liverpool.
Horseman Coaches (of Royal Berkshire, no less) YX68 UAV, a Volvo B8R / Plaxton
Panther.
The windscreen label was for National Express service A6 to Stansted Airport,
which it was apparently waiting for its next duty on.
Goldwings Executive of Hayes YT19 KUK, an Irizar i6, having apparently
worked an early morning service from Nottingham on Megabus M22.
Turners of Bristol YJ67 CXO, a Van Hool EX16H, having apparently worked an
early morning service from its home city on Flixbus 041.
Hearns of Harrow Weald BF21 EOP, a Mercedes Benz Tourismo, waiting
to work Flixbus service 002 to Bradford.
An interesting selection working for major operators. Ed.
Grahame Wareham
224 CUD224Y was the final
Olympian ECW delivered under NBC contract ON040 in December 1982. Licenced in
January 1983 224 joined the rest of the batch based at Cowley Road Garage and
used on mainly routes to the west of the City. It also displaced Bristol VRT 442
which was released to join the Western National fleet as part of the contract
for the additional twelve Olympians.
224 visited Bonn, West Germany on February 27th 1989 as part of
Oxford City’s Civic twin town celebrations for that year.
Fitted with Gardner 6LXCT engine and tachograph in
January 1990.
224 was the first vehicle to be repainted into the OBC
new red, white and black livery in 1990 with sign written'
224 was transferred to Wycombe Bus from November 1998
until April 2000.
224 was loaned to Go-Ahead North East at Chester-Le-Street from 9/01 to 30/11/01.
224 was loaned to Metrobus at Godstone from 8/02 to 11/02
and received fleet number 884 by Metrobus.
In July 2002 224 was given a repaint and paid a visit
back to its birthplace in Lowestoft whist taking part in the ECW closure
anniversary celebrations.
In October 2003 224 was withdrawn and sold along with 223
to Hedingham Omnibuses staying there until September 2011 when it joined the
fleet of L.C.Transport, (Ladycars), Grays along with most of the remaining ex.
Hedingham/Oxford Olympians.
Once again I can only assume that 224 finished its days
as scrap after L.C. Transport ceased trading............unless anyone knows
otherwise!
Here is a photo of Leyland Olympian 224 (CUD224Y) the
last of the batch of 5 to arrive in 01/1983 and seen here on route 443 in Queen
Street in Oxford heading for Rose Hill.
Gavin Francis
.......... has provided pictures of the current 224.
In original condition from 2010 to 2015.
Between 2015 and 2020 224 carried 2 road branding.
Cu,rrently enjoying connector livery this is the bus in 2022.
Malcolm Crowe
Olympian 224 was still in service when I was driving part time for Oxford Bus.
Ah - Happy Days in 2000.
Nick Ross
West Coast of Ireland in October 2022 between the downpours!
Volvo Coach VB473 on the 440 at Claremorris, 061022
Decker PAD109 parked up at Galway bus station
Ex Dublin Bus Volvo B7 04-D-20373 on a schools duty at Moycullen, West of Galway
Decker 11-G-9065 looking good at Eyre Square, Galway
Alexander
Congratulations on your latest update, as always it was A pleasure to read. I enjoyed reading about the C1, it's indeed formed from the 35A school service according to www.bustimes.org but why does it lay over at Radley in between? It certainly is quite A unique service and, like the 35A, does use all sorts of strange vehicles as they probably just use whatever they've available. Does the same bus normally do the 35A in both directions? I also enjoyed reading about 223 and the last day of Olympian operation. I remember reading about it at the time but didn't realize that Grahame Wareham was the driver, why did Phil Clark arrange for that to be the case and for it to operate 35E card then return to the garage for cleaning before going out again on 2X card?
Tony Bungay
Bank Holiday Sunday, I decided to make another trip further afield. I was
interested in taking a trip to Whitby, but as the Coastliner service on Sunday
is at a lower frequency and I could not make the earlier journey, I opted to go
via Scarborough, the only decision whether to use the slower Yorkshire
Coastliner service or the train. In the end I opted for the Coastliner service
and the driver usefully as it turned out sold me an all routes ticket (for
Yorkshire Coastliner services to avoid misunderstanding) cost £19.00. At
Scarborough a short wait ensured for the arrival of the Arriva X94 service to
Whitby, which gives good views of the surrounding countryside and eventually the
sea, more so as it drops down a fairly steep hill into Robin Hoods Bay (the
start or the finish point of Alfred Wainwrights Coast to Coast walk). The
vehicle I was on was a Volvo/Wight in the latest Sapphire Livery, but as the
following photos will show a variety of vehicles were in use. Being a Bank
Holiday and fine weather Whitby was very busy, and this and the position of the
sun at full brightness did not make for easy photography of the Buses!
Leaving Whitby Town Centre is Volvo/Alexander 7426 on an outward X94 to Scarborough.
This vehicle was new to Arriva London South as VLA 154, in what appears quite a rarity for Arriva it is in a distinctive Livery.
The second Volvo/Alexander wearing this distinctive Livery is 7424,
again a former Arriva London South VLA 152, seen here entering the Bus station,
which is located to one side of the Railway station frontage. Buses have to
proceed to the roundabout near the harbour and turn round to enter the Bus
station. The last time I visited 30 plus years ago, if my memory is correct the
Bus station was further along the Harbour, although still in vicinity of the
Rail station, and the Station itself seemed way to large for the then single
track that remained for the picturesque but infrequent Esk Valley line service.
Since then the whole area has been revamped.
Getting pictures of 7424/26 with the destination visible or coming out proved a
bit difficult!
Obviously being a popular destination, and to make parking easier a couple of Park and Ride services are operated, in this instance by Arriva,
Wearing special livery for this Volvo/Wright possibly 7610 prepares to turn into the Town Centre.
As mentioned earlier I purchased an all Yorkshire Coastliner ticket, which I
used on Wright StreetDeck 3633, seen here loading for the last journey of the
day back to Leeds via Pickering – Malton and York. While these vehicles feature
voice announcements for all stops, on the section from Whitby to Pickering, it
featured added commentary pointing out points of interest and suggested photo
opportunities from the Bus, in particular the double run to serve the village of
Goathland informed passengers of it’s starring role in productions on the Big
and Small screen.
View of the entrance of First York’s Garage, a couple of the Mercedes Citaro Articulated Buses can be seen, in distance the present Garage is not that far from the former West Yorkshire York Garage.
The attractive town
of Pickering is just outside the North York Moors National Park, so therefore
makes it a focal point for Sunday and Bank Holiday Moors Bus services, as well
as some regular ones.
Working in the opposite direction to 735, is Coastliner branded
Scarborough – Bridlington Volvo/Wright 781 again on service 128 to the
attractive town of Hemsley
The Sapphire vehicle I travelled on from Scarborough to Whitby Volvo/Wright 7402.
A
general view of Whitby Bus station with StreetLite 1563 loading for an X94
journey to Scarborough
and Volvo/Wright 7405 despite it’s branding working a
Whitby Park and Ride. As can be seen not easy to photograph if sun is in the
wrong place!
A
general view across the road showing the parking area with
Malton Bus station and Yorkshire Coastliner garage behind.
York Pullman Enviro
200 on a Moors Bus Service, but wearing branding for Route 37|
Looking to be quite
an upmarket vehicle compared to the other Moor Buses, is Easy Yorkshire E400mmc
916