Friday 6 November 2020

Buses in 2020 the best bits from trips

With instructions now to stay indoors, I have decided to do a post featuring some of the best bits from my travels. There are a range of buses featured with Buses from Brighton, Norfolk and Devon featured. It was a hard decision to pick out 2 images from each trip but got there in the end so please enjoy. I'm going to start with photos from Brighton and work backwards. 

The most recent trip to Brighton featured the remaining required milk wrapped buses here is Gemini 465

I was also after my final green E300 here is 27918 seen proudly displaying its poppy for remembrance day.

Another green coloured E300 27755 is seen laying over on a 700 

I had the aim of photographing the electrics with 327 seen on its allocated route

Also on my list were the Compass MMCs here is 4303

Another best bit was the loans that came in for the 700 26147 lays over

I was able to snap a hybrid on the 6 on my first visit here's 444

My first time snapping a green E300 was 27844 on the 17
I also went on a holiday to North Devon for a week and found the bus station in Barnstaple here are 2 E400s from that trip 1 ADL and 1 Scania.
Old E400 19107 is seen at the bus station 

North Devon Wave branded Scania 15887 "Poppy" is seen in the bus station 
Finally, I went to Norfolk and Suffolk back in February this year and my highlights from there were seeing Border Bus Scanias and Scania E400 Cities.
It was a London bus before and carried a 59 plate here is Scania 211 BB06 BUS

One of my all time favourite photos of 2 Scania Cities on the Excel both buses are run by First 

Wednesday 21 October 2020

An array of colour and branding on the 700

There has been a wide range of buses on the Coastliner 700 recently with unbranded and branded buses appearing on the route which aren't branded for the 700. Stagecoach South have done route branding really well and in a different style to Stagecoach South East. 

In one day alone, I saw 4 different buses on the 700 in different branding including South Downs 1, The Pulse, Portsmouth route 23 and Coastliner 700 also adding unbranded E300 27668.

Worthing and the whole of South are a massive fan of E300s with many different batches of them in operation 3 of the buses in this post are E300s with the other 2 being an E200 MMC and E400 MMC. 

Unbranded E300 27668 is seen on an outward 700 in Churchill Square

Loan E200 MMC 26162 is seen laying over on a 700 service

Green E300 27755 is seen also laying over on the route

The Pulse branded E300 27677 is also seen in Churchill Square.

One of the normal allocation is E400 MMC 10946 it is seen laying over it looks better than the Brighton and Hove Gemini next to it.

Tuesday 13 October 2020

An E200 MMC special

I may have gone to Brighton the other week but I then found out that almost a week later, there were going to be some surprises on the 700 in the form of E200 MMCs so I decided to go back last week and get some of them on camera. I managed to get photos of 3 of the loans all in the space of a few hours. 

The MMCs came from Portsmouth which form part of the batch for their 23 route and have been loaned to Worthing in exchange for some E400 MMCs for the 700. Which makes them miles away from home. The Stagecoach MMCs that were snapped were 26147, 26160 and 26163 and are long examples. In other E200 MMC images, I finally managed to snap half of the Compass ones I don't really snap much in the way of Compass but wanted to snap these! Their ones are mini ones and the 2 I snapped were 4303 and 4304 YX68 UJW and YX68 UJY. They carry a brand called City Buzz and have types of bees on the front. 
MMC 26147 is seen in Brighton on the bus stand after finishing the 700 

26160 is also seen having just finished a 700 service

Mini E200 MMC of Compass Bus 4304 YX68 UJY "Busy Bee" is seen at Brighton Station

 

4303 YX68 UJW "Honey Bee" is seen just off Churchill Square

26163 on a 700 is seen in Churchill Square
It was really nice to finally snap some more E200 MMCs with both Stagecoach and Compass Bus.

Tuesday 6 October 2020

Tridents on the Loop

 The Loop is known for being allocated a mixture of buses whilst what should be doing it do other services. So far this week alone there have been 2 Tridents, 2 ADL E400s and 2 Scania E400s on it in 1 day and Tridents hardly appeared on it until recently as they mainly stayed on the 1/1As before. 

Eastbourne garage operate 3 Tridents all in which are 54 plate they are 18160 GX54 DVA, 18161 GX54 DVB and 18163 XIL 1560 (GX54 DVF) and all 3 have been on it in the past week. Luckily, I was there with my phone to get some of the action and another bit to add is that 18163 has just returned to service after a really long spell away with either a new engine or gearbox as it sounds different to 18160/1.

18161 GX54 DVB is seen on the Anti-Clockwise Loop with E300 27578 behind

18163 XIL 1560 (GX54 DVF) is seen on a Clockwise Loop this has only just returned after having work done it was its first outing on the route

18160 GX54 DVA is also seen on the Anti-Clockwise Loop
Hopefully these workings will continue imagine all 3 of them on there in 1 day that would be fantastic!

Friday 2 October 2020

Buses in Brighton: Part 3 Electrics

After a few specials, I'm finally down to my last post highlighting buses in Brighton. Part one was Stagecoach and Part 2 was Metrobus and Brighton and Hove now here is part 3 the Brighton and Hove electrics. The buses have the E400 MMC body and have cameras instead of mirrors which takes me back to when I saw mirrorless buses earlier on in the year. 

 As soon as the day out was mentioned, I thought I would go to Brighton mainly to see the electrics and I did really well with 6 examples photographed during a single visit. The buses themselves have hardly any sound at all as they are so quiet. What I like about the buses is the graphics on the sides promoting how clean they are in terms of emissions.

Promoting Live and Breathe is YX69 NVT here it's seen on a 5B 

YX69 NWH is also seen on a 5B

YX69 NVS seen on a uni service of the 5B

YX69 NWR is seen on a 5A

Another 5B this time YX69 NWJ does the honours

YX69 NVO is seen on a 5 on its own not a 5A or 5B
It was a really good day I enjoyed myself and there were so many buses in different colours. I hope to visit again sometime won't be until next year though once it warms up. 

Thursday 1 October 2020

Buses in Brighton: Part 2 MetroBus and Brighton and Hove


Welcome to Part 2 of my Buses in Brighton specials this time I'm looking at MetroBus and Brighton and Hove excluding the electrics they will be in the next post that I will be doing. The MetroBus vehicles were on the 270 and that's where I will be starting first. 

The main buses for the 270 are the nasty E200s with a ZF gearbox and are 5 years old some wear 270 branding and some don't. They are from the same batch as E200s I have snapped before but they weren't ones that I had snapped before.

270 branded E200 6780 is seen picking up for a 270 this was one I had seen later on
Unbranded 6774 is also seen on the 270
Brighton and Hove: Here are some Brighton and Hove buses some carry wraps, some carry route branding and one is unbranded. I even snapped a hybrid off route as well and I was hoping to snap a hybrid.
Gemini MK2 419 is seen standing waiting a quick clean 

Route 6 branded 404 is seen on its allocated route

PRTP 418 is seen working a 46 service 

455 is seen promoting a drink 479 also carries this wrap 

Gemini 459 is seen awaiting its next departure

Had to get an image of a hybrid here's route 2 branded 444 on the 6 

One of 2 football themed Geminis 470 is seen working the 26
The final part of this special will be looking at the electric buses that I have finally seen.

Wednesday 30 September 2020

Buses in Brighton: Part 1 Stagecoach buses on the 17 and 700

 I have been travelling again and on the 29th of the month, I visited Brighton for the 4th time for bus snapping. There were so many buses in different colours with Buses from Stagecoach South, Brighton and Hove and MetroBus snapped. This section will be based on the Stagecoach buses that were snapped during my visit.

Stagecoach run 2 routes into Brighton the 17 and Coastliner 700 which use E300s and ADL MMCs here are as selection of E300s and MMCs that were snapped.

Route 1 branded E300 27844 is seen working the 17 

Coastliner ADL MMC 10944 is seen on its usual 700 route

MMC 10965 is seen setting down whilst on a 700

The first in the batch 10941 is also seen on the 700 

The best I could do with E300 27658 GX10 KZL as a StreetDeck got in the way here it's seen on the 17
This is just the first part of the post with many more to come with images of Brighton and Hove Electrics, MetroBus  E200s and Brighton and Hove Geminis.