First South West (Kernow & Buses of Somerset)

[83G/84D]

Open top 32104 departed Camborne yesterday morning "out of service" and returned around 90 minutes later.
V336 LGC seen as well being worked on - no fleet number visible, should be 32051.

 

[83G/84D]

Solo 53406 has lost the remnants of it's Western Greyhound green and become the second Solo repainted into the "new" green. It follows 53701 which was done some time ago.

Repainted into dark green from "Truronian" silver and red is Volvo B12B 20556.

 

[Busaholic]

Tinner on the A17 lunchtime today - they're not too common during the day Monday to Friday in my experience.

 

[GBM]

Tinner on the A17 lunchtime today - they're not too common during the day Monday to Friday in my experience.

Open topper on the A1 late morning today

 

[co-tr-paul]

Short bos solo on "2" tonight.

 

[GBM]

Short bos solo on "2" tonight.

Drivers prefer Solo's and Dart's for late night runs as so few passengers travelling. Night vision better with small bus rather than deckers where vision is horrible (internal reflections at night).
Also far easier manoeuvering a small vehicle around badly parked cars at night than trying to guestimate where the sides of a decker are.

 

[richw]

JUst seen 32955 in liskeard. Unusual on a weekend as only normally see First buses here on college duties.
Is the callington to Truro college decker stationed up here somewhere and returning after half term?

 

[83G/84D]

E400 MMC's 33456 and 33473 on services U4 today.

 

[Busaholic]

Short bos solo on "2" tonight.

Solo again tonight, but carrying correct U4 number.

 

[GBM]

Anyone know why the change of route numbers i,e, 14/18 to T's (new busses?); but A/16/17, or A1/2/3?: M6 Mousehole?, but 5 & 11 unloved?

 

[Goldfish62]

Anyone know why the change of route numbers i,e, 14/18 to T's (new busses?); but A/16/17, or A1/2/3?: M6 Mousehole?, but 5 & 11 unloved?

The 16 remains. It's not A16.

It'll be because there's no obvious brand for them.

 

[co-tr-paul]

The way things are, no obvious brand anyway .
Being an ex pcv driver, I sympathies with having to put up with interior lighting too bright. And when did drivers start keeping them on in the day too ( automatic nowadays I know but even several years back ) ? Used to turn one side off even on a VR !

 

[GBM]

The way things are, no obvious brand anyway .
Being an ex pcv driver, I sympathies with having to put up with interior lighting too bright. And when did drivers start keeping them on in the day too ( automatic nowadays I know but even several years back ) ? Used to turn one side off even on a VR !

Several years ago a missive came 'from above' that all interior lights were to be turned off whenever possible to save wear and tear on engine & bulb replacement. Never seen it rescinded, but.
On deckers, Solo's & Darts (so most vehicles!) at night to reduce the screen glare it can be usual to switch off the near side interior lighting & leave the offside on.
Every driver is different of course.
On Tinners lighting is automatic but can be switched manually to have either/or on. Most Tinners have a dimmer switch as well - dim or less dim!
At night with a decker in the dark was horrible - extremely difficult to do a right turn anywhere. Just keep praying you don't have to reverse.
There again, drivers are 'not' permitted to reverse, but that's another story.

 

[83G/84D]

Enviro's 33421 & 33422 at Camborne today with yellow route cards in the front windscreens. 33421 read "Route 1 Redruth, Wadebridge..." (could not read the rest) whilst 33422 read " Route 5 Tremough, Falmouth Truro".

Coach 23013 was "Route 4 Redruth , St Agnes, Perranporth, Newquay ".

Anyone know what work they have been doing?

 

[busKernow]

Enviro's 33421 & 33422 at Camborne today with yellow route cards in the front windscreens. 33421 read "Route 1 Redruth, Wadebridge..." (could not read the rest) whilst 33422 read " Route 5 Tremough, Falmouth Truro".

Coach 23013 was "Route 4 Redruth , St Agnes, Perranporth, Newquay ".

Anyone know what work they have been doing?

Private Hires for the Masked Ball in Heston last night.

 

[83G/84D]

Thank You.

 

[83G/84D]

Trident 33153 in Camborne. Another loan or transfer from Hampshire.

 

[Busaholic]

I was quite surprised to see an opentopper on the A17 today - I rather thought that the reversion to GMT would see their disappearance until next Spring. Does anyone know if the top deck is blocked off?

 

[MB162435]

Kernow E400 33420 and MMC 33470 in University livery were on the 16:25 231 service from Truro College to Falmouth Moor

 

[MB162435]

Dennis Trident 33172 branded for the Atlantic Coaster service 'A5' was at Truro College at 16:10 before departing on a college service

 

[richw]

I was quite surprised to see an opentopper on the A17 today - I rather thought that the reversion to GMT would see their disappearance until next Spring. Does anyone know if the top deck is blocked off?

No why would it be blocked off. I caught one last week and was one of five people sat outside.

 

[Busaholic]

No why would it be blocked off. I caught one last week and was one of five people sat outside.

Assuming its use in the p.m. peak, the absence of top deck lighting might lead to an interesting situation regarding liability should an 'incident' occur upstairs in twilight or total darkness. A previous poster on here said that opentoppers once worked out of season on his local routes but they were effectively operated as single deckers with the stairs boarded off.

 

[83G/84D]

I was quite surprised to see an opentopper on the A17 today - I rather thought that the reversion to GMT would see their disappearance until next Spring. Does anyone know if the top deck is blocked off?

The Volvo Citybuses were only licensed for 6 months, obviously some of the replacements are staying in service longer than this. It would be interesting to know which ones are still active.

32027 has not seen use over the autumn and 32097 still has its roof although originally a candidate for open top conversion.

On the subject of route renumbering and branding did someone state that the next batch of E400 MMC's will be green with no route branding? I think the consensus was that they will primarily work Bodmin - St Austell - Truro.

 

[richw]

The Volvo Citybuses were only licensed for 6 months, obviously some of the replacements are staying in service longer than this. It would be interesting to know which ones are still active.
.

If the current open toppers were licensed for 6 months, some will run out tonight, those late to the road may have another month left on them, if they were delicensed before conversion. If they weren’t delicensed 6 months could run to anytime. I’ll have a look on the DVLA site and report back,

Edit 32104 And 32207 are licensed until June 2018.

 

[83G/84D]

32104 has been in and out of Camborne recently. I wonder if some were registered initially for 12 months?

 

[Goldfish62]

Came across this photo on Flickr, a few comments of interest. The commenter shedinagarden is a well respected bus industry insider in Cornwall.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/swbuspics/37131222064/in/dateposted/

So, if he's got his information correct, there's now only 10, not 21 E400s due.

 

[richw]

So, if he's got his information correct, there's now only 10, not 21 E400s due.

I’d noticed that. I’d been led to believe 19 in green, and 2 more in unibus blue.

 

[MB162435]

Dennis Trident 32819 in FalRiver livery and E400 33422 in University blue were on two of the 16:25 231 services from Truro College to Falmouth

 

[MB162435]

Tinner bus E400 MMC 33456 was on the 16:25 238 service from Truro College to Long Rock

 

[83G/84D]

Truro College log 2nd November (PM):-

(service numbers in brackets where known)

34311
23315
42946 (216)
33452 (T3/239)
33171 (241)
23010
32051 (215)
33459 (T3/240)
32755
33151
32760
33175 (225)
33052 (235)
32874 (230)
32097 (239)
33031 (219)
33174 (212)
32047 (217)
23316
65763 (227)
53403
65760
32758 (238)
33180 (214)
32048 (224)
23008
32872 (228)
33173 (222)
33456 (236)
23208
68534 (226A)
32859 (234)
30879 (226)
33176 (231)

As can be seen three of the Ensign Volvo B7TL's were in use.