yes, it is F296 DRJ, a Northern Counties bodied Leyland Olympian. it has been re-painted to enter service, but i don't have any information as yet on where it will be serving! it was new to greater manchester in 1989 apparently. must check if that is true! hard to put total trust in stagecoach trainee fitters! i have been told they are currently on the depot's "death row", but having just recieved new paint, it looks unlikely they will be disposed off or used for parts!
more disruptions for Lillyhall!
this morning, there were traffic queues of 45 minutes, which affected the 30 and 31 routes, both ran by the enviro 300's, versa, and some 56reg darts. services on the 31 were being cancelled mid-route, so buses could carry out the return journey. K reg B10m's were brought onto the service to support the other buses. for one of the 31 buses, it was a case of "all off at whitehaven, apart from stops at safeway, hillcrest and red lonning", so the bus could turn left at red lonning to head back towards workington, intstead of turning right heading for frizigton as planned. the stops after red lonning were still covered by the 31A whitehaven to frizington service, which ended up leaving whitehaven at the same time as the 31, and there would be no point having 2 buses going to the same place at same time!
there are so many spare buses in Lillyhall depot, so you would think that they would have the sense to get them up and running, replacing the out of service 709d's. the buses which used to cover the 17 / 17A (now 31A) are apparently still in the depot! they are M reg B6's. not sure how they look these days, but they seemed pretty good before replaced by the 56reg darts