It's always nice when I get home to find an email wating for me with something completely unexpected. Such was the case today when I arrived back at my personal depot to an email from Brian Ellis giving me a link to a Bristol website. They are getting a new cafe in some place called the Bearpit, which reading the article seems to have a bit of a reputation and is being regenerated. So this new cafe in Bristol is, erm a Bristol VR. And not only that but a Bristol which started its life in Eastern Counties. Getting a history of VR233 DNG 233T while at EC is proving tough, and this is the only pic I can find of it in EC livery, taken in Cambridge with a United Counties Bristol keeping it company. If anyone can shed some light on its EC life I'll be grateful
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| Eastern Counties VR233 is passed by United Counties 872 in Cambridge in 1983. pic by Simon Ayres |
From Eastern Counties outr heroine moved to Cambus (indicating she was at Cambridge depot already) in 1984 where she was given the rather random fleet number 728 before passing to Viscount Bus and Coach Company in Peterborough, which was a subsidary of Cambus and is now Stagecoach.
After 7 years at Viscount she then spent 7 nonths at MK Metro before being sold to PVS Carlton (Dealer). She was rescued by that Moxons of Oldcotes in Nottinghamshire where she seems to have spent a happy 9 years, although undergoing a sex change as she was called "Barry"!
After Moxons she/he moved to that great utiliser of older vehicles in the East - Emblings of Wisbech, where she lived from 2005 - 2009 getting her female identity back being named "Jessie" She also carried the Judds name as the two companies often shared vehicles. In 2010 she was sold to River Link in Dartmouth but only briefly saw service. Here she is in 2010, still in her Emblings/Judds livery
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| Seen in 2010 while with River Link in Dartmouth. pic by Nick |
And now she is going to end her life as a static cafe in Bristol. I've had many a burger on a Bristol and so I think she'll do well as a cafe. How ironic she is now the same green as that United Counties Bristol passing her in Cambridge all those years ago. Thanks to Brian for the link - you can read the full article
here, for the information on robsly.com about the vehicle and to the various people of Flickr for making their pics available for download.
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| Getting lifted into her final resting place at Bearpit, Bristol. pic bristol-culture.com |
So onto the other news of the day and while in Norwich today I managed to get first pics of newly repainted Trident 33003. Even better was that she was on the Purple Line too!
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| 33033 in her new colours in St Stephen's St |
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| The side on view - probably the cleanest bus in Norwich today! |
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| 33003 leaving for Long Stratton |
Have to say of the two buses featured tonight I know which one I'd run to get on if I saw it coming - and it's not the purple one! I promise to post the second part of the Thameslink Transition tomorrow!
Hi Steve,
ReplyDeleteYou have a very nice blog here. Warm greetings from Montreal, Canada. I think the double decker buses are so cool. Here in Montreal we have double decker trains, but not buses. The buses that seat more passengers are called the accordion style ones, because they are almost twice the size of a regular bus and they look like an accordion in the center.
Hi, Linda
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for the kind words - it's great hearing from people in other parts of the world. Feel free to send me pics of your double deck trains and accordian buses - probably called bendibuses here and I'll enjoy doing a Montreal Special post! Regards and have a great Christmas!
Hi Steve. I am so pleased to have found your site. Yesterday I had a walk through the Bearpit in Bristol, and saw the Bristol VR, DNG 233T. Just now I looked up the reg number and see your report. I had thought it had to be craned in to be there. On approach I wondered which bus it would be and assumed it would be from the Bristol fleet at some point so was surprised to see it was from elsewhere. It was surrounded by fencing so not the best of photo's. I may have to see the opening times and try and get a shot of it less cluttered. I would like to send you my three photo's which may be of interest so if you care to contact me on dave@daveandglen.co.uk, I would be happy to send them and you can use or delete as you wish. Hope this is of interest to you and your readers. Kind regards. DavidHunt, (Severn Beach, Bristol.)
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