Weekend Pot Pourri

Obviously with the silly season approaching there is little happening on the rural service front so anything that maybe interesting or relevant is going to get an airing.

First of all many thanks to railcam.uk for permission to use one of their stills for this year's Christmas header pic. As you can see from the pic it was taken this morning at Ribblehead in North Yorkshire. Northern Rail Class 158 is battling manfully against the snow and it seemed an ideal and up to date pic to use. Railcam isn't just good for watching trains, but I've watched lightning storms and seen countless wildlife through their cameras. Worth a visit and supporting.

Keeping with the festive spirit and two BorderBus drivers, Malcolm and Terry have swapped their buses for decorated grottos. I hope to do a special post on them nearer Christmas but the front of Malcolm's bus - the E300 - is just brilliant with a display of Santas, including a piano playing one in the centre. Here is a sneak preview of what is to come.

Just love it.

There is a new arrival at BorderBus. It's not ready for the road yet as it is being upgraded to the high standard of comfort and reliability BorderBus expect to give their ever increasing customers. But I can confirm the registration!

That's all there is for now!

A few weeks ago I was in Aberdeen goggly-eyed at the wide vriety of vehicles up there. Well now there are more. First Aberdeen have received at least 9 ADL tri-axle E500's from First Glasgow. 7 have been branded for the university routes 1 and 2 and 2 remain unbranded. It is believed the delivery of the E500's may release some bendibuses...... My thanks to Donald Macrae for allowing me to use the pics, with credit to Stephen Pirie who took the pics originally.

First Aberdeen 38219 ADL E500 SN09 CCX         pic (c) Stephen Pirie

The rear of 38219      pic (c) Stephen Pirie

The weather has not been kind to buses this week. I saw these pictures on Flickr and thought they were worth sharing. The first one is from the Isle of Man and I have no idea what happened but this decker does not look very well!

UPDATE:

Thanks to Stuart Leader I can tell you that the unfortunate bus was on a bridge that collapsed during last week's Storm Desmond. It was a school bus that mercifully was empty and the driver escaped unharmed but I would imagine with a need for a new lower uniform.. Andrew Pursey has also been in touch with a link to a video of the bus in the river which you can see here. That in turn links to another video of the salvage operation which you can see here. Many thanks to Stuart and Andrew for getting in touch. For the record bus 20 was an East Lancs Mylenium Loylne bodied Dennis Trident 2 built in 2005/6 but with the registration HMN 245J

Not exactly sure what happened there but ouch.

 Rumours that in an effort to improve their decker fleet Anglian Bus had enquired about the vehicle appear to be unfounded as the bus has already been cut up and returned to its base in three skips as pictured on Twitter by @iombusandrail. Love the LN in the background though.

Part of the remains of I.O.M. bus 20

The second incident happened in Northern Ireland, when a bus crashed through sea defences and splashed down rather spectcularly. It happened on the ironically named Portaferry Rd. Note to the thankfully not seriously hurt driver - buses can do ferry duties but are not actual ferries - portable or otherwise! For the full story click here.

Oh dear!

And finally in the neverending battle against seat vandalism a local company thinks it might have come up with the final solution.... Still not as hard as Anglian Scanias!

Vandal proof?

Have a good weekend everyone!