We're on Alloverlondonbusblog.blogspot.com: May 2012

Sunday, 27 May 2012

Can you guess? - By Lawrence

Before I write my next and final blog entry, what do you think is special about this picture below? Do you know where it was taken?

At first, I was puzzled myself!

I'll give you the answer with more later.......

Saturday, 26 May 2012

VPL200 - not the best place to have a Flat- By George

Metroline's VPL200 got caught out in Marble Arch today with a Flat Tyre whilst Working route: 113
Miles away from Edgware the Sovereign recovery truck was called to tug the bus back to home territory where it will be fixed.

Metroline's CELF Centre 26/5/2012 By George

A Very sunny day concluded our Visit to Metroline's CELF center making it a hit and miss opportunity to get some quality photos for the site.
The company have been taking on delivery of a batch of 10 10.25m Alexander Dennis E40Ds Bound for Cricklewood Garage in Spetember, Prior to that they will see service on Olympic Contracts. There are currently five out of ten of the batch due to be arriving in the coming week

Some Features of the E40Ds include:
They Weigh U.W 11655KGS,A Euro 5 Cummins ISB6.7EV 6 Cylinder Engine With 250 Horsepower,A ZF 6HP1230B 6 Speed Gear Box,

Alexander Dennis seem to have taken a mishap when coding the buses delivered to CELF as none of the Codes match with TE308 being coded 1309 and two E40Ds being Coded TE1310 and another being coded TE130 ( Which is a TAL I believe) although to be fair they are being pushed to deliver many buses at the moment as their is an extremely high demand for the E40D at the moment and I would not blame them for rushing the production as long as the defects are minimal.

Metroline's TE1307 LK12 AVD Blinded for the 139

Metroline LK12 AVJ Coded as TE130

Another Thing to note is the fact that "Not In Service" does Not appear on the blindreel I guess due to the extensive amount of Turns that appear on the blindset as they have routes that are due to move to Cricklewood soon on the reel such as the 232, so Double Deck workings could be something of the future reverting to times when was worked by the TAs in the Millenium.

Metroline TE1311 LK12 AVU

More Things from the Day

Metroline DE1332 LK12 AYG Blinded for the 46 but this bus will
see service on Olympic duties along with the batch of 5** DLDs
that have been refurbished especially with some Ex 266 TAs that come
in the 6** coding system

Metroline MM780 LK07 AYM Blinded for the 90 to Northolt

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Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Route N20 in the Morning By George

Route N20 Is Operated By Metroline from Both Potters Bar & Holloway, it runs between Barnet Church and Trafalgar Square, but towards the latter part of the night the route curtails to Euston, where services from Holloway are withdrawn and the route is left to continue until when the the last bus reaches Barnet at roughly 6:45am.
However,on a Sunday an extended service runs which means the last bus to reach Barnet Church gets there at roughly 9:45am, making it one of the longest serving night routes in London.
The Service Pretty Much covers the whole of the High Barnet branch of the Northern Line and parts of the Charing Cross Branch.
Now Me Being an Early Bird for some strange reason I left to catch the last remaining N20s as it is one of my local night routes and took some shots of the route
One fact to note: On the last stretch of the route it passed through the postcode N20 I presume this is why the route is named after the postcode please tell me if i am wrong

N20 Metroline (PB) TP447 LK03 GHG seen near North Finchley

N20 Metroline (PB) TP437 LK04 GGP seen near North Finchley

N20 Metroline (PB) TP431 LK03 GFZ seen at North Finchley

N20 Metroline (PB) TP442 LK03 GGZ seen near North Finchley

Sunday, 20 May 2012

VP549s Accident In Finchley By George

Whilst in Finchley earlier I witnessed Metroline's VP549 have an RTC, with a Mini Cooper S.
The bus was passing through the junction with Hendon Lane when The Mini swiftly moved in front of the bus causing the bus to plough through the front of the car, luckily nobody was hurt and there was slight damage to the front nearside of the bus and substantial damage to the car.

460 Metroline (AC) VP549 LK04 CVL seen near Finchley Central

Damage to the bus

Close up of the damage

What remains of the lights of VP549

Rear of VP549 seen near Finchley Central

As you are not meant to drive a bus with a defect the bus was taken out of service and remained at the scene whilst the driver tried to contact centrecomm and Wilesden (AC), as there are no places to turn around the bus the driver continued to North Finchley where he turned around and ran dead back to the garage.

VP549 on its way to North Finchley seen at Finchley Central

I guess that it will be off to CELF or just having the panels and lights replaced in house at AC

Thanks For Reading

A visit to Metroline's CELF Centre - By Lawrence

Yesterday, saw the trip to Metroline's CELF Centre.

As many of you know, Metroline have their own engineering centre which is called the CELF centre situated in Perivale. The word 'CELF' stands for Central Engineering & Logistics Facility.

Our main focus for today was to check out the brand new Enviro400's destined for Cricklewood Garage. (Pictured Below)

LK12 AVD - TE1307 at Metroline's CELF

We also saw the new E20D/E200's (DE's) that we shall see entering service on Olympic Shuttle routes before they begin their new life on route 46 from September 2012.

I personally like the vehicles and hope they'll bring and new era of Enviro200's to Metroline!

These buses are not yet equipped with iBus and have not had their logos applied.

Metroline: DE1327 - LK12 AXS - Interior Rear

Metroline: DE1327 - LK12 AXS - Interior Front

I hope you enjoyed the post! Here are more photos of CELF. Enjoy!

Thanks for Reading

Feel free to Comment & Rate!

Saturday, 19 May 2012

Route 266 is now First By George

266 First Centrwest (AS) VN37976 BN61 MYA seen near Brent Cross

Today saw First London gain route 266 from Metroline as of this morning, they are using both 61 (Buses formerly used on the 23) & and a few 12 reg Wright Gemini 2 Bodied, Volvo B9TLs, from Atlas Road Garage (AS) to operate the route.

The route history can be found on an earlier post found here

As there is little to say on this post due to the fact that i have covered in in the previous post mentioned so just enjoy pictures of what to expect from the 266 from now on.

266 First Centrwest (AS) VN37983 BG61 SXP seen at Hammersmith Lower Bus Station

266 First Centrwest (AS) VN37981 BG61 SXN seen near Brent Cross

Thursday, 17 May 2012

Route 266: Another Glance at the VN's - By Lawrence

Today VNs bound for route 266 on Saturday, have been on type training duties throughout the week, and whilst on the bus going home, I spotted this, parked in the middle of the bus stand!

First London: SN61 SXM at Cricklewood Broadway

These buses have been on route 23 to cover for the TNAs which are undergoing refurbishment for Olympic Shuttle Contracts. The 23 is due a batch of E40Hs from Westbourne Park Garage (X) and are currently being introduced allowing these buses to move to Atlas Road (AS) where the 266 will be based as of Saturday!

Thanks for Reading

Feel free to Comment & Rate!

DMV's on 226? - By Lawrence

As you may be aware, on Saturday 28th April, route 206 recieved new DMV's as a change of operator to First London. These are new buses, which are operated from Willesden Junction Garage (WJ) and are meant to be used on route 206 only.

Alexander Dennis E20D - YX12 AFU - DMV44304

Alexander Dennis E20D - YX12 APK - DMV44312

However, in the rarest of circumstances, these DMV's are allowed to operate in service on route 226, which I was lucky enough to see!

The first time I saw them on 226, I wasn't lucky enough to get a photo of them actually blinded!