More Favourites from 2014

By popular request, here are a few more favourite pictures from 2014

An impressive line up of of vehicles in South Yorkshire Transport livery at Sandtoft trolleybus museum

King Arthur Class 4-6-0 777 Sir Lamiel on the Great Central Railway

On Saturday, 13th. December, The Railway Touring Company's 'The Christmas White Rose', 1Z26, 0708 London Kings Cross to York, was in the hands of Gresley A4 Pacific 4464 Bittern, seen on the approach to Askham Tunnel. After a final main line run on 30th December Bittern will be withdrawn from the main line scene for major overhaul.

  
Following a stop in Babworth Down Loop Bittern continues north, seen just north of Botany Bay crossing having passed under the Great North Road.

 Ribble Vehicle Preservation Trust's running day at Morecambe on Sunday, 25th May 2014. Above 1948 Leyland Titan PD2 ex Lytham St Annes 10 at Carnforth station.

CK 4518 1931 Leyland Lion LT1

The 2014 summer season saw Go-Ahead owned Konectbus commence an interesting new open top venutre along the North Norfolk coast from Cromer via Sheringham and Cromer to the Muckleburgh Military Collection. For this the company acquired an existing Northern Counties bodied Volvo Olympian, made spare from the Isle of Wight based Southern Vectis sister company.

Nottingham City Transport made heavy investment in Alexander Dennis products during 2014. These came in the shape of single-deck Enviro200 and double-deck Enviro400 buses. One of the latter features a generic livery unlike most that were in a variety of liveries for the GO-2 network of services.

Sanders Coaches based in North Norfolk at Holt have been acquiring good second-hand buses from a number of sources over recent years. Included during 2014 was this all-Polish built Scania OmniCity former demonstrator that had previously been with Beestons. The bus is a regular visitor to the 44/44A/X44 group of routes that operate the corridor between Sheringham and Norwich via Cromer and Aylsham.

A further recipient of ADL products during 2014 was Arriva Midlands. A fine new fleet of Enviro400 double-decks were acquired in order to upgrade the 38 route in Derby to their high specification Sapphire type operation.

The New Bus for London (the New Routemaster or Borismaster as it has also been dubbed), became much more of a feature during 2014, with around 220 further examples of the type delivered to Transport for London. These were acquired for the full conversion to the type of routes 8, 10, 11, 38, 137, 148 and 453. Whilst most operated in the as required red livery, a significant number appeared in various all-over advertisements for a variety of concerns. One of the most outstanding was the blue livery applied to LT 192 seen here as it turned onto the Hyde Park Corner one-way system.

The re-styled Wrightbus Gemini 3 bodywork its first major appearance in London during 2104, when a batch of 32 were introduced by Stagecoach onto route 53. On a Volvo B5LH hybrid chassis fleet number 13014 turns from Northumberland Avenue into Great Scotland Yard to rest on stand before the next duty, in the fading light of an August evening.

Go North East opened their new Gateshead depot on 28th January 2014 and I was pleased to be invited to the opening ceremony. Here we see a view of the various vehicles on display showing some of the many of liveries that GNE have introduced.

A visit to Exeter in December allowed me to see the selection of Stagecoach vehicles in operation. Buses are the only vehicles allowed to use High Street during the day and this appears to be strictly enforced as we saw none of the other usual vehicles that creep into city centres such as taxis and delivery vehicles. Well done Exeter for getting to grips with this - other cities TAKE NOTE!

Two examples of the impressive Lothian fleet seen in Edinburgh in February 2014.
SN56 ACZ is a Volvo B9TL/Wright Eclipse Gemini H48/33F followed by VOLVO B7RLE Wright Eclipse 2 SN13BEO

 A line up of preserved vehicles parked outside the Museum of Transport in Manchester 

Bombardier Flexity Swift M5000 travelling through Manchester city centre in March 2014
These trams have replaced the original Ansaldo Firema T-68/T-68A trams that were introduced in 1992 and now have all been replaced. One of the reasons for introducing trams into city centres used to be that they have a much longer life than buses.

 An Ulsterbus Tours Irizar coach seen parked in the coach park at Grasmere in Cumbria.

During the summer months 'The Fellsman' steam special runs on Wednesdays to Carlisle via the Settle & Carlisle Railway. It makes a stop at Appleby to drop off passengers who have booked an excursion to Ullswater. Passengers are transported to Glenridding by Cumbria Classic vehicles where they board the steamer and are taken to Pooley Bridge where they re-board the CCC vehicles and travel back to Appleby in time to to catch the return Fellsman.
On the 2nd July 2014 LMS Jubilee class 45699 was the engine allocated to the Fellsman and here we see it arriving at Appleby.

Two vehicles owned by North East Preservationist David Slater, seen at the August NEBPT transport event at Seaburn. EUP 405B is an ex Northern Routemaster and NVK is an ex Newcastle Corporation AEC Regent. 

And finally a couple from Roger Kaye when he spent an afternoon alongside the railway lines at Newark on Trent during last year.

First up a line of GBRf 66 class diesel engines..................

........and then Great Western 4965 Rood Ashton Hall.