All Over London Bus Blog: 25 Best Odd Workings of 2013 So Far

As you many remember when I first joined this blog my First official post was a countdown of my 25 favorite images taken by me and was quite a popular post.

Now I am back again bringing to you the 25 Best Odd workings of this half of 2013. Images are taken by Various blog members and to kick it of we have Route 484.

25th Place:

Route 484 was taken over by Abellio in March 2011, this June the First Plaxton Pointers in two years have worked this route under Abellio London operation, 8301-8310, 8318 have only ever worked Route 100 since Route C1 went to London United, recently whole batch have recieved new blinds.

In the photo above you can clearly see the new TFL spec White Text blinds. Abellio have recently updated blindsets at Beddington Garage as well.

Plaxton pointers were previously allocated to this route from 2001-2011 when Go Ahead London operated the Route only difference between this version and Go Ahead version is that 8303 and the rest of the batch have rear doors! Appearances of these may now increase so look out for them!

24th Place:

Route 162 has had quite a history of operator changes. The route began in 1994 and was operated by Kentish Bus from their former Base in Deptford it was later reallocated to Dunton Green. In 1997 the 162 was awarded to Stagecoach who operated from Bromley Garage for 9 years, so far Stagecoach have operated the 162 for the longest period of time, which was 9 years. In 2006 the route passed on to Arriva Kent Thameside who operated it from Dartford both Stagecoach and Arriva allocated Plaxton Pointers to the route. In March 2011 the 162 was awarded to Metrobus and operated from Orpington.

In the photo above we have a Plaxton Pointer this particular bus is allocated to Routes R5, R7 & R10 along with 272 & 273. The 162 was allocated Plaxton Pointers with both Stagecoach & Arriva, but with Metrobus Enviro 200's, but today the odd Pointer dart does appear, but it is very rare and would normally appear as running MB 108 the AM/PM Peak bus on this Route, but most of the time the same bus that does the AM peak does the PM Peak, but at times vehicles are subbed inside the garage. It is more likely to appear in the PM peak as sometimes vehicles get subbed inside Orpington whilst out of service in the depot.

23rd Place:

Here we have the long awaited DW on Route 78. When I uploaded this to a group on Facebook it got about 18 Likes and I was wondering why, but the fact that this was the First ever occurrence was probably why! The reason I stated long awaited is because the 78 was actually meant to gain 18 DW's which were DW401-418, but instead they were diverted to Route 38 and the 78 got existing 59 Plate Enviro 400s from the 38 (T66-T82).

This is Ash Groves DW527 in Peckham Hill Street outside Peckham Library and was taken a few days before the 106 was taken over by Arriva the DWs were used on Routes 78 & 254, but the 168 however a DW served the 168 a few weeks later.

22nd Place:

The X68 is normally operated with 06 Plate WVLs. Here we have a WVL from Route 12, these actually appear on the X68 on a regular basis. At the time I photographed this I was just leaving Waterloo Station and was the First Scheduled PM Journey on the X68, which is quite unusual as it is normally a 06 Plate WVL.

21st Place:

In October 2012 the 42 transferred back to Mandela Way Garage. Since then vehicles have been constantly on loan from Q to MW as some of the allocated ELS vehicles have teething problems. So the appearance of a LDP or an SE may appear from time to time, but a LDP is most likely. Double deckers used to appear on this route, but this has been discontinued due to Low Trees. Full Sized Single deckers would be ideal for this route.

The bus in the photo below is allocated to Route P5. These were the last batch painted in the Grey Skirting Livery. The next batch of Vehicles SE94-152 ordered for Routes 276, 376, D6 & D8 are completely Red.

20th Place:

There are quite a few single decker Routes around London using smaller vehicles when they can actually take standard 10.2m Vehicles and the P5 is one of them! In the Previous photo in 21st Place is a 9.3m bus which is allocated to Route P5, but here you can clearly see a 10.2m Bus from Route 355! Appearances of LDPs on the P5 are quite rare now days, since it was upgraded from Y Reg LDPs in 2011.

19th Place:

In the Photo above we have one of the vehicles acquired from East Thames Buses in 2009. This vehicle is allocated to Route 1 and since the 453 was converted to Double Decker appearances of these vehicles have been very rare. Towards the end of April and Early May, the company have been working on their vehciles updating some features so appearances of these on the 453 were common whilst the work was being done to the vehicles.

This vehicles was originally ordered for Route 180 by East Thames Buses in 2009 Go Ahead swapped the allocation and transferred these to Route 1.

18th Place:

Route 257 was awarded to Blue Triangle on tender late December 2011 as was originally meant to be operated from Rainham Garage. In March 2012 First London sold Northumberland Park Garage to Go Ahead and at the last minute the 257 was diverted to operate from Northumberland Park Garage, where it was previously operated several years before is was taken over by Stagecoach in 2005.

Here in the photo we have a EX First London Vehicle on the 257, older PVN8 from the 67 has also worked the Route under Go Ahead London operation. The bus in the photo is one of the batch from the 357.

17th Place:

Since 1996 Route 233 has only been operated from two garages and they are Dartford & Orpington. 1996 - 1998 the 233 was based at Datford Garage under Kentish Bus operation which was re-branded into Arriva in 1997. In 1998 Route 233 was awarded to Metrobus who operated the Route for 10 years. In 2008 the route went back to Arriva who operated it with Enviro 200s and finally in 2013 the route went back to Metrobus and is also with Enviro 200s.

The photo above shows a vehicle which also worked the 233 in the past, during that time the 233 was allocated Y***HKE Plaxton Pointers.

16th Place:

Since the introduction of Enviro 400s at New Cross Garage (NX) in 2012 for Route 36 appearances of E400s have been quite rare on the 21. Enviro 400s have been at NX since 2008, but have been kept on the 36 those are E94-E99 these have only strayed onto other Routes a few times. Since the introduction of E246-275 these have been appearing mainly on the 36, 129, 171 321, 436, but the 21 is quite rare.

15th Place:

The vehicle we have here is one of the Batch for Route 257, as you can see this WVL along with the rest of the batch (WVL189-205) are now working on Routes North of the River, instead of South of the River. This bus was previously allocated to Route 22 at Putney Garage, the remaining 4, (WVL206-210) were transferred to Merton after they were used as Refurb floats at NP to complete the refurbishments of the WVL. WVL211 the remaining bus from the 22 remains at Putney Garage.

Route 259 was involved in the transfer of Northumberland Park (NP) from First to Go Ahead. I found it a little unusual to see a Go Ahead Spec vehicle on this Route! These rarely stray onto other Routes and their blinds have only a select few Routes at the garage which are Routes 19 (Stockwell), 20, 191, 257, 259, 476, 616, 692 & 699 only.

14th Place:

Route 126 was operated from Dartford Garage from 1996-2013, by Kentish Bus which was re-branded into Arriva Kent Thameside. In March 2013 the route passed to Metrobus and is operated with Enviro 200s along with Route 284.

It did not take long for the First Metrobus Scania to serve the Route, but I thought I would be sooner! In the photo above is a Scania Omnitown, this vehicle is allocated to Route 181, a batch of these vehicles were previously allocated to Route 284 my local bus route!

13th Place:

Route 6 - Willesden - 03/03/13 - © Lawrence Abel

Route 52 operated from Willesden Garage (AC) was converted to VW & VWH Class vehicles Early February to mid March. Since then quite a few of these have been appearing on other routes in the Garage, normally AC like to keep everything on their allocated routes, but the one of the reasons this was done is because the garage had a few vehicle shortages around April & May.

This was the First Gemini 2 on Route 6, but I have read comments about this being a route test for future references.

12th Place:

Route 142 - Brent Cross - 08/04/13 - © Lawrence Abel

Here we Single Decker on a double decker route. The 142 is know to be a busy service as you can see the bus is quite full up! It was probably sent out by the Garage had no available Double decker, better to have a bus than no bus at all though otherwise people have to wait even longer!

The vehicle in the above Picture is a former Arriva London Vehicle DDL15 which was based at Thornton Heath Garage and allocated to Routes 255 & 289, these will probably soon get withdrawn as Routes H18 & H19 will be getting the displaced Enviro 200s from Route 491.

11th Place:

Here we have one of the batch from Route 19, most of this batch have now received new blinds now which are White Text Blinds along with the 249 batch which moved to Stockwell (SW) at the beginning of June. SW are quite good at keeping their allocations in place, these vehicles rarely stray onto other routes apart from the 88 & 337. It came quite a surprise to me to see this whilst walking down this road in Brixton to see this approach.

10th Place:

Since this photograph was taken First London have sold on their operations to Comfort Del-Gro (Metroline) & Transit Systems of Australia (Tower Transit) and the Go Ahead Group (Go Ahead London), First London now only operate Routes 165, 179, 252 & 365 which will pass to Stagecoach in September and 179 in October, this is when First will finally depart from TFL work.

Route 95 is now operated by Metroline and this is now TP1507. Appearances of Double deckers on this route are quite rare, but as you can see passengers on the upper deck are making some use out of the extra capacity!

9th Place:

As above since this photograph was taken First London have sold on their operations. Route 28 is now operated by Tower Transit a new operator in the TFL network. In the photo we have a Volvo Gemini 2 from Route 266 on the 28, appearances of these on other Route at Atlas Road (AS) is quite rare and is a great shot here indeed.

8th Place:

Very soon all of the DLAs at Tottenham Garage (AR) will be withdrawn. The garage have been receiving many displaced DWs from Route 29 as the route will be getting a full allocation of HVs. I the photo above we have quite rare visitor on the 149, normally these get quickly subbed for a newer vehicle, but this one managed to stay out all day.

7th Place:

The W10 is allocated the only Marshall at Northumberland Park Garage, it is the only Route the Marshall ever does. Here we have a SEN5, former First London DMS44425. The appearances of SENs on the W10 is very rare.

6th Place:

Here we have a very rare appearance of Streetlite from Route 462 on the W19. Since this photo was taken 23 more of these have entered service on other routes at Merton & Northumberland Park Garages. So far this is the only stray of any Go Ahead London Streetlite.

5th Place:

During April & May the whole lot appeared on this Route, it seems the two allocated Solos were out of action for a while. Plaxton Pointers, Esteems, Enviro 200s and this only remaining Marshall at Orpington Garage. There are only 2 Marshalls left in the Metrobus fleet and are likely to be withdrawn in December when Routes R5, R7 & R10 pass onto Stagecoach.

4th Place:

Since Route 126 passed to Metrobus in March only two of these Darts have remained at Dartford (DT). This working here is a single decker on a double decker route and was quickly subbed for a double decker in Dartford on the return journey to Bluewater. Single deckers used to appear on this route a lot in the past until the 160 was upgraded to Enviro 400s as the former DAF ALX 400s buses were quite unreliable so both routes saw common appearances of single deckers.

3rd Place:

Here we have the smallest possible vehicle you will ever find on the 268, this is an Optare Solo and is what is allocated to Routes 631, H2, H3 (also Route R8 above). As you can see here the amount of capacity that has been reduced, the normal allocation is 10.2m Cadets which Rear doors. These vehicles rarely appear on this route.

2nd Place:

Route 12 starts the day with mainly the Gemini 2 vehicles in service, in the PM peaks you do get some variety mainly 06 Plate WVLs from the 68 group and Enviro 400s from the 345. Now what you will rarely come across is a PVL. You will not get a VP from the 185 as they are not blinded.

1st Place:

Whilst operated from Battersea Garage the 35 was only ever served by Enviro 400s. In 2012 the route was transferred to Walworth Garage and from then onwards Geminis began to make odd appearances on the Route.

The bus is the photo above is probably the rarest vehicle type to ever do the 35 under Abellio London operation and the question is will it happen again as very few of these remain at Walworth WL, the batch for the 172 do not have 35 on the blinds, but the remaining on the 381 some of them actually do.

Thanks for Reading!

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25 Best Odd Workings of 2013 So Far

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