THE M & D AND EAST KENT BUS CLUB
Essex
Marshes 26th April 2003
Tour report by Roger Goodrum
(first published in Invicta 611 June '03)
Arriva
Volvo Olympian 5933 was our transport on the first tour of 2003, ably driven by
Richard Lewis and complete with blind for 707 Romford, our ultimate destination.
We left Kent with a record number of participants for a modern club trip,
our first stop being Lakeside Shopping Centre at Thurrock in Essex to drop off
some of the ladies for a day's shopping and to hand out high visibility jackets
to everyone for use in the bus depots as this is now a safety requirement in
most places.
In service here were vehicles of Arriva, J.W.S. and First Essex on the 100 route to Basildon. Also seen were two coaches of Stephenson's of Rochford on the Southend to London express service, both ex Skill's of Nottingham.
Our first stop was at Ensign's main workshops where a varied selection of vehicles was in evidence including many of the sightseeing buses used in London. Of interest was a batch of ex Dublin Bus Olympians, two of which have been sold to Nu-Venture and were seen newly painted in that firm’s livery.
On then to the yard of Blue Triangle at Rainham, oddly situated between vast piles of containers and a timber yard. A selection of their buses was mainly ex London Metrobuses with by contrast two newly delivered Transbus Presidents and older RCL2260 along with Titan T2. The latter two buses were put at our disposal to tour the rest of the yard, which is spread out over a large area. Many vehicles were stored here including ex Red Arrow Leyland Nationals, at least four more Routemasters and 3 RTs, of which RT191 was posed for photos and put at our disposal for rides.
We continued to the Imperial Buses yard where amongst the many immaculate Metrobuses of this fleet were RT786 and RT2233 being restored. Ensign's storage yard at Frog Island near the River Thames had about 90 buses and coaches to see including another batch of ex Dublin bus vehicles, some Bristol VR of NIBS and Arriva the Shires, and of interest to us ex M&D Leopard 3416 (UKE 416H). It would be nice to see that restored.
Back then to our Arriva transport (no doubt to the relief of Richard Lewis, who whilst driving T2 earlier had been heard to remark “where's the power steering?”) and RCL2260 to Dagenham East station where a rail bus service was in operation, run by Red Route, Ensign, Blue TriangIe, and Redbridge Council using their recently acquired ex Isle of Wight Olympians.
Our
final call was at Romford to view local operations of First Essex, Stagecoach,
Ensign and Thamesbus, with all these companies now running new vehicles of many
types. On the way back to Lakeside
a brief stop was made at the Town and Country Depot at Grays where only three
Olympians were present, one ex West Midlands, a Metrobus, and Leopard GBO 246W.
After picking up the ladies at Lakeside it was back to Kent after a very
successful day in Essex. It only
remains to thank all the operators who allowed us access to their yards, Richard
Lewis for driving, John Grubb who played a highly visible role in packing the
vests away and of course David Cobb without whom none of this would have been
possible.