Recent content by mbonwick

Presumably transferred in to cover the PVR increase now that Stagecoach have taken on the BAE internal shuttle from Travellers Choice, that seems to be using 1/2 Solos.

Depends if the contract service that the MMCs were moved to Barrow for makes it out of the trial stage and becomes permanent!

A bit of a shame if it is 26001, although few will miss its demise, it would surely have been an obvious preservation candidate some years down the line? First full-length E200MMC for Stagecoach, carrying on where the massive family of E300s finished...

Mechanical shears and gas-axe down to a manageable size. Shred it all (nothing on a train is heavy enough section to bother leaving). Magnetic drum separator to pull out anything ferrous (steel). Eddy current separators to separate everything non-ferrous (copper, aluminium, plastic). Hard...

Far from confirmed, but you'd certainly expect when the time comes to concentate all the remaining MAN engines at one depot/region. Although really, the suprise is that a greater effort hasn't been made to remove the remaining MANs and Volvos from East Midlands

27631/2 must have (over the course of several moves through their lives) done the widest amount of travelling - including the length of the Stagecoach UK empire?! New to Highlands, a spell in London for the Olympics/Paralympics in 2012 and now, via North East, finishing up with South West...

Not surprised they were deemed better than the Solo SRs - from memory all the Kings Lynn ones were 9.9m or longer! Comparison to a standard 9m Solo would have been fairer, but using the ex-London mini-E200s was a very sensible move at the time.

It surprised me when Bedford got the ex-London mini-E200s; why not just get Solos like the rest of the group? I'm assuming there must be some specific conditions to justify both that and an almost unheard of (in recent times) secondhand purchase. The last not-new vehicles I can recall being...

In an unsual move for Stagecoach, 8.9m E200s YX17NJO, SN16OGP, YY67USP (all latterly with Aintree Coachline), YY66PDX/PEO/PFA/PFO, YX65RHF, YY15XMJ, YY66PFU (all latterly with Warrington) have been aquired from Ensign. Fleet numbers 37280-9.

Been reported that it's not a sinkhole, but one of the investigatory boreholes from the previous incident that hasn't been filled/capped. Not sure if that's better or worse depending how you look at it!

Toilets are an option, but not fitted to the Stagecoach examples. Believe these seat 46, not exactly a great capacity for the length given that 49+toilet has been the standard for years...

10685 is a typo for 10865. Yes, major reductions - the Magicbus services have been dropped to a PVR of about 3(?) with the Uni finishing for Christmas. Using the time wisely to get as many vehicles out as possible to minimise the chaos on 5th January! For completeness, should also be listed...

Unlikely it will get paint, as one of the early Euro3 E400s it's firmly in the disposal list for when everything comes out of Manchester in 3 weeks time.

That's likely a genuine transfer, as 48172-4 have gone into service at Stroud. Whatever they're for, East Midlands seem to have a need for minibuses, as they've also taken some ex-London 8.9/9.4m E200s in the past few weeks.

The original plan was for 6; 48195-200, with 201 at Morecambe.