Sorry, totally forgot about the 5 x 63 plates they kept, which eventually went to Halifax after the ex York Streetdecks arrived. I was thinking of the 58 plate examples that came up and weren't really operated, ending up at Taunton.
It's not a rumour its happening 3 are coming over to Olive Grove this afternoon.
Funnily enough, I though you were referring to the 63 plates and never considered the older ones that headed back to Somerset. I remember the 18/101 were interworked at some point but slept since then so don't know about current arrangements
I've travelled on the 101 with them on , before they moved away
The other 4 ex York Streetdecks have gone to Olive Grove.
Because first are replacing all local branding.
But there are other buses still with the old livery and leather , which could be done first
I can see why but also with the orange mainline buses in particular, they were only refurbished a few years ago.
I don't think there is much of an order to how they are being painted except for the ex Bristol streetdecks and eventually I would imagine the full fleet will be in the new livery.
Perhaps the logic is this...
Spot on with this I think. Certainly evidenced with 3 ex-Leicester long term VOR streetlites 63349/59/61. Does anyone know what parts these are waiting for? 2 of them haven't been in service for 9 months, with the other not far behind that.
One of the Ex Streetlites repainted has new upholstery (moquette)
There was an unbranded badger line unit running around last week though it has disappeared this week with a blue and grey unbranded unit taking its place. Possibly gone for repaint?
And this is why the city has always had low height double deckers....apart from the odd purchase by Beresfords back in the day and a couple of those have gone under glebe street bridgeI didn't see it physically, but looking at the tracking map it appears that one if the high bridge Steetdecks - 35689 - was incorrectly allocated to a 36A yesterday evening. This route goes under the railway bridge in Longton which is too low to accommodate these buses. Looks like the driver had to do a U-turn at the bridge, which can't have been easy.
This is why the company prohibited any double decker from going near Longton when they had both the E400s (which didn't fit) and the Streetdecks (which did fit). That's 2 visually very different vehicle types. Having 2 different heights of otherwise practically identical vehicles is just asking for this to happenI didn't see it physically, but looking at the tracking map it appears that one if the high bridge Steetdecks - 35689 - was incorrectly allocated to a 36A yesterday evening. This route goes under the railway bridge in Longton which is too low to accommodate these buses. Looks like the driver had to do a U-turn at the bridge, which can't have been easy.
This is a good point I'd not thought about when I initially expressed my surprise that we'd be getting 7x full height Streetdecks to replace the ex York low height examples. What compounds the problem is that there are some running boards on the 25 (biggest user of these full height examples) that interwork with services that go under this bridge in Longton. Therefore I can see it happening again.
www.flickr.com
Certainly seem to be cracking on with the Streetlites now. A could of others seem to have been done since I last checked on bus times.Streetlite 63250 SN15ABF is the latest Potteries native to receive the new Ultraviolet livery. Saw it emerging from the paint shop earlier today
63250 SN15ABF
First Potteries Wright Streetlite. Seen popping out of the Potteries paintshop in freshly applied Ultraviolet livery, 24.7.25
Be interested if its been reupholstered like a few others have
They certainly are, with a significant number of the fuchsia fronted ones taken care of. Which makes sense as they've been in this from new, nearly 10 years ago. However, it seems one of the last two refurbished at Thorntons less than 3 years ago - 63178 - has also been repainted (accordingto bustimes.org, I've it yet seen it myself). Shame these mainline ones are also getting done ahead of the 2015/6 buses that haven't been repainted/refurbished since new. But I guess First are simply on a mission to eradicate all old liveries, irrespective of the length of time since last refurb.
Thank you.
