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Spending most of normal bus working hours either asleep on the X7/X9 between Bracknell and London or in the office out of sight of buses it was
a nice bonus to ride local Beeline service 171/2 on the evening of 19th January 1999 and find it worked by old friend F101GRM, the former Uxbridge Buses LX1,
who I had known well in her days on London Transport route 607 from Shepherd's Bush to Uxbridge. |
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Routes 171 & 172 form two complimentry halves of an evenings only circular town sevice between the Bus Station and Great Hollands.
The 171 goes via Crown Wood, Birch Hill and Great Hollands, while the 172 works via Wildridings, Great Hollands and Birch Hill.
Arriving at the Bus Station as a 171 a bus will change numbers to 172 and vice versa.
The service is usually worked by Beeline's roaring Northern Counties single deck bodied Scania beasts. |
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The Old Girl stormed into the Bus Station looking magnificent in Beeline's all over yelow with the jazzy blue and orange vinyl skirt
and carrying Beeline fleet number 800.
Having the 1 & 2 on the three track number blind half cocked to save changing numbers when reversing direction slightly spoiled the initial impression.
Once aboard the decline of this once great lady was painfully obvious.
The sagging seat frames made the whole bus seem to be folding along its centre line.
Some rather urgent driving implied that there was life in the engine which had never been alowed to show in the grinding trafic of Ealing and Acton. |
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Old Friends New Paint |
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The lady in question F101GRM. Photographed February 1999 |
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F102GRM was numbered at the end of the Lynx batch as 809. Photographed February 1999 |
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Another former 607 Express - LS470 was a CentreWest trainer before passing to Beeline. Photographed February 1999 |
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Uxbridge RW43 (HDZ5443) was not renumbered when transfered. Photographed February 1999 |
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Buslines G56XLO became Beeline 507 in all over advertising. Photographed March 1999 |
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Buslines G55XLO became Beeline 506 and stayed yellow. Photographed February 1999 |
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Sometimes when high floor coaches are not available Lynxes are put to work on the London Link.
I had thought F101GRM would be idealy suited with high backed seats etc. but drivers told me the bus was not even poular on local work !
Management took a different view, when 6 Scania ULF Wright Excelsior buses were delivered in May 1999 to replace Lynxes 800 was one of the two Leylands retained.
For details see the Bracknell fleet page |
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