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Some sort of major disruption on the Cross City line this morning (02/01/15). Signalling problems at New Street; I don't know anything more than that. 

NXWM accepting rail tickets on a whole raft of routes, and not just the Sutton corridor.  The message I overheard on the radio of my Sutton-bound 71 included 11A and 11C as well .....

About 40 folk waiting to board the City-bound 904 I was on at the Yenton.  They'd been advised to vacate their 323 at Chester Road, being told there would be at least a 30 minute delay, and the bus would be quicker.  More than a few had little idea where the bus was going to terminate in the City centre ....  ;D

PB - 904 - 4259 - blast from the past!  8)

Optare Versa YJ57XVY out on the 75 this morning.

Variety on the 115/914 for a change .... 4856 and 4697 this morning.

Think the place you mean is at the bottom of Bromley St in Lye, opposite a scrap yard.

That's it - the location I had in mind, Stu.  Looking at it on Streetview (Oct. 2010 pics) there's two buses in that yard. The blue livery one is the one I recall seeing from the train.  The white livery one, if you look at it through the yard entrance, seems to have a 4 or 5 figure fleet-number, and when viewed from the bridge looking back down on it, it has side advertising?  Speculation: is it an ex-First Bus vehicle?  Can anyone tell from the livery?  :D

Did your friend see these buses while on the train?

This may or may not be relevant, but there is a scrapyard somewhere in that Lye area next to the railway line (the railway is in a cutting at that point) where - certainly last year (2013) - I recall seeing a derelict bus up against the boundary (doubt it was a 58 reg, though!).  And I don't think it was there the last time I travelled that line a couple of months or so back ....

202 noted parked up at the bottom of South Parade, Sutton Coldfield this morning.  I don't think I've ever seen a Green Bus up in Sutton town centre before ....  :)

There were at least 30 of us waiting in the cold at Water orton too..although being some 24 minutes up at worcester I believe, both the convoy and the preceeding wolves-Immingham steels were held at ryecroft for at least 10 mins..The convoy passed water orton @ 15.44pm..far too late for any decent photo's this time >:(     Earlier 68004+66515 had passed with mixed ballast pres on Crewe-Toton

Shame you didn't get your photos, WM.  :-[

FWIW, at around 15:15, one of the usual (Lickey banker) suspects, running light engine, went south in front of the 66 convoy.  66058 was travelling very slowly, looked like 20-30 mph stuff through the cutting towards Bishop's Walsh School - I assumed it was heading for Saltley.  I don't know if anything was immediately preceding it.  Looks like a fair bit of congestion on the line just at the crucial time?

Well, there was only me in East View Road, LOL!  :D

And I was lucky - 66554 went north with Freightliner coal hoppers about 1 minutes before the 66 convoy came south; they could just as easily have crossed in front of me ....

Thanks for the heads-up on the headboard, Tony. 

Running as 054V Newport Docks to Doncaster Depot, I saw this travelling south down the Sutton Park Lane at 15:25, more or less on time.

66706 "Nene Valley" (+ headboard I couldn't read in the gloom!) hauling 66769/68/72/71/70/67/66.

2640 in Bromsgrove on a 318 around 11.45 this morning.  8)

..... and also seen in Hagley around 5.00 this evening!   8)

Another newcomer to the 167/68 stable today - 124 (AXC).

29 noted out on test in West Bromwich today, seats still covered in plastic and CAF stickers in the window.

New trams seen in service were 18, 22/24/25.

4950 was being towed by Mansfields past WB bus station about midday today, heading towards the garage.  Looked like it had been rear-ended, but not seriously so.

Money or patronage is no issue here as it's just for fun, so have at it :)

Pure fantasy this day and age, but I'd love to see a 1986 Devon General style minibus network on the streets of Erdington and Sutton Coldfield.  The Queen Street / High Street junction in the centre of  Exeter used to be a bus-spotter's paradise; wall-to-wall minibuses in every direction .....  :D