Himley Spectacular Saturday 09/11/13 bus services

[nitromatt1]

Vast majority of 126's became B7 operated at around 5-6 ish and there were a couple of PE Enviro's out as well, a few buses were driven by inspectors in white shirts and what looked like engineers in orange coats, to cover and for the overtime I presume

I saw mostly Tridents on the 126 at 8-9pm, only one B7

[4006]

Vast majority of 126's became B7 operated at around 5-6 ish and there were a couple of PE Enviro's out as well, a few buses were driven by inspectors in white shirts and what looked like engineers in orange coats, to cover and for the overtime I presume

I saw mostly Tridents on the 126 at 8-9pm, only one B7

I saw at least 2 B7RLE on the 126 today probably allowing 126 branded 4575/9 to be used on the Himley Bonfire Duties
To add to another post they would be stupid to let a brand new hybrids loose on the Bonfire run, I'm surprised some of the refurbed Tridents were allocated considering the state some of them came back in!! :-\

[domino.99]

well i got the 252 and it was all tridents on there and there gonna need a good long clean today cause they are as muddy as a rugby players arms

[Trident 4609]

4544 was on the 11 still at 4:10
4562 came off a 59 about 4:10
4565 came off a 126
4589 came off the 2 (Was seen about 4 still in service going towards Warstones)
4605 obviously came off a 529 (Saw it earlier on yesterday)

[Trident 4609]

Well there were some odd workings in Wolverhampton before the services started with

2004/4004/4019 on the 256/7
4021 on the 255
2018 and 2028 on the 126
2027 on the 59 (Allocated from start of service which is quite unusual as single deckers are usually on the 59 to replace a broken down Spectra)

And 4589 on the 2 and 2015 on the 26/62!

[mranon]

there were a few tridents on weird workings yesterday, several on 3/4 at least 2 on number 2service.

[nitromatt1]

4544 was on the 11 still at 4:10
4562 came off a 59 about 4:10
4565 came off a 126
4589 came off the 2 (Was seen about 4 still in service going towards Warstones)
4605 obviously came off a 529 (Saw it earlier on yesterday)

4575 was on the 126 earlier as well

[nitromatt1]

The service was a shambles though, in all honesty. The 251 was running more like hourly, with crowds left behind in Halesowen. Buses were all over the place, inventing their own lines of route. Noticed the distinctive PL inspector seemed to be controlling proceedings.

The 251 I caught (4605) did the following...

141's route from Halesowen to Cradley Heath (except missed out Old Hill high street using Heathfield Way, and missed out Cradley Heath high street using Foxoak Street), then continued straight along the A4100 passing Merry Hill, then joined the 246 route following Brettell Lane to Amblecote, then turned right onto 256 route, then straight up the A491 to Himley.

[4006]

The service was a shambles though, in all honesty. The 251 was running more like hourly, with crowds left behind in Halesowen. Buses were all over the place, inventing their own lines of route. Noticed the distinctive PL inspector seemed to be controlling proceedings.

The 251 I caught (4605) did the following...

141's route from Halesowen to Cradley Heath (except missed out Old Hill high street using Heathfield Way, and missed out Cradley Heath high street using Foxoak Street), then continued straight along the A4100 passing Merry Hill, then joined the 246 route following Brettell Lane to Amblecote, then turned right onto 256 route, then straight up the A491 to Himley.

It would seam the driver made a genuine mistake on the route then! the drivers get no training on this have to drive through a town/area they are unfamiliar with and are given a dodgy map with not much detail on it to go on, added to this a completely ridiculous unpractical schedule plus the driver may have been told to go a different way by an inspector depending on the situation so its hardly suprising things 'didn't go to plan' also are we forgetting the 30minute que to get into Himley? also one bus allocated 251 had defective lights so didn't run a full shift also meaning the 251 service was a bus down for part of the service.
I will go on also the minute the words 'free bus' are uttered the whole of the midlands wants to jump on it. There is only limited resources to do this and I think despite the problems is still a credit that they did what they did
I will also add that if it wasn't for all the inconsiderite idiots parking cars dumping them anywhere and dumb pedestrians walking in the middle of the road without 2 ***** maybe the traffic wouldn't have been so bad making things run better but whenever you are going to get a vast number of people going to the same place at the same time obviously it will be a nightmare

[richie]

Noted on the Himley services tonight

4115
4201
4248
4525
4539
4540
4542
4544
4556
4562
4563
4565
4575
4578
4586
4589
4596
4605
4705
4706
4707

So 14 WN Tridents (including 126 branded 4575 and 529 branded 4605), 4 WB Geminis (including Dudley Road branded 4705/6/7), 1 WB ALX400 (Soho Road branded 4248), 1 WB President and 1 PN Trident

PN provided 3 vehicles don't know what their fleet numbers were though

[Westy]

Were there any other bonfires on in the Dudley area last night?

It seems to me, the only pulling points for Himley were 'Free Buses' & a local radio station(Free I presume).

Lets face it, one Catherine Wheel is the same as any other, whatever the location.

How much was it to get into Himley anyway?

Over in Walsall, the three main bonfires over the past few weeks(Bloxwich, Brownhills & Willenhall) were £4 each.

I went to the Bloxwich one a couple of years back. Ok £4 might seem a bit steep, but at least there wasn't any traffic problems.

Didn't Walsall used to do theirs in the Arboruteum at one point?

Wasn't that on a similar scale to Himley?

[Driver03]

Noted on the Himley services tonight

4115
4201
4248
4525
4539
4540
4542
4544
4556
4562
4563
4565
4575
4578
4586
4589
4596
4605
4705
4706
4707

So 14 WN Tridents (including 126 branded 4575 and 529 branded 4605), 4 WB Geminis (including Dudley Road branded 4705/6/7), 1 WB ALX400 (Soho Road branded 4248), 1 WB President and 1 PN Trident

PN provided 3 vehicles don't know what their fleet numbers were though

I saw 4200 and 4201 so there's 2 of them, the other was an E400 but didn't catch that fleet num.

[nitromatt1]

Were there any other bonfires on in the Dudley area last night?

It seems to me, the only pulling points for Himley were 'Free Buses' & a local radio station(Free I presume).

Lets face it, one Catherine Wheel is the same as any other, whatever the location.

How much was it to get into Himley anyway?

Over in Walsall, the three main bonfires over the past few weeks(Bloxwich, Brownhills & Willenhall) were £4 each.

I went to the Bloxwich one a couple of years back. Ok £4 might seem a bit steep, but at least there wasn't any traffic problems.

Didn't Walsall used to do theirs in the Arboruteum at one point?

Wasn't that on a similar scale to Himley?

Himley had basically been turned into a small Alton Towers for the night, I didn't go in but it looked absolutely amazing from the outside

[domino.99]

it was to be honest i went and the only let down was the rip off for food and rides and ENTRY and the crappy live bands they had on

[Westy]

Aaah a bit like the one Beacon Radio Show I went to the once, quite a few years ago.