Oxford, High Wycombe & surrounding areas

updated Sunday 5th November 2000
The next update will be on Sunday 12th November 2000

Please note that any comments made in this news page are those of the Editors' and in no way constitute 
any official points of view from the bus companies mentioned,  or indeed any other official body. 
As a news page we reserve the right to make valid comments as seen from an editorial point of view.

Problems with the pictures ! - sometimes it seems that the pictures do not load.
I have found a solution which does work normally - 
RIGHT CLICK ON THE PICTURE AND THEN CLICK ON "SHOW PICTURE"
Good luck !

As something of a surprise , given recent weather, Saturday dawned fine and sunny and came as a welcome respite to the recent days of rain and wind. One problem at this time of year, is that the sun is so very low in the sky this makes photography difficult. So I regret that this week coverage of the local scene is somewhat sparse. One disappointment was the very poor outcome of an evening shot of one of the latest National Express coaches to visit Oxford. Last Saturday saw A9XEL, a Volvo/Plaxton Paragon of Excelsior Coaches, Bournemouth, operating the 739 from Edinburgh. Having set the shot up with the driver, I regret that he departed too quickly resulting in a blur. however it was noted that there were several faults on this brand new coach, including a rear view mirror cover which was missing. These large mirror seemingly cost around £1000 to replace and the back cover was already missing ! The drivers noted that the build quality was very poor, with several faults noted. 

Oxford is now becoming very busy on the lead up to Christmas and most services were running very full. The london services were also packed for both companies, though one wonders if the rail problems were adding to the load factors. 

The weather earlier in the week resulted in some "spectacular" running times on express services from Oxford. 8 hours to Gatwick and 5 hours to London were among the longest quoted. Indeed Oxford express had SEVEN coaches at Gatwick at one time. They were all lined up in the coach park and must have made a fine sight. Guildford and Aldershot saw the blue, yellow and white coaches of Oxford , trying to find ways home to avoid the flooded and closed M25. Stagecoach reported that they had major delays on the Tube, again with numerous coaches at the wrong end of the route and all together. 

Company reports - to 5th November 2000

Airlinks (Cambridge Coach Services)

I was just in time to catch that brown and cream coach once again operating the 757 to Cambridge from Oxford. This time my camera was to the ready and the result is seen below. 

Andy Gilmour writes to tell that me that he had one of his occasional visits to Oxford a week last Monday (23/10/00) and noted Stort Valley N444 TCC on the 1210 service 767 - again not up to the old CCS image !!

Volvo/Van Hool 753LNU departs Oxford on the 757 at 1310 on Saturday last.
The weather was fine and sunny, a change from the previous week.

Oxford Bus Company (City of Oxford Motor Services)

Another quiet week with Oxford Bus. The paint shop is host to Volvo B10B 637  which seemed almost ready for service. Withdrawn Darts fill G garage at Cowley Road and still await a buyer. I had fun taking the shot below which is actually two shots stitched together. The training fleet is seen surrounded by Darts !

The Olympians fill the other parts of the garage with only 214 still in service at Wycombe. 

An interesting find is two ex Bristol VRTs from Oxford now with Roselyn Coaches of Par in Cornwall. Trevor Hiles, whom I met a the Farnborough Air Show sent me the photo below, which shows the two (HUD495W & HUD501W) which were firstly with Devaway in Chester. Many thanks to Trevor for sending this shot.

Stagecoach Oxford.  

Another quiet week for this company but Trevor Hiles did advise me that a Merc (E301BWL) was now with Western Greyhound at Newquay.

I have also included a shot of Dennis Lance 901 departing from Gloucester Green bound for Chipping Norton. These buses (901-903) are normally confined to this route but occasionally stray onto the 7 or even the 1 on an odd occasion. 

Andy Gilmour noted that when using the X50 on Monday 23rd October, the two Stagecoach vehicles on the X50 Stratford service were 55 on the 1250 and 1650 departures with MAN single decker 938 in Blackbird Flyer livery on the 1050 and 1450 departures. He travelled up on 55 and back on 938 - no comparison !!!!!  (Drivers do tell me that is easier to keep time with a single deck bus Ed)

Tappins of Didcot.

A further updated from Steve Annells notes that the numbering of the fleet has produced further interest. His inpout is detailed below and we now need to get some photos to give face to event taking place in Didcot.

An update on the goings on at Tappins:
Metrobus E471SON now has a white roof (accident damage?)
B163FWJ now 163
C323-5UFP now 323-5, new reg ANZ1323,KUI5324,ANZ1325    (323 was reregistered in the last couple of days)
D73-5HRU now 73-5, new reg SIL5973-5
E260PEL now 260
G419YAY now 419, new reg GLZ1449
G504/10LWU now 504/10
G507LWU now 507 reg unknown
G508/11LWU now 508 reg TIL4508 and either TIL2511 or TIL4511
G512/3LWU now 512/3 reg SIL9512/3
Stve has seen 461XPB, 500EFC, 653GBU, 770EWL, B161FWJ, E471SON, F166XLJ,G417/8YAY, G505LWU, IIL1832, K301KDT, KBZ7145, L540XJU, N171-6/80LHU, P414/5HRB, YUE338 - all these no change (as yet)
There remains one vehicle with the front covered with a tarpaulin.
For the record there are three all-white vehicles - 461XPB, 500 EFC, both Plaxton Viewmasters, and the former Tesco National 770EWL.  
Also the Nostalgia Travel (http://www.nostalgiatravel.com/) Bedford OB visited Tappins this week

If anyone else can add to the above information both Steve and i would be most grateful.

Wycombe Bus Company

Nigel Peach writes to note it is good to see 229 back. One thing Nigel noticed about it is that the top cream band doesn't continue round the front of the bus like it used to. To him it doesn't look properly finished off  !!!

Just for the record, of the G reg batch of Alexander Olympians (230-235), all but 234 do not have a top white band at the front. For some reason 234does. However, the E reg ones that came last year all have the band (225-228). However, after appearing from recent repairwork,  227 (Travelwise ad)no longer has one!

Wycombe Olympians showing the paint differences noted by Nigel Peach plus dear old 214.

  PHOTO CORNER
If anyone has a digital camera and wishes to submit photos for this page please send them to the above email.

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