News from Oxford
High Wycombe & the surrounding areas

update Sunday 21st November 1999 by Malcolm Crowe

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.

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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 !

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The weather has been very mixed this last week and the latter part of the week was marked by some very cold weather indeed. A warm and modern coach was therefore most welcome and my duties this week on Citylink were the more enjoyable as I had warm steeds. X90 services on Thursday evening were somewhat disrupted due to the closure of Oxford Street, as the Christmas lights were turned on. Oxford Bus were on the ball as their London based Inspector ensured that all returning Oxford bound passengers were picked up in spite of the closures. It takes 15 coaches to maintain the weekday service and 59 was once again part of the fleet on duty. 52 returned to service and the answer to what is to happen concerning 63, which sports a VCS advertising livery has also been answered. Coach nr 50 is in works and will emerged with a VCS livery in place of its Airport livery. It is ironical that the old nr 50, a Dennis Javelin/Plaxton Premiere 320 coach also carried VCS livery. It was withdrawn when the Excaliburs 5-8 were received.

A visit to Wycombe was made on Saturday to see what was going on and having been advised by one of my correspondents that many of the low floor Darts were receiving full back adverts, I was able to get photos of this for myself. A local Skoda dealer is one of the advertisers. The refurbished London Darts did not enter service this weekend but service debut is imminent. Another before an after shot is included this week, this time of the front exterior. The current loaned Oxford Olympian situation is clarified and at present 202, 214 and 224 are at Wycombe. I am advised that 727 is at Oxford with engine problems, as is 715. Mercs in service are 703,4,10,11,12,16,17 & 24.   

At Oxford there were some unusual workings on Thursday and some photos were taken. Whilst Oxford are very fussy about wrong types on given routes, it is inevitable that some misuse will occur. Thursday was no exception. 2 road had new Volvos 804, 805 and 814 as well as Dart 408 which was on 2C/D but also was seen on 2Bs. 300 road had Olympian 208 and Volvo 653 in place of the normal Tridents and 400 road had Citylink advert 628.  An achievement was for 35 road to have the full batch 623-627 on duty.  Surprise working was Metrorider 782 on 51 road. Finally 22 road had two Volvos in place of the more normal Darts, the Volvos were 601 and 612. 

Oxford paintshop was host to 50 under repaint into VCS livery plus the third refurbished Dart for Wycombe 530. 44 was receiving minor attention. 

All was very quiet on the Stagecoach front with Volvo/Plaxton nr 3 noted on the 100 to Witney. With Witney in mind it is sad to note that the cleanliness of the Olympian deckers is declining. They were always very well maintained and of pristine appearance. This is not the case and many have lost wheel trims and begin to look shabby. It is also noteworthy that the new M A N Tube deckers are appearing more often with missing wheel trims which seems to make them look less appealing. The Dennis/Plaxton Verde saloons (901-3) often appear on the 77 in place of the more usual haunt, the 20 to Chipping Norton.

THIS WEEKS' PICTURE PARADE

Before and After - Dart exteriors of Wycombe Bus 524 and 525. 
524 is all but ready to enter service.

With the windscreen replaced,  an altogether different appearance
is achieved.

The back of a bus often goes un-noticed. Here we see that of 524.

Wycombe 524 was renumbered to bring all low floor Darts into a 4xx series.
It now sports a rear ad for the Skoda Octavia. A car which is a little more 
impressive than its host seen here !!

Snapped arriving at Newlands Bus Station, High Wycombe is Arriva 5134, 
a long Olympian with NCME bodywork and sporting the new livery. 

Unusual workings in Oxford

601 fills in on a 22 road duty, normally the haunt of the early Darts.

Often on 2 road, 628 had a change and is seen here on 400 road
in place of the normal Trident.

653 sees duty on the 300 road P&R service.

Coaching interlude.

Cold and late, 56 waits for time at Heathrow Terminal 4 
before returning to Oxford on a late night service.

Back to old haunts, ex Tube L158LBW is now in the United Counties
fleet as its 101 and is seen here departing Oxford Gloucester Green
on a mid afternoon X5 service. 

If anyone else has any interesting news items please send them to me at 

Malcolmhc@aol.com 

It adds to the interest of the page which I'm sure everyone appreciates.

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You can still view 
the Tube launch report  
and 
the Oxford Bus P&R Trident launch - Dateline Tuesday June 1st 1999  
Click above

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THE OXFORD BUS MUSEUM