08/10/2013

Route 11 NBfL Conversion 21/09/13, 22/09/13

This is the first joint blog post by all the current "MkII" team of WLTMTB (as opposed to the MkI team of me/James/Matt, or the Mk1.5 with me/James/Lewis).

After the 24 - there was the small conversion of the 11 to deal with next. I (Aubrey) had to do a "first" of something here, so I did, but not the first NBfL journey. However, there are other "first" things that happened. For a start, I got on the first NBfL crewed journey from Fulham Broadway (ever), eastbound, manned by two members of Stockwell staff.

London General LT42 on Route 11, Fulham
London General LT42, Route 11, Fulham (Aubrey)
It turned around to be the first crewed LT eastbound on 11, and I got on a few minutes late (according to the customer assistant i.e. conductor). Working SW306.

Interior of LT42
Interior of LT42 (Aubrey)

11 to Liverpool Street iBus (Aubrey)

Unfortunately, LT42's headlamp fitting became loose and we had to stop at Aldwych:

London General LT42 on Route 11, Aldwych (broken down)
London General LT42 on Route 11, Aldwych (Aubrey)

London General LT42 on Route 11 - SW306 Running Card
SW306 running card. (Aubrey)

London General LT42 on Route 11, Aldwych
London General LT42 on Route 11, Aldwych (Aubrey)

After the rest of the passengers left on a 26, I walked to Charing Cross:

London General LT55 on Route 11, Aldwych
London General LT55 on Route 11, Aldwych (Au)
This is the first short working LT to Ludgate Circus.

Fortunately, the problem was fixed and it was sent back on it's way!

London General LT42 on Route 11, Charing Cross
London General LT42 on Route 11, Charing Cross (Aubrey)

The converted, and the follower...
London United VLE4 (9), London General LT43 (11), Charing Cross (Aubrey)
It's like the converted 11 next to its follower, the 9, converting in October.

DSC01190
London General LT43 on Route 11, Charing Cross (Aubrey)

London General LT55 on Route 11, Charing Cross
London General LT55 on Route 11, Charing Cross (Aubrey)

Afterwards, I met up with Josh to cover Metrobus 30. After that, we went to Victoria to cover more NBfLs on the 11:

London General LT59 on Route 11, Victoria
London General LT59 on Route 11, Victoria (Aubrey)

London General LT55 (LTZ 1055) seen at Victoria (JPT)
London General LT42 (LTZ 1042) seen at Victoria (JPT)
London General LT58 on Route 11, Victoria
London General LT58 on Route 11, Victoria (Aubrey)

I then went on a WVL (unfittingly) to Charing Cross, in order to meet up with Tom Bowell (and Jeevan from LBOTG), who covered Metrobus 30 in the reverse order to what Josh and I did. Josh went home, in contrast:

London General LT62 on Route 11, Charing Cross
London General LT62 on Route 11, Charing Cross (Aubrey)
This bus is now off the road, and will be repaired after a serious accident involving the bus the day after the picture was taken.
London General LT62 on Route 11, Charing Cross
London General LT62 on Route 11, Charing Cross (Aubrey)

London General LT42 on Route 11, Charing Cross (TB)

We took it to Liverpool Street:

London General LT42, Liverpool Street (TB)

London General LT42, Liverpool Street
London General LT42, Liverpool Street (Aubrey)

This is where I met quite a few other bus enthusiasts here, including some from other blogs. Tom and Jeevan eventually went to other places/home, whilst I stuck on and got on LT62:

London General LT62 on Route 11, Liverpool Street
London General LT62 on Route 11, Liverpool Street (Aubrey)
London General LT62 on Route 11, Liverpool Street

I finally went home, but it wasn't the end of the NBfL covering!

The next day, I met up with Lewis at Paddington, before going to Victoria:

The Leader, and the Apprentice
The Leader, and the Apprentice...
Metroline LT12 on Route 24, in front of London General LT46 on Route 11, Westminster Cathedral (Aubrey)

London General LT46 on Route 11, Victoria
...Which arrives a few seconds later. LT46 on Route 11 (Aubrey)

London General LT46 on Route 11, Westminster Cathedral (LJN)

11 to Ludgate Circus iBus (Aubrey)

London General LT55 on Route 11, Aldwych (LJN)

As I (Aubrey) was writing this bit, I had just found out that a person lost their life falling off the NBfL open platform on the 24, condolences to the family affected. This doesn't help the PR of the NBfL at all, after the serious crash involving LT62 which I actually took quite a few photos of. Hope everyone recovers from that severe crash there.

These NBfLs have working air-cooling, and each "conductor" has an iPad, name badge that is possibly uniform across the NBfL crew and there is an app that the "conductors" use to get live information, track the bus and even see their duty rota. All in all, the next NBfL conversion, the 9, will spring something better, as this was definitely handled better than the 24 conversion, albeit delayed a bit.

1 comment:

  1. The person involved did not lose their life. They were severely injured but they did not die.

    ReplyDelete

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