CUMBRIA SUMMER SERVICES END ON A HIGH

AEC Regent UTC 672 at Barnard Castle ((click to enlarge)

Cumbria Classic Coaches summer service to Barnard Castle ended on a high on Wednesday 26th Oct when so many passengers wanted to travel on the last run of the summer / autumn route via Middleton in Teesdale that a duplicate vehicle was called for. CCC have a policy of using duplicate vehicles whenever the loadings exceed capacity of the normal service bus to ensure that passengers are never left behind. The scheduled vehicle, ex Bamber Bridge AEC Regent, had already set off with a healthy load of passengers from the Bowber Head Bus Depot to the Fat Lamb where a significant queue was encountered, with more joining at Kirkby Stephen Station, so by the time the 1955 double decker reached Kirkby Stephen Market Square it was a forgone conclusion that a duplicate vehicle would be required.

Ian the conductor gives directions to alighting passengers (click to enlarge)

CCC had already prepared ex Preston Corporation Leyland PS1 and this was swiftly despatched to Kirkby Stephen to pick up the excess passengers. The 1946 PS1 set off in pursuit of the AEC Regent which had also left intending passengers at Winton and Brough, so, to their relief the Leyland PS1 stopped to collect them before making its way to Barnard Castle. Although the service to Barnard castle runs all year round, the normal summer timetabled service is via the more lengthy and picturesque route calling at Middleton in Teesdale before setting off again to Barnard Castle, with its thriving Wednesday market and shops.

Having dropped its passengers, the AEC heads for the coach park (click to enlarge)

The Cumbria Classic Coaches Tuesday market day route to Hawes also came to an end during the same week and unlike the Barnard Castle route, it ceases completely until Easter time when it re-starts again and this years final run using the AEC Regent to Hawes was also heavily used on the final day, but didn't require a duplicate.

David Gambles

Is there anyone there?

Well, it's gone very quiet on the Cumbria Classic Coaches blog so I thought I would post a few pictures from the Easter Kirkby Stephen rally. CRN 79 Visited and was posed alongside CRN 80, the first time they had been together for many years The steam bus also attended and it is seen here at the Cumbria Classic Coaches depot

Florence update

I just thought as I'm stuck in a car on my way over to Newcastle to look at bikes that I'd use the time to bring the blog up to date.

Well on Flo work has not stopped, all the side panels are recovered and back on. We've replaced the lino on the floor too. The roof lining has been stripped and the back replaced with new leathercloth and we are going to fit a new liner to the sunroof this week. Then it's seats back in and back on the road next week. Fingers crossed.

Ant has also been hard at work on the exterior of Rosie restoring the front and repainting round the windows.

I'll take some photos when we've finished and upload them, got to go now feel a bit car sick!

posted from Bloggeroid

This weekend

We were cooking with gas this weekend and on Friday we managed to finish the passenger side panels and refit them. On Saturday we stripped the drivers side, the framework was very good on that side and only a couple of pieces of wood needed replacing, so we soldiered on and fit those pieces, made the new panels and covered and refit them in just the one day! It's pouring down today so I'm having a lazy day. Front panels tomorrow.......

Todays Challenges

Its blowing a hoolie here tonight! Never mind the renovations I think everything is going to blow away. It was a good days work today. Whilst my extremely capable assistant carried on making wooden trims, I finally managed to recover the rear quarter on Flo. It looks great if I do say so myself! Just the trims to varnish and that will be the back end finished with. I also took some photos.... before and after, beware it's a bit of a shock.

More work on Flo

Today we did manage to put the windows back in with new rubbers, We made some more wooden braces and I've started work on the sewing and cutting of the new headlining. I plan to fit that tomorrow and the moquette arrives so we are going to do some panels too! In other news, the bus couldn't go to Barney today there were accidents on both the A66 and the Middleton road. It's probably a good job really as the wind was so bad this afternoon I'm sure it would have been shut on the A66 to high siders. Also have to mention a Happy Wedding Anniversary Anthony and Pensri!

Florence Renovation

Well we started work a couple of weeks ago on the interior of Florence. The side trims were getting a little bit tatty and as she's the most popular of the buses for hire I thought she was due for a bit of TLC. The plan is to renew the side trimming panels, the back quarter roof lining material, some of the leathercloth on the roof and parcel shelves and finally replace the floor lino. Firstly we too out all the seats and stored them in Rosie. We have started at the back end and renewed the wood around the window frames. Getting new window rubbers has been a bit tricky but I was directed to a company called Baines and they had 2000 profiles to choose from so the rubber arrived today and I plan on putting the back windows in again tomorrow. Next we have replaced whatever wood framing necessary down the passenger side. The new trimming material will arrive on Thursday, it's not ideal but getting hold of appropriate green moquette has been a bit of a trial, the best suppliers so far have been AS Cummings of Gateshead. So I hope to have at least 3 panels back on by Friday. In the meantime Anthony has been repairing, repainting and generally making better the bodywork on Rosie. So far he's repainted the wheels, wheelarches and radiator. He started on the window frames today. It sounds simple but it all involves lots of gouging out, rubbing down, fiberglassing and a steady hand with the old coachpaints. So anyone looking out for her next season best tell Ant what a good job he's done.... just so he'll carry on and do another! Oh and we've nearly got the new doors on the bus shed! Will post pics soon Anthony has taken some photos so far of progress so I'll try to upload them soon.

Low wood wedding fair

Attended the wedding fair at the Low Wood Hotel today. It was a really great event and we had lots of interest in the buses and cars. Karin sang there too with her new band 'Once scene' . Looks like its going to be another busy year

A very belated Merry Christmas!

Hi Everyone, I really must apologise for not attending to the blog more often, I'm going to make it my New Years Resolution to write here more often and let everyone know whats going on. Firstly Happy Christmas and Merry New Year to you all. We had a really busy Christmas on the buses with quite a few weddings in December in all the snow which was a bit of a worry but we managed to get out for every occasion. We didn't even miss any of the timetabled routes either. We has a great staff dinner at The Hayloft in Barney, enjoyed by all and Dad didn't even make his usual long speech but limited himself to a much shorter one. Thanks to everyone who helps at Cumbria Classic Coaches, 2010 was a great year. January has been busy but I'm going to tell you all about that in the next blog. It just remains to attach our newsletter to this one. Hopefully this will work as I've only put in pictures so far....nope I'll have to put it up on the website page. all the best Ali

Bio Fuel

There's been some recent postings on the Focus Transport website about the use of bio fuel and Tony Wilson has pointed out that the entire Cumbria Classic Coaches fleet runs of bio diesel obtained from a local supplier. His posting shows some good pictures of the vehicles in action in various locations and they can be found at http://www.focustransport.org.uk/news04.aspx#lat02 He also mentions the faint odour of 'frying tonight'! David G