Good Bye Old Friend

As the Optare chapter begins there is the closing of another chapter. H843 NOC has finally been taken away for its final trip to Barnsley (bus Valhalla).

H843 NOC was the last of our first generation Dennis Darts and was there at the beginning of Cotswold Green. It was also previously at the spearhead of Ebley Bus as their expansion of local bus services in the Stroud area gathered pace. It was acquired directly from Warrington Transport by Ebley Bus (one of four purchased from this source).

Despite pressure to send it to the scrapyard a couple of years ago, I had it sent to a farm a couple of miles away with the intention of bringing it back when the time was right!

I had driven many miles in it and it had carried many passengers during its lifetime. I am concious that I appear to have drifted into writing an obituary for an old friend but perhaps that just sums up how attached to it I have been!

I had hoped to restore it to its former glory as a preservation project but funds and time conspired against me so it was not to be. I even tried to give it away as a preservation project but to no avail.

RIP H843 NOC.

Going Solo

I have been resisting the temptation to follow the crowd and use the Optare Solo to start the low-floor conversion of the smaller vehicles in the fleet. I had taken some pride in the fact that we were possibly the only local bus operator in Gloucestershire not to have one!

I lived in hope that an alternative would appear on the market but as the deadline for full conversion of the fleet to fully accessible vehicles looms ever nearer, no such practical alternative has appeared.

And so the opportunity to acquire two of these machines presented itself at a convenient moment and so now they have arrived. All thanks to the continuing effect of the Veolia collapse on the second hand bus market!

And so CN06 BXB and CN06 BXG have joined the fleet. They will be painted this week and should be on the road in a few days time!