The Circle of London : 01/06/2010

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Metroline Perivale West [PA] & Metroline CELF Part 3

An Ex Metrobus MCV stands outside the CELF workshop. The vehicle is unregistered and the fate of this vehicle is unknown.

Today was a beautiful day in which it provided perfect photographing opportunities. Now a lot of us may be wondering why this MCV pictured above is at the workshop today, well there's an interesting story behind it. It was originally ordered by Metrobus for the Route 202 contract, however when it was assembled by MCV of Cambridge, it was wrongly fitted with a Voith Gearbox as opposed to a ZF Gearbox, thus made Metrobus to try and dispose of the vehicle, so it was sent to Metroline's CELF Centre for appraisal in the hope that Metroline would agree to buy it. However with Metroline already having Voith Gearboxed MMs already, they declined. So the vehicle in question just remains here in storage until it can find a suitable owner. Amid this, there were quite some interesting vehicles here today, this came in the form of former First London Volvo President, 333210 LT52 WTR, which is here for MOT prior to being cascaded to the First Eastern Counties, VPL597 has just had it's skirt painted over and TAL133 is over from Cricklewood (W).

First VNL32210 LT52 WTR nearside

First VNL32210 LT52 WTR

First Eastern Counties LT52 WTR

Metroline VPL597 LK04NNF

TAL133 X339 HLL

Metroline DP1003 RX51 FNT

Metroline DE871 LK58 CPX

Metroline DE1115 LK10 BYB

Metroline VP527 LK04 CTU

Metroline VPL597 Rear

Metroline VPL597 Front

Metroline DE1008 LK09 ENX

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Metroline Perivale East....[PV] New Metroline DEs

Today by special request I visited Perivale East Garage (PV) to view and take photos of the new Metroline DEs for the newly retained C11 and 143 Contracts that start in August.

The new Buses are part of a 37 strong batch numbered between DE1115 and 1151, these are the second batch of Metroline buses to gain powerblinds and it seems to be generating into a standard practise by the company. The routes are set to operate from PA (Perivale West) Garage, which is the former Thorpes base.Strangely Metroline have discontinued the silver rear light clusters on these buses but they do now feature 'honeycomb' LED rear lights. It still remains to be seen whether the new TEs for Cricklewood will have the silver rear light clusters. Another thing to note is, the DEs have been numbered higher than the TEs although they have been delivered first...it all seems to weird for me. Other vehicles in the garage was SEL764 which has now gained a red skirt and tinted windows, it does actually look very neat.Many thanks to the Metroline staff who allowed me on their premises. More pictures from the visit are below.

Metroline DE1128 LK10 BYU

Metroline DE1119 LK10 BYJ

Metroline DE1125 LK10 BYR

Metroline DE1115 LK10 BYB

Metroline DE1121 LK10 BYM

Metroline DP14 W114 WGT

Metroline DLD96 S296 JLP

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Metroline Perivale West Garage [PA] & Metroline CELF Centre

After an interesting visit to CELF, I made my way to Perivale West Garage (PA) which is literally 1 minute away, the garage is home to the Route 70,143,297,326,C11 and E6. The garage arguably has some of the best performing buses in the company due to the fact CELF Centre, which is Metroline's central engineering facility is just 1 minute away so PA Buses always get seen to as soon as a defect is reported on the log card.

The garage has a full Dennis chassis operation, with only Dennis Buses and Trident Buses operating from this base, however when I arrived I got the pleasant shock of seeing VP566 LK04 ELC which is a Volvo Plaxton President bus that is based at AC. The reason it was at the garage was due to the fact, there was not much space at CELF today because of various different activities such as the 52 Reg TPs awaiting approval then collecting by Dawson's Rentals, so VP566 had to stand inside here for the best part of 10 minutes while it waited other Buses to depart. It then took the space of VPL170 Y196 NLK which is also an AC (Willesden) Garage Bus. Other things to take not of was DLF125 Y641 AVV which is the super-long 10.8m Dart which is set to be decommissioned before returning to Dawson's Rentals.

DLF125 Y641AVV at Perivale West Garage

VPL170 Y196NLK at CELF Centre

VP566 LK04ELC at Perivale West Garage

TE895 LK08NVL at Perivale West Garage

DE867 LK08DXA at Perivale West Garage

DLF125 Y641AVV and DE953 LK58CSY

TP454 Refurbished at CELF Offside

TP454 Refurbished at CELF Offrside

TP454 Refurbished at CELF

TN32906 W906VLN at CELF Centre

TA96 T196CLO at CELF Centre

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Metroline CELF Centre Part 2

It was nice to see some sort of different activity going on at CELF today, as I got to witness DE876 in the middle of a partial repaint. The vehicle is allocated to the Route E6 that was won off Wings Buses in 2007 with shorter 8.9m E200s, however due to an increase in the use of the service, TFL and Metroline decided to give the Route E6 and PVR increase and longer vehicles. I was told that a repaint for a vehicle this size would take just over a week, so I will be back here next week to track the progress of this vehicle.

I was lucky enough to get any decent open air shots of the centre today as the daylight was dimming as the shots below will make evident. There was not much at the Centre to see today which is quite unusual, however there was a freshly repainted DP which came in the form of DP14 W114 WGT which seems quite odd to me given the Bus's age. Not much left here to say other than enjoy the shots!