Yes Stagecoach are back in London, amid the speculation of what vehicles will now be ordered on thing for sure is, the horrid Scania Omnicity's will no longer be on the agenda. However the first major blunder is to apply the fairly nice looking Stagecoach logo to a rancid vehicle, another point is the strapline, which literally blends in to the red of the Bus. Here 15713 LX10AUH is seen pulling away from Essex Road.

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Today we paid a visit to First London's Hayes Garage in West London. The reason for this visit was to evidently photograph the VNs on the Route 18 which converts from the Citaro Artic type to Double Deck operation from next month. 

The Garage which is adjacent to the Great Western Mainline which links London to the west of England & Wales was opened in 2005 to house the new reformed 207 operation which commenced operation on the 9th of April 2005 using Articulated Mercedes Citaro buses. I'll just give you some background information as to why a new base was opened if you don't already know.

In 2002 the Route 207 was trialed with 6 Articulated Wrightbus bodied Volvo B7LA buses all loaned from First's Manchester Garage. This was part of the Mayor Ken Livingstone's plan to introduce higher capacity buses on London's trunk routes. Their trial which was a supplementary service run from Greenford Garage was deemed a success and a year later at next tender it was announced that the 207 would be converted to Articulated bus type operations.

The 6 loanee vehicles were all by one in First's provincial barbie livery, bar one, AV1 Y101 ROT which was repainted into London colours finished off with the famous swirls. The two-axle vehicles only had two doors which was also weird for an articulated vehicle. However although the trial was a success, the vehicles were not, with TfL citing that only the Citaro was built to their ever changing specification.

The 200 Plus capacity base opened for operations on the 9th of April 2005, it featured a large shed, which was used to store decommissioned vehicles amongst other things. The huge base lacks maintenance facilities, which means the Citaros on the 207 have to be sent to Willesden Junction (WJ) for maintenance and the Trident Presidents on the 427 sent to Greenford (G).

The purpose of this visit was to photograph the new Gemini2 bodied Volvo B9TLs for the Route 18 which take over on the route from the 13th of November 2010. Pictures of the vehicles can be seen below.

New Buses for the Route 18

New Buses for the Route 18

TN32956 X956 HLT is seen in the forecourt of the garage

The nearside of VN37911

Inside the shed, a few Marshalls are visible

Inside the shed, a few Marshalls are visible

DML41329 is seen inside the shed

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ADH11 SN60BYG stands at Hounslow Heath Garage

prior to entering service. This batch is part of a 20 strong hybrid order placed by TFL on behalf of London United .The Buses will from Shepherd's Bush Garage (S).

Among the other vehicles here today were the new DEs for the 33 from NC (Twickenham) and of course the foul SPs. The new ADHs are numbered ADH 4 -23 and are set to run on the 94 (Acton Green - Piccadilly Circus), intern they will release 20  TLAs which will be used on the 220, and in turn these will release the remaining VAs that are set to be decommissioned, stored prior to going of lease. The new DEs present are part of the batch DE109 - 128 for the Route 33 (Hammersmith -  Fulwell), these are set to be delivered to Twickenham Bus Garage (NC) next week.Enjoy the photos

The rear of ADH8

DE122, DE128 and DE125

A view of the Storage Yard

DE125 YX60 CCN 

SP4 YN56 FCE and ADH11 SN60 BYG

ADH8 CCTV Screen

ADH8 Nearside 

SP199 YR10 FGF

ADH8 Driving Cab

ADH8 Bottom Deck Interior 

SP202 YR10FGK

ADH4 Top deck interior facing front 

The rears of DE122, DE128, DE125 and DE123

note the old seat moquette

ADH8 Bottom deck interior facing rear

ADH8 Top deck interior facing rear

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TE889 LK08 NVD paid a visit to Metroline CELF Centre today. Strangely pictured with its light clusters off, its is probably here for warranty work to ensure the bus is in good working order.The bus is part of a batch of  TEs numbered between TE878 - 890 that were initially ordered for Route 460 in 2008, however they were diverted to Cricklewood for fuel consumption trials against the 57 Plate TEs and the TEHs that had just been delivered at the time. The Route 460 ended up getting 51 Plate TPLs instead.

These shots were actually taken in August 2010, but I only uploaded them in October 2010 due to the fact at the time of me capturing them, I didn't see much point in uploading just 5 shots in a post. This is made more evident by the caption directly below which shows a freshly delivered Metroline Enviro 200 which has just been released from ADL for uptake on Routes 143 and C11. I have to add that the sunlight conditions on that day made it a perfect day for photography, so enjoy the shots below.

Metroline DE1142 LK10BZJ

Metroline TP8 T108KLD

DE1001 LK09EOC

Metroline TPL279 LR02BBO

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VW1070 LK60AEU standing at the Metroline CELF Centre awaiting commissioning into service. It's been a month since I last visited this place and there is still nothing too extraordinary to see here. 

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With about 25 TPs departing to Dawson's Rentals CELF remains pretty empty these days apart from the weekly VW deliveries from Wrightbus of Ballymena, Ireland. Among the Buses decommissioned was TP305, the former PV Bus is awaiting the removal of it's IBUS screens. WNW32350 of ON (Alperton) was a strange visitor to workshop today. It was getting it's M.O.T done. This Bus was closely follwed by a First London engineering van. Apologies for the poor picture quality, the shots were uncharacteristically taken with my 3.2mp Camera phone.

More Photos Below 

First London VNW32350 and TP23 at CELF Centre

First London VNW32350 leaving the CELF Centre

VNW32350 leaving the CELF Centre

The rear of VW1070

Ex Metroline TP379 LR52KXH in the firing line

Metroline TPL245 LN51KXZ at CELF Centre

DA152 T152AUA at CELF Centre

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