I did promise that I would keep it up and I have stuck to it. Readers of the last post would know that now I have a job, blog updates are few and far between. But I am determined not to let this site die down as some may have thought. As you get older you naturally gain more responsibilities so whereas I'd love to be around taking photos here and there...I can't as I have to provide for my family.

Thanks to the wonderful Paul Mckenna in Northern Ireland, I am able to continue on this very interesting series of photos. This is part five of the series. Those who haven't viewed the rest of the four series, just use our search box above and type '"Wrightbus Factory Watch". In addition to this in our News section there is a direct link to a page which contains the whole series.

The above image shows, VH18 of London Sovereign. Part of a batch of 23 buses earmarked for the Route 13s new contract which commences this coming August. The introduction of these vehicles marks a milestone for London Sovereign...the end of ordering crap! In all seriousness, it should mark a new era of ordering higher quality vehicles as opposed to the prestige stock offered by East Lancs *Jokes!*

Their introduction will remove most of the company's 55 Plate Scania ELC Omidekka vehicles to Routes 114 & 292 which will in turn oust the Volvo Presidents from the 292 and most Volvo ELC Vykings from the 114.

Dublin Bus are firm fans of the Homegrown Gemini as well. However they prefer the older face as they have many of the older Gemini 1 B7TL Buses in their fleet, so I guess from a maintenance point of view, its a wise thing to do. Unique looking things. If you look closely to the bus on the far left, on the upper deck rear window you will notice it has an opening window slot....never noticed this on any other Gemini2 apart from the B5LH variants.

A few monstrosities, well five to be exact are lined up near the perimeter of the premises. This time for the Route 11 which will convert on the 21st of September 2013. Another horrible day to note down.

A close up shows the high quality paintwork on these vehicles.

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Its been a while since the last update I know *covers face* but there's a reason behind it. 4 weeks ago I moved house and anyone who has moved house will know how hectic moving can be, as a consequence of the move, it has meant that I have had no Internet for this period. In addition to this I have also started working full time, so I have really been pushed for time as late...

However lets crack on. Before I go any further I must give credit to the London Sovereign staff for allowing on site and for ensuring my safety while they carried out their duties. Most of you by the above image have probably guessed why I was here in the first place. Followers of the blog would already know that I visited here in October 2011. But I'll still give you a brief insight into the history of the garage.

The Garage was officially opened in 1925 by the London General Omnibus Company and at the time only holding 30 Buses. However in 1984 a restoration program took place and the Garage was replaced with a new 100+ Base, that would have light maintenance facilities and a Bus wash. In spring of 1999 London Sovereign had won/retained routes 13,114,183 and 292. The 183 was respectively won of Metroline from Harrow Garage (SO). When these routes were won/retained, they saw Edgware Garage as a perfect opportunity to base their operations as it was closer to the routes which they ran and would ease dead mileages. Subsequently Sovereign's Borehamwood Garage ceased London operations. So Sovereign as they were known as at the time took out a 10 year lease on this garage and they became the sole operator of this garage right until summer of 2000 when Metroline moved back in. Metroline moved back into EW following the retention of the 107,113, 204 and 240. The Route 186 moved back into EW in October 2006 following a reallocation from Harrow Weald (HD). However this did not mean there were any capacity issues at the garage, but it now meant that there was now stiff competition for TFL contracts.

In late 2012 it was announced that London Sovereign had retained the Route 13 and to their surprise as I learnt today. The route which is their only Central London route, runs from Golders Green to Aldwych with the night service extending beyond Golders Green to North Finchley. The contract due to start in August 2013 was awarded on the basis of new Hybrid Buses, which were believed to be the shambolic Borismasters or NB4Ls to me and you. 

As everyone prepared for the worst, London Sovereign quickly announced that the vehicle chosen would be a conventional Hybrid which was later to be revealed as the ever reliable Volvo B5LH with prestigious Wright Gemini2 bodywork. Their arrival was much anticipated as many thought the company would opt for the E400 Hybrid instead. 

I expected the vehicles to be arriving around June, however there was no sign of them and just as things had started to get quiet Ian Rivett, the author of 'Bus News' reported that a few of the buses had started to arrive. I instantaneously started to plan when I'd attempt to visit the London Sovereigns and photograph them which turned out to be today (Sunday).

Prior to arriving I expected that their specification would fall in line with 11 Reg DEs they have, however there was no such luck. The vehicles which are classed 'VH' have fleet numbers ranging from VH1 - 23 have a totally different interior to their other fleet members as you are about to witness. Three vehicles still devoid of logos were on site, with another two set to arrive tomorrow. Interestingly they are the only batch of vehicles in London to have a registration sequence that matches up with their Garage code, the Route they are entering service on and the year of them entering service. 

The introduction of the vehicles on the Route 13 will oust the existing SLEs to the Route 292 which will oust possibly my favourite buses VLP18 - 27 back to their leasing company. The remaining SLEs will help oust some of the VLEs on the 114 which will also return back to their leasing company. The changes are expected to take place in August so if you like the VLPs as much as I do, I'd suggest you hurry up and snap them. 

Again, credit to the London Sovereign staff who made the visit possible and very much worthwhile. Please note that all safety procedures were implemented to ensure my safety whilst on site. Please do contact operators before proceeding onto any garage or site as this is a place of work and accidents can prove very costly to the company. More photos from the visit are placed below.

The upper deck interior facing the rear shows off a
very light colour scheme topped off a royal red seat moquette.

The Grey theme becomes evident as we turn towards
the front of the Bus. 

The bottom deck interior demonstrates how airy the
Gemini2 body is

Not quite sure on the interior choice of colours if I am being totally honest. I don't mind the seat moquette, as I do like the red, however I'm not a fan of the orange handrails topped off with grey seat backs. 

London Sovereign VH1 BD13 OHU is seen on the pits
still with the beautiful hubcaps on the wheels. 

London Sovereign VH2 BD13 OHV shows off its
rear end at Edgware Garage

Here's a look at some of the other stuff that was in the garage today

Olly...Olly...Olly...Oi..Oi..Oi London Sovereign VA17 XDZ 5917

London Sovereign SP68 YT59 RXR in the washing facility

London Sovereign SDE23 YX60 BZF with
VPL220 seen in the background

On Loan YT11 LSD 

London Sovereign VLE30 PA04 CYS and YT11 LSD

A general Garage view

London Sovereign SP71 RT59 RXV

London Sovereign SDE19 YX60 BZB

London Sovereign VLP20 PJ53 OUP

More shots of the VHs

In sincerely hope that you have enjoyed today's post as much as I enjoyed taking time out to construct it, visiting a garage again has certainly got me back in the mood and I look forward to doing more posts when my time permits. Thank you and take care. 

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Not quite what I was expecting to see, given the takeover, of First which we are all aware of, I was expecting some First stock such as VNs or a DML...but I guess a kid can dream right? Most of us have established that visits on the blog are now few and far between, this solely owes to both mine and Jack's university commitments. However there are near enough 300 posts on the blog so why not read one of them if you get bored...

The vehicle above is TPL282 LR02 BBX, although the fleet number is hardly recognizable due to the angle I took the shot at. It is seen here devoid of logos as it awaits storage before being written of the company's books. It's always sad to see a vehicle leave London, but especially for me as I do remember when these lovely pieces of kit were new.

Numbered between TPL237 & 296, 59 of these vehicles were delivered to Metroline in February 2002 and split between three garages. TPL237 - 254 were delivered to HD (Harrow Weald) for the passenger increase on the 140. 255 was added later and TPL256 - 296 were split accordingly between HT (Holloway) and PB (Potters Bar) for the Route 82. What made these buses stand out was their weird green luminous bell display, I always found that odd.

So hat Happens next? As we all know, the TPLs are departing as the 82 has now received all of its new buses for the contract which commenced last year March. Holloway also has a large number of TPLs which are also departing. This will leave a void in the fleet at HT.

So once the 24 gains all 32 of its NB4Ls, the VWs from the route (VW1365 - 1388) will then be re-allocated to the 91, the VWHs (VW1360 - 1364) will be allocated to the 4, allowing TE910 - 914 & TE920 - 934 which currently serve the 91 to be transferred out to PB for routes 217 & W8.

Once the TEs transfer to PB, the TPs currently operating on the 217 & W8 will transfer the other way.

What is this being done? It allows PB to have a 100% E400 Body & Chassis operation on their Tfl routes, which makes for easier engineering. In addition to this it makes sense to send the TPs to HT where the President body and Euro3 Trident chassis is numerous.

Below TEH1459 LK13 BHE can be seen resting  in the disposal line at CELF Centre. Its part of 19 strong batch of buses due for the Route 189 (Brent Cross - Oxford Circus). Their numbers range from TEH1449 - 1467 and realistically should have entered service many moons ago, however a problem, rumored to be due to a new fuel filter ADL have used, has halted their entry into service, however a few are now on the road.

TEH1453 LK13 BHE

Final description for the day, goes to our CELF Centre odd visitor, which goes to London Sovereign's DE97 YX11 COH, which coincidentally operates on one of my local routes. Before we go any further, I really reccomend that you get yourself up to Harrow and travel on one of these vehicles. Each seem to hold their own personality with each vehicle sounding different to the other...The vehicles are part of a 43 strong batch of buses which commenced delivery from August 2011 for the new 251, H9/H10,H11,H14 & H17 contracts which began in September 2011.

London Sovereign vehicles are no stranger to the Centre as they can always be seen here coming for M.O.T or as demonstrated below a Chassis clean.

London Sovereign DE97 YX11 COH

London Sovereign DE97 YX11 COH

Well that was the first CELF Centre post in a while, I hope you enjoyed as the next time I visit will be when the transaction of the 5 First garages is complete, which is on the 22nd of June. That's all folks...now enjoy the pictures below.

DES794 LK07 BDX - This bus was originally delivered round the corner to PA for the Route E6, which Metroline won
in late 2006 for a contract commencing in July 2007. However due to capacity requirements on the Route, just under a year later they were replaced a fleet of newer and longer E200s which ousted these models to PB.

DES794 LK07 BDX

TP425 LK03 CGF

VPL214 LK51 XGH

VPL596 LK04 NNE

50 Shades of Pink...

SEL754 LK07 BBZ

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Monday the 15th of April 2013 myself, Jack and Rohan celebrate the third anniversary of the Circle of London Blog. In that time we have met a lot interesting people and have had the privilege of meeting many people from the industry who have helped us on this incredible journey. However it wasn't always like this...

Although the blog officially opened on April 15th 2010, the plan for the blog back then, is not what has been manifested so far...in fact it's a million miles off! I was finishing off my least year in high school when it was announced that Metroline would be gaining some Wright Gemini 2 Buses, in excitement I rushed down to Brentford Garage to obtain a picture of it. Here it is below. As a self confessed Metroline fan I decided to write up a whole article on the thing...which can be seen here

Since gaining my oyster card, I felt a new found sense of freedom and that along with a new 10 mega-pixel camera was always going to spell trouble! I felt somewhat like a freelance photographer and thought I would document any from any of my travels even if it meant taking pictures of the local supermarket...No not really, I'm not that sad!

That evidently did not go according to plan as my love for buses naturally took over although I did and rather in vain try to take pictures of trains but i didn't quite work out. So literally every other week I was at a different bus garages trying to obtain information or pictures for that matter. If my memory serves me correct, the first garage I did was London United's Park Royal Garage on the 15th of April 2010. The original post can be accessed by click here

As you can see the site has come a long way from its humble beginnings, and after the mediocre feedback from the visits, I gained inspiration to do more as I had discovered a new taste for journalism .if only I was this passionate about writing when completing my English coursework in school!

The following week I made my way down to Metroline's CELF Centre as I always heard of it but never had the chance to go, but with my ticket to the World, I most certainly was not going to miss out on this opportunity. As expected the visit provided me with some wonderful photography and I soon became a regular visitor to the Centre  so much so that the staff still know my name till this day. This of course was something that had not been documented in such a manner and this was what gave the blog its unique viewing point. By the forth time I had visited the facility, it had attracted much interest from enthusiasts and surprisingly employees of the company. Most of the CELF Centre posts can be seen here

It had finally made me feel as if my efforts were being appreciated...but of course, you cannot please everyone as I slowly started to realize. Spamming became a regular thing and it really put me off for a while as I failed to understand why people would go through the effort to do this.

Nevertheless after some tough words from a few established members of an online community I am a part of, it made me realize, quitting something because it may not be going according to plan is never an option, so I continued. After I had established the Metroline CELF Centre post series, I had a little think on what would I could use as an incentive to make people want to visit the site...Then it hit me. New Buses! People always want to see pictures of new buses prior to them entering service. So I started visiting garages when I heard a new vehicle had been delivered in order to obtain the first pictures of them. The picture below demonstrates this.

Visiting garages soon became the norm for the blog and it became known that this was the site to gain pictures of garages. I then started receiving lots of emails from far and wide curious about how I managed to get into so many garages. To be totally honest, I tried the emailing tactic once or twice and companies never seemed to get back, so I instead decided to take a more hands on approach and visit my desired garage myself and 90% of the time I was successful but I dare you try that now. Before I carry on, let me just clarify that I was in possession of  all the necessary clothing.

By the summer of 2010 I met one of my now best mates Rohan and the site had received well in excess of 50,000 hits and things were finally starting to look up for the blog, so one hot day in June I decided to take an ambitious trip to ADL's Centre in Harlow. Coincidentally this was the first time I met Jack, who I ended up becoming very good friends with and is also the other author on the blog.

As stated above, I wasn't one to really email or contact garages prior to visiting, so taking the trip up to Harlow was a very risky one and one in which I literally couldn't afford to come back without something interesting on my camera.

Arriving at Harlow Town Station I was in complete dismay as to how to navigate this weird town, which is slightly odd for a person of my geographic knowledge, I even recall being called a 'tom tom' by my aunt so this was very unpleasant especially with the sun bearing down on my back. Nevertheless about two hours after arriving at the Station I arrived at the location which is partly due to me walking the other way across town.

To my surprise my charm seemed to work and I was allowed on site to take pictures of the site on what I call is my best ever visit. The original post can be seen by clicking here. I liked the visit so much so that a week later I decided to come back with Rohan and that post can be seen by clicking here.

Towards the end of 2010 following the success of my trip to ADL's factory, I thought I'd try my luck at Volvo's factory in Enfield and without sounding very cliched it worked again. Which left me questioning when my luck would eventually run out. Our bus manufacturer visits can be seen here

2010 ended in me visiting roughly 20 garages in total and I had gained quite a rep for visiting garages... and towards the end of 2010 I released a dedicated post to some of my favourite vehicles *drumroll* the Metroline TAs. The post can be viewed here

By the start of 2011, we were nearing the 100,000 hits mark and big things were predicted for the blog, so I thought I'd mix it up a little bit by starting up the Hants & Dorset Trim section with photos supplied from my good friend Eddie, who goes by the name of EHBusman1958 on flickr. The aim of this new section was to provide pictures of the many London Buses that were undergoing refurbishment at the time. The section can be viewed here

However the garage visits were still going strong and if I remember correctly one week in January 2011, I ended up visiting Metroline's Cricklewood Garage, GAL's Camberwell Garage and Abellio's Walworth Garage.

By February 2011 there was news of some Stagecoach E400s being delivered to Plumstead Garage for the Route 53. Generally speaking I don't particularly like the E400 for my own personal reasons, however as they were the first new buses that Stagecoach had ordered post re-entering the London market, I decided to take the tedious three hour journey down south.

The post can be seen by clicking here. Interestingly I met some very nice stagecoach personnel who showed me around the new buses. Nothing special about them to be honest but it was nice of them to do so. The post can be seen here

During the summer 2011, myself and Jack met up with industry legend Ian Rivett, who is a renown photographer, I think its fair to say I tried to follow in his footsteps, I remember his old fotopic account was brimmed with pictures of new buses at depots and garages, something which I have tried to emulate on this particular site.  After having a nice chat for over an hour, myself and Jack were on our way to Stamford Brook Garage to gain the first pictures of the London United Citaros...again living up to the aim of the blog. The post can be seen here

The summer of that year remained an interesting one, with both me and Jack pairing up and delivering posts every other day. However I still wanted more...I felt that there were more features to add to the blog. Then it hit me, I wanted to make the blog interactive so that viewers on the blog can talk to one another instead of posting comments and waiting days for a reply. I started looking around on the net for interactive website features and came across a chatbox. The new chatbox was implemented into the site on in mid august and through this I met Rhys Daniel of the All Over London Bus Blog.

Throughout the rest of 2011 we still sought to gain pictures of new buses before they entered service and I was particularly happy when I gained permission from a certain Mr Jamie Vendy to host pictures of the First Centrewest Scania Omnicitys which were part of a shock order for the 207.

Towards the end of 2011, Jack started introducing some of his famous full route videos onto the blog. The videos would be time lapsed so that they could show the whole of a double deck bus route in under 10 minutes. They were indeed a hit and I enjoyed watching them myself.

Towards the end of 2012, myself and Rhys visited Abellio's Battersea Garage, but this wasn't just an ordinary garage visit. I wanted to make it somewhat different to my other garage visits. I focused on getting more paranormal shots of the garage as opposed to just gaining individual shots of each bus, in order to give viewers a better feel of what each London garage actually looks like. The new and improved garage posts featured a some bullet points at the end of the write up, singling out key facts about the garage. The original Battersea post can be seen here

However just as things were looking up, I became a victim of a horrible attack which left me house bound for weeks and I became slightly depressed because of this. It made me realize that you cannot afford to take life for granted and that you have enjoy life as much as you can because bad things can occur unexpectedly at any time.

However my two closest mates, Jack and Rohan were always there to offer support and Jack ensured that the blog would not slack because of this.

But just as one door closes temporarily, another opens indefinitely, I managed to obtain pictures of a numerous amount of Abellio and First vehicles on delivery from a very kind Gentleman who goes by Steve Buckley. So that this post does not become increasingly boring, I won't put up a  picture of the said vehicles, so if you want to see them you are just going to have to search the blog.

2012 remained quite a slow year, due to many different circumstances, however the advantages of having team mates such as Jack and Rohan is that they will always support you no matter what. Although 500,000 hits is hardly a major milestone when you look at the more established sites such as Omnibuses.co.uk, its really joyful to see your site go from an unpopular site to one of the most known among enthusiasts.

I don't think that neither of us could have predicted what has become of the site so far, however we don't think we are in any sort of place to gratify the blog and we all agree that there is a huge degree of work to be done. We sincerely thank everyone who regularly tunes into the blog and cast their feedback and other countless names who have helped us along the way. I'd just like to take time out to credit everyone who have helped us and apologies for anyone who is not featured on this very long list of people.

• Peter Horrex
• Graham Smith
• Brian Kemp
• David McKay
• Paul Mcclurkin
• John Delaney 
• Eddie (EHBusman1958)
• Ian Rivett
• Lee Thatcher
• Rhys Daniel
• Steve Buckley 
• Kieth Nason
• Paul B

So what does 2013 have in store? Well we've started a new section based on the goings on at Wrightbus' Factory in Northern Ireland which seems to be going down a treat, this could have only been achieved due to Paul McClurking supplying his photos for us to use.

As for the rest of 2013, well I'm guessing you are just going to have to wait and see. Cheers and here's for another year!

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April fools, presented us with no joke at all. When my mate Paul McClurkin from Ireland said he would be repeating visits to Wrightbus's factory for my enjoyment, I was very much overwhelmed by his generosity. However I was even more surprised when I was presented with these photos of Wrightbus on April fools!

The above picture shows four complete LTs or NB4Ls if you like and part of a fifth bus. The 5 vehicles are part of a batch of 32 vehicles for the Route 24/N24 due to be introduced in June 2013 on the route. The introduction of these vehicles will see the displacement of the VWs and VWHs currently operating on the route shifted to the Route 91 and 4 respectively. The VWs numbered between VW1365 & 1388 will transfer to the Route 91 and the VWHs numbered between VWH1360 & 1364 will transfer onto the Route 4.

The current TEs operating on the Route 91, numbered TE909 - 914 & 920 - 934 to transfer to PB along with another with a few vehicles from the batch TE897 - 908 to transfer to PB (Potters Bar Garage) for the Route 217 and W8 which will help oust the TPs currently operating on those route to other duties.

NB4L LT61 AHT

LT1 LT61 AHT is also pictured here, presumably for said modification work. This is one of the 8 original prototypes for initially introduced on the Route 38 in January 2012....The start of a horrid transition!

Arriva London DW571 LJ13 CKO

One of Arriva's new DB300 for Enfield Garage is seen in the forecourt prior to exportation to mainland England.

A line up of Arriva London Geminis

Credit goes out to the photographer, Paul McClurkin who is the author of the photos. They must not be reproduced anywhere else without prior permission!

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