1A

Stagecoach service 1A (Chapel St Leonards Bus Station - Chapel Point) is generally (but not always!) operated using an open top vehicle. Today, 15991 was employed on this duty and is illustrated at Chapel St Leonards Bus Station.

Railtourer

Railtourer operated a charter from Skegness to Hull yesterday with 37516 and 47760 working "top and tail". The train then returned empty to Carnforth this morning at 1120 as 5Z58.

47760 at Skegness this morning

37516 at the front

Video of the ECS departing from Skegness

High Season timetable

The Stagecoach High Season timetable for the Skegness area comes into effect today and runs until 6th September.

It includes a lot of changes, which are summarised below:

1 : Operates daily every 10 minutes between Skegness and Chapel St Leaonards Bus Stations - extension between Chapel St Leonards bus station and Chapel Point withdrawn and replaced by the 1A.

1A: With a few exceptions in the morning/evening which are extended to/from Skegness, this operates to a 20 minute frequency daily between Chapel Bus Station and Chapel Point.

3: Frequency increased to every 7/8 minutes.

6A: New hourly service from Skegness to Burgh-le-Marsh. It is routed outward via the Southview Park, thence along the new Burgh bypass, and back into Burgh village and thence to Skegness via the Southview Park.

9: On weekdays, most Skegness - Mablethorpe and v.v. journeys have been extended to/from Louth replacing the service 10 between Mablethorpe and Louth (curtailed to operate between Lincoln and Louth). On Sundays a two hourly service operates between Skegness and Mablethorpe, an improvement to the corresponding timetable last summer.


Illustrated below is 16942 at South View Park on the inaugural 6A run from Skegness this morning.

Skegness HST

To provide additional capacity for customers travelling to Skegness this summer, East Midland Trains are to utilise one of their HST sets on Saturdays (July 18th - September 5th), providing two return trips from Nottingham to Skegness. A trial run which was to have taken place on 17th May was postponed and instead took place on 23rd May. The same HST worked additional relief trains from Nottingham to Skegness today - and we were there to record its arrival at Skegness.

This is not the first HST to work to Skegness, as Hertfordshire Railtours operated a charter from St Pancras to Skegness using one on 22nd February 1992. A photo of this arriving at Skegness with 43051 leading can be seen below.

26123

Stagecoach 26123 is illustrated at Sea Lane in Ingoldmells on it's return jouney on the service 1 from Chapel St Leonards to Skegness.

Poker Bus

Noted today in a yard in Ingoldmells was MCW, GYE 592W, new to London Transport in 1978, it subsequently passed to London United in 1994 and latterly was in the hands of Wandsworth College. It has now been converted to the Poker Bus and contains a longe area, bar and downstairs toilet and is available for hire for Hen/Stag Nights and Poker tournaments!


20/08/09 - The website http://www.pokerbus.co.uk/ appears to be down and the vehicle has not been seen for some weeks, so it appears that this may already have ceased trading.

South West Trains

158882 visited Skegness today on a service from Nottingham. This is currently on loan to East Midlands Trains from South West Trains.

National Express at Butlins

The Butlins services commenced operating Mondays and Fridays from 20th April to (and including) 2nd November.

As with last year, it comprises of four services:

660: Bradford to Butlins

661: Birmingham to Butlins

662: Liverpool - Butlins

663: Newcastle-upon-Tyne - Butlins

664: Preston - Skegness

The 661 continues to be operated on behalf of National Express by Skyline, the 663 by Go Northern and the 664 by Travellers Choice.

Two changes of operator have taken place in that the 660, previously operated by Tate's, is now in the hands of Linburg and the 662, formerly with Clynnog & Trefor, is now operated by Selwyns.

Linburg's OUI 5446 is seen erroneously dropping passengers off at Skegness bus station earlier today. It should have called at the neighbouring coach stop instead!

Network Rail Inspection

37423 arrived at Skegness today, having worked the 2Z16 0926 from Doncaster. It consisted of a single carriage with various Network Rail officials on board. It is due to depart tomorrow at 0821 when it works the 2Z17 to Wakefield Westgate.

Where does the 39 refuel?

A lesser known fact - Brylaine's Optare FY02 VHF, apparently refuels at the Total Garage in Skegness before working a day on the 39 Town Service!

Last year of the MCW's

2009 is to be the final year of MCW operation in the Stagecoach in Lincolnshire fleet. At the time of writing it is not certain as to what will replace them in spring/summer 2010.

15958 earlier today departing from Anchor Lane

New Depot

Work continues on the new Stagecoach depot located in Middlemarsh, two miles from Skegness along the A158. This will replace the existing premises at Grosvenor Road and should be open in September.

X51

Stagecoach resumed operation of the service X51 (Cleethorpes Pleasure Island - Skegness) from today, and it operates Sundays and Bank Holiday Mondays from May to September inclusive.

Barton returns!

Two preserved Barton coaches which visited Skegness on 3 May. KAU 564V (left), a Leyland Leopard with Plaxton C53F body, was new to Barton in July 1980 and allocated fleet number 564. It displays the X9 route number on the blinds, a reminder of Barton's once famous route between Long Eaton and the Lincolnshire coast and when they even had their own bus station in Skegness! The vehicle is currently owned by Confidence (of Leicester). Beside it is RVO 668L, another Plaxton-bodied Leyland Leopard, new to Barton in July 1973 and allocated fleet number 1246. It is owned by The Barton 1246 Society and you can find out more information about them by clicking here.

Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway

Today saw the start of services on the Lincolnshire Coast Light Railway at the Water Leisure Park in Ingoldmells. Ex-WD diesel "Major" provided regular trips along the relaid track hauling one of the Ashover carriages.

Below are some photographs and a video of the event.


Future running days for the LCLR are: Sunday 24th May, Sundays 19th & 26th July, Sundays 2nd, 9th, 16th, 23rd and 30th August.