MidlandRed.net

This photo of 66845 in action close to Padmore Street was taken at lunchtime on Monday 2 August and is reproduced courtesy of Bob Hemming. This bus has evaded my camera; I always seem to be sat on a 37 in Crowngate Bus station when it is driven through, or doing some work on my front garden without a camera when it is used to 'route learn' the 37.

At long last I have managed a shot of training bus 66845 in action along Grange Avenue this morning at approx. 10-30 am, presumably route learning city route 37.

Good capture. How many weeks have you been hanging out of your bedroom window waiting for it to go past?

It will probably be going past your house quite a few times over the next few months, as First are trying to recruit many drivers to cover for the current shortfall (around 20 drivers short at the moment). We currently have a number of drivers from Stoke at the moment.

AdamH wrote: ↑

17:48 Thursday 13th January 2022

Good capture. How many weeks have you been hanging out of your bedroom window waiting for it to go past?

It was by pure luck that I was scanning the bustimes.org website fleetlist at 10-25 am and noted that 66845 had departed Crowngate bus station at 10-10 am on a '37'; grabbed my camera and as I sat down by the bedroom window the training bus came into view. Time from realising the bus was working my route to taking the photograph less than one minute! Shame the bus is in the shade and the houses in the background are over exposed in bright sunshine though.

It is the hardest vehicle to photograph in action because all the other service buses on the road follow set turns (especially City 'track' running cards) and it is fairly easy to predict where they will be at any given time using bustimes.org, whereas the instructor and driver are probably the only personnel who know where they are going in 66845.

bmmoboy wrote: ↑

21:59 Thursday 13th January 2022

It will probably be going past your house quite a few times over the next few months, as First are trying to recruit many drivers to cover for the current shortfall (around 20 drivers short at the moment). We currently have a number of drivers from Stoke at the moment.

Could you possibly tell us, please, bmmoboy , how many drivers WR should have for the current operations (??)

I am very pleased that First are able to bring-in drivers from anywhere, - and willing to pay for their overnight accommodation here in Worcester (??) -- or do they come down and go back all in 24 hours ??

It also explains why I saw a 32 about to go up the London Road, the other day !!