MidlandRed.net

Tying-in with a current discussion about Evesham and Leyland National No. 658, I would like to add that it could have been 654 or 655 that spent their entire lives at EM -- instead, for them, it was weeks or days !
I saw these two, brand new at EM garage, and was shocked to discover they had been moved to Coalville "almost immediately".
(In fact, I wonder if they entered service with Evesham at all ? -
This website shows them as having entered service in 9/77 at EM and transferring to CE in 10/77, but that could be "on paper" only - ?)

There are probably a lot of examples of temporary allocations when new --
I saw one or two which were possibly never recorded by the PSV circle -
6010/11 on the 315 (Stourbridge - Kidderminster-Worcester) just before the delivery of Kidderminster's 6012-6021.

I GUESS that a common example MIGHT have been when brand new single-deckers (especially the dual-purpose ones) entered service on Midland Red's summer peak coach services, before settling down somewhere else ?

(Any memories from our Mr.Tim Brown ? )

I did have a copy of the minutes from Evesham depot meetings during the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s. These had been rescued from the skip by myself when Heron Lodge closed, and could probably answer your question about 654 and 655, but I donated the entire collection to BAMMOT a few years ago so I can't give a definite answer.

I would guess they were intended for depots in the Leicester area as 648-653 had all gone in that direction, but were diverted to Evesham as deliveries of their own vehicles had either been delayed or there was an unexpected demand at Evesham. It could well be the latter as the Evesham Wayfarer VNP network had only been in operation for a few months at the time and changes were still being made.

657 and 658 were in the middle of a batch of new vehicles at Kidderminster, so maybe it was decided that Kidderminster could afford to loose two of theirs, and when they were ready they were diverted to Evesham and Coalville were able to get their's back?

After a little more digging, it seems 654 and 655 were officially unallocated or "float vehicles" when new in September 1977, but as per your observations both found their way to Evesham depot. Both were allocated to Coalville when 657 and 658 arrived.

That's amazing, thanks Adam !
I didn't expect to get so much detailed info about such an ancient event !

Did you get this info from PSV Circle news sheets ? - IF yes, I might try and look at the ones for 1966/67 !

I would love to say I spent hours looking through pages of info for you, but the truth is I stumbled across that info by chance while looking for something completely unrelated!