MidlandRed.net

42892 has received a "freshen up" and has had some new lower panels fitted, and a lower end repaint. It looks like we will be keeping it for a bit longer.
53061/2 have been withdrawn, rather surprising as one of them was recently repainted into "Riversider" livery.

Also in the garage at the moment is 63114 from Stoke - it arrived on Thursday and requires repairs to the floor, Worcester bodyshop have got the contract to complete the repairs.

That's very interesting news, thanks bmmoboy !

Can anyone confirm my impression that WR's "body shop" has been "intermittent" in recent years ? - - IE - sometimes having a dedicated, skilled man, and other times not ??

-- Recently, I believe I read on the internet that the man who did the vehicle painting at Adderley Green has just retired, - so have we got a new man here ? --

I would like to see more "smartening-up" -- especially the older DDs, - and I expect we will now start to see the multi-coloured Citaros getting their fronts repainted !

If First stay in Worcester, the new depot could include a more suitable new body-shop !

Worcester body shop has always been very good at turning out high quality repairs so it’s no surprise they’ve got the job even without a paint shop!

42892 is back on the road, seen this morning in Grange Avenue looking very smart in the sunshine on the 10-25 am 37 working from Northwick into Worcester Crowngate.

Noted that 53061 is showing on Bustimes as working to Ledbury earlier this morning - has it had a reprieve?

I was in Malvern at the weekend, first time for a long while. All 44s seen on both Sat and Sun were exclusively being run by 'Salt Road' liveried buses, several with paint peeling off around the lower panels exposing bare metal.

53061 has had a temporary reprieve, but it won't last very long.

MattW wrote: ↑

20:54 Tuesday 20th April 2021

I was in Malvern at the weekend, first time for a long while. All 44s seen on both Sat and Sun were exclusively being run by 'Salt Road' liveried buses, several with paint peeling off around the lower panels exposing bare metal.

Route branding is all very well in theory, but doesn't work very well when there is a change of circumstances, such as the use of the Streetdeck double deckers originally intended and branded for Malverns services being used more or less exclusively on the 144; presumably because the higher capacity is needed since the through Worcester to Birmingham 144 workings were reduced to hourly frequency despite the Covid19 regulations drastically cutting seating capacity (about 40% of pre-Covid levels and no standing).

It seems to me that we have a shortage of vehicles, especialy now we have 53061/2 withdrawn and are two DDs down! I wonder if we'll see a couple of newer second hand solo's brought in as replacements... Especially if the pre Covid 31 ever returns, requiring Riversider branded solo's

Also, it's good to see that 20612 has been utilised on the S55 for most of this week

bmmoboy wrote: ↑

21:25 Tuesday 20th April 2021

53061 has had a temporary reprieve, but it won't last very long.

Surprised that Bustimes website is showing 53061 and 53062 in service today. Are these buses back in the operational fleet to replace the two double-deckers that the garage is currently down on fleet strength since 33401 - 33405 went to First Essex; is there any news of replacement deckers, if so, from which area and when these might be expected?

53061 and 2 were both parked in the scrapline at Padmore Street yesterday morning at 07.30, and neither had ticket machines fitted, so I think it must be an error on Bustimes.