521
Much like the TrentBarton Mainline having one 17 plate bus among the 67 plates, the new orange line batch has one 71 plate vehicle despite all the rest of this year's E400 Cities being assigned 22 plates. They - or the orange line ones at least - were originally meant to all have 71 plates, and NCT's fleet news Facebook page even released a list showing what the regs were meant to be. Because there were delays in getting them into service, they ended up being late enough to get '22' registrations, except for 521.
There are a few older examples of weird registration plate shenanigans happening with buses related to the 36, too, which I've never found an explanation for. One is a timetable cover featuring one of the 07 plate Omnidekkas that first converted the 36 to double deck... except the Omnidekka is clearly on a 56 plate in that photo (can't find the damn thing now, but it exists). It was taken either at the old Beeston Bus Station or the top of Angel Row - I can't quite remember.
Also, in a booklet NCT produced themselves for the 140 years event, there's a photo of 673 at Parliament Street Garage in red line livery, brand new, but with 674's registration. Or, to put it another way, a photo of 674 at Parliament Street Garage in red line livery, brand new, but with 673's fleet number. Which is it and how did that happen?!
Completing the new batch for the 35/36, for 'first time spots' at least, is 521, seen on Field Lane in Chilwell. If it had come 30 seconds earlier I'd have had it in glorious sunshine, but what it actually did was sit in the bus stop half way down the hill for that amount of time and then it want overcast the second it started moving again!
10.9.22
521
Much like the TrentBarton Mainline having one 17 plate bus among the 67 plates, the new orange line batch has one 71 plate vehicle despite all the rest of this year's E400 Cities being assigned 22 plates. They - or the orange line ones at least - were originally meant to all have 71 plates, and NCT's fleet news Facebook page even released a list showing what the regs were meant to be. Because there were delays in getting them into service, they ended up being late enough to get '22' registrations, except for 521.
There are a few older examples of weird registration plate shenanigans happening with buses related to the 36, too, which I've never found an explanation for. One is a timetable cover featuring one of the 07 plate Omnidekkas that first converted the 36 to double deck... except the Omnidekka is clearly on a 56 plate in that photo (can't find the damn thing now, but it exists). It was taken either at the old Beeston Bus Station or the top of Angel Row - I can't quite remember.
Also, in a booklet NCT produced themselves for the 140 years event, there's a photo of 673 at Parliament Street Garage in red line livery, brand new, but with 674's registration. Or, to put it another way, a photo of 674 at Parliament Street Garage in red line livery, brand new, but with 673's fleet number. Which is it and how did that happen?!
Completing the new batch for the 35/36, for 'first time spots' at least, is 521, seen on Field Lane in Chilwell. If it had come 30 seconds earlier I'd have had it in glorious sunshine, but what it actually did was sit in the bus stop half way down the hill for that amount of time and then it want overcast the second it started moving again!
10.9.22