Stagecoach 18418
"I sure hope they're not thinking of painting it" - me, September 2022. That was the last time I stood on this bridge and saw this bus in Beachball livery, and up to something within Lincoln depot. Welp, turns out they were thinking painting it, but now I wish Lincoln had done it there and then because they wouldn't have made an absolute pig's ear of it. I really didn't want to do another 'review' of a crappy repaint, but when it looks like this...
Gainsborough depot, to their credit, seem to have fixed most of their buses/ticket machines that don't track on Bustimes. Except this one, of course. At least now when I notice there's no vehicle tracking on a service that should be guaranteed to run (i.e. one tied in with a school service), I can have a decent estimation that it'll be this running it. To that end, I finally, FINALLY, got 18418 in Local livery in the daytime. Sure, it was 20 minutes late and I'd given up and was starting to walk off, but I got it.
Scunthorpe depot, to their discredit, have done yet another drunken job at applying the livery. The actual rear they've done better than 18344, but the sides look like they were done through a 1ft square window where they couldn't see the rest of it while they were going. They did at least put the fleet names in the right places, and used the correct coloured ones, but then they put the front one on wonky.
Despite not even being a particularly old repaint, there's a stain right down the middle of the front coming down from the windscreen and over the fleet number. Also, the metal strip between the battery access flap and the front wheel arch is meant to be at skirt strip/bumper height level, not the same height as the battery flap hinge. Tbh I didn't even know you could remove those strips because I thought they formed the panel join between the main side panels and skirt panels.
Despite the terrible repaint, perennial non-tracking and - in this instance - late running that proved to screw my whole plan up, it's still the same 18418 which I know and love from before, so for that she gets a pass.
Pelham Bridge, Lincoln, 8.2.23
Stagecoach 18418
"I sure hope they're not thinking of painting it" - me, September 2022. That was the last time I stood on this bridge and saw this bus in Beachball livery, and up to something within Lincoln depot. Welp, turns out they were thinking painting it, but now I wish Lincoln had done it there and then because they wouldn't have made an absolute pig's ear of it. I really didn't want to do another 'review' of a crappy repaint, but when it looks like this...
Gainsborough depot, to their credit, seem to have fixed most of their buses/ticket machines that don't track on Bustimes. Except this one, of course. At least now when I notice there's no vehicle tracking on a service that should be guaranteed to run (i.e. one tied in with a school service), I can have a decent estimation that it'll be this running it. To that end, I finally, FINALLY, got 18418 in Local livery in the daytime. Sure, it was 20 minutes late and I'd given up and was starting to walk off, but I got it.
Scunthorpe depot, to their discredit, have done yet another drunken job at applying the livery. The actual rear they've done better than 18344, but the sides look like they were done through a 1ft square window where they couldn't see the rest of it while they were going. They did at least put the fleet names in the right places, and used the correct coloured ones, but then they put the front one on wonky.
Despite not even being a particularly old repaint, there's a stain right down the middle of the front coming down from the windscreen and over the fleet number. Also, the metal strip between the battery access flap and the front wheel arch is meant to be at skirt strip/bumper height level, not the same height as the battery flap hinge. Tbh I didn't even know you could remove those strips because I thought they formed the panel join between the main side panels and skirt panels.
Despite the terrible repaint, perennial non-tracking and - in this instance - late running that proved to screw my whole plan up, it's still the same 18418 which I know and love from before, so for that she gets a pass.
Pelham Bridge, Lincoln, 8.2.23