View allAll Photos Tagged InterConnect
I must have the memory of a goldfish because two hours went by between the last photo of two purple MMCs and this one, yet I can't remember what I did in that time! Also, this is now the fourth different one... on the same day.
Anyway, here's 10901 with an unusual blind for the shortened working to Scotter, which doesn't mention going via Gainsborough at all. It does seem that the 100s normally change blinds at Gainsborough, dropping the "Gainsborough, connecting for Lincoln/Scunthorpe/Scotter" and instead only having the ultimate destination shown. The driver here either forgot or bunged the wrong code in to get Scotter but without the rest of the information, making for a slightly different sight as it departed Lincoln on 9.6.21
Going by that logic, I still need "Scunthorpe" on its own with no mention of Gainsborough and "Gainsborough, connecting for Lincoln" - as those two blinds ought to be confined to the Scunny end of the route which I don't see.
Seen at Burgh le Marsh, a few miles outside of Skegness is Volvo B7TL 16939.This is one of only four closed top Gemini examples currently licensed at Skegness. 16942 was involved in an accident with a car near Horncastle in February 2018 and is not known at the time of writing in June, whether it will re-enter service again!
I couldn't decide between two photos I had of 18418 pulling out of the bus station so in the end I uploaded them both. So here's an entire third of Gainsborough's ALX400 fleet leaving Lincoln as another third (17719) has just entered.
Most of Gainsborough's deckers are Plaxton Presidents, plus the small batch of purple E400 MMCs that usually turn up on the 100 and 107. The three ALX400s there seem a bit random as they're all from different batches and one is four years older than the other two.
As well as 18418 showing up in Lincoln occasionally on the 100 or 107, 18416 from the same batch also comes here from time to time on the 56 from Skegness. I'm just waiting for the day they both end up in the same place at the same time so I can get a photo of the two buses from the same batch together.
(update on that - it happened: www.flickr.com/photos/108834608@N06/50228972232/in/album-...)
24.6.20
21248 departs Lincoln bus station with a bit of smoke. Even though 18047 is back with a new/repaired engine it's a little smoky, but right now the clag master is 18022 which absolutely belches it out when accelerating from a stand.
6.7.21
A year after I last saw it, Scunthorpe Eclipse 21211 appeared by chance on the 103, seen here on Pelham Street as it swings round to go under the bridge and into the bus station on the other side.
21.7.21
Canon EOS 40D + Canon EF-S 17-85mm F4-5.6 IS USM @20mm
Sunflower
What is usually called the flower is actually a head (formally composite flower) of numerous florets (small flowers) crowded together. The outer florets are the sterile ray florets and can be yellow, maroon, orange, or other colors. The florets inside the circular head are called disc florets, which mature into seeds
The florets within the sunflower's cluster are arranged in a spiral pattern. Typically each floret is oriented toward the next by approximately the golden angle, 137.5°, producing a pattern of interconnecting spirals where the number of left spirals and the number of right spirals are successive Fibonacci numbers. Typically, there are 34 spirals in one direction and 55 in the other; on a very large sunflower there could be 89 in one direction and 144 in the other. This pattern produces the most efficient packing of seeds within the flower head.
Sunflowers in the bud stage exhibit heliotropism. At sunrise, the faces of most sunflowers are turned towards the east. Over the course of the day they follow the sun from east to west, while at night they return to an eastward orientation. This motion is performed by motor cells in the pulvinus, a flexible segment of the stem just below the bud. As the bud stage ends, the stem stiffens and the blooming stage is reached.
Sunflowers in their blooming stage lose their heliotropic capacity. The stem becomes "frozen", typically in an eastward orientation. The stem and leaves lose their green color.
The wild sunflower typically does not turn toward the sun; its flowering heads may face many directions when mature. However, the leaves typically exhibit some heliotropism.
Sunflowers most commonly grow to heights between 1.5 and 3.5 m (8–12 ft). Scientific literature reports from 1567, that a 12-m (40 ft), traditional, single-head, sunflower plant was grown in Padua. The same seed lot grew almost 8 m (26 ft) at other times and places (e.g. Madrid). Much more recent feats (past score years) of over 8 m have been achieved in both Netherlands and Ontario, Canada.
The sunflower is the state flower of the US state of Kansas, and one of the city flowers of Kitakyūshū, Japan.
The sunflower is often used as a symbol of green ideology, much as the red rose is a symbol of socialism or social democracy.
The sunflower is also the symbol of the Vegan Society. During the late 19th century, the flower was used as the symbol of the Aesthetic Movement.
Subject of Van Gogh's most famous still life, Sunflowers (series of paintings)
The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine.
Optare Solo SR YD63 UZV arrives at Lincoln on 26.3.21, with a students-only working but following a normal IC5 service car into the bus station.
Last time I saw this it was December 2020, but here's a slightly more up to date, daytime shot of 19208 in Lincoln bus station, over from Skegness having arrived with a 56 and parked up waiting for the return journey.
2.3.21
Stagecoach East Midlands 16940 is a Volvo B7TL with Wright Gemini bodywork, in InterConnect livery for use on interurban services. It was new in 2006 as Lincolnshire Road Car 922.
Skeg's last remining Road Car Gemini, 16944, came into Lincoln with an InterConnect 56 around the same time that I was about in the city. Making the most of seeing it arrive in, I first went to Lindum Road to phot it on the way down, and then walked to the pedestrian bridge over Melville Street to take another picture of it as it departed again.
Here is the photo taken from the bridge at Melville Street, of 16944 as it sets off 15 minutes late and well-loaded with passengers on 3.3.23
Stagecoach East Midlands' (Gainsborough based) brand new ADL Enviro 400 MMC (10900 / YX67 VCN) beginning to depart from Scunthorpe Bus Station on the second day of operation in traffic. It's believed that this MMC is testing the waters on the demanding InterConnect 100 - which links Scunthorpe, Gainsborough and Lincoln together on one route. The others are yet to enter traffic yet, though.
The latest vehicles are yet to be put in Stagecoach branding or their unique InterConnect branding - although this may happen sometime soon. Overall, six MMCs will be entering traffic (carrying fleet numbers 10896-10901) in order to replace the current Scania N230UDs that have served InterConnect 100 for 8 years now.
This latest batch of vehicles is specified to the new 'Stagecoach Spec', which includes USB Charging, E-Leather Seats and Full Width Rear Destinations. It's yet to be known whether these have been specified with WiFi, however.
40106 is one of twenty class 40s built at Robert Stephenson and Hawthorn's factory in Darlington. The loco features the original four-disc headcode system along with interconnecting gangway doors seen on various classes of BR diesels but ultimately under used.
Entering traffic as D306 and later becoming 40106 under the TOPS system in the 1970s, legend has it that, during her last works overhaul at Crewe in September 1978, 40106 was repainted into standard BR Blue, but shortly afterward, it was decided to revert to Dark Brunswick green with full yellow ends, the repaint apparently being carried out before she left works.
40106 became a favoured loco on railtours and other special passenger workings for several years and also took part in the 'Rocket 150' celebrations at Rainhill, in May 1980. The loco avoided conversion to dual brakes, remaining vacuum only through to withdrawal in April 1983, deemed 'life expired'. D306 was bought by the late Gerald Boden, entering preservation in March 1984, based at the Great Central Railway.
The loco was named ATLANTIC CONVEYOR on 11th August 1984 in memory of the Cunard cargo ship and those on board who lost their lives in the 1982 Falklands War. The name was dedicated by John Brocklehurst, Chief Officer of the ship. Following the naming ceremony, D306 worked its first passenger train in preservation, becoming the first Class 40 to do so.
40106 gained worldwide attention in a brief film career, cleverly disguised as D326. The loco was used in a re-enactment of the 'Great' Train Robbery for the hit movie 'Buster'. Filming took place at the Great Central Railway on 29th October 1987.
In November 2015 the 40106 was purchased by the Class 40 Preservation Society, giving the Society a 'full house' in terms of Class 40 design variants. The loco joined sisters 40135 and 40145 at Bury on the 20th of May 2016, with ELR passenger debut on Sunday the 22nd of May.
First time i've been out of portrait view today, oh well. This is one of the Scania E400s which where transferred from Oxford for the expanded Long Sutton operation.
A few enhancements some too replace and others that I would like to include
A Tait tour to Traralgon sits stationary as SEC112 passes over head . Prior to the removal of electrification to Traralgon
10900 arrives at Lincoln bus station with a 100, plus its slightly different front panel with the larger Stagecoach logo and no InterConnect lettering. To say this is the city centre, the background looks very countryside-y!
21.6.21
Painted in Lincolnshire InterConnect livery.
Stagecoach Skegness
ADL Enviro400 MMC
YX73OXZ (11742)
Skegness bus station
7 June 2025
NK57DWV Alexander Dennis Trident 2/ ADL Enviro 400.
Stagecoach East Midland(Skegness) 19209.
Interconnect livery.
God she’s a stunner!
The interconnect brand really does suit the East Lancs Vyking.
I believe most of these vykings wore IC branding back in the day, for use on the 53/59/56 etc.
A lucky catch in Scunthorpe today, seen unattended is 16913.
A recent shuffle to InterConnect services around Mablethorpe has seen the 59 curtailed to run between Mablethorpe and Skegness only, with the 51 extended to operate from Grimsby to Mablethorpe via Louth, maintaining the hourly connection between Louth and Mablethorpe.
27764 rumbles down Quebec Road on the edge of Mablethorpe with a 51 to Louth via Strubby, South Reston and Legbourne, with guaranteed connection to Grimsby.
As one of the showpiece main rooms of Billilla mansion when male guests came to call, the billiard room is one of the grandest rooms in the house. With an interconnecting door between it and the adjoining dining room, whilst the women retired to the feminine surrounds of the drawing room, the men could retreat to this strictly male preserve with their brandy and cigars and discuss business over a game or two of billiards.
Although part of the original 1878 house and featuring some High Victorian detailing, the billiard room did not escape the 1907 redecoration, and as a result it also features some very fine Art Nouveau detailing.
The Billilla billiards room is also one of the most intact rooms in the whole house, as it still features its original and ornate Victorian carpet and the original walnut Alcock and Company billiard table and scoreboard.
A very masculine oriented room, the walls feature Victorian era dark wood dado panelling about a third of the way up the walls. Above that the walls are simply painted, and even to this day they still feature marks where chalked cues once rested. Original ornate Victorian gasoliers that could be swiveled into position still jut from the walls above the dado panelling. With their original fluted glass shades remaining in place, the gasoliers still have functioning taps to increase or decrease the gas supply.
The room is heated by a large fireplace featuring an insert of beautiful tube lined Art Nouveau peacock feathers, once again quietly underlining the fact that this is a man's room.
The Victorian era carpet of the billiard room is still bright and in remarkably good condition for its age. It is thick and dyed in bright colours in a pattern designed to imitate ornate floor tiles.
The ceiling of the billiard room is decorated with ornate stylised foliate Art Nouveau patterns and mouldings of leaves. Whilst Art Nouveau is often referred to as a feminine style, the ceiling of the billiard room shows how when applied in a particular way it could also be very strong and masculine.
Suspended over the walnut Alcock and Company billiard table the gleaming polished brass foliate style gasolier has subsequently been electrified and features five of its six green glass shades.
One of the few more feminine touches to what is otherwise a very masculine room are the stained glass lunettes over the billiard room's three windows. In keeping with other original windows of the house, they feature a single flower, in this case a red tulip.
Alcock and Company Manufacturers was established in 1853 when Melbourne was still a very new city of less than twenty years old. they still manufacture billiard tables from their Malvern establishment today.
Built in High Victorian style in 1878 for successful gold miner Robert Wright, Billilla mansion was originally a thirteen room mansion erected on seven and a half acres of land.
When economic boom turned to bust in the 1880s, the property was purchased in 1888 by wealthy New South Wales pastoralist William Weatherly who named it Billilla after his land holdings and established a home there for his wife Jeannie and their children Violet, Gladys and Lionel.
The house was substantially altered by architect Walter Richmond Butler in 1907, extending the house beyond its original thirteen rooms and adding the Art Nouveau façade seen today.
After William Weatherly's death in 1914, his wife, who was much younger, remained living there until her own death in 1933. She bequeathed the property to her daughter, Violet, who maintained the home with reduced staff until her own death in 1972.
The property was purchased in 1973 by the Bayside Council who subsequently used Billilla as a historical house with guided tours, a wedding and events venue, a school and finally in 2009 as an artist's precinct in the property's outbuildings. Billilla is a beautiful heritage property retaining many of its original features thanks to its long private ownership still incorporating a stately formal garden and the magnificent historic house.
Billilla, at 26 Halifax Street, Brighton, is one of Melbourne’s few remaining significant homesteads, built on land which had originally been owned by Nicholas Were. The house has a mixture of architectural styles, featuring a Victorian design with Art Nouveau features and has exquisite formal gardens, which retain much of their original Nineteenth Century layout.
Billilla retains many original Victorian elements and a number of outbuildings still stand to the rear of the property including the butler’s quarters, dairy, meat house, stable garden store and coach house.
Billilla was opened to the general public as part of the Melbourne Open House weekend 2022.
Billilla was used as a backdrop in the 1980 Australian Channel 10 miniseries adaptation of Sumner Locke Elliott's "Water Under the Bridge". It was used at the Sydney harbourside home of Luigi, Honor and Carrie Mazzini.
Working in Cleethorpes on Route 10 to North Sea Lane.
DK09GYJ is a Volvo B7rle with Wrightbus single decker bodywork. New in June 2009 to First Potteries as 69498.
'39' is the only InterConnect Gemini operational at the moment, as '44' has disappeared off Bustimes. Here it is departing Lincoln bus station with a 56 to Skeg on 1.7.21
Along similar lines to the two Gainsborough vehicles, I also got a wave from the driver of this bus.
Although never designed to go together, Beachball livery on Wright Gemini bodywork actually goes together really nicely... unfortunately there's only this one (in the East Mids at least, were there others?) and the paint hasn't exactly stayed on the vehicle. The previous coat of InterConnect purple couldn't have been too good either since it's specks of Road Car green, red and yellow that are showing though!
Somehow its uniqueness as the only Beachball Gemini and uncared for look make this one of my favourites to see on the 56. For a batch of six buses ordered by Road Car but delivered to Stagecoach, to whom they are completely nonstandard, I think it's pretty remarkable that three have survived for their entire design lives doing the work they were originally built for back in 2006, working from Skegness depot on Road Car territory.
A fifteen year old Gemini in Beachball livery and operated by Stagecoach from new, working on the routes it was ordered for is something that theoretically shouldn't exist. The fact that there's one still doing just that despite the lack of care suggested by its appearance is what makes 16941 so great.
Lincoln bus station, 21.4.21
See more photos of this, and the Wikipedia article.
Details, quoting from Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum | Curtiss P-40E Warhawk (Kittyhawk IA):
Whether known as the Warhawk, Tomahawk, or Kittyhawk, the Curtiss P-40 proved to be a successful, versatile fighter during the first half of World War II. The shark-mouthed Tomahawks that Gen. Claire Chennault's "Flying Tigers" flew in China against the Japanese remain among the most popular airplanes of the war. P-40E pilot Lt. Boyd D. Wagner became the first American ace of World War II when he shot down six Japanese aircraft in the Philippines in mid-December 1941.
Curtiss-Wright built this airplane as Model 87-A3 and delivered it to Canada as a Kittyhawk I in 1941. It served until 1946 in No. 111 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force. U.S. Air Force personnel at Andrews Air Force Base restored it in 1975 to represent an aircraft of the 75th Fighter Squadron, 23rd Fighter Group, 14th Air Force.
Donated by the Exchange Club in Memory of Kellis Forbes.
Manufacturer:
Date:
1939
Country of Origin:
United States of America
Dimensions:
Overall: 330 x 970cm, 2686kg, 1140cm (10ft 9 15/16in. x 31ft 9 7/8in., 5921.6lb., 37ft 4 13/16in.)
Materials:
All-metal, semi-monocoque
Physical Description:
Single engine, single seat, fighter aircraft.
Come a day later, there then came a chance to get the only other InterConnect bus on loan to Hull for this year: this turned out to be another ex-Newcastle Enviro400 in what eventually turned out to be a faux-InterConnect livery, never gaining a full set of fleetnames and eventually being supplanted by newer transfers in the previously-posted new livery. As you might be able to tell, the usual Enviro400 destination photography problems then ensued. With the new InterConnect brand in force, electric vehicles on the way and the great 'We've got you' rebrand taking shape, what does the future hold for the East Midlands' assortment of various elderly Enviro400s?
Seen passing through the Holderness Road/Mount Pleasant junction with a newer, non-standard and native counterpart passing in the opposite direction, Stagecoach Lincolnshire RoadCar's supposedly 'InterConnect'-branded 19208, a 2007 ADL Enviro400 new to Stagecoach North East, is seen early doors while on loan to Hull and heading down Holderness Road on a regular 12A service to Kingswood.
DK09GYF Volvo B7RLE / Wright Eclipse Urban in its new InterConnect colour scheme .
New to First Chester & Wirral .
Stagecoach East Midlands (Grimsby) 21271 .
The last loan which is uploadable is this. I did get a photo of one of the Lincoln E300s and one of the Interconnect MMCs but the quality isn't great and they're both blury.
What will Hull Fair 2021 offer? I reckon this year we would've got the ALX400s and presidents back for a bit, i also think we would've got some of Skegness' NK57 plate e400s. Maybe we would've even got some of Mansfield's pronto E400 MMCs, both the 2017 and 2019 ones?
Next year, then.
Seen coming onto Holderness Road whilst on a 12 to Bransholme Centre is Skegness scania e400, 15809.
Stagecoach East Midlands - InterConnect liveried - Scania N230UD / Alexander Dennis Enviro 400 - AE12 CKG seen at King's Lynn Transport Interchange operating service 505 to Spalding Bus Station on May 29th 2025
Fleet Number: 10897
Reg: YX67 VCK
Model: ADL Enviro400 MMC
Company: Stagecoach East Midlands
Route: 100
Direction: Gainsborough for Lincoln
Location: Scunthorpe
Livery: Stagecoach Interconnect
Depot: Gainsborough
Something a little different with Stagecoach Gainsborough 10896 and Lincoln 15651 seen side-by-side, as the Scania breezes by and up over Brayford Way bridge while the MMC waits to turn right down Carholme Road.
9.6.21
Well, look who's back for the second time in one day; it's my favourite Gainsborough Trident. I've never fully understood how buses are assigned to the 107s since sometimes the same bus will come back several times (like here) or sometimes it will be a different one. The 107 timetable doesn't make much sense either, as they just disappear in the middle of the day!
It is fairly common for buses to only have one of the headlights working correctly, since they seem to have them on all the time, but strangely the left headlight was working fine this morning and the right one wasn't and now they've swapped so the right one is and the left isn't... somehow.
Although I took this back on 23.2.21, as I upload this it's the 15th of March and exactly 15 years since the registration on this bus was issued.
Earlier:
www.flickr.com/photos/108834608@N06/51039229737/in/datepo...
E400 MMC parked up ready to take up an InterConnect service. There was an InterConnect Gemini in one of the layover bays too.
Lincoln bus station, 18.11.19
My exploit to the top of the car park was cut rather short by the arrival of a Dennis Trident on the 100, which is usually the preserve of it dedicated batch of E400 MMCs. 18335 pulls in with the blind already set for the return trip.
Lincoln bus station, 28.5.21
FX12BBV - Scania N230UD / Alexander Enviro 400
Stagecoach East Midlands 15811 in Interconnect 6 livery.
Skegness bus station.
19196 on the back of a tow lorry at Blyth , North Notts. Enviro 400 last tracked in may at Cleethorpes. 6/6/25
Not having an ALX muscling in on the photo this time, here's 21214 on the 56, departing Lincoln bus station proper, for its run to Horncastle and Skegness. A Eclipse was commonly found on an evening 56 run back in in winter and early spring, that almost always ran in darkness, but the summer season appears to have seen that departure use deckers like all the others. Seeing this was a nice change!
13.7.21
Catching up to the last major loan-in's, now! And onto the second Scania on loan to Hull we go. Today, the actual park-and-riding begins down south in Silverstone for the practice sessions of the British Grand Prix, and already, I hear, our double deckers are making good mileage. Up here, meanwhile, I took the opportunity of the sun in the sky to head up to somewhere where I've always wanted to chase a bus - the terminus of the 2, right up to the northern borderline of the City of Kingston-upon-Hull. This is the last of three double deckers out on loan this week, and I hear that these will be here until Tuesday, at the very least. If you haven't got them yet - and why haven't you? - get them now while the sun's out!
The last double decker sent out on loan to Hull to cover for our 19-plate E400MMCs, Stagecoach in Worksop's 15175, a 2014 Scania N230UD ADL Enviro 400 new to Stagecoach Grimsby-Cleethorpes for their InterConnect services, now branded for the 'Aspire' 77 from Worksop to Chesterfield, is seen here at the most northerly point in the city of Hull at the northern terminus of the 2 to North Bransholme.
A rare sight these days is a Solo in full Brylaine red, blue and yellow livery that hasn't been repainted into he new red/blue or lost the yellow parts on one or both sides. Still haven't a clue what their logo is meant to be though!
YJ05 JXD departs Lincoln bus station with an InterConnect 5 on 9.4.21