Wandering, part 1

I have returned from my stay in Oslo for the duration of 4 weeks and in Göteborg (though for a few days), I had nothing to do on the 27th or 28th and I happened to wake up in the morning, and with no internet to procrastinate so I decided to waste time by doing stuff I haven't and stuff that will go. So on this post I'll express the trips I've made on the 27th and 28th, not to diary format of course as clearly I'm the best when it comes to that...

27th September:
I have returned from my stay in Oslo for the duration of 4 weeks and in Göteborg (though for a few days), I had nothing to do on the 27th and I happened to wake up in the morning, and with no internet to procrastinate so I decided to waste time by doing stuff I haven't and stuff that will go.

PVL326 PJ52LWE at West Norwood Station

First on my hitlist was PVL326 which happened to be on the 68 at the perfect time and of course I took a photo of it and recorded said bus and was sadly the only recording I got that day, I will elaborate on the use of 'sadly' as you read on.

I enjoyed my journey on PVL326, it felt really nostalgic as the 68 would see any and every double decker type in Camberwell (Q) except for 12's LTs, and the PVLs being in decent numbers as compared to the remaining 06reg WVLs it's worth a catch, as these PVLs are the last remaining batch that South East has to offer which were very well maintaned workhorses and lived their purpose well. My driver was mostly thrashing the bus to the point we barely caught up to a 68 ahead doing the job of piling people in and still barely catching up. On the way a motorcycle hit a crossing cyclist which involved E195 on the 468 so we cleanly overtook that and never approached us again (very rare for a northbound 468).
In summary, I enjoyed the ride. Fun fact: Beside the time I boarded this bus I saw it twice.

Left to right at Barking Town Centre:
Abellio 9403 LJ56VTC; former VLA90 904 LJ54BDU; 17837 LX03BYN; 19775 LX11BFU

I planned to head to Barking directly by going Aldgate then boarding a 115 but I decided to be roundabout and took a 388 which took me 40 mins alone to navigate the entire City of London section until Bethnal Green and an extra 30 minutes or so to Stratford City.
Nothing interesting as such to note about the Elephant-Bethnal Green section from me as I already did the section on 100, though being the city of London, it's mostly office buildings after the other. Though an exception is certain buildings mainly after St Paul's and London Wall where you at least have a different building design than the 'generic' ones if you understand me.

My 388, 2512 SN16OJB on stand

After leaving Zone 1 I was greeted by the East London I was always familiar with having commuted there daily, poor-state houses in need of decoration and narrower roads.
Nothing much other than buildings or a store or homes until we arrive at Hackney Wick where the 388 takes a different approach and finally serves a purpose of it's own.
I will explain what I mean by 388's purpose. With the introduction of Victoria Park Road (to alleviate traffic southbound away from Hackney), the 388 was introduced, though I did wonder at one point why did it ever need double deckers having used it in peak times multiple times in the past and I've done so again this time round.
Though I was on the upper deck there were few people who used the old 100 section as was used lightly on 100 to begin with, and the familiar 388 section still lightly used, the Hackney Wick to Stratford City section being unique in my opinion, generates it's own profit however small it may be and passenger usage.

I didn't quite intend to make a poor essay on the 388 but I will round this off quickly.

15109 LX09FZF picking up at it's first stop

Anyways, after leaving Trowbridge Estate I notice an awkward building design right next to a residential housing area, which happened to be Here East where I noticed a Suffolk Enviro400 and Go-Ahead's HereEast shuttle Dart on stand, of course stand space other than the one used by Go-Ahead's buses being just one, of course 241 being extended there later in the future. Said HereEast felt like a really glorified yet humanless business park.
The next stop is The Copper Box. Seemingly just an arena to glorify the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park area along with Here East. There's nothing but the landscape for you to view at this point, so I had some admiration for the 388 as you can see views of say, Stratford London Overground station, office buildings in the distance, the Olympic Park in the distance and the well presented road with street trees and yellow sidewalk. To your left you'll notice Westfield in all it's glory, yet the avenue has barely enough people to make it look what it actually is, at least from the Stratford City side.
And last but not least you have the Bus Station.

If I were to scale 388 it'd be 6/10 mainly as it had nothing else to offer other than the Hackney Wick-Stratford City section but it's Enviro400 Citys aren't bad, but that's my opinion on it as a whole.

Said bus which was 12431 YX67VBJ

I spotted one of 257's buses on stand, though I couldn't patiently wait and all the buses from the main stop have arrived I took a 308, as my 308 was leaving the 257 bus followed, luckily enough for me I got off at Theatre Royal Stratford and it was caught by the traffic so I managed to get a good photo of it.

I needed to get to Barking so I needed the 238 for a direct link, I'll try to keep this short and just say I was mesmerised and somewhat approved at the idea of automatically mentioning at a certain stop that the bus is on diversion or the stop is closed, the former I experienced as 238 was on diversion twice to and from Upton Park Boleyn and thus served the station, with full iBus announcements as if it was originally serving such stops. Latter on the 388 as the Blackfriars Station/Southern Entrance stop was closed. Thus the driver doesn't have to tediously do the announcement themselves though not every stop has caught TfL's attention I assume as some stops were closed and drivers did manually do the announcement.

Awkwardly and desperately snapped, DW330 (LJ60AXO) at Barking Town Centre

Once I got off at Barking Town Centre I snapped what was reasonable for me and without moving much, I missed a Trident on 169 though I got it's own allocation of [mostly branded] Enviro400s and I indeed received a branded one as my bus. Despite all the comments of Ilford Lane I made it to Ilford in 14 minutes though to be fair it was outside of peak hours by that point at midday.

Former 19 WVL, WVL485 LJ12NWU which was substituted by WVL347

As I was baffed to 169's routeing in Ilford I bailed out near the Station and walked to the Ilford Station stop for 123 where my favourite recording spots were all taken and the lower deck was mostly full anyway, but I squeezed in a seat so I can listen to the engine clearer.

In all glory, VLA103

Knowing all the hate Edmonton (EC)'s lot of short VLAs receive as well as the ex-Norwood (N) long VLAs, I did expect my VLA103 to be one of the bad ones but I was proved horribly wrong, it was roaring here and there (well for the most part) but not loud enough, and I doubt a true B7TL would stop roaring after being ballistically kicked, yes, the whole way through to Walthamstow Bell Corner.
Having done basically half of 123's route I was impressed by it's direct, popular and useful service and reminds of 37 in that aspect, but also reminded me of 176 in the aspect of being Arriva and allocated VLAs. Just to finish the description of such a journey, VLA103 also managed to be maxed out on the A406 to it's speed limiter to the point it dropped from 5th to 4th and just to confirm there was no incline so I was thoroughly impressed such a machine could manage that...

On my way home I took a sardine-packed 97 to Walthamstow Central and changed for a relatively meh 48 to London Bridge which regulated here and there and took an also meh 133 to my society.

I will end off  by mentioning that the B7TL is my favourite type Volvo had to offer in it's generation, 5-speeder ZFs being my most favourites, as such PVL326 and VLA103 are.

Honourable snaps:

MV38243 LJ17WTU, Stratford City Bus Station

WVL195 LX05EZM, Royal Theatre Stratford

17927 LX03OTC, Stratford City Bus Station

18202 LX04FWM, Ilford Station

As this post is long enough, I'll have my expedition on the 28th in a separate post, anyways, thank you for reading this post and, peace.

Note: Usage of any photos on this blog isn't permitted where no name is present (meaning it's mine, ©Unorm), or an All Rights Reserved symbol © is present. If you desire to use a photo, you must contact the original author. In my case, you should contact my Flickr.