Sunday Lost Scenes #2

My Sunday Lost Scene today is a view of Bude outstation in North Cornwall, photographed on 30th July 2006.

Bude was once a large First Western National/First Devon & Cornwall operating centre. Pre-2002, First Western National operated into Bude on the 122/124 from Boscastle, Tintagel and Newquay, the X3 and X4 from Truro, the X76 from Plymouth, and more. The network was then cut back a lot - Western Greyhound took over the 122/124 and more - but the allocation for Bude was still quite substantial in 2006. Routes operated from the depot were:

• Bude town service 128 - which is still operated by FDC.
• X9 Bude - Exeter, using three Volvo B7R coaches rather than the Enviro400s of today.
• 85 to Holsworthy and Barnstaple, now operated by Stagecoach
• 285 to Holsworthy, now withdrawn and covered by First's X9, some WGH services and a dial-a-ride service
• 319 to Hartland - now covered by WGH's service.
• one bus was used on the X8 Bude - Plymouth - PVR was 3 at this point - the other two buses were supplied by Plymouth.

Pictured from left to right:

• 20412 - S312SCV
• 20145 - S315SRL
• 42434 - P434ORL
• 42430 - P430ORL
• 52566 - S866NOD
• 20352 - WA05UNE
• 52531 - S531RWP
• 47111 - P411MLA
• 42783 - S683SNG - now with First Hants & Dorset at Hoeford.
• 20108 - N608APU
• 46230 - N22BLU

None of the above buses are in service with First Devon & Cornwall today on route work. Coaches 20108 and 20412 are still in service with the company, as is 20145 but it is withdrawn with accident damage.