Wimborne Minster

Wimborne Minster is a picturesque market town five or so miles north of Poole. It is service by Go South Coast though Wilts & Dorset and Damory, and most recently, RATP Yellow Buses, who serve the town once an hour. With many changes occuring at the moment to bus services in the town, this blog entry is going to hold a day in the life of Wimborne at present.

Wimborne's most frequent service is the 3 from Poole (soon to become the 4 according to recent VOSAs). The 3 operates every 15 minutes Mon-Sat, with two buses an hour going via Merley and two buses going via Corfe Mullen. The route sees just about anything allocated to Poole operating it - including unique Scania L94UB 2101 (YT59SFJ), pictured here escaping it's usual Uni duties. The minster can be seen in the background.

The real reason for my visit was to photograph the Optare Tempos still in service at Poole. Their length has proved to be a problem at W&D. Therefore, despite recently entering service in Dorset and being painted in W&D colours, they will soon be passing to Carousel, an operator serving High Wycombe recently acquired by Go Ahead Group. For anyone needing photos of the buses, I suggest you get down to Poole soon. They usually find their self in use on the 3 to Wimborne, one of the routes that can accommodate their length. This is 2508 (YJ56WVU).

Wilts & Dorset have a second route serving Wimborne. This is the half-hourly 13 from Bournemouth, which usually is operated by Mercedes-Benz Citaros. This bus is 2416 (HF55JZT) - previously 166 and in More blue. 

Damory operate the country routes out of Wimborne. One such route is the 83 to Shaftesbury, operating about every 2 hours Mon-Sat. The usual bus operating the route are Optare Solos. 3771 (YJ54UWN) is pictured here loading for the 83. 3771 is still in the previous operator's colours - it was recently acquired from South Lancs Travel.

I saw 4 Damory Solos on Saturday - they were in 4 different liveries. The only one in Damory colours was 3636 (T636AJT) - a bus yet to receive the new Go South Coast number. It is pictured here on the Fri/Sat only 328.

The most recent addition to Wimborne are Bournemouth Transport, operating into the market town hourly (Mon-Sat) on the 4d. The service usually sees Merits, Cadets or ADL Darts - such as 510 (SN55HSG). Behind the bus you can see Wimborne "market place" - which is presently being redeveloped and redesigned.

The sole DAF SB120/Cadet is 514 (YJ51ELX), and I was lucky enough to capture it on camera on Saturday. It is pictured standing loading passengers for the 4d in Wimborne Square.

Wimborne is an excellent place to photograph. I have never photographed their in the sun, so cannot inform about angles as such. However, I can talk about the variety. The Damory services change from day to day depending on different markets or different requirements. Not all services are Solo operated, either! Wilts & Dorset can throw up anything on the 3. Yellow Buses' allocation on route 4 means you get a different bus each hour, meaning you can improve your photograph collection over a visit of a few hours.