First expanding in Dorchester

First Hants & Dorset have won the short term contracts for two routes in Dorchester. The town service route 101, which First already operate on Sundays, will be taken over from Nordcat and operated by Weymouth. First will also take on Nordcat route D12 - renumbered route 216 - connecting Dorchester and Yeovil.

I managed to capture this working of a Nordcat Solo on route 101 on an absolutely soaking wet day last summer (well, it is England). YJ07VTA is seen heading for the Crossways. First will hire three Solos from Dorset County Council - one may indeed by the Solo pictured above - to operate the two new routes. Two will be allocated at Weymouth (route 101, and one working on the 216) with another at Yeovil (also for the 216). No timetables are available yet but the services have been confirmed by VOSA.

Also - just for clarification - First have now registered the 58, 58A and 158 from Yeovil depot under the FHD company name. Hourly route 58 with a two-hourly 158.

On another note, I apologise for the lack of blog postings recently. They may be slightly reduced over the next few weeks due to other life commitments and fotopic's disappearance. I should be bringing photos from a day trip out tomorrow and Sunday though.

The Joys of Online Publishing

Its now day 5 without fotopic, and I think I've only just realised how central it was to my online activities. I used to browse my fotopic site for inspiration to post blog entries - and that was also my supply of photos. Due to space on the hard-drive, I've only got photos from 2008 online. Furthermore, it has just dawned on me that all of the links to photos on my First Hants & Dorset website are now inactive and that will require sorting over the next few days if fotopic doesn't come up.

Now I'm betting that this is a server error - there is nothing coming up in the national news saying another company has gone under, and one would expect that if such were true there would have been something to come out from the wall of silence. Therefore, if it is a server/technical error, how long do we wait until going somewhere else? Baring in mind this may happen again, or the next time fotopic may really go under, I'm beginning to rethink if I want most of my eggs in the fotopic basket.

From tomorrow evening I'm going to start retransferring 2003-2007 photos back on my PC. If fotopic doesn't return by next weekend, then my loyalty is then cut and I may make changes to my freewebs site. I'm not sure if I want to go on pikfu - Joel says it is going to be very different from fotopic - when all I really want is a reliable Joel-run fotopic back.

I'm not sure how I'll make changes to my website yet. The above was one of my ideas from 2006-7 when I did think about ditching fotopic (or at least my First photos) and moving them all over to freewebs. We'll have to see. I hope fotopic starts working again as I don't want to have to re-create my site somewhere else - and also if it does, it gives the oppurtunity of a long period of transfer rather than a potentially rushed job.

As I upload my photos from past years over the next few days, there will either be a rush of photos or nothing for the next few days. Please bare with me - this blog is here still.

On a more positive note, please visit Matt Forbes' new blog here or Ant Poulton's new blog here - I wish them every success as their blog grows.

Isle of Wight today

I got back over to the island today for the second time this year - nothing has really changed since my January visit, apart from W&D now have two Solos and an on-loan Volvo B7RLE from W&D. More Solos are due/being prepared for service - I'm not sure for what purpose but there will be a need for 5 of them in the coming months. Anyway, on with today...

I'll start with the loanee - Wilts & Dorset 101 (HF54HFO) is in service on the island at the moment, covering a loanee Scania which in turn is covering the Scania Omnicity double deckers as they return to the manufacturer for warantee work (I think that's it anyway). 101 is primarily allocated to route 5, but today I managed to catch it on route 9, connecting Ryde and Newport. My first photo show 101 arriving in Ryde from Newport at St Thomas' Square, and the second image illustrates 101 departing Ryde bus station on a return to Newport.

I spent about half an hour in Newport bus station, and managed to grab some photos of the MPDs. There are now only a few MPDs left on the island - primarily allocated to route 1 (Cowes - Newport), but when available one also operates route 38 (to Carisbrooke). 302 (HW54BTV) is pictured on the stand in Newport bus station.

The main buses in service on the island are these Scania Omnicities - here is 1102 (HW08AOR) departing Ryde bus station for Bembridge on route 8.

The 8 and 37 interwork in Ryde. Here is Scania Omncity 1109 (HW58ASU) arriving in Ryde on a 37 - with the destination already set to route 8 for its onward trip. Pictured in St Thomas' Square.

5 former Metrobus Scania Omnidekkas are in use on the island. They are allocated to the school unit at the moment (seeing operational action on specific bus service lines and school services), and a fitter/mechanic drove 1055 (YN03DFP) up to the bus station today. Here is 1055 parked out of service.

Finally for today, here is another Scania Omnicity- this time 1142 (HW09BBU) pictured arriving in Ryde's St Thomas' Square on route 9 today. Thanks for viewing - I will upload all of these photos and more to my fotopic site when it starts working again - hopefully sooner rather than later...



What is to be done?

Today, once again fotopic has gone down. Again, there is no explanation - complete silence from fotopic (or rather their "Snappy" owners) - the only bit of light coming from former owner, Joel, on the Google Group focusing on Fotopic Users. Recently:

• Fotopic have not been replying to emails sent to management. I have myself sent many in for help when the service or the search facility has been down - not a dicky bird back.
• Any suggestions have not had a reply - about 2 years ago I asked if they could allow us to pick the group image photo on the front page. "It will come in the next software update" I was told...
• The search facility has been down for a month or so now (or at least it feels like it).

I am a premium user, and it feels as if I am pumping money each time I renew my membership into an empty company. As it is, the group layout is retained even if your premium expires as the settings are kept. Am I getting anything for my money? Do fotopic deserve my money? Is it really worth it? What is to be done?

• Keep going with the site. I've got thousands of photos on there - some which are only in the darkest deepest depths of my storage CDs. It would take me an age to upload them all again - and I do generally like the fotopic layout. Shame about the management.
• Transfer everything to my freewebs website. This would be a pain due to having to embed the photos into web pages, but freewebs is 99.9% reliable and there is always someone on the other end of the email! It would be more time consuming but far more personal.
• Flickr- now I'm not the biggest fan of flickr - the photos are too small and I find that you lose photos in the sorting facility. Having said that, I like the intergrated nature of being able to have one photo in several sections, and it seems to be very reliable.
• The new software from Joel - Pikfu. No idea what it will look like because it hasn't been published yet, but apparently fotopic sites will be able to be transferred over some how. An interesting development - will have to wait until it goes live.
• Finally, keep the site dormant and move onto somewhere else with the new photos. I don't like this option but you increasingly get the feeling that one day fotopic really won't come back and all of your time and energy will be wasted.

Regardless of whether fotopic comes back on 5 minutes after this post goes live, 5 hours or 5 days, my concerns (as I'm sure many of you share) will still be there. Will fotopic go down one day never to return? It is such a shame that what was once the best way (and when working, still is in my opinion) to display your photos online has ended up like this - here's hoping the good old days come back sometime sooner rather than later.

BlueStar Spectra

After trying to find this for a week, I managed to stumble onto Wilts & Dorset DAF SB250/Optare Spectra 3162 (W162RFX) today in Hythe.

3162 has been painted into BlueStar colours for the changes to routes 56/56A, which see BlueStar take over them as BlueStar route 6. However, certain journeys still operate from Lymington and are still operated by Wilts & Dorset - 3162 is one of those buses blue for route 6 but still operated by Wilts & Dorset.

3162 is pictured in Hythe on route 112, which connects the coastal town to Lymington. Blue buses on the 112 fit in well at Hythe - a BlueStar hub seeing 6 route 9s an hour, at least 1 route 8 an hour, and a Solo on the town services. Sources indicate that when the trees are cut on the 10/11 routes to Cadnam (interworked with route 6) then 3162 will move onto route 6 - but until then it has been used on routes 112 and 119. Haven't seen it in Bournemouth yet on an X1 or X2 though - but time will tell...

They are rare, but you can still find them...

I'm talking about Wilts & Dorset's step entry DAF SB250/Optare Spectra double deckers - once easy to find no matter where you were in the Wilts & Dorset network, and now whittled down to just 7 in service.

6 of the 7 are allocated to Salisbury depot, and these include 3139 (M139KRU), pictured to the left. From my latest sources, 3136, 3138, 3140, 3143 and 3147 also operate from Salisbury, although they are quite hard to find and outnumbered by the former Southern Vectis Volvo Olympians in use in the capital of Wiltshire. 3139 is pictured arriving on an early morning 64 from Perham Down - due in at 1005 in Salisbury city centre.

However, at least one looks as if it will be around for a long time yet. Numerically the last Optare Spectra bodied step entry DAF is 3147 (M947KRU), which is one of the latest buses to receive Wilts' 2008 livery. She is pictured arriving in Salisbury on a 44 from Woodfalls on Friday morning.

3127 (L127ELJ) is also left in service from Ringwood - it is also the only one left in the striped Wilts & Dorset livery, although 3138 is in the coach version of the livery. Just a few years after W&D removed the last Bristol VR from service, the DAF/Optare Spectra cull sees its last 7 survivors - it will be interesting to see how many last into 2012.



Wilts & Dorset X5

On Sunday, Wilts & Dorset began to operate their new route X5 which connects Salisbury with Swindon. Yesterday, I visited Salisbury to grab some photos of the X5 in operation...

The X5 takes over from the former 5/6/95/96 set of routes, which connected Salisbury to Pewsey and then Pewsey onto Swindon. The X5 operates half hourly to Durrington, with hourly workings to Larkhill and Swindon. The Swindon service is technically split at Pewsey to meet driver route distance laws.

The X5 is predominantly operated by Wilts & Dorset's Scania Omncity double deckers allocated to Salisbury. 1139 (HF09BJY) is seen arriving in Salisbury to the right, while above it is 1136 (HF09BJU) standing at the traffic lights along Blue Boar Row.

The buses either show "Larkhill" or "Pewsey and Swindon" on leaving the bus station - and the display would change to simply "Swindon" at Pewsey. 1141 (HF09BKA) rolls onto its stand in Salisbury bus station.

It seems that any low floor double deck bus could be allocated to the X5, and low floor Optare Spectra bodied DAF SB250s do operate on the route when the Scanias are off road or needed on route 8. Here is 3183 (HF52VFZ) pictured arriving in Salisbury from Larkhill. 

Finally, here is another Scania - this time 1140 (HF09BJZ) arriving in Salisbury on route X5. I'm not sure if it was because I was looking for the X5s, but it does seem to have made the route more significant or special since the changes. The X also has signified its addition to Wilts & Dorset's regular Cross Country services - the X1/2 (Bournemouth - Lymington), X3 (Bournemouth - Salisbury), X7 (Southampton - Salisbury) and X8 (Poole - Blandford). The X for Wilts & Dorset, as illustrated by the company's website, appears to be for X Country rather than express.