Picture Archive Post 53

Metroline TPL272 on Route 32, Cricklewood, 08/06/12 (© Aubrey)

TPL272 is a Transbus Trident/Plaxton President new to Metroline in 2002. It started life at Potters Bar for the 82 when the route was converted to low-floor. Afterwards, it had a normal life going through Metroline routes from Potters Bar, Cricklewood, Holloway and then back to Cricklewood. By 2012, when the bus was withdrawn, the bus was doing Route 32 from Cricklewood. After withdrawal on 1st November 2012 (yay), the bus then was sold and moved to Newport Bus for use on town services, where it is today.

Route 32 started out to run between Edgware Station and Kilburn Park Station, replacing the southern half of Route 142. Running from Cricklewood Garage with Routemasters from 13th June 1970. A short Sunday allocation at Hendon (AE) occurred in 1971, before conversion to Daimler Fleetline OPO (DMS) operation in March 1971. The MCW Metrobus then became the standard type for the 32 from 1980. A short peak-hour deviation via Graham Park Estate to Mill Hill Broadway ran between 1981 and 1996. It passed over to Metroline after sectorisation. In 1996, single deck Dennis Lances replaced the Metrobuses and ran on the route until it was converted back to double deck (with low floors) in 2000. Dennis Trident/ALX400s then became the allocation. After a while, the allocation for the 32 became "all the cast-offs from the 16" and "any double decker in Cricklewood". It currently has the Enviro 400 hybrid cast-offs from the 16 as the allocation.

Also, a note from Aubrey:
Due to the rush in making the previous post by me, I was not able to explain my hiatus from the blog prior to now. From about September, I was going though a lot of personal social upheaval, which along with coursework from university, led that it was unsustainable to continue blogging. The time off allowed me to have more time with myself, allowing to think decisions through and sort my own life out. Quite a few of my friends know exactly what had happened, but at the end of the day, I've recovered better than before. WLTM Transport Blog is not just any blog team. It is a team of friends who blog in their spare time, and it has been like that since the blog became a team back in 2012. Teams of friends stick together, talk with each other and help each other out when another friend is in need. Tommy Cooling has joined the blog, although he'll talk more about himself when he released his first post.

Thanks to Lewis, Josh, Jacek, Omar and Tommy for helping me get through a hard time, and now, we all continue blogging.
From the pretty strong WLTM Transport Blog team, thank you for your patience, and near-normal blogging will resume!