Heathrow/Uxbridge Trip 16/02/13

91st Post. The old 91. Split to H91 and 391. H91 should be extended to Heathrow Central. Talking about Heathrow:

On this, I was joined eventually by James and Lewis Nagle from the Across London Bus Blog/Carousel Buses Blog. I didn't even think that it would happen, but it did. James and I doing something together for the blog for the first time in some time.

Anyway, I decided that due to nothing new this Saturday, I would go to my old haunting grounds of Southall and Heathrow. I never got a chance to go to Southall, mainly because I found out that Lewis was there!

I took 515 photos, Lewis took 438 and James took 308 photos that day.

Here are the uploaded photos from that day taken by (not all photos):
Me: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wltmauc/sets/72157632800238302/
James: http://www.flickr.com/photos/78790262@N07/sets/72157632834599042/
Lewis: http://thewestlondonbusblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/many-many-pictures-6-hours-at-heathrow.html

Here are some of the better ones for the blog, in sequence. Note, long post:

I started off at Hatton Cross, and saw AE10 CUK doing staff shuttles.


London United DE11, Route 285, Hatton Cross
I then went to Heathrow Central on an X26:


Quality Line/RATP MCL8 on Route X26, Heathrow Central Bus Station


The main reason why I went to Heathrow - Route 111, my favourite route. SP173 is unfortunately on the route. I personally would like ADEs on the route. Even VM1 would be nice. Or an old VA/VP.


Metroline VW1204 on Route 105*, Heathrow Central


Due to the closure of the rear bus station with the old shelters where TfL buses used to stand in the days of old, and more recently, non-TfL buses, stand 19 now includes more bus routes.


First Berkshire 64005 on Route 76


Abellio 8772 on Route 441, with new 441 Flyer livery:



National Express HSK660 on Route 501

Then, Lewis arrived on a 724 from Uxbridge (the bus travelled from Harlow):

Network Harlow/TGM 3873 on Route 724


First DMC41509 on Route U3, as well as TGM 3873 on Route 724


First DML44010 on Route A10


London United SP174 on Route 111


London United SP173 on Route 111


National Express SR119 on Route 787


National Express CY114 on Route 727


First Berkshire ES64001 on Route 75


London United SP166 on Route 111


London United SP185 on Route 111. Identical photo, almost literally, from the one above...


Metroline VW1194 (105*) and VPL222 (140)


London United SP185 (111) and Metroline VPL222 (140)


Carousel Buses 875 on Route A30


First DML44021 arrived as a U5, but was supposed to be blinded for the A10, so it changed:



Network Harlow 3873 on Route 724


London United SP25 on Route 111.


First London DML44018 on Route A10


Carousel Buses 809 on Route A40


London United SP184 on Route 111


Metroline VW1180 and VW1186 on Route 105*


Metroline VP319 on Route 140

Lewis and I then went on Quality Line MCL11 (on Route X26) to go to Hatton Cross to meet James:

At Heathrow Central (Au)

Au and Lewis in MCL11 on Route X26, Hatton Cross (James)

London United OT16 on Route 203 (James)

Metroline DP1012 on Route 90 (Au)

Metroline MM824 on Route 90 (James)

Abellio 8447 on Route 490 (Au)


Abellio 8070 on Route 555 (Au)


Abellio 8486 (H25) and Quality Line/RATP MCL15 (X26) (Au)


B20 WTS displaying DHL (Au)


London United SP2 on Route 482 (Au top, James bottom)

Metroline MM787 on Route 90 (James)

...and the duty card isn't exactly what number it was (Au).


London United DE5 on Route 285 (Au)

Abellio 8791 on Route 490 (James)

...and both the two above buses together. The driver of 8791 seems to be quite friendly, as she gave us a greeting here :)


Abellio Surrey 8726 on Route 555 (Au)



The clash of the Abellio! Not a good title, it seems...
London 8451 on Route H25, whilst Surrey 8091 on Route 557 (Au)


Quality Line MCL9 on Route X26, short to Hatton Cross only (Au)

We all then went back to Heathrow Central (remove the word 'back' in James' case) using Route 285:

London United DE21 on Route 285 (James)

London United SP178 on Route 111 (Au)


The Heathrow Terminal 2 site looking good in progress (Au)

London United SP178 on Route 111 (James)

Metroline VW1200 on Route 105* (Au)


Oxford Bus Company 4 on Route OXF/LHR (Au)


London United SP45 on Route 111 (Au)


First DML44153 on Route U3 (Au). Note the Uxbridge Station blinds.


London United SP46 on Route 111 (Au)

First SC23014 on Reading Railair (James)

Network Harlow 3903 on Route 724 (Au)

Menzies S6 on Route N4 staff shuttle (Au)

National Express 51 on Route 701 (Woking Railair) (Au)


Menzies S23 on Route PEX (Au)


We now even have planes here, on the blog, with a China Southern A330 over Heathrow Central. (Au)


London United SP43 on Route 111 (Au).

London United DE10 on Route 285 (James)

National Express Hotel Hoppa 8328 (H4) and Menzies S25. (Au)

Menzies S26 (Au)

Menzies Rajat on Route E2 (James).

Heathrow Long Stay Car Park Shuttle BD08 DZN (Au)


NCP KX08 OML (Au)


Heathrow Express Class 332 at Heathrow Central. We all then went to Terminal 5, intending to ride the pods, only to find them replaced by:


TGM BV57 VGM on Pod Replacement service. (Au)


Abellio 8791 on Route 490. The destination is Lower Feltham. However,the driver, who we saw at Hatton Cross earlier, showed us the smartblind machine, before turning on the engine to scroll to Richmond Pools on the Park (Au. Video by Au)
The blind change was filmed by Au:

London United DLE17 on Route 423 (Au)


First DML41174 on Route 60 (Au)


Heathrow Connect Class 360 on stand at Heathrow Terminal 5 (Au)

Frozen screen and the light has 'burnt into the screen'... (James, noted by me and explained by Lewis)

First ES64034 on Route 76 (Au)


First EC64016 on Route 75 (Au)


Carousel 875 on Route A40 (Au). We headed home via Uxbridge.


London United ADE8 on Route 222 (Au)


First Berkshire DMA42344 on Route 58 (Au)


First DML44108 (A10) and DMC41504 (U3). (Au)


First VN37873 on Route 427* (Au)


Abellio 8115 (U9) and First DML44008 (331). (Au)

It was a great time and we all got to know each other. Also, I have returned back to the places I haven't been for some time. The last time I went to Heathrow was early times of the blog...  This is a long post due to the sheer amount of photos we got - it looked like an army of photographers! :)

Anyhow, there is more to come from the blog, including many observations from 23/02 which I haven't even uploaded yet, and the H28.