Wessex National 381 (BGY 581T) near Barton Mills – 17 Mar 1985 (10-29)

Sunday 17 March 1985 – Bristol based Wessex National 381 (BGY 581T) seen on the A11 east of Fiveways, Barton Mills when working the 0710 Lowestoft to Bristol National Express service 747.

It is a Plaxton Supreme bodied AEC Reliance that was new to National Travel (London) in January 1979.

The cross country service 747 linked East Anglia with Bristol via Norwich, Cambridge, Northampton and Oxford plus numerous other intermediate points. Schedules were integrated with certain other National Express services to, broadly speaking, offer a frequency of approximately every two hours.

Whilst this was the first departure of the day from Lowestoft, England’s most easterly town, there were early morning departures from the likes of Oxford, Northampton, Cambridge and Norwich to get the service up and running. In a similar way the departures later in the day would terminate at an appropriate intermediate town.

Having departed Lowestoft at 0710, this particular trip called at Norwich (0830), Cambridge (1030-1100), Northampton (1240), Oxford (1350-1425) arriving Bristol at 1615.

The 1110 service also ran to Bristol arriving at 2015. The 1310 service terminated at Oxford, the 1510 terminated at Bedford (although was later extended to Northampton). The last two trips of the day commenced at Great Yarmouth and terminated at Cambridge. The 0910 departure from Lowestoft was a service 905 which upon reaching Northampton continued to Birmingham.

A timetable for the service applicable from October 1984 may be seen by following this link:
www.ipernity.com/doc/davidslater-spoddendale/36880146/in/album/729781