Eastern Counties VR306 (PRC 852X) at Barton Mills – 13 Oct 1995 (291-29)

Friday 13 October 1995 - During repairs to the A11 dual carriageway near Barton Mills there were different local diversions in force resulting in sightings of buses where they would not normally been seen.

The westbound carriageway was closed and the eastbound carriageway working as a contra-flow with traffic running in both directions. For safety reasons traffic could not enter the dual carriageway near the now long closed Dog & Partridge Inn and The Bull Inn.

The bus would normally have passed The Bull Inn then turned left outside the Dog & Partridge and then left on to the dual carriageway. However, due to the diversion it had to travel along the old A11 to Chalk Hill and then travel back to reach Fiveways. It was seen here near the closed access point.

The bus is Eastern Counties Omnibus Company VR306 (PRC 852X), an Eastern Coachworks bodied Bristol VR, was working the 1312 service from West Row to Bury St. Edmunds. It had been new to Trent Motor Traction as their 852 in July 1981. ECOC had bought numerous similar buses new during the production run and then in the 1980s and 1990s started to acquire various secondhand examples to supplement the fleet.