John Oram's photos with the keyword: P1180895

The Class 73 electro-diesel is, in my opinion, somewhat under-celebrated compared to some other, often shorter lived, types. This is another class which is now 50 years old but is still represented in numbers and especially so at its spiritual home, Eastleigh. On this occasion, there were (at least) eight examples present, six in the yard and another two in the Works area. The six were (all GBRf) 73207 (furthest from camera), 73206 'Lisa', 73212 'Fiona', and 73136 (back row) and (front row) 73119 'Borough of Eastleigh' (left) and 73141 'Charlotte'. The female names used by GBRf are those of staff members. The two 73s in the Works were Network Rail 73138 and 73109. P1180985

It was a posting on Flickr which drew my attention to the presence at Eastleigh of more vehicles on delivery to First. I first observed similar use of space at the works on 11 March 2012 when First's Eclipses were being delivered for the Eclipse busway between Fareham and Gosport. These Wrightbus Streetlite Maxs are reported as being delivered (via Heysham) to First Hants and Dorset but carry First Solent branding on the nearside above the passenger entrance. I thought they might have been to nearby Hants & Dorset Trim for detailing but a Flickr photograph from Heysham suggests that this had already been applied. For my visit there were two rows of three buses. The vehicles in this picture are (l-r) 66057/SK63KJX, 63064/SK63KKE and 63061/SK63KKB. Note (added 16 October 2013): these buses will run on routes 7 & 8 from Portsmouth and, at the time of these pictures were missing their Star branding. This new branding replaces Zip. P1180895