Every first Saturday of December, Ensignbus run a special heritage service over 3 routes - the X21 (Upminster - Ongar), X55 (Upminster - Gravesend) and X81 (Shenfield - Tilbury Ferry) - which are registered local services and charge fares, so can only be operated by vehicles with a Class 6 MOT. This means that the majority of services are by their own vehicles, but visitors always appear from places such as the London Bus Museum, Stagecoach and more. This year, the event was held on the 1st December with lots of vehicles out and about, including visitors from Byeways (MLL738), London Bus Company (XF1), London Bus Museum (RLH48), Seaford & District (OKO816G) and Stagecoach (JOU160P). I began my day on the first service from Upminster towards Gravesend...
8:45 on a drizzly, grey December morning. Yet again, I told myself that I was absolutely mad, but I was here now and determined to have a good day. A small gathering of enthusiasts sheltering at Stop B in Upminster Town Centre assured me that I was at the right stop. By 8:50, everyone was beginning to look a little anxious. No need to worry though, as around 2 minutes later RT8 appeared in the distance and ran up to the station in order to turn around and pick us up.
We all boarded and I said hello to the well-known conductor Bob, whom I had met previously through others. This was going to be a fun ride, as Ross Newman (one of the people very high up in the Ensign company) was driving. The bus was quite empty and I had got the second seat from the front, which surprised me for the 8:56 out of Upminster which is usually jam-packed! However, this soon changed as, at the last minute, a whole load more people descended upon us for the ride. Around one minute late, we were given the double ding and we were soon away to Gravesend, but I'd only be riding to Bluewater. After a pleasant (if very leaky) ride along the QEII Bridge, we took a left and we were soon in Greenhithe and I disembarked to grab a quick picture.
We were very soon at Bluewater Shopping Centre, where I had hoped to switch to an RTW that I hadn't been on before - number 335. Luckily, that connection was made (although without the possibility to take any decent photos) and we retraced our route back to the connection with the A282 and we had soon plunged into the darkness of the Dartford Tunnel with the glow of the lights inside the relatively empty bus, less than half full, which was a nice change from the previous trip! Even though the bus seemed rather sluggish, we had made it to Lakeside in plenty of time for departure, which was a surprise.
We then set off after a few minutes wait, then ran along the Corbets Tey 'bumpy' section before arriving at Upminster. Again, we were a couple of minutes early upon arrival and this left me a few minutes before my next service on a different route, the X21...
Continued in Part 2 (Coming soon).
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