The Eastbourne to Hastings 99 service was being operated today as far as Pevensey by Maidstone & District Leyland Titan DH379, at two-hourly intervals. I was able to stake a claim on the 1300 departure by introducing myself to the crew as *part of the organisation". When we ran down to the stop I discovered that this was important, as they only let on about three-quarters of the queue, about forty people, explaining to the others that this was an elderly vehicle than ran hot if fully-loaded.
We set off for Pevensey, taking yet another different route out of town, wiggling down to "Seaside" and then heading north-east along the main road. We joined the 14 route briefly, then left it near Tesco, to run on out onto the flood-levels east of Eastbourne (You know, where they build all the houses!). Open countryside followed, and all too soon we were at Pevensey, turning round a square to point back westwards. The blinds were changed, photos were taken, we all piled back on, and off we went again.
We roared back towards Eastbourne, then wound through the Sunday afternoon supermarket traffic to get into town. The Titan behaved impeccably. We were back at Eastbourne Station just nicely in time for me to collect RT3148 for the next trip out to the Miniature Railway. We picked up a decent load, and headed off. On the way out of town we met Reliance S6 coming the other way on the next trip.
We were soon out at the Miniature Railway, where the East Kent Regent was ready to follow us back to town to take over from 67...
All photos by Ian Smith. Click on most of them for a larger picture.
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