Hey guys. This video was filmed way back in October 2022, but TH-cam was a bit of a dick uploading it at the time, so I decided to save it as an archive. Now you-know-what has finally happened, I thought there was no better time to upload it.
This is 4777 on an evening 85 to South Wigston. 85s at this time tend to be very slow and get stuck in a lot of traffic, but I struck it lucky, and having departed late, this driver was determined to make the time up, hence why it was filmed out of Leicester all the way to Countesthorpe.
This was filmed on a day of chaos and confusion, the day that the Krystals nightclub burned down, forcing a closure of the then-new St. Margaret’s Bus Station, which was frustrating for me as it would have been my first time getting the 85 from it. Nonetheless, I got my chance the following week, and it was actually this precise bus again. 4777 has a lot of significance to me, as it was not only the first bus I ever boarded at the new SMBS, but it was also the first bus I ever filmed a route visual on way all the way back in June 2018 (my 127 to Shepshed one), and it was also the first of these I had on the 85 since they became a possibility again when all the routes this side of Leicester transferred to Thurmaston operation at the end of October 2021. I wouldn’t be surprised if the first time I ever had one, which would have been on the 47, was this.
Memories indeed. As you know, I grew up with the DAF Lowlanders that came in for this route a few years earlier, but when these came in, I thought they were the best thing ever. They looked very modern, and 5-year-old me thought the bright Overdrive interior was probably the most beautiful thing in the world. For that reason, when one of these used to sway onto the 85 in those days, it was like Christmas had come early, and I’ll even admit that I used to get overly excited going to Wigston just because it meant going on these.
In 2007 or 2008, one of these came to the summer fete at my primary school for kids to explore and sit in, and because of what I just said above, they couldn’t keep me out of it, and I probably did sit in the cab of it, but me being as camera-shy as I am, no pictures were taken.
Unfortunately, the good times didn’t last, and by mid 2010, these were all working on services on the other side of Leicester with the whole of this side just being Lowlanders, which was a bit shit until the repaints made things more varied. Consequently, I didn’t get one again for a few years when I was old enough to start venturing further alone, this being 4758 on the 127. From then up until COVID hit, I had lots of adventures along that route along with the 5A and the 29, where I could finally see what these beasts could actually do.
All that’s left for me to say now is thank you to these one-of-a-kind machines for over 18 years of fantastic service. The end of these has also officially marked the end of service bashing for me, so expect no more of those trips (unless I wind up somewhere else that still has something interesting like a Pulsar, though this is highly unlikely due to my high car dependency).
My last ever one of these ended up being 4764 when I got that video of it back in January 2023. I did plan to go for one final bash when my car was in for a service in August, but 4760 was on the 47 and 48 that day, while 4761 was on the 104, so I never bothered.