Recent and forthcoming changes have seen and will soon see respectively the departure of several buses from the company. Two buses have already departed in the shape of the sole Optare Excel fleet number 5 and the last of a small number of Mercedes-Benz Vario Beavers number 9. Due for sale and departure are number 14 an MAN 11.190 Optare Vecta, 18 a Dennis Lance Plaxton Verde and 19 a Plaxton Pointer bodied Denis Dart. Replacements due are two MCV Evolution bodied Dennis Darts similar to one already in the fleet.

1. Departed Optare Excel number 5 passed MAN number 14 in Baslow one April evening in 2008 near to the company garage on the last journey of the day on route 174. Built in 1996 the vehicle was formerly with East Yorkshire Motor Services and was acquired in 2002.

2. Originally with the local Trent company, Mercedes-Benz Vario number 9 left the fleet during 2009 and was captured here driven by Roger Kaye near to Bakewell School in March. The vehicle was bound for Over Haddon on route 178 before it returned to the school for a schoolday-only run. It was later replaced by a new Optare Solo.

3. Another product from the Optare stable was this 1994 built Vecta bodied MAN one of two acquired from Trent in 2003. Number 14 is now on the for sale list and was seen here at the entrance to the company’s garage in Baslow during April 2008.

4. Also on the sales list is this Plaxton Verde Dennis Lance. Number 18 began life with a different registration P2 JJL*, when operated by Longstaff of Mirfield* in West Yorkshire. Here the bus was photographed back in November 2007 as it descended the hill on route 173 at Monsal Head from Wardlow bound for Bakewell.
* number and place corrected by Neville Whitmore 27 & 29 November 2009 respectively: JJL standing for J J Longstaff

5. The nearside aspect of 18 is shown here as the vehicle passes through Bakewell town centre on an afternoon journey on the infrequent route 177 to Monyash in March 2009. Many of the company’s routes are interworked one with another and can cover much of the network each day.

6. The final bus of the trio currently up for sale is a Plaxton Pointer bodied Dennis Dart. Number 19 arrived in Chesterfield on a cold November day in 2007. With steamed up windows the bus pulled onto the bank of stops on New Beetwell Street outside the Portland Hotel.

7. At the other end of the winter period, but this time in early 2009 number 19 pulls out of Bakewell town centre on the short run up the hill to Shutts Lane. Later the bus would have become a 170 and head for Chesterfield. The origins of the bus as the registration suggests however, lay north of the Border with National Express subsidiary Travel Dundee and acquired by Hulleys in 2003.