Lothian Country's 177 (SN13 BEJ), a Voith DIWA Volvo B7RLE Wright Eclipse Urban 2, seen here at Bathgate Morrisons.
177 is seen here in Bathgate, about to embark on the diverted, soon to be withdrawn, 276 to Broxburn via; Bathgate (Menzies Road, South Bridge Street, Edinburgh Road and Blackburn Road), Blackburn (Bathgate Road, Ash Grove, Elm Grove and East Main Street), Blackburnhall Road, Addiewell, Loganlea, Addiewell, Blackburnhall Road, Blackburn (East Main Street), Seafield, Shin Etsu, Kirkton Campus, Simpson Parkway, Livingston (Morrisons, South Alderstone Road, Bankton Road), Bellsquary, Livingston (Bankton Road, South Alderstone Road, Morrisons), Livingston the Centre, Craigshill, St John's Hospital, Ladywell, Houstoun Industrial Estate, Pumpherston, Uphall Station and Uphall.
The 276 is supposed to serve, after Addiewell, West Calder, Polbeth, Bellsquary then onto Livingston the Centre. However, due to a road closure, the bus was diverted.
The photograph was taken on Saturday, October 8th 2022.
177 was new to Lothian Buses in early to mid 2013 along with 176 and 178 - 190.
2016 seen 190 transfer to East Coast Buses and receive the East Coast Buses livery. This saw an altering of the fleet number being with the 10××× prefix, denoting a single deck vehicle, added, resulting in 190 becoming 10190.
In 2017, 186 - 189, along with 190 (returning back from East Coast Buses) were all painted into Skylink livery for the launch of service Skylink200, 176 - 185 remained working Lothian City routes. 186 - 190 were subsequently repainted into Lothian Buses livery later on in the year once the Gemini 2 B5LH's entered service and the service Skylink200 was upgraded to double decker capacity.
in November 2019 176 - 185 were transferred to Lothian Country for use on Lothian Country's (new at the time) service X38 between Linlithgow and Edinburgh, 177 - 180 and 182 were branded for service X38 (176 never received the branding but had Lothian Country logos, 181 was never branded for service X38 since it suffered an engine fire and was off service for 2 years)
In September 2020 176 - 180 and 182 - 185 returned to service and were all debranded from service X38 ( this was both a result of the Coronavirus lockdown with all services ran with double decker buses loaned by Lothian Buses so Lothian Country's buses could get fitted with driver protection screens and that service X38 was withdrawn due to low customer usage pre-Covid-19).
In March 2021, we saw 186 and 187 transfer to Lothian Country, followed by in 188 and 190 in April 2021, then finally 189 in May 2021.
In November 2021 181 re-entered service after its engine fire and is now wearing the new shared livery between Lothian Country and East Coast Buses.
As of the date this was uploaded (28/09/2022) Lothian Country have 16 Eclipse 2's in their fleet, these being; 1 trainer (171) and 15 in day to day service (176 - 190). All together Lothian Buses has 29 Eclipse 2's across their fleets including 6 training buses (TB1 - TB6), 16 Lothian Country Buses, 5 East Coast Buses and 2 in reserve (172 and 173).
This is a list of all Eclipse 2's across the Lothian Buses fleets including liveries and depots:
Fleet no. - Reg - Livery - Depot - Company
TB1 (ex 167) - SN58 BYU - ST - LS - LB
TB2 (ex 168) - SN58 BYV - SW - LS - LB
TB3 (ex 169) - SN58 BYW - FoTF - LS - LB
TB4 (ex 170) - SN58 BYX - FoTF - LS - LB
TB5 (ex 174) - SN60 EOG - TB - LS - LB
TB6 (ex 175) - LB60 BUS - TB - LS - LB
171 - SN60 EOD - SW - LV - LCB
172 - SN60 EOE - SW - MA - LB
173 - SN60 EOF - SW - MA - LB
176 - SN13 BDZ - LC - LV - LCB
177 - SN13 BEJ - LC - LV - LCB
178 - SN13 BEO - LC - LV - LCB
179 - SN13 BEU - LC - LV - LCB
180 - SN13 BEY - LC - LV - LCB
181 - SN13 BFA - LC - LV - LCB
182 - SN13 BFE - LC - LV - LCB
183 - SN13 BFF - LC - LV - LCB
184 - SN13 BFJ - LC - LV - LCB
185 - SN13 BFK - LC - LV - LCB
186 - SN13 BFL - FoTF - LV - LCB
187 - SN13 BFM - FoTF - LV - LCB
188 - SN13 BFO - FoTF - LV - LCB
189 - SN13 BFP - FoTF - LV - LCB
190 - SN13 BFV - FoTF - LV - LCB
10195 - SN62 BNY - ECB - MA - ECB
10196 - SN62 BPV - ECB - MA - ECB
10197 - SN62 BTF - ECB - MA - ECB
10198 - SN62 BUF - ECB - MA - ECB
10199 - LB62 BUS - ECB - MA - ECB
Codes:
Liveries -
ST = Horizontal Stripes
SW = Swoops
FoTF = Fleet of The Future
LC = Lothian Country
ECB = East Coast Buses
TB = Training Bus
Depots - CE = Central, MA = Marine, LS = Longstone, LV = Livingston, MU = Musselburgh
Companies - LB = Lothian Buses, LCB = Lothian Country Buses, ECB = East Coast Buses
Change log, Aug22 - Sep22:
174 and 175 have fully joined the training fleet, now having the fleet numbers TB5 and TB6.
Disclaimer - the information I have provided about the depots and the liveries are correct from Tuesday 11th October 2022 (the date of upload). I won't be editing this specific description if there are any changes. I will only update this list (if there are any changes) if I post another photo of a Eclipse 2. I will post the most up to date information on there!
