Lothian Buses has a small group of Volvo B7RLE / Wright Urban Eclipses which originate from Northfleet, near Gravesend in Kent (Fastrack).

They started their Scottish duties on East Coast services but five of them have been recently transferred to West Lothian in the Lothian Country livery. 10101 and 10102 remain in the East Coast livery, operating often on services 139 and 140, with 103 to 107 usually on service 280 for LC (note the return to three figured fleet numbers for the West Lothian group).

All have had their registrations changed, as is per usual for Lothian nowadays, in order to disguise the age of the vehicles and all seven wear the catchy registration ident RIG.

Number 10101 (RIG 6491) is captured on East Coast service 139 alongside the old Hardengreen cottage.

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This was rather confusing I must say. I'm trying to contemplate what going on the skyrocket thingy would be like (beside me here) and wondering why people do it - the screaming I could hear from the top of it had me asking the question..Why?!

Anyway, attention on the subject matter, and this is Volvo B7RLE / Wright Urban Eclipse number 10101 (RIG 6491) on a Service 113 between East Lothian and West Granton at the former gasworks.

Registered in 2006, this is the first of a batch of fourteen all with GN 06 E - - original registrations (Arriva fleet nos 3801 - 3814). They were in use at Northfleet Garage near Gravesend in Kent on Fastrack Route B. Lothian purchased half of the fleet group and in the short time they've been up here they have been moved around and repainted more than once! 10101 and 10102 are staying with East Coast in green and grey with 103 - 107 (note the new, shorter fleet numbers) newly repainted in Lothian Country green and cream and already working mainly on West Lothian's Services 280 and 287.

Thanks to my driver friend Ian McClavin for the above detail - he's driven them all.

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Volvo B7RLE / Wright Urban Eclipse number 10102 (RIG 6492) swings round the turning circle at Hardengreen and service 139 was once Lothian's 39 route (more or less) along with the 40, but when LB transferred these two services over to ECB they then became numbers 139 and 140.

These seven Eclipse's have been driven by my friend Ian McClavin, from Gravesend in Kent, and he has very kindly sent some information about their upbringing which I'm sharing through this series.....

"Registered in 2006, all with GN 06 E - original registrations (Arriva fleet nos 3801 - 3814), these Urban Eclipses are from a batch of fourteen, all in use at Northfleet Garage near Gravesend in Kent, on Fastrack Route B.

There were a further twelve '07' reg buses (3815 -3826) ordered the following year for Fastrack Route A, which were of slightly different design. Whilst at Northfleet, all we're painted in the special Fastrack livery rather than the standard Arriva livery, as Fastrack was a brand new service being introduced at the time. All had air-conditioning, the 06 reg vehicles initially had non-opening windows (some were subsequently retro-fitted with opening ones due to the air-conditioning often failing!)".

My thanks to Ian for this helpful information.

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East Coast Buses, a subsidiary of Lothian Buses, purchased fifteen single deckers in 2017 mostly assigned for Services X5, X7 and 106 between Edinburgh City and East Lothian. These are Volvo B8RLE / Wrightbus Urban Euro 6 vehicles and are Wright's longest ever single deckers, measuring 13.2 metres, just short of the new dual doored B8L Gemini 3's coming into service in the new year. There are similarities with the previous B7RLE but note the new style body front.

The first of the fleet group, number 10051 (SF17 VLX) is seen passing the Scott Monument in the twilight hour, coming near to its journey end in Melville Street on Service X7.

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Ticking this group of fifteen off one by one and here's ECB's Volvo B8TL / Wright Urban Eclipse number 10052 (SF17 VLY) surrounded by the splendour of Edinburgh's winter wonderland.

East Coast's custom built single deck vehicles , new in 2017, are 13.2 metres long and can carry 89 passengers. They are all fitted with:

USB charging points.
A five panel roof specially coated in UV protection to create a bright saloon area.
Two tone wood effect flooring.
Significantly improved lighting with the introduction of spot lights and centre roof strip lighting
Puddle lighting on the entrance taking in to consideration the rural areas where customers board and alight.
Two tier luggage racks.
High quality seating with arm rests.
Multi-media screens to display next stop information and news feeds.

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