A visit around the headquarters of Chambers in Sudbury

I was very excited as I got the opportunity to look around the headquarters of Chambers which are based in Sudbury.  

Let's look at the history of Chambers: 

In 1877 Chambers commenced a horse-drawn bus business in Bures. Leading on from this in 1918 the first bus was purchased and a twice weekly service between Sudbury and Colchester was created. In the late 1930s routes started to operate to Halstead and Haverhill. 

As of October 2010, Chambers operated seven services, which cover both urban and rural areas, with many of the routes running into Sudbury, and serving the bus station and railway station.

In 2012 Chambers was sold to the Go-Ahead with 27 buses and coaches however the depot was not included in the sale so the operation was moved to fellow Go-Ahead company Hedingham Ommibuses. As of June 2012 the fleet consisted of 27 buses and coaches. Since Go-Ahead purchased the company a new red and maroon fleet livery has been introduced. 

My Visit: 

It was a quite busy afternoon in the yard, I firstly was given the opportunity to look around the garage, there was the Hedingham Volvo B10M-62 Plaxton Premiere 320 10 and the ex Metrobus Scania OmniDekka East Lancashire 1500 having safely checks within the garage. 

Scania OmniDekka East Lancs 1500 (YN53 RVP)

Volvo B10M-62 Plaxto Premiere 320 10 (S291 TVW)

My next point of call was to look around the parking area for the buses , this was quite busy. I note there were three different type of buses in the parking area these were a Scania OmniDekka East Lancashires , Volvo B7TL / Plaxton Presidents and one Dennis Dart SLF 252 on site at the time of my visit of Chambers. 

Dennis Dart SLF 252 (EU03 BZK)

A ex Hedingham Dennis Dart SLF 252 was parked up along side the Scania OmniDekka East Lancashires and Volvo B7TL / Plaxton Presidents buses. 

Volvo B7TL / Plaxton President 566 (W428 WGH) & 569 (W484 WGH)

Scania OmniDekka East Lancashire 1507 (YN55 PZJ)    

The bus wash was busy at present there was the ex London Go-Ahead & Konectbus Volvo B7TL / Plaxton President 563 in the bus wash. 

Volvo B7TL / Plaxton President 563 ( V307 LGC)    

Also I note an ex Go-Ahead London Volvo B7TL / Plaxton President 583 still in its original livery parked up to one of side of the yard.

Volvo B7TL / Plaxton President 583 ( Y731 TGH)    

In addition to the Scania OmniDekkas , Volvo B7TL / Plaxton Presidents and one Dennis Dart SLF there were 3 coaches , these were a Volvo B10M/ Van Hool Alizee T8 3 and two Volvo B10M Plaxton Premiere 320 5 & 9. 

Volvo B10M/ Van Hool Alizee 3 (M655 KVU), Volvo B7TL / Plaxton President 565 (W425 WGH) , Volvo B10M Plaxton Premiere 320 5 (N664 THO) & 9 (S290 TVW)

A warm THANK YOU  to all the staff at Chambers for showing me around the headquarters.