Photo of the Week - Week 14:
Clontarf's AV233 is seen on the Malahide Road operating Route 43 on the 31st March 2011. Behind is an Airlink VG which were operating a variety of routes due to not being able to use the Port Tunnel due to a demonstration outside the Fine Gael Ard Fheis in the Dublin Convention Centre.
The LEDs are coming. Yes slowly but surely AVs are being fitted with these glowing wonderments. The latest examples date from as late as 2002, with Clontarf's AV230 batch now being fitted. These things are the detriment to so many bus enthusiasts, the on/off flashing being a notable pain in a photograph that seems to always time itself to the off cycle at the most inconvenient times. There has definately been a bit of favoratism going on with only some of the early AVs being fitted, most notably the early Ringsend batch have been skipped altogether. No doubt there is reasoning behind this. The RVs were removed in almost sequential fashion due no doubt to the fact they were all mechanically sound and had to be removed solely due to their high floor composition. However, with the refurbs only affected some of the older batches of AVs, there seems no doubt, like the KD and KC classes before them, that it will be survival of the fittest as opposed to numerical sequence.
Clontarf's AV229 is seen operating Route 27 on Westmoreland St on the 11th March 2012.
AV212 and AV229 are the odd ones out in Clontarf, being the only two sole AVs dating from 2001 in the garage. That said Clontarf did get 6 WVs that year also, in CityImp livery for use on the 130. Both AVs have been recently updated with LEDs. AV212 is possibly the strangest, in that AV205-11 went to Ringsend and AV213 onwards went to Broadstone/Phibsborough. AV212 was a lone ranger with a CitySwift livery generally used on the 27. That said it was in storage before entering service, thus Clontarf's first 01 AV was AV229 in Wedding livery. AV230-244 would follow in 02, again used for the 27, all in CitySwift livery except for AV244 in CitySwift. Its a pity in many respects that all these liveries have been replaced by the boring yellow/blue fleet colours. AV212 is seen on a very rare allocation to Route 42, which sees very few AVs allocated.
Clontarf's AV212 is seen on a very rare allocation to ROute 42 on the 31st March 2012.