Photo of the Week - Week 3:


Donnybrook's AV88 is seen at the Enniskerry Village terminus of Route 44 as night falls on the 12th January 2013.

The old favourites have seem to have found a home on Route 44. On Saturday 12th January 2013, the allocation to Route 44 was AV88, AV89 and AV90, AV88 being the only one not to have an LED. Its not so long ago that we were heading out to Enniskerry to take advantage of a route where Donnybrook's then oldest buses, the RV-class lived. And so it comes around again that Route 44 has become a little-mecca of the early AVs. AV88 was especially good on the 12th January, with little signs of its mechanical age. Like AV166 which was the inspiration of last week's photo feature, AV88 has not been picked for a body overhaul with corresponding upgrade to LED, and in ways it was obvious. If you look hard enough at the picture above, you may note a silver handrail. Is this the last left in the fleet?


AV88 is seen at the northern Larkhill terminus of Route 44 on the 12th January 2013.

AV88 is a one-depot bus, being at Donnybrook since its delivery 12 years ago. It spent much of its early years operating Route 11, before being cascaded into spare vehicle capacity which for a few years mainly involved peak hour shifts. However, with the recent conversion of Routes 14, 17 and 44, the former homes of the RV-class, the early Donnybrook AVs are typically to be found in all-day service, expecially those with a recent upgrade. Its interesting in some ways that the 00-D AV class of bus, with its flat windscreen which provides more glare than its curved counterpart, is being used on a route that exits the city lights boundary, with large sections of the route being unlit country roads.


AV88 overtakes a long line of buses, the full service on Good Friday providing ample running time, on Crofton Road operating Route 63 on the 22nd April 2011.

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