Optare Tempo (Citywide LF) – black cat
With thanks to Holly / PulsarX for the brilliant Optare Tempo template which can be found here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2895553802
The black cat is certainly a route that is close to my heart. First ran by Felix Bus Services between Derby and Ilkeston, the route was jointly run with Trentbarton before being sold to Midland General in 2012 (along with the Ilkeston flyer, which you can find at: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2893614475 ) and then passed onto Trentbarton, who also extended the route to Mansfield.
This is certainly my favourite livery ( I mean look at it !!! It has a cat, which is in front of the full moon, and pawprints !!!) and my favourite route of all time – a 2 hour adventure snaking through the Nottingham & Derbyshire countryside. It also helped that a lot of my journey to my Saturday school overlapped with the Black Cat, so happy memories there also.
Unfortunately, the route lost it’s special livery around the early-mid 2010s – using the generic Trentbarton red livery instead and the Optare Tempos were replaced with Wright Urban Eclipses meaning that this magical livery is now forever lost to time.
After a network review, the black cat was discontinued after 1st of October 2022 when Trentbarton introduced a new route network focused around Ilkeston and the black cat was split into two routes and lost it’s iconic name. The Derby – Ilkeston portion is now called the 32 while the Ilkeston – Mansfield portion is now called the 33. Both routes have generic red Trentbarton branding and are ran by Urban Eclipses / Solo SRs.
RIP Sweet Prince, gone but not forgotten.
