Thanks to strong personal contacts, from time to time Southend helped out Colchester Borough Transport and vice versa. Colchester RELL 23, OWC723M, was loaned to ST between August and November 1978.
Peter used it one night, covering for a missing Eastern National trip on the 24 but the photographer concerned has refused permission for that shot to be reproduced. Instead we are able to show it crewed by Peter's colleagues John Cooper and Peter Halls.
As an example of the "vice versa", Southend PD3 346 was photographed by Eric Thompson on loan to Colchester a few years earlier.
Ironically, after deregulation, ST and CBT were to come under common ownership (British Bus, then Cowie and Arriva) between 1993 and 2004.

Photo taken by Richard Delahoy, Friday 8 September 1978, Benfleet Station