(23 Jun 2014, 5:54 pm)Andreos Constantopolous From the same batch as the GNE Presidents?

(23 Jun 2014, 7:24 pm)andy1977 8 additional deckers by September, which will mean 11 deckers in the fleet.

(23 Jun 2014, 7:37 pm)tyresmoke Presumably they've been pretty successful in the Nexus contracts then?

(23 Jun 2014, 7:39 pm)andy1977 Yes, 7 new misc works starting in September.

(23 Jun 2014, 5:55 pm)andy1977 One of the 3 buses (R6, R7 or K2 STX) will be kept to operate school contracts, the other 2 are going the journey.
Today's arival is the 1st of 8 double deckers that will be brought in to operate Misc. Works form Nexus starting in September.

(23 Jun 2014, 8:12 pm)Robert If this is happening then im probably suggesting that K2 will be kept as that is the newest bus out of the 3. If thats the 1st of 8, then there will be no where to keep them so im thinking that all 3 olympians will have to be withdrawn + B10 (which is sitting there doing nothing) and possibly a few others to create enough room at the bottom of the depot.

(23 Jun 2014, 8:44 pm)andy1977 K2 is a P reg vehicle, R6 and R7 are R reg so 1 year newer than K2.

It's definitely happening, contracts were signed off today.

Of the Olympians, one has to stay to cover commitments with Durham County Council. The Leyland (B10) has been out of acrion for a couple of years now and is unlikely to ever run as a working vehicle again. Currently one of the Olympians stays in a depot at Byker and one of the B7L deckers stays at Sunderland. I think you will find this arrangment will continue/be expanded upon. Pure stupidity running vehicles that do 4-5 mpg's all the way back to Stanley when sub depots are available nearer to where they will be working.

(23 Jun 2014, 9:17 pm)Robert Woah i think you are missing the point. Not all of the ew deckers will be stored at outstations. When going past the depot, i also seem to notice all 3 olympians parked up there so unless it has a job up here after its job down at Byker then im not quite sure what you mean.

Going back to the registrations:

Just because the vehicle has an R at the beginning of its personalised registration it doesnt mean that thats its actual registration starts with that letter (They are both Irish so, in this case will be hard to tell as im not used to Irish Registrations so, for example, S2 and S4 STX, they my have the letter S at the beginning but we (or most of us) know that they are actually a V reg vehicle and by their looks and style inside, R6 and R7 do, to me, look like the elder vehicles.

(23 Jun 2014, 9:25 pm)andy1977 With the red numbers, you can put an older plate on a vehicle, but you can't put a newer plate on it. Ie. The newest number plate a 1998 decker could carry would be a R plate, but it could carry an A plate.
From the log books, they were built in 1998 and registered in the UK in 2009.
K2 is a 1997 registeted vehicle.

The 3rd olympian ends up back in the depot between works as the driver has other duties at the moment that sometimes require him to come back to the depot.

(24 Jun 2014, 6:30 am)Robert 3rd Olympian being K2? I know that usually does NDA Scholars work and i know what R6 does but not quite sure what R7 does (thats possibly the bus you are on about then and not K2) although all 3 do go back to depot.

Are you aware of the new buses all being ALX400s? Id like to see some presidents amongst them if im completely honest. I think, although they are rubbish, that it'd be a shame to see the olympians go. It was a shame to see the R--- LGH olympians from GNE go as they went up banks like they weren't even there. Much better in reliability terms.