(04 May 2015, 5:58 pm)mb134 So if I recall correctly, that was a demonstrator prior to ANE obtaining it, meaning it won't have seen a great deal of intensive work before coming, so is practically a new vehicle anyway?
(04 May 2015, 5:58 pm)mb134 So if I recall correctly, that was a demonstrator prior to ANE obtaining it, meaning it won't have seen a great deal of intensive work before coming, so is practically a new vehicle anyway?
(04 May 2015, 6:13 pm)Jimmi Yes this was one of the 3 examples which was previously a demonstrator.
Not really a new bus but still new to Arriva and two years old is not that old and Arriva were the only operator to bring a gas bus again this year so it will have provided some novelty factor.
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(04 May 2015, 6:13 pm)Jimmi Yes this was one of the 3 examples which was previously a demonstrator.
Not really a new bus but still new to Arriva and two years old is not that old and Arriva were the only operator to bring a gas bus again this year so it will have provided some novelty factor.
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) and would meet me in the overbridge connecting the main Bus Station with the Coach Park. I told Adrian and Adam I would see them later on, and made my way towards Sean. I spotted him in the middle of the link, with a Gregg's of all things! I introduced myself, and we made our way back to the rally site. Back on the ground, after making our way back towards Adrian and Adam. Walking around in a group, we watched something park up, when Adrian thought he could see Jimmi in the crowd of photographers. True enough, when he went over to ask, it was indeed Jimmi; so the five of us made our way back down from the top of the parked up vehicles. We came across National 4710, I saw Craig was with his bus, having brought ''Red Kite'' 6118 from Riverside. Went over to hand over my £10 donation to the NNRG, where he thanked me and asked me what it was in particular I was interested in regarding 4710. A quick blow of the engines while the others waiting outside listening, before he took all five of us around the rear with the open engine flap to show us how it all worked inside. Very interesting I must say! He also said, that hopefully next year they would have two vehicles with them, as 4681 is in no fit condition, but 4855 will no doubt be in full swing. After moving on from 4710, the five of us walked down the coach park, when Sean saw his favourite Pacer and decided to wait for it to return from Newcastle for a ride to Morpeth and back, saying he would rejoin us later on. Around this time, Dan also appeared.
Apologies if this review seems somehow a bit rushed, after uploading 30 photos to Flickr, I have finally started my review of the MetroCentre today at 20:38. I managed to meet quite a few members of the forum, namely Adrian, Sean, Adam Y, Adam M, Jimmi, Bazza, and of course Dan made a brief appearance as well.
I started today at 07:30. Normally, being your average teenager, I would have slept through this, however, today was different. The rally today, to me anyway, is often comparable to Christmas for it's joys and general happiness, all packed into one day. Jumping out of bed, for once in a long time, very happy and ready to seize life....*cough* I got everything ready for the day, camera, etc., before leaving the house at 07:50. My initial intention was to board the 08:36 #21 from the bottom of Chester-le-Street, which would come from Durham. It was almost surreal, walking into Chester-le-Street and it being so quiet at this hour, on a Bank Holiday as well. I managed to walk so fast, that I was at the 21 stand for 08:10. Within minutes, an ''Angel'' B5 rounded the corner from Picktree Lane onto Front Street, before sitting in the layover (bet most of you didn't know Chester-le-Street had a layover......), then after a couple of minutes, turned around at the bottom of the street and started picking up the half a dozen passengers waiting for it. Bus was 6070, and I sat at the front upstairs on the driver's side; my preferred seat on double deck vehicles. We gradually picked up quite a few people on the journey towards Newcastle, and the vehicle was around ¾ full when we pulled into Gateshead Interchange. I, and around half a dozen other passengers alighted here, and I made my way across to the X66 stand.
Checking the times on the board, there was a bus due at 08:55. I checked my phone, and it was about 08:48, so I only had a few minutes to wait. Moments later, an ''X66' branded Streetlite turned into the interchange, parking down from the pick-up stand for a few minutes, before moving up to pick people up. I said ''good morning'' to the driver as I boarded, and I started to think I was suffering from something – I'm never normally this happy at five to nine on a Monday morning! 5393 was the Streetlite operating this run, which I was happy about having only been on 5392 and 5394, so another I can tick off. Half of the bus was full, I was sat at the rear to get the full engine noise, which wasn't up to much if I'm going to honest. Nonetheless, not a bad ride to the MetroCentre; I was there for 09:05 and at the Coach Park by 09:10. When I arrived, there was two double decker preserved vehicles standing at the front of the entrance site, parked up. A Routemaster was the next to show iirc, followed by a preserved Venture Leopard I think? Truth be told, I was only making notes of the Go North East stuff that was entering. First to arrive on their front was ''Coast & Country'' Streetlite 5398, following minutes later was the QEH Mini Dart, then gradually the Poppy Bus (4949) and Vyking 3966 entered too. Before long, there was a massive convoy of all sorts entering the rally site. As I walked along the back pathway of where coaches normally park, Bazza approached me and asked who I was. A brief introduction took place, and within 10 seconds I was looking at pics of his ''meow'' and being educated on why his Flickr name was Diamond One. Very interesting!...
What got me distracted from everything entering was Leyland National 4710, roaring from the bottom of the coach park, could be heard miles away!! I watched with glee as it parked up, it's engine making some spectacular noises that I could have only imagined prior to today. I watched the crew of 4710 spread out a bit, and owner Craig Smith (who I had been talking to before today about a ride on 4710 at some point) appeared to walk across to 563, which then departed with a couple of drivers on. I slowly made my way across to the National, where Craig's dad Alan was watching over the bus. I introduced myself, explaining I had a donation to make to the group; one thing led to another and I was sitting on the bench-facing seats talking about bus preservation for a good half hour! Eventually, the Arriva stuff started to enter in a convoy, which got me distracted. After heading back to 4710 for a short while, I received a PM from Adrian asking where I was, to which I replied I was on the National.
Eventually, I left 4710, after having a good sniff around, and started taking photos of everything that was parked up by this point. While I was taking a photograph of something, a man to my left asked me if I was Marcus. I said I was, and he introduced himself as Adrian. We got talking, and he introduced me to AdamY. Around the same time, the Carlisle Bus Group's monster Olympian arrived at around 10:30ish. I knew Sean was going to be on this, so dropped him a Facebook Message asking where he was. He said he had just headed into Gregg's for something (surprise, surprise...) and would meet me in the overbridge connecting the main Bus Station with the Coach Park. I told Adrian and Adam I would see them later on, and made my way towards Sean. I spotted him in the middle of the link, with a Gregg's of all things! I introduced myself, and we made our way back to the rally site. Back on the ground, after making our way back towards Adrian and Adam. Walking around in a group, we watched something park up, when Adrian thought he could see Jimmi in the crowd of photographers. True enough, when he went over to ask, it was indeed Jimmi; so the five of us made our way back down from the top of the parked up vehicles. We came across National 4710, I saw Craig was with his bus, having brought ''Red Kite'' 6118 from Riverside. Went over to hand over my £10 donation to the NNRG, where he thanked me and asked me what it was in particular I was interested in regarding 4710. A quick blow of the engines while the others waiting outside listening, before he took all five of us around the rear with the open engine flap to show us how it all worked inside. Very interesting I must say! He also said, that hopefully next year they would have two vehicles with them, as 4681 is in no fit condition, but 4855 will no doubt be in full swing. After moving on from 4710, the five of us walked down the coach park, when Sean saw his favourite Pacer and decided to wait for it to return from Newcastle for a ride to Morpeth and back, saying he would rejoin us later on. Around this time, Dan also appeared.
Nice to see him again, and that he had taken some time out of his revision schedule to come for some photos. Around the same time, Adam Malarkey came across, I'm sure he'd come across before this moment in time, but it was such a long day I can barely remember, lol.
This was when they started to line the five Wright Streetlites up at the top, so as we walked back up so Dan could take his photos, we got there as they were reversing ''MAX'' 1594 into position. Some mass photo-taking ensued, before I rejoined Adrian amongst the crowd, and along with Adam Y and Jimmi, we headed across to see the Arriva haulage. The driver seemed extremely friendly, and allowed the four of us to have a sit down on the ''Sapphire'' E400 that had been brought along. Being naughty by sitting in the OAP seats, a few enthusiasts came and went, either poking around in the cab or having a look around inside, before I went across to the 23-branded Streetlite, which had just been reparked after the photoshoot, to ask the driver for permission to have a look inside the cab. He happily obliged, and I sat in the cab and changed the destination around a few times, before hopping out so a girl of a similar age could have a look inside. Not before Adrian took a photo of me at the wheel......hehe.
It was coming up to 13:20, and Sean messaged me saying he was off his Pacer back from Morpeth, and was about to get on the Tanfield shuttle. The other three agreed it would be a nice run out on whatever was operating this run, which I delighted to be told by Sean was Olympian 3818! Not only is it an Olympian, but it's based at Riverside, which in all fairness, rarely see public use! Bus was scheduled to leave at 13:30, and we got there just in the nick of time at 13:28. I was honestly about to head upstairs, thinking Sean would be up there, but then I spotted him sitting towards the middle downstairs. Adrian sat behind the stairwell, Adam sat roughly opposite Sean on the left hand side, and Jimmi and I sat in front of Adam, to give you all an idea. Expecting a lovely ride to the Tanfield Railway and back (hopefully offering some nice photos up at the main entrance!) we were disappointed when we hit major traffic coming out of the MetroCentre. Unfortunately, it seemed there just wasn't enough time for us to go all the way to Tanfield, and the driver doubled back to the MetroCentre. Nonetheless, a nice 20 minutes on this Olympian, even though the traffic didn't allow us to get up to any impressive speeds, it was a great little ride out!
Once back at the Coach Park, Sean, who works for DRS (Direct Rail Services), said there were two light-engine Class 37s due through at 14:45. The time by this point was 14:00, so Jimmi, Adrian and I headed into the MetroCentre for something to eat, while Sean and Adam made their way back into the rally site. A quick trip to Gregg's ensued, before the three of us walked down into the Interchange to eat. After finishing, I told the other two I was heading back to find Sean, as it was 14:25 and the 37s were due at 14:45. I bumped into Adam as I walked in, who stopped and asked where Adrian and Jimmi were. Likewise I asked him where Sean was, and after explaining we headed in different directions. Finally found Sean near the Go North East vehicles, and we headed to the railway station.
After getting photos of the DRS Class 37s, we saw Jimmi and Adrian on the other platform, and met them up at the top, as they used the elevator. Sean said he was heading in for some water, and I told him I'd join him. Had a nice chat as we aimlessly wandered, trying to find B&Ms, but having to settle for Poundland after finding out B&Ms was over in the retail park! Coincidentally, we saw Adam also queueing, so waited for him to come out. Our little group headed back, the time by this point was 15:00, and Sean's F805FAO left at 16:00, so I asked if he fancied another ride on the shuttles. He liked the idea, as did Adam, so we decided to board the first things we saw going out on shuttle services. This happened to be The Eden's ''Leopard 14'', with a Bristol LH behind it. We were torn between the two, Adam said the LH would be an experience, but at first it seemed it wasn't quite ready to go out. So, we boarded the Leopard, and took our seats behind each other, with Adam in front just a couple of seats behind the cab, then Sean and myself sharing. As we pulled away, I could immediately tell we were on a real bus. This Leyland Leopard was an absolute workhorse, no doubt one of the best rides of the day. Headed to the Scotswood area and back, where we stopped for a photo opportunity, which we and a few others took full advantage of. Once back, it was 15:30, so we bade farewell. Sean hovered around the shuttle area, and Adam decided to have a ride on the Bristol VR that the 500 Group had brought along, while I headed up.
Bumping into Sean later on, I said goodbye to him and thanked him for the company, while he made his way up to F805FAO. Not an eventful trip back - 4964 on the X66 back to Gateshead, then 6061 on the 21 home. I must thank all of the people I met today, it was great to meet with others from the forum, and also everyone who brought vehicles along to the event. Certainly a day to remember!
Marcus
(04 May 2015, 8:51 pm)MarcTheA4 ...He happily obliged, and I sat in the cab and changed the destination around a few times, before hopping out so a girl of a similar age could have a look inside. Not before Adrian took a photo of me at the wheel......hehe.
(04 May 2015, 8:51 pm)MarcTheA4 ...He happily obliged, and I sat in the cab and changed the destination around a few times, before hopping out so a girl of a similar age could have a look inside. Not before Adrian took a photo of me at the wheel......hehe.
I just kept a low profile for most of the time I was there.
Also to point out, there was 2 X66 Streetlites off the service today, as there was a 2nd one parked up in the depot.
(04 May 2015, 9:44 pm)Robert I believe 5392 and 5394 were the only two streetlites on service X66 today with 5391 at the rally and 5393 off the road.
(04 May 2015, 10:08 pm)MarcTheA4 I had 5393 on my X66 this morning. Saw 5392 later in the day, and 5391 was at the event so I'm guess it was 5394 that was VOR.Could have sworn i saw 5394 departing when i was going back to the car. 5393 was the only one i didnt see. Surely Dan or Citaro can confirm?
(04 May 2015, 10:10 pm)Robert Could have sworn i saw 5394 departing when i was going back to the car. 5393 was the only one i didnt see. Surely Dan or Citaro can confirm?
(04 May 2015, 10:12 pm)Robert Haha! Suppose they've got to be up early in the morning, as have i only im still young so can handle late nights
(04 May 2015, 10:12 pm)Robert Haha! Suppose they've got to be up early in the morning, as have i only im still young so can handle late nights
(04 May 2015, 10:11 pm)MarcTheA4 Way past their bedtime....*runs away*
(04 May 2015, 10:12 pm)Robert Haha! Suppose they've got to be up early in the morning, as have i only im still young so can handle late nights
(04 May 2015, 10:18 pm)GMitchelhill I'm 30 and I can still deal with late nights and early starts.
(04 May 2015, 10:11 pm)MarcTheA4 Way past their bedtime....*runs away*
(04 May 2015, 10:12 pm)Robert Haha! Suppose they've got to be up early in the morning, as have i only im still young so can handle late nights
(04 May 2015, 10:18 pm)GMitchelhill I'm 30 and I can still deal with late nights and early starts.
Here is my review from yesterday.
0847 7 Newton Aycliffe - Durham (ANE 1514)
After leaving the house a bit late I had to walk quite quickly to the bus stop for this bus. This journey starts at Aycliffe Town Centre at 0847 and turned up bang on time. Not really an eventful journey was carrying a few passengers however was slightly annoyed that someone sat in-front of me with headphones in but I could only hear his terrible music.
Got a few photos in Durham whilst waiting for the X22 although most of them didn't turn out well because of where the sun was. Got on the X22 just before it looks left the bus station.
0944 X22 Durham - MetroCentre (GNE 4935)
Didn't enjoy this bus much as it was making an annoying squeeky noise and I am so sick of doing Durham - Birtley services as I just find it rather boring and time just drags especially when the speed limit drops to 20mph in Birtley. After this boring journey I eventually arrived at the MetroCentre around 1030.
Headed straight over the bridge to the rally site. When I arrived at the site I could see some of the buses and I think I saw Fozz when I got there. Made my way down the site taking photos of the buses on the way down towards the bottom where the Go North East were.
At one point I was down the bottom getting photos and I heard someone ask if I was Jimmi so I turned round and said I was and he introduced himself as Adrian and introduced the rest of the NEB members who were around at this point (Adam M, Adam Y, Marcus, Sean - think that was everyone, sorry if I missed anyone). Had a walk around the site down to the other end getting photos of the buses. Whilst we were down this end Dan turned up and we headed back down so he could get his photos.
After getting photos of the StreetLite's parked together we left Dan and Adam M and sat on the Sapphire Enviro 400. Then went for a ride on 3818. Then got some lunch from Greggs. Then went to the rail station for a photo of some train - I don't know anything about this. See Marcus' post for more about what happened in this time.
Me and Adrian then went on the preserved Northumbria Optare Delta up to Tanfield Railway and back. Love Deltas.
Got back to the site and saw Sean again just before he left and Adam Y too, got a few more photos before Adam Y left then me and Adrian headed back towards the interchange. I left Adrian then I went to the bog before heading for the X22 back to Durham, although I got a photo of it first.
1635 X22 MetroCentre - Durham (GNE 5409)
I'm not going to go too much into the issues experienced here but we ended up leaving 10 minutes late. I didn't enjoy this journey at all as because of the late departure I was fearful I was going to miss my connecting service 7 and don't forget that it was Sunday timetable yesterday so had I missed this I'd have been stuck in Durham for upto an hour waiting for the next bus so some of you can imagine why I was so angry about the issues on the X22.
1731 7 Durham - Newton Aycliffe (ANE 1515)
After jumping off the X22 and sprinting across the road like Usain Bolt I just and I mean JUST managed to catch this home. I thought Enviro 400's should really have been out on the 7 yesterday and I thought this because I had to stand all the way to Ferryhill along with a number of other passengers. Nothing else to say about this journey although it was more enjoyable than spending an hour in Durham with nothing to do probably would have been.
Was a great day out yesterday and was also nice to get to meet some of the members of NEB in person.
Hope you enjoyed reading this review.
(04 May 2015, 3:53 pm)Malarkey More like you and the rest of the NEB Gathering ditched me and Dan, I left with Dan just after 1pm and got the X66 to Gateshead, where he then ditched me to get on the Metro, leaving me to wait 10 Minutes for the X1 and participating in doing a Passenger Focus Survey.
(04 May 2015, 3:53 pm)Malarkey More like you and the rest of the NEB Gathering ditched me and Dan, I left with Dan just after 1pm and got the X66 to Gateshead, where he then ditched me to get on the Metro, leaving me to wait 10 Minutes for the X1 and participating in doing a Passenger Focus Survey.
(04 May 2015, 5:43 pm)Kuyoyo I notice a lack of praising Arriva here - 4 vehicles, only 1 older than 12 months old, all showing the large investment made in the last 18 months to transform the ANE fleet. The 7 members of staff from 3 depots should be proud of what they managed to do today.
(04 May 2015, 5:43 pm)Kuyoyo I notice a lack of praising Arriva here - 4 vehicles, only 1 older than 12 months old, all showing the large investment made in the last 18 months to transform the ANE fleet. The 7 members of staff from 3 depots should be proud of what they managed to do today.
(05 May 2015, 11:28 am)Andreos1 Did you manage to remember the questions or is it possible to scan/photograph it?
(05 May 2015, 11:28 am)Andreos1 Did you manage to remember the questions or is it possible to scan/photograph it?
(05 May 2015, 11:46 am)Tommy_1581 14. Would you benefit if the service called additionally at F****h*****?
(05 May 2015, 11:46 am)Tommy_1581 14. Would you benefit if the service called additionally at F****h*****?
