Seem as I got a bit side tracked last night, here is a special review of my outing yesterday to the 500 Group's Teesside Running Day.
1010 7 Newton Aycliffe - Thompson Street Post Office (ANE 1513)
As the 5A would have meant waiting in Darlington Town Centre for nearly half an hour I decided to get the 7 to Darlington so I could have an extra 25 minutes in bed. This journey was carrying a fair few passengers when I boarded it. Not a great deal to say about this journey as if you go to Darlington as often as I do you will see why I can never think of anything to say on these journeys. Anyway as the 7 would arrive in Darlington Town Centre 3 minutes after the X66 leaves I had to get off somewhere down North Road so I chose this stop as it would give me more than enough time to cross the road and most people who connect from the 7 or other services from Aycliffe normally get off at Harrowgate Hill Roundabout stop so if I did that I would probably have less choice of seats and getting across the road there is a pig.
1037 X66 Thompson Street Post Office - Stockton High Street (ANE 2852)
Can't even allocate a MAX Omnicity on a Sunday - Pathetic Arriva. As you can imagine I was not best pleased to see this turn up, just seemed rather boring, thankfully it wasn't too busy which is a good thing when you are on a 29 seater Solo (27 seats on this journey because there was a passenger with a pushchair). Thankfully this Solo did have WiFi I was able to use although I annoyingly had to register to gain access to it. Riverside was closed in Stockton so the X66 couldn't operate it's normal route to reach Stockton High Street so we got diverted and the driver didn't seem to really know where he was going as he stopped at some traffic lights and us passengers had to give him directions.
This is the start of the 500 Group Running Day.
RDC106R Stockton High Street - Transporter
This was the first bus to emerge on Stockton High Street so I jumped on this as I thought it would be something that would be something I should consider riding especially as I think this was it's public debut (in use). Jumped on this, thought it was a little bit bouncy on the road along to Middlesbrough but an enjoyable ride although the seats were irritating my arm. Decided to stay on until the transporter so I could see what was going on down there.
Stagecarriage KX05HVE Transporter - Bus Station - Transporter
Not been on one of these before and seem as it looked to be such a smart looking thing I decided to have a ride on this. Was very smart inside to although it made a rather awful noise when I got on it - Madonna on Absolute Radio 90s
besides Madge I quite enjoyed the short journey on this and was impressed with how smart it was and quite enjoyed listening to Blink 182's What My Age Again on Absolute Radio 90s.
JDC599 Transporter - Transporter
This looked an interesting bus so I jumped on this. The journey went round the rather industrial part of Teesside and some other places I have never been to before so for a large part of this journey I didn't know where I was so you could imagine my surprise when we reached the other end of the transporter bridge which made me think we got lost and was surprised to discover we were actually going to go over the transporter bridge which was good as I have never been over on this before.
LFS296F Transporter - Yarm - Stockton
Was disappointed not to get a ride on this at the Kirkby Stephen a few weeks back so was glad to see that this was in attendance. When I went for a ride on this it was quite nippy so I ended up digging my jacket out of my bag for sitting on this open topper, when we got towards Middlesbrough Bus Station I was worried it was going to start raining but thankfully it didn't, until we reached Stockton this journey was pretty freezing but the sun came back out as we got towards Stockton before heading up to Yarm. I decided to stay on to Yarm as I was actually really enjoying this journey and I haven't been to Yarm before so what better way to see Yarm than from the top deck of an open top bus. Can see why the Arriva service 7 can be so bad for reliability as we got stuck in traffic coming into Yarm. One amusing thing about this journey was when when we went past Warburtons bread makers all I could was freshly baked bread which was nice although I hadn't had any dinner by this point. Decided to alight when it got back to Stockton, was about to head into Castlegate shopping centre for the loo and something to eat but then I turned round and saw something else I wanted to have a ride on...
M10DVS Stockton - Middlesbrough Bus Station
Was quite happy to have a ride on this as Vectra's used to be a regular sight for me as they were a regular sight on the Bishop Auckland 4/4A service which later became what is now the 5/5A so this was a bit of a nostalgic ride for me as this brought back some memories from when they were regular sight for me until they were withdrawn from Bishop Auckland depot. This was also a rather fun extended journey round Thornaby and other places I am not really familiar with on the up hand this meant we got to have a longer journey on this. Got off in Middlesbrough Bus Station as I really wanted something to eat.
Went to Gregg's not far from the bus station and was in here for what felt like years as there was two members of staff on with one putting stuff in the oven and the other having a natter with one of the customers with the customer asking when another member of staff would be in. Was in here for a "good" 5 minutes and there was only another two people in front of me and they didn't get much so was hacked off by the time I
FINALLY got served and took about a week to do that too. Pathetic service Gregg's. Then went to Poundland for my usual - 3 tins of Cherry Coke and trust me to get stuck behind people trying to buy 3 tins of Coca Cola when you can only get two for £1. After a millennium I finally got back to Middlesbrough Bus Station and waited for something to turn up, RDC106R was the first thing to turn up but I had already been on this earlier so I let this go and waited for something else to come...
PPT446P Bus Station - Transporter
Not been on this before either so was happy to have a ride on this. Was only a short ride but I quite enjoyed this bus back to the transporter.
Stagecarriage N703LTN Transporter - Stockton - Transporter
Was at the Transporter for a bit and after getting a few more photos I waited for a bus to head somewhere and this was what pulled onto the bus stop. I actually knew what to expect from this bus as I actually had a ride on this bus on service 45 last Friday and I rather enjoyed it then so it seemed like it would be good to go for another ride and it was quite like this bus apart from the seats where you can feel a bit of metal sitting on the seats. Got to Stockton after basically doing the 45 route then the 36 route to reach Stockton, stayed on the bus at Stockton thought about getting off but I stayed on-board until it returned back to the transporter.
After this I decided to walk back to Middlesbrough Bus Station along much of the route most of the buses followed so managed a few photos along the roads.
1725 X66 Middlesbrough Bus Station - Darlington Tubwell Row (ANE 4650)
Back to usual service buses now. Thankfully I didn't get a Solo on this journey. Was pretty quiet journey which was nice. One thing that really annoyed me about this journey was whilst we sat at Harrowgate Hill, Elmcroft was I got to see the 5A fly past heading towards my home which hurt as I knew I would have to walk home from wherever I got off the 8 or 7. Thought about which bus I would get home with my options being the 8 and the 7 and the 8 would have got me home a few minutes sooner but it would have been further to walk so I stayed on until Darlington Town Centre to get service 7 home as it was less walk.
1815 7 Darlington Tubwell Row - Newton Aycliffe (ANE 1518)
I regretted not going with service 8 as on this journey we had two loud annoying family's who knew each other with some sat in the wheelchair bay with a pushchair and the rest towards the back so they were shouting between each other as well as the children shouting and in the middle of this you found me and by this point I was pretty tired and just wanted to get home so as you can imagine I was in a state of despair on this journey listening to these loudmouths. I came so close to totally losing it I though I was just going to get up and start very loudly and angrily shout at them and tell the to shut up (some words removed there) and had I been going any further I probably would have.
Well that was my special review from yesterday and thank you for reading - this took ages to type.
If you haven't seen them yet have a look at my photos from yesterday (I have now corrected the registration for Stagecarriage's N703LTN after having it pointed out - so many careless mistakes in the last week)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127079988@...206325315/
