Reviews seem to be few and far between nowadays, from all people, so I may as well review the weekend that's just passed. A local day using a Get Around day ticket took place on Saturday, followed by the Whitley Bay Rally on Sunday.
Saturday 16th July 2016
08:17 34 3878 Chester-le-Street Corals to Chester-le-Street Red Lion via Urpeth Grange
I walked into Chester-le-Street for about 08:15, spotting Dennis Trident/East Lancs Lolyne 3878 covering for a Lambton Worm-branded Optare Versa on the 34, the first of the four boards out of the depot on a Saturday morning. The driver was an avid reader, flicking through the pages of the novel he was reading at every stop we made to wait time. Along with the Volvo B10BLEs and DAF SB220GSs, the Dennis Trident has always played some sort of role in my childhood thus far, seeing allocation at Chester-le-Street for many years. Even before the first of the batch consisting of 3858-3880 migrated from both Percy Main and Winlaton, 3801-3804 were allocated to the 724 at Bishop Auckland for a lot of the time. 3878 isn't the best nowadays, being one of only three other Lolynes still in service at my local depot, as it's gearbox keeps sticking in gear when the driver tries to use kickdown. Nonetheless, I had an enjoyable ride up to Urpeth Grange and back (having the whole bus to myself until Ouston) and did a bit of filming on my DSLR. Internally, the nostalgic vibes emitted by the original condition allows me to recollect to a previous age, hence it is my favourite of the trio.
09:04 X25 5202 Chester-le-Street Red Lion to Waldridge Village
Having alighted 3878, I wandered around for about ten minutes (I would have taken a few photos, but the sunlight was terrible. I much prefer it when it's wet or damp, anything that'll eliminate the position of the sun ruining photos) until the 09:08 Langley Park-bound X25 arrived, about three minutes earlier than it's scheduled arrival time of 09:06. The first of the five X25 boards to leave the depot on a Saturday morning, commencing from Langley Park at 07:08 with twenty minutes to run light to there from the depot, today it was in the hands of 5202, one of the younger Scania L94UBs at Chester-le-Street, that transferred across from Deptford in late 2015. I alighted at Waldridge Village and casually made my way to Edmondsley, a good mile or so along the road, observing the nice scenery and photographing 5201 and 5202 (once the latter had returned from Langley Park) in places where the sun's position complied.
10:18 X25 4928 Edmondsley Village to Low Moor Road, Langley Park
I had a wait of about five minutes at Edmondsley before 4928 arrived to take me onwards to Langley Park. Audrey was driving, she used to be a driver at Chester-le-Street years ago and then spent a few years at Bensham in Customer Services, before returning to Chester-le-Street about a year and a half ago. 4928 is in terrible condition nowadays, but the same goes for pretty much all of the Y-reg batch. 4926 and 4930 are both exceptionally bad, 4927 just seems to plod on with things while 4929 and 4931 are the only two that I think would be worth specifically looking for. Hardly anybody else was onboard, except two pensioners who boarded and alighted at different stops, just a few stops apart. Upon arrival at Langley Park, I thanked Audrey and alighted at the stop nearest the turning circle, getting a photograph of it leaving a few minutes later for it's return journey to Newcastle. In spite of their terrible condition, it'll be sad to see the Y-reg Solars leave Chester-le-Street, having seen service here for the last five years or so, in varying roles.
10:48 14 6019 Low Moor Road, Langley Park to Durham North Road
As the X25 departed at 10:38, I had only eight minutes until the inbound 14 from Durham was due to arrive. 14s gets 7 minutes to layover at Langley Park during the daytime, and I opted to get some photos of it. The driver was Geoff Chow, he's been at Chester-le-Street for a few years now, I can remember having him a lot on the Unit 2 routes before they were amalgamated into one rota in July 2014. Traditionally, Unit 2 was the rota that ''new'' drivers would be assigned to. It consisted of more routes than Unit 1, which consisted of the 21, X25 and 71, while Unit 2 picked up everything else. Newly qualified drivers from the training school would be first assigned to Unit 2, which had a variety of routes and in my opinion, the logic seemed to be that they'd get more used to driving buses if they were driving primarily single deckers (longer in length than double deckers) on a lot of windy roads and serving varying locations than just backwards and forwards such as the 21. I had a chat with Geoff as I boarded, he asked if I'd got some good pictures and we spent a couple of minutes talking, before the time came to depart. I took a seat at the back and alighted on North Road in Durham, with a friendly goodbye from Geoff. He's a nice guy, best distinguished by the merit of him being the sole ''Asian'' driver at Chester-le-Street.
11:55 128 5419 Durham Bus Station to Beamish Museum Entrance
Spent a while at my usual spot in Durham, resting against the wall at the entrance to the bus station, managing to photograph a fair few things as the sun was in a great position, including soon-to-be-disposed-of 7438 and 7439, still in active service at Belmont. I noted that I hadn't been on a Streetlite much recently, so I decided to go with 5419 on the 128 to Beamish. Unaware of there being an event on at the museum, I ended up on a fairly packed and stuffy bus for twenty five minutes, getting to Beamish and finding a queue that stretched from the main entrance doors to the steps down, and a constant flow of cars coming in. In the interim period, I photographed 5402 on the 8 and 5216 on the 28, before catching the latter back to Chester-le-Street.
12:40 28 5216 Beamish Museum Entrance to Chester-le-Street South Burns
This one had a nice ZF gearbox in it, unlike 4928, which just sounded like an overall clatter with either the manifold gaskets or the fan belt on the way out. My first ride on this 54-plate since it transferred in from Deptford just under a month ago, and it made a nice change to the Y-reg Solars that I've become accustomed to. 5217 is to be my next target, and then whatever else comes in after that. Upon arrival back in my hometown, I sourced Point Supervisor Gary Wheatley and chatted to him for about thirty minutes. He told me he'd seen me up on the Waldridge Fell when he'd been driving to work earlier in the morning, and had beeped but I hadn't seen him until he had gone past. Lots of drivers came over due to the confusion surrounding the diversions in Newcastle, with the Northern Pride festival bringing lots of traffic to a standstill in the city centre. Spoke to a schoolfriend who joined me on the centre island for a while, before I noticed Eddie Spence, a driver friend of mine, was going onto 34s for one round trip with 3878.......
13:52 34 3878 Chester-le-Street Red Lion to Chester-le-Street Red Lion via Waldridge Park and Urpeth Grange
I decided to round off the outing with an hour on 3878. Now that it's earmarked for withdrawal with the first influx of OmniDekkas from Brighton & Hove having arrived in the region, I need to spend as much time as I can appreciating them while I still can. I often sit and wish that I'd focused more of my time on photographing and riding the Lime B10BLEs that were still in service by the time the Streetlites entered service (4853, 4854 and 4855). I'm fairly pleased with the photographs I've amassed of the Tridents, and once the Lolynes are gone, I think I shall move on to the 51-plates at Stanley and V-reg Volvo B7TLs. After a return trip from Waldridge and loading up again at Corals for the journey to Urpeth Grange, I jumped off for a photograph opportunity when we stopped to wait time at Urpeth Grange:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127739730@...ed-public/. While I've no doubt that the Tridents won't be missed by some enthusiasts, but primarily drivers and engineers, who've had to make it through sometimes up to five hours driving what are commonly known as ''heaps of shite'' and fixing them when they're broken, I'll feel their loss.
Sunday 17th July 2016
Arrived at Chester-le-Street depot at about 08:40, photographing depot stalwart Pat Armstrong leaving with Angel B5LH 6059. John Westmorland, part of the travelling party for the day, was stood in the depot entrance with one of the Leading Drivers, while Ben Stoves, who was officially taking the Castles Express Streetdeck to the rally, did the First Use Check. In spite of the low PVR on Sundays, I often find that the depot can be rife with activity, usually packed to the rafters with Angels at the front of the depot, as well as stuff like a Coast & Country creeping through from the main garage. 6302 (NK16 BXB) was today's chariot, having been brought up from Crook at about 18:30 the evening prior. I boarded at the depot entrance and we picked up Ben's girlfriend and children at the bus stop just down from the depot, before hitting the A1. Westmorland's suspected caffeine addiction ensured a stop at Washington Services, before travelling to Whitley Bay via Low Fell and then the Coast Road eastwards, with a nice photostop at Shields Road:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127739730@...ed-public/.
Upon arrival at the rally site, we noticed how tight the gate was, with the Streetdeck only just getting through. We were berthed alongside Percy Main-based Optare Solo SR 680, the driver of which came across and informed us that he was covering for David Thompson. I got to know him over the course of the course of the day, not necessarily an enthusiast himself, but quite interested in buses and seems to enjoy the job. A few other things arrived over the next twenty minutes or so, including freshly-branded Volvo B9TL, miraculously still shining in it's red coat. You'd have thought a few days on the X1 would reduce it back to it's previous state. An NEBPT ''official'' informed the drivers that the shuttles to the Stephenson Railway Museum were to be ran using the four Go North East vehicles. As none of the drivers were aware of the route, when Daniel Duffy arrived with Transbus MPD/Transbus Mini Pointer 556 (NK53 TKU), the eldest MPD at Hexham, it was utilised for a driver familiarisation run. The drivers from Washington and Percy Main joined Ben, John, Daniel and myself for a spirited run up to the museum. Daniel was removed from the cab by Stoves, who has a thing for MPDs and longs to be able to drive one, with his only prior experience of one being 557 at the Riverside Open Day. A resident of Ouston, a village in the district of Chester-le-Street, he had 573 and 574 for a few years on the 734 (Chester-le-Street to Ouston) and it was here that the love for MPDs began. It was no surprise that he was the first driver to take it back to the museum on the first shuttle at 11:05. Two passengers joined us while Westy and I navigated. After reaching the museum, we parked 556 across some empty car park spaces before having a wander into the museum. We spent about half an hour in the café, arguing about the pronunciation of ''Gosforth'' and ''café'' amongst many others (for reference, I say ''Gos-forth'' with emphasise on the ''or'', while they say ''Gosfuth''. I say ''caf-ay'' while they say ''cafee''. Tell me who is right and who is wrong). As we were due back out at 12:10, we walked back across and sat on 556 for a few minutes before departing back to the rally site.
Had a chat with Ken Weaver back at the rally site, before 6053 was taken out for a spin so that Daniel Duffy and Ben could have a drive of it. A nice little layby was located when we were returning to the rally from Seaton Sluice (surprisingly, I didn't see citaro5284 at the queue for his Fish & Chips), and we took the opportunity to get some photos of it here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127739730@...ed-public/. After waiting for about fifteen minutes in the bus stop adjacent to the flat tarmac surface used as the rally site, during which we again argued about the pronunciation of things such as Framwellgate Moor and Redcar (again, for reference, I pronounce these things as they are spelt. So it's ''Red-car'' and not ''Red-ca''). As the site at the Stephenson Railway isn't suitable to accommodate a double decker, I returned to Whitley Bay with Daniel Duffy while Stoves and Westy headed into the museum for a ride on the train. Sat on 680 for a short while before the driver from Percy Main decided to take it out for a spin rather than sit at the rally and do nothing with it, I think it was the only run-out this one did. Got a nice photograph of it at Tynemouth Priory before returning and then immediately jumping back on 556, which Stoves & The Gang were preparing to take out again. Once again, Ben was driving it for this trip, saying numerous times throughout the day that he could drive it for the whole day. Got another photograph in the same place as we did with 6053, with the destination set for the 688 to Allenheads:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/127739730@...ed-public/. Once again, we found ourselves at the rally, and after a line-up of the four Go North East buses was formed, we left at about 16:00. John drove back while the rest of us passed the time by jabbering on about anything and everything. Fair to say that after spending so long on 6302, it's now my favourite of the batch. Arrival back at the depot was at 17:05, John took it down into the depot while the rest of us were dropped off in the mouth of the fuel line. I was surprised to see Eddie Spence was right behind us with 6060, didn't expect the first Angel to be back so early.
Had a great weekend overall, had a photo-productive day on Saturday followed by an enjoyable time on Sunday. Thanks to all those involved, and thanks for reading this rather lengthy episode of R852 RPG's Adventures. Not sure when the next one will be, potentially next weekend as I'm in York, Harrogate and Leeds with Adrian and citaro5284. More to follow...
R852 PRG
