Whey Aye Five O on the 47 is an odd one!

Must have been some dead mileage at the start and beginning of that one. Did Gateshead have nothing available?

The Boxing Day loads I saw of the 21 looked really good. I was partaking of a few in Low Fell and 3 passed the Cannon full (1 towards Newcastle and 2 away) and unable to pick up. A good sign!

I thought the enthusiast that was with me at Newcastle taking photos with me said that it was the same as last year?

PS: Hope someone managed to get a picture of the "Sunderland Connect" Solo SR on the 36 - arrived at Park Lane at approx. 17:27.
"Red Kite" branded Omnicity was on the 8/78 again too, something which is becoming more and more frequent.

Ahhh Daniel I'm fuming now! Had I not finished work early, I probably would have had this vehicle going back home! Just looking at the timetable, I got the 16:21 from Sunderland, and that Solo SR should have worked the following bus at 16:33 for it to have got back to Park Lane when you saw it at 5:30 ish

(27 Dec 2012, 6:01 pm)Brandon wrote Ahhh Daniel I'm fuming now! Had I not finished work early, I probably would have had this vehicle going back home! Just looking at the timetable, I got the 16:21 from Sunderland, and that Solo SR should have worked the following bus at 16:33 for it to have got back to Park Lane when you saw it at 5:30 ish

I'm fuming I didn't have my camera with me! I contemplated whether to bring it or not prior to leaving the house, but I was going out with my mum for her to buy me some new clothes in the sales (couldn't resist - saves my money at the end of the day!) and as it was soon approaching sunset, I thought it would be pointless.
Little did I know that Deptford would have an immensely rare allocation..!

A few weeks back, I saw one on the 35(A/B/C) too, unless it was out of service... It passed the roundabout at The Board Inn pub and I was walking down the road, and I was thinking 'What the hell is a "Sunderland" Connect" branded Solo SR doing down here?!'

North Tyne Links and Showstopper Trident on the 9
Simplicity Versa on 20

Due to an act of vandalism, a bus working the M1 service was taken off the road earlier, as shown on the screenshot below:
http://d.pr/i/WagB

For now, we can assume that this bus was a "MetroLink" branded vehicle. Anyone have any news on it? I've seen this reasoning for a bus being late by Go North East on their Facebook page quite a few times now...

(24 Dec 2012, 9:40 am)Daniel wrote That time has finally arrived *weep*

The old red and blue Go North East livery has been eliminated from the operational fleet with the repainting of ex-Elcock Dennis Dart 8289: Y558 KUX into the new red livery with Northern fleet names.

Only news given on the Enthusiast Area this week!

Photo by Sean Blair from today by the looks of it!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/77351420@N0...hotostream

I didn't even recognise it at first, it looks so different now!

i liked the old Go North East livery. i think it wont be the same without it

Something struck me about that photo but I didn't know what it was! I really couldn't pinpoint it!
...But there you have it!

Just seen a east durham MPD on a tow truck heading towards deptford
Vyking also under a engineer driver heading same way

---

3971 on the 5
Metrolink on 88

They can't go to Peterlee - they have to go to Deptford for maintenance, repair et cetera! There was a "Venture" branded MPD on Chester Road on 'road testing'... I think it's quite possible that if it came from Stanley and "ventured" to Sunderland, it possibly managed to do more mileage in one morning than it has done in the past month on "Venture" services! (Okay, bit of an exaggeration)...

Didn't manage to spot either of those two allocations while at Jarrow or South Shields though! I spotted 3972 on the 27 at Jarrow though.

I shall update this post with the irregularities of the day I spotted accordingly when I've managed to upload all of those items to Flickr!

There was a east Durham bus on a tow truck this morning heading up past Lidl on Durham road heading towards Town centre, must of being going for repairs, this was about 11am, 5 mins later a Vyking went past with a engineer driving.

Daniel what time were u at south shields and jarrow?, i was at both places today to, i decided to go on a adventure haha

I was also on 1 of the Omi's today which was on the 9 and it seemed to be struggling

(31 Dec 2012, 4:35 pm)Michael wrote Daniel what time were u at south shields and jarrow?, i was at both places today to, i decided to go on a adventure haha

Between 15:00 and 15:30. I had intended to stay longer but my camera died on me... It was constantly out from 09:00am! :L

---

Had intended on editing the above post but they'll go unnoticed now (as I've taken so long to caption them all)! See below:

"Northern" 6011 on "Washington Street Shuttle" W5 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...hotostream

"Laser" 5300 on "Fab Fifty Six" 56 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/

"Northern" 8218 on "Orbit" 51 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/

"Showstopper" 3860 on "Coaster" 1 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/

"Northern" 6022 on "Angel" 21 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/

"DFDS Seaways" 3891 on "North Tyne Links" 80 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/

"Northern" 3972 on "Crusader" 27 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/

"Northern" 8229 on "Crusader" 27 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/


Included the Northern ones despite them not being particularly unusual. Didn't manage to get a photo of the ones below:

- "SimpliCity" 8321 on "Drifter" 61 service
- "Northern" 3971 on "South Tyne" 88 service
- "Northern" 8264 on S1 service

As a side note, what has happened to 8266? Four or five days on the trot it has been missing from the S1 service!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...hotostream

Daniel - I hope you don't mind but I'm just using your photo to show everyone that corner at Wrekenton where that bloke got knocked over by the 56 a week gone Saturday.

The latest I know is that the man is still alive but he's in a coma in the hospital. He's apparantly suffered a fractured skull and has a bleed either side of the brain.

(31 Dec 2012, 8:14 pm)Adam wrote http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...hotostream

Daniel - I hope you don't mind but I'm just using your photo to show everyone that corner at Wrekenton where that bloke got knocked over by the 56 a week gone Saturday.

The latest I know is that the man is still alive but he's in a coma in the hospital. He's apparantly suffered a fractured skull and has a bleed either side of the brain.

No worries! I really wanted to do a massive caption for that one, explaining why that corner is no good et cetera, et cetera... By the time I had done two or three photos at the beginning, I really couldn't be bothered. :L

Thanks for the update, but not good to hear! Thoughts are still with him and his family.

(31 Dec 2012, 8:19 pm)Daniel wrote

(31 Dec 2012, 8:14 pm)Adam wrote http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...hotostream

Daniel - I hope you don't mind but I'm just using your photo to show everyone that corner at Wrekenton where that bloke got knocked over by the 56 a week gone Saturday.

The latest I know is that the man is still alive but he's in a coma in the hospital. He's apparantly suffered a fractured skull and has a bleed either side of the brain.

No worries! I really wanted to do a massive caption for that one, explaining why that corner is no good et cetera, et cetera... By the time I had done two or three photos at the beginning, I really couldn't be bothered. :L

Thanks for the update, but not good to hear! Thoughts are still with him and his family.

My grandad apparantly knows him but he claims to know everyone lol. I'll continue praying for him and his family.

(31 Dec 2012, 7:26 pm)Daniel wrote

(31 Dec 2012, 4:35 pm)Michael wrote Daniel what time were u at south shields and jarrow?, i was at both places today to, i decided to go on a adventure haha

Between 15:00 and 15:30. I had intended to stay longer but my camera died on me... It was constantly out from 09:00am! :L

---

Had intended on editing the above post but they'll go unnoticed now (as I've taken so long to caption them all)! See below:

"Northern" 6011 on "Washington Street Shuttle" W5 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...hotostream

"Laser" 5300 on "Fab Fifty Six" 56 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/

"Northern" 8218 on "Orbit" 51 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/

"Showstopper" 3860 on "Coaster" 1 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/

"Northern" 6022 on "Angel" 21 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/

"DFDS Seaways" 3891 on "North Tyne Links" 80 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/

"Northern" 3972 on "Crusader" 27 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/

"Northern" 8229 on "Crusader" 27 service:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielgraha...otostream/


Included the Northern ones despite them not being particularly unusual. Didn't manage to get a photo of the ones below:

- "SimpliCity" 8321 on "Drifter" 61 service
- "Northern" 3971 on "South Tyne" 88 service
- "Northern" 8264 on S1 service

As a side note, what has happened to 8266? Four or five days on the trot it has been missing from the S1 service!

If anyone want to see a photo of 8264 on the S1, I have one...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/spd17/83222...hotostream