(21 Feb 2016, 1:19 am)South Tyne Lad wrote Remember seeing them in Whitley Bay when I was younger ( 7504 was the first one I seen ) and they were amazing, Much better than the 306 Tridents of the time.But even with no Ecnospeed, the truth is that 7501 - 7509 have had it.
The point you put about Blyths engineering and that there isn't enough spares must have ended up in the VDL Geminis being battered after only 6/7 ( 59 reg ) and 5 years ( 61 reg )
Didn't get to sample them while at Redcar but by photos online, They didn't look the best Maintained in the fleet.
When some where based at Ashington for the 501/505 I used to use up to Haggerston Castle for Summer weekends and if on one occasion managed to get what I believe was 7504 on the 505( X15 now?)
And for the 50 odd miles back to Newcastle it got hammered with full kickdowns all the way. ( 7511-7513 can still do this )
But when they were Sapphired I think it was a BIG mistake to fit Econospeed to them because that just wrecked the engine and the Gearbox and just made them worse.
7504 is a bit better now that it had its econospeed switched off but its Cummins is very rough and its ZF gearbox is that of the rancid X reg Darts that used to roam the North East.
Yet 7511-7513 still sound ok and do very well without the econospeed that was only fitted to 7501-7510 and still have loads of life left in them.
In my opinion econospeed wrecks buses if not fitted from the factory floor because Gearboxes get used to how the Engine it works along side it after a few months and if interfered with, It wrecks the whole engine bay.
Apparently 7503 still has it turned on and is shocking.
An example would be that if GNE instead of using them as their intended role of B9 route backups (including the Angel PVR increase), had've allocated 3941-43 and 3962-65 to lets say the Pronto, they would have got into difficulties well before now. If GNE replace the B9s at the 5 year mark on the TTX, they could only see out perhaps 2-3 more years of demanding work before ending up in a reserve or local / urban use role. 7501-7509 and to an extent, 7511-7513 have served their time well but a role like the 43/44/45 out of Jesmond or even the 306 would've suited these perfectly, not a fast and frequent express route with high utilisation.
The only Mid 90's onwards vehicle produced which could cope with a hammering for 15 years would be the Volvo Olympian (with a D10-245 engine).