0846 X21 Newton Aycliffe - Seaham, Byron Place (ANE 4809)
Was hoping not to get 4811 on this service for once and sure enough, I didn't, sadly I got this instead. Sadly I rarely ever manage to get the ex demos and always end up with the slower 13 reg examples, the doors take ages to open and close on this one following a incident in Darlington a few years back. Got off at Seaham, Byron Place to get some photos of the Wear Xpress Solo SR's but sure enough a Solar would be one of the buses that turned up, so that spoilt things slightly.
1041 X6 Seaham Byron Place - Sunderland (GNE 691)
Jumped on this to Sunderland, including myself there was 10 passengers on until I departed which is roughly the same as the previous journey on the X21 carried. Pretty laid back trip on this to Sunderland sat at the back on this.
1213 X24 Sunderland, Holmeside - Newcastle, Pilgrim Street (SNE 24002)
Had trouble locating the stop this service leaves from on Holmeside, it was down on one stop on the paper timetables but the screen at another stop and Google Maps had it from leaving from another stop which is the one I decided to wait at and sure enough I was wrong, just pleased people were waiting for it meaning I caught 24002 through to Newcastle. Wasn't sure what to make of it at first, seemed slow and sounded rough heading along Chester Road but seemed alright once it got on the A19. I sat by the emergency exit door which had an amazing amount of legroom, could stretch my legs right out and was barely touching the seat in front. Quick journey on this, must use it again in future.
1348 X16 Newcastle Haymarket - Morpeth Bus Station (ANE 1408)
Stood around Eldon Square for a little while hoping for something decent (7439 especially) but nowt was peaking my interest, but then saw Jesmond based Great North Road routes branded 7476 randomly working the X21 to Newbiggin but got a dud photo, so decided to catch it again at Ashington on it's way back to Newcastle later, so I decided to go to Ashington via Morpeth, the Morpeth leg was provided by 1408, this provided a fast journey with a nice thrash, just a pity there was an annoying interior rattle from the back at points.
1455 35 Morpeth Bus Station - Ashington Bus Station (ANE 4659)
Decided to reject the first 35 which was StreetLite 1580 and instead gambled on the next one which payed off in the form of MAX Omnicity 4659, unfortunately as it was running late it was rather busy, in fact I stood the whole way to Ashington although I could have got a seat if I wanted to. One downside to Arriva's OmniCity's (excluding 4660-4664) is that they only have a wheelchair bay, so it was a bit of a squeeze getting three pushchairs on and then to make matters worse, five or six kids all wanted to be on, all of them with scooters and of course the driver let them on and just about every one of them smashed them into me as they got past. As we got closer to Ashington, some old guy decided it would be a good idea to stand just behind me, on the opposite side of the aisle and of course this meant no-one getting off could get past and sure enough I'm the one that got the dirty looks for that!
This journey just got later and later which then made me think I'd miss 7476 and sure enough as we were pulling into Ashington Bus Station, 7476 pulled out, jumped off 4659 and ran like mad onto the main road and managed the flukiest shot ever between the traffic with the blind showing clearly, oh and it wouldn't be a trip to Ashington without chavy children taking the mick out of you for taking photos.1535 1 Ashington Bus Station - Blyth Bus Station (ANE 1772)
Next ride was a good old MPD, this one performed brilliantly, seemed to still have some power and made for a great run. The interior is looking a bit worn now though.
1610ish? X10 Blyth Bus Station - Newcastle, Barras Bridge (ANE 7466)
This was on the other side of Blyth Bus Station when I got off 1772, so went with this as I figured it would be more enjoyable than a VDL Gemini and sure enough it was, this bus sounded fantastic plus it was powerful and pretty quick. Somewhere in the Cramlington area a young lad didn't look amused as the driver made him pay the fare as I'm guessing there was some issue as he was showing his phone but driver was having non of it, think he tried a bit of arguing but that failed. Alighted at Barras Bridge to snap a recently refurbished MAX Pulsar which was following behind us from Regent Centre on the 44. Here's a video I recorded of my trip on 7466: https://youtu.be/dXU6GqbsjSo
1735 X21 Newcastle, Newgate Street - Crook (Weardale YH66VMO)
Decided to sample this Yutong ZK6126HGA demonstrator again, the seats in the bus are terrible, mostly metal and very little padding in the fabric, other than that I think it's actually a rather comfortable ride, for some reason it kind of reminds me of a MAN EcoCity, possibly just the way the interior is.
1849 X46 Crook - Nevilles Cross (ANE 7417)
The fastest way home was to go back towards Durham rather than head via Bishop Auckland, so I got the X46 back towards Durham. We seemed to stop quite a lot on this journey which surprised me, pretty much every time I get it through the daytime it picks up very little, most seemed to be heading into Durham City Centre. This one seemed pretty quick and sounded quite good. I alighted at Nevilles Cross in order to catch my next bus...
1919 7 Nevilles Cross - Newton Aycliffe (ANE 1416)
Made the connection between the X46 and 7 at Nevilles Cross as the 7 left Durham Bus Station before the X46 was due in. No doubt as a result of 7536 being on Metro Replacements, I instead ended up with MAX Pulsar 1416 which at least made a change to the usual Sapphire buses on the 7, this one seems to be a reasonably quick one.
Thanks for reading.
Here is that fluky shot of 7476 on the X21 again (I did crop it slightly).
![[Image: 32162446203_31cdd24681.jpg]](https://c1.staticflickr.com/3/2182/32162446203_31cdd24681.jpg)
Arriva North East: 7476 / W398VGJ by Matthew Jimmison, on Flickr