(13 Jan 2018, 4:00 pm)peter wrote In terms of vehicles being sold on do you have any idea what the plan is for 7077 and 7092-97 - in particular what's happening with 7096 as on the GNE allocation it's listed as being 'Not in Service' as opposed to 'Withdrawn'?
Thanks, Peter
7077/92/93 were all withdrawn in early October - have updated our fleet lists to reflect 7092/93 being withdrawn also, as we only had 7077 as being withdrawn. I believe there was some interest in the preservation circles to save 7077; but nothing so far on the Panthers to my knowledge, and I think one of them has been stripped of a few parts now so looking like that one could be scrapped, though I think this would be a very last resort for Go North East as the Panthers will still have some book value on them.
In terms of the Scanias, there's little to no interest from buyers for these. Go North East have placed a few adverts in trade press magazines now but don't think it's really struck any interest. It's a struggle to shift former NatEx coaches to start with as they have so many miles on the clock, but the Scania chassis'd examples aren't amazingly common (compared to Volvos) so no surprise that there's so little interest really. They're dotted around the patch at the moment:
- 7094 - withdrawn at Chester-le-Street, if I recall correctly
- 7095 - withdrawn at Saltmeadows Road
- 7096 - withdrawn at Chester-le-Street, if I recall correctly
- 7097 - loaned to Go South Coast earlier this week, possibly going to remain down there for some time, as I think it's covering for a coach in their fleet which had sustained accident damage, and they're assessing whether it's cost-effective to repair.
- 7098 - still going strong in Driver Training and acts as a further Special Events Fleet coach when required
- 7099-7102 - still going strong at Hexham on scholars contracts