(07 May 2023, 9:20 pm)Storx wrote Must admit I haven't been on them for awhile dodged them so far.

Yeah agreed with the Gemini's, to be fair they should've probably been retired to something easier than the Blyth Expresses by now but it's Arriva and they're idea of retiring buses is to use buses that have been on local town routes all their life to a route over 20 mile long, replace them because they're unreliable then repeat it all over again.

Ha don't worry I can remember when I was kid looking forward to them (preferred the L113's with the 4 seats at front mind) over the bench Olympians which quite often turned up and were grim with ex London brown moquette which belonged in Beamish then nevermind now.

The ex London & County ones (M6** HPF)? Blyth operated the exact same Cummins L10 & ZF combination both in the East Lancs flavour and Palatine II flavour.

Did you ever ride on the Pennine Windows liveried Palatine II when it was at Blyth? (think it was 372/7372).

I do remember riding on presumably 373/7373 when it was still carrying the 602 branding in original NMS colours, and it was around the time Arriva switched from Almex ticket machines to Wayfarers as that particular bus had a new wayfarer fitted at the time.

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(07 May 2023, 7:53 pm)Storx wrote tbf, the things were sheds when they were at Blyth last time and that must've been 10 year ago? I really don't know why Blyth engineering done them but they really ruined the things, then some bright spark though they'd be ideal for the X93 which obviously was a disaster.

Awful buses but then again most Enviro's from that era are the same. The Stagecoach ones which pottered around on city work all their life aren't exactly much better.

Agreed sadly with the Gemini's but give them credit they've outlasted the N113's and they were really knackered by the end (and now I feel old).

Blyth depot and Dennis Tridents never get on well! The last time Blyth had Tridents, by the time they got replaced with Lowlanders and Jesmond got 7430-35, they were never allocated on Sundays with the 306 usually being operated instead by a B10BLE or if capacity was needed, a Palatine II.