Heres another one of the Galleries www.flickr.com/photos/16314639@N02/6892399053/in/photostream/

Aye, it was a poor bus station. The photo above shows how un-protected it was.
Wonder who came up with the idea for the 638?
'Here lads, got an excellent idea - we will only need a pvr of about 8, we can share it between half of the depots, the problem drivers will be away all-day so cant hang around the depot, no-one will travel the entire route unless they want to get on the telly with Roy Castle, it will cover half the North East and travel between Ryton and Sunderland - Im gonna number it the 638!'

Would also love to know who decided to put the Sunderland bound and Ryton bound services on stands next to each other at The Galleries... Many a time myself and Im sure many others ended up going in the wrong direction!