(20 Feb 2015, 7:06 pm)tyresmoke wrote Have to say I am impressed with how smoothly our day out today went in North Yorkshire & East Cleveland! Can tell the schools are off...
I'll let Dan post the list on what we covered but suffice to say we had a good variety of vehicles, B9TL, Streetlite, Temsa, Dart, Solo...
I decided today that I wanted a trip to Whitby. I mainly wanted to have a go of the X93 under Volvo B9TL allocation, but also wanted to try out a Sapphire Streetlite to compare them to Durham's examples on the 23 and Go North East's examples on the 60. I decided that this would be a great opportunity to head to Redcar - somewhere I'd not been previously. Scott wanted to come too - this was great for me, as I had a tour guide who had a better knowledge of the location than me, allowing me to extend the trip beyond what I had originally planned.
The details of my journeys are below:
0714 #9: Newcastle Road to Park Lane - Go North East 5159
0726 #X7: Sunderland to Middlesbrough - Go North East 5335
0920 #X93: Middlesbrough to Whitby - Arriva North East 7401
1110 #94: Whitby to Eksdale Road - Arriva North East 2827
1150 #94: Helredale Road to Whitby - Arriva North East 1101
1232 #4: Whitby to Loftus - Arriva North East 1567
1320 #5: Loftus to Brotton - Arriva North East 1552
1345 #5A: Brotton to Guisborough - Arriva North East 1556
1430 #81A: Guisborough to Marske - Arriva North East 4512
1532 #X3: Marske to Redcar - Arriva North East 1571
1555 #63: Redcar to Eston Square - Arriva North East 4701
1634 #63: Eston Square to Ormesby - Arriva North East 4715
1654 #5A: Ormesby to Middlesbrough - Arriva North East 1551
1720 #X7: Middlesbrough to Sunderland - Go North East 5336
1859 #20: Park Lane to Newcastle Road - Go North East 4991
Scott joined and left the X7 at Stockton, getting 22018 on the 59 to Stockton this morning and 22202 back this evening.
I'd never used the Whitby town services before, and I hadn't been on one of Arriva's ex-London mini-ALX200s either, so this combo was great. The ALX200 was in marvellous condition and it was incredibly quick off the mark - sadly I can't provide as great a review for 2827, but what can I say, it's a Solo! There was a smell of burning plastic on 1567, but I must say it performed very well and I was surprised to say the least. They've been set up great and manage hills quite well indeed. The gear changes are far smoother than they are on Durham's examples, so hopefully they'll get round to doing those at some point too. I wasn't a fan of Percy Main's dual door Volvo B10BLE this morning but I was reminded that it certainly isn't the worst Volvo B10BLE in the North East after I had 4512 for more than ten minutes! Of course, the journey was made worse by the passengers on-board, and you can read more about that in the "What's annyoing you today?" thread! I'd never been on a Temsa Avenue before, and as they have quite a bad reputation, Scott thought it would be a good idea for me to ride one so I can form my own judgement on them! Whilst the seating was far from ideal, I loved the amount of power they had. Glad it was just a fairly short journey though, as my arse was a bit numb by the end... Heating was spot on on 5336 - standard of a Merc. Decided to get 4991 home instead of 4912, adding a bit more variety.
