(07 Dec 2014, 8:28 pm)northern156 wrote Trapped in Consett now?

Pftthahahaha!!  - lucky to get out alive! Perhaps as a highly respected enthusiast, some FPF members may have braved their way up to Consett to save him from another back-breaking journey on a Stanley-based B10BLE! (I think Chester only have 1 or 2 duties on a Sunday! - and their B10BLEs are in fantastic shape!)

(07 Dec 2014, 8:28 pm)northern156 wrote Trapped in Consett now?

Think the cold got to me, as I forgot to note the rest!

I got a 45 from Consett to Metrocentre at circa 1245, followed by an X66 to Gateshead (GNE 5389), a Metro to Felling (refurbished Metrocar), and another to Stadium of Light (again - refurbished).

(07 Dec 2014, 8:32 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote Pftthahahaha!!  - lucky to get out alive! Perhaps as a highly respected enthusiast, some FPF members may have braved their way up to Consett to save him from another back-breaking journey on a Stanley-based B10BLE! (I think Chester only have 1 or 2 duties on a Sunday! - and their B10BLEs are in fantastic shape!)

Pfft, 4909 was Chester's allocated Volvo B10BLE today... They're still battered and bruised from their days on the X7.

(07 Dec 2014, 8:34 pm)Dan wrote Pfft, 4909 was Chester's allocated Volvo B10BLE today... They're still battered and bruised from their days on the X7.

If only it had been 4854!

(07 Dec 2014, 8:37 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote If only it had been 4854!

Would have been happy days!

Found what I was wanting to do when I go to London in the New Year, Hopefully it wont take long to do and will hopefully provide some excellent Photo Opportunities as well.

https://www.tfl.gov.uk/campaign/sculpture-trails

Edit: Ill be doing the Westminister one.

(07 Dec 2014, 11:16 pm)NEBCD Malarkey wrote Found what I was wanting to do when I go to London in the New Year, Hopefully it wont take long to do and will hopefully provide some excellent Photo Opportunities as well.

https://www.tfl.gov.uk/campaign/sculpture-trails

Edit: Ill be doing the Westminister one.

I would highly recommend waiting, Adam.
There's surely no rush to get the trip done in the New Year, when you could wait until it is warmer, better lighting conditions, and more daylight hours?

(07 Dec 2014, 11:16 pm)NEBCD Malarkey wrote Found what I was wanting to do when I go to London in the New Year, Hopefully it wont take long to do and will hopefully provide some excellent Photo Opportunities as well.

https://www.tfl.gov.uk/campaign/sculpture-trails

Edit: Ill be doing the Westminister one.

I would highly recommend waiting, Adam.
There's surely no rush to get the trip done in the New Year, when you could wait until it is warmer, better lighting conditions, and more daylight hours?

(08 Dec 2014, 7:11 am)Dan wrote I would highly recommend waiting, Adam.
There's surely no rush to get the trip done in the New Year, when you could wait until it is warmer, better lighting conditions, and more daylight hours?

Due to being skint I havent booked the trip and I will not likely be doing so until after Christmas, unless my Dad gives me the £10 which he owes me on Thursday when he gets paid, either way due to missing the Megabus cut off time for Fares it pushes the Trip back a further week, I was looking at going on Wednesday 21st January 2015 iirc, its likely now going to be mid February before I get the chance to go, so roughly 8 Weeks possibly longer depending on when I book the Seats.

Weather wise itll be warmer in London than it is up here so that makes no difference to me unless it chucks it down with Rain like it did when I went to Edinburgh, but then again I wasnt bothered by it, Lighting Conditions shouldnt be too bad either and Daylight Hours should be more by that time anyway, ill be in London for 8 and a Half Hours anyway (8am to 16:30pm), so I would get a good 7 Hours of Daylight depending on Sunrise/Sunset, even if it got Dark around 4pm, it would make no difference as I would be in Coach Station waiting for the Coach back home by then.

I think I might have to be the one to point out - Megabus have now stopped doing the £5 Wednesday deals.

(08 Dec 2014, 7:05 pm)Kuyoyo wrote I think I might have to be the one to point out - Megabus have now stopped doing the £5 Wednesday deals.

Looks like theyve put it up by £1 to me.

Might do an Explorer on Saturday, instead of my original plan!

#21 - Chester to Gateshead
(10:54 --- 11:40)
#X34 - Gateshead to Newcastle
(11:58 --- 12:05)
#100 - Newcastle to MetroCentre
(12:09 --- 12:24)
#X43 - MetroCentre to Stanley
(12:30 --- 13:00)
#43 - Stanley to Durham
(13:13 --- 13:44)
#64 - Durham to Arnison Centre
(13:50 --- 14:06)
#64 - Arnison Centre to Durham
(14:20 --- 14:36)
#X2 - Durham to Chester
(14:51 --- 15:09)
#21 - Chester to Home
(15:15 --- 15:19)

May ride some buses in West Durham tomorrow in the hope of catching some Volvo Olympians.

Hope I catch some and hopefully I won't need wellies to wade through snow in the likes of Consett.

EDIT: Seem as I'm getting not much sleep tonight I'm probably gonna do this another day.

Not sure whether to go out tomorrow or not - would really like some snowy shots but had no luck last time I tried and not sure it's worth it with mr going to Prague on Sunday

Photos of this afternoons SNE P&R for Sunderland vs West Ham United
https://www.flickr.com/photos/adammalark...014/12/13/

Woke up with a cold this morning so I didn't go out.

(13 Dec 2014, 5:19 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote Woke up with a cold this morning so I didn't go out.

I got up bang on 12:30pm and I was out the Front Door at 12:42pm to catch the 2C at 12:44pm just outside my House, In that 12 Minutes I did the following, surely its got to be a Guinness World Record of some sort. 

Got Dressed
Took my Eye Drops
Made a Ham Sandwich and ate it
Drank a Glass of Juice
Cleaned my Teeth
Had a No2

My trip down to Leeds consisted of the following: 

08:40 PR1 Sniperley Park & Ride - Durham Wharton Park (North Rd): Scarlet Band YX64 DYF
09:24 FTpE Durham - Leeds: First Transpennine Express 185 130
16:08 XC Leeds - Durham: CrossCountry 221 139
17:35 PR1 Durham Millburngate - Sniperley Park & Ride: Scarlet Band YX64 DXR

Just realised I forgot about my trip from yesterday! [emoji3]

TransPennine - CLS to LDS
(08:15 --- 09:39) 185150
TransPennine - LDS to CLS
(14:43 --- 16:05) 185116

(13 Dec 2014, 7:09 pm)Robert wrote My trip down to Leeds consisted of the following: 

08:40 PR1 Sniperley Park & Ride - Durham Wharton Park (North Rd): Scarlet Band YX64 DYF
09:24 FTpE Durham - Leeds: First Transpennine Express 185 130
16:08 XC Leeds - Durham: CrossCountry 221 139
17:35 PR1 Durham Millburngate - Sniperley Park & Ride: Scarlet Band YX64 DXR

Should say that 185 130 only had 2 working engines instead of 3 meaning that it left York 3 minutes late but was on time for the majority of the journey.

(14 Dec 2014, 1:49 pm)Robert wrote Should say that 185 130 only had 2 working engines instead of 3 meaning that it left York 3 minutes late but was on time for the majority of the journey.

They regularly run on 2 engines anyway, part of their Eco mode as the 185s are so powerful they don't actually need all 3!

(14 Dec 2014, 3:27 pm)tyresmoke wrote They regularly run on 2 engines anyway, part of their Eco mode as the 185s are so powerful they don't actually need all 3!

Ok. It musn't work very well if the guard had to say the following (not quoted exactly): 'We apologise that this train is leaving York 3 minutes late due to only 2 engines working instead of 3' so i assumed that it wasn't normal and the train itself had a malfunction causing an engine not to work.

Needed to do some Christmas shopping and take back a couple of uni library books so turned the trip out into a whole adventure otherwise I would have been by myself bored stiff in the house:

08:52 #X25 Wrekenton - Gateshead (3877)
09:15 #X66 Gateshead - Metrocentre (5341)
09:38 #44A Metrocentre - Newcastle Eldon Square (5284)
10:17 #310 Newcastle Haymarket - North Shields (6107)
11:17 #9 North Shields - Jarrow (5151)
11:27 #27 Jarrow - South Shields (5164, running 5 mins late)
11:42 #35A South Shields - Sunderland (5202, running 15 mins late)
12:38 #X7 Sunderland - Peterlee (5335)
13:02 #X35 Peterlee - Houghton-le-Spring (8271)
13:51 #4 Houghton-le-Spring - Washington Galleries (5358)
14:14 #X1 Washington Galleries - Wrekenton (6053, running 10 mins late).

My adventure today - sadly no Volvo Olympians.

0932 7 Newton Aycliffe - Durham (ANE 1517)
1100 15 Durham - Lanchester (GNE 6014)
1130 X31 Lanchester - Stanley (GNE 3873)
1200 78 Stanley - Chester-Le-Street (GNE 4854)
1253 21 Chester-Le-Street - Newcastle (GNE 3965)
1555 X2 Newcastle - Framwellgate Moor (ANE 7478)
1653 7 Framwellgate Moor - Newton Aycliffe (ANE 1516)

Few notes:

4854's side display was displaying Consett when I got on in Stanley (not sure what the front / rear said), honestly thought I was going to Consett at one point and it's the first time I've done the 78 too, realised I was on a Sunderland bound journey when I saw Consett bound journeys go in the opposite direction.

I can confirm that 3965 does indeed have WiFi now, pity my phone was having non of it.

Photos will be uploaded to Flickr later.

(16 Dec 2014, 6:39 pm)Jimmi wrote 1130 X31 Lanchester - Stanley (GNE 3873)

An Olympian operated the 15:25 X31 departure from Lanchester.

I know it's hardly bus-related, but one day I would love to do this - possibly in a year or so;

East Coast - DHM to EDB
(09:25 --- 11:10) - pathed as a Class 91
ScotRail - EDB to GQS
(11:30 --- 12:34) - pathed as a Sprinter
#398 - GQS to GLC
(13:00 --- 13:15) - First Solo
Virgin - GLC to CAR
(13:40 --- 14:47) - pathed as a Pendolino
ScotRail - CAR to NCL
(15:36 --- 17:00) - pathed as a Sprinter
East Coast - NCL to DHM
(17:25 --- 17:42) - pathed as a Class 91

More of a summer time thing, without a doubt. I checked out some prices and the day itself would come to £40.00ish - not bad for such a huge day. The 398 is free, I gather, providing you have a valid train ticket. It just transfers you between Glasgow Queen Street and Glasgow Central in 15 mins.

(17 Dec 2014, 6:19 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote I know it's hardly bus-related, but one day I would love to do this - possibly in a year or so;

East Coast - DHM to EDB
(09:25 --- 11:10) - pathed as a Class 91
ScotRail - EDB to GQS
(11:30 --- 12:34) - pathed as a Sprinter
#398 - GQS to GLC
(13:00 --- 13:15) - First Solo
Virgin - GLC to CAR
(13:40 --- 14:47) - pathed as a Pendolino
ScotRail - CAR to NCL
(15:36 --- 17:00) - pathed as a Sprinter
East Coast - NCL to DHM
(17:25 --- 17:42) - pathed as a Class 91

More of a summer time thing, without a doubt. I checked out some prices and the day itself would come to £40.00ish - not bad for such a huge day. The 398 is free, I gather, providing you have a valid train ticket. It just transfers you between Glasgow Queen Street and Glasgow Central in 15 mins.

Sounds good!
Maybe you could have a little ride on some local buses in Carlisle too. 

You can walk Queen Street to Ce tral in less time than the bus takes

(17 Dec 2014, 7:25 pm)Andreos1 wrote You can walk Queen Street to Ce tral in less time than the bus takes

Yep. Takes about 5-10 mins. Not far at all!

My outing over the last two days:

Newcastle to Kings Cross - 1E01 - 91125 East Coast
Kings Cross to Euston - #30 - 33651 Tower Transit
Euston to Kings Cross - #205 - 12314 Stagecoach
Kings Cross to Newcastle - 1N27 - 91107 East Coast
Newcastle to Washington - #X1 - 6006 Go North East