(22 Jun 2014, 4:53 pm)ifm001 wrote Took a lot of thinking back this. Serviceb X97 ended up being operated by the 2 alexander dash dennis darts which were bought brand new and went straight onto that service. Registrations N670 VUP and N671 VUP which were later sold to GNE. The N reg would have come out approx 1995 so the services would have operated from 1994 roughly. Whicj sounds about right as I worked in Sunderland 1992 to 1995 travelling through seaburn everyday seeing them.
It will have been around that period, Redby introduced a service in competition to the 194 between Newcastle/Heworth and Penshaw.
They used a two door National and it ceased running when Wear Buses ran a Metrorider spoiler in front of it - ontop of the Lynxes or whatever was running the 194 at the time.