Well as its a quiet Sunday morning I thought I would round up our orders for this year... Most of these have been mentioned and/or hinted at on various Facebook groups already.

10 VDL Pulsar - Stockton -Service 5/5A (Sapphire spec)
14 VDL Pulsar - Redcar/Whitby - Service X3/X4/4 (Sapphire spec)
8 VDL Pulsar - Jesmond - Service 306
5 VDL Pulsar - Darlington - Service 1/5 (may go to Durham svc 23)
6 ADL Enviro 400 - Ashington - Service X21/X22 (Sapphire spec)
6 unknown double deck -Ashington/Alnwick -Service X18

Total 49

This should enable us to bin what's left of the Prestiges and make a good start on the Darts too, especially with so many Solos freed up by cascades.
X21/X22 Sapphire will be also getting 8 E400 refurbished, likely to be 7514-21

Bus driver shot at as he drove through Hartlepool

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/cri...-1-6410802

7459 on 24s. At Peterlee now heading to Durham.

(31 Jan 2014, 7:12 pm)dans_bus_photos wrote As was 22067/22070- is there a problem with some of the enviro 300s?

Not too sure, but it seems to be a regular occurrence at least a few times during the week. I live at Whitburn and somehow I usually manage to get on the cover ALX300's running board :').

(31 Jan 2014, 10:05 pm)Dan wrote A few photographs on my Flickr of vehicles entering Gateshead/Winlaton depot for the final time from this evening.

All photographs were taken from outside the depot premises.

At what stage do the drivers hand over to depot staff for refuelling and wash?

Do the drivers 'jump ship' at the 'terminus' (job done) or do they drive to the depot and park up then leave? I can't imagine that the average driver will be educated in vehicle maintenance (at least not the ones that I have spoken to).

We all have a favourite type of vehicle and there are the ones we love to hate, but what about a specific vehicle?

Do you have a particular member of the past or present fleets that you enjoy riding on or seeing?

I personally like the unique or one off vehicles such as the Go ahead Northern Atlantean with the giant big black bumper (cant remember the fleet number), there were a couple of the Nationals in the early 90s that still had an original feature showing above the door, to remind passengers to pay the driver on entry, there was one of the M2/M3 MPDs had a unique coloured bumper...

Anyone else have a soft spot?

A question i would like to ask is what Night Buses run down in the North East? is the Network getting bigger or smaller? are they tender or not? ect, am looking into it as the Liverpool area Night Bus network seems to be going bit by bit.

Sadly Duffer have gone bust

Shame as i used them regular for jeans for the last 3 years!

Story: http://www.drapersonline.com/news/menswe...17.article

After a bit advice, so if you can hang with me on this one...

Apart from the stuff you do as a kid, stars and planets have never appealed to me at all.
The only thing connected with space, that even got me excited was a Mars Bar or a Milky Way.

Until receny that is...

I have lost count at how many clear skies I have seen recently. An obvious by product, is the endless vision of stars and distant planets.
Based on nothing more than curiosity, I have been wondering which clump of stars made which constellation and which of them was Venus or Pluto.

Downloaded one of those apps, where you can view the stars etc through your phone - but bearing in mind I am a complete novice, do any of you have any tips to share?

I know this has been stopped but it appears theres a way around it as i just found it by chance its a Printable Version.



http://northeastbuses.co.uk/forum/printt...hp?tid=645