(07 Jun 2015, 12:49 pm)MarcTheA4 wrote Going back a couple of posts in this conversation, I remember in early 2013, when I was starting to go to places like Durham, Newcastle and Sunderland by myself - I decided to make my first journey on an Arriva bus, an X2 to Durham.
This was a red double decker, looked extremely old when an ''Angel'' B5 drove past it at the bottom of Chester-le-Street. I've searched Flickr, and come to the conclusion that it was numbered 7260. All I remember from that journey was that it was an absolute beast, and flew up Chester-le-Street Front Street (the uphill climb from the bottom to the middle). I have to say I'm sad I only got to ride it for about 15-20 minutes. It had some sort of red seating, quite comfortable if my memory is correct. Nobody else was upstairs, so I had the front seats and the entire upper deck to myself. That was a great ride.
I think that red double decker was a Scania of some sort, I'm sure it had to be an Olympian.
Would of been a Scania aye, they were beasts as well. There was the East Lancs body they had, that the M-HPF Olympians from London also had, as well as an East Lancs Cityzen body that the N-OTY Scanias at Blyth had. If I recall correctly, the N reg Blyth Scanias were withdrawn well before the M-FTY Olympians at Alnwick, Ashington and Jesmond.
(07 Jun 2015, 12:40 pm)aureolin wrote Belmont, for a time, struggled to keep theirs on the road too. Not sure whether it's down to the way they're looked after or the quality of the product though?
Combination of both perhaps?