Saturday 29th August 2015

As today was my last Saturday outing before returning to school this coming Wednesday, I decided I would end the summer holidays with a trip outside of the region. York was my chosen destination, purely because it is an easy journey by train and appeared to have a lot to offer. I invited along citaro5284; as I knew he was a train enthusiast as well, and I also wanted some company. Overall, the day was a big success, and I intend to return to York in the near future. Here is how the day worked out;

1E04 – Durham Railway Station to York Railway Station – (08:38 --- 09:29) – Virgin Trains East Coast Class 82 DVT 82206 and Class 91 91106 – InterCity 225 Mk4 Set
After waking up to an 07:20 alarm, I began to get myself ready. My dad had kindly offered me a lift through to the station, we left the house at bang-on 07:45. With my camera, phone, wallet and train tickets all ready, I arrived at Durham at roughly 08:00. As my dad pulled away and headed back, I walked into the station. It was pretty quiet, with a few people sat in the Costa and a couple on the platform I would be using to get down to York; platform 1. Having passed through the ticket barriers, I saw a First TransPennine Express service coming in for Newcastle. As I snapped a photo of it while it stood on platform 2, a man approached me, asking me if I came here often for photos. We got into a conversation, I introduced myself and he introduced himself as Les. He was heading to Birmingham for the Aston Villa match, which meant a change at York. Explaining that he was an infrequent public transport user, he mentioned he used to hold the same interest when he was my age. As the 08:22 TransPennine service southbound appeared; we departed with a handshake, and Les disappeared onto the Class 185 operating the train. Was a very nice guy. Finally; the 08:38 Virgin Trains East Coast service came into view, so I made my way down to the flag for Coach E, in which citaro5284 and I had booked. Class 82 DVT 82206 was leading the train (as is standard with southbound trains, with 91s leading the trains north), and Class 91 91106 was on the rear. citaro5284 was already sat in our reserved seats; the coach didn't appear to be massively busy. Our seats were E31 and E32; facing the direction of travel. It was a very smooth journey, and I enjoyed it. Following stops at Darlington and Northallerton, we rolled into York on time.

Visit to the National Railway Museum
After I snapped some photos in the station, we headed out of the main building, and walked towards the nearest Wetherspoons I had located; The Punchbowl. It was a short five minute walk from the station; it actually looked very small from the outside, but we found it was huge on the inside. Looks can be deceiving. I opted for a Traditional Breakfast while citaro5284 chose a Large Breakfast, on behalf of his wallet (I did offer). We were out of there by 10:30, and our next stop on the itinerary was the National Railway Museum. Now, the last time I visited the National Railway Museum; was for the ''Great Gathering'' event a couple of years ago (for those of you who are curious, look it up). The line then was like queuing for a piss at the football. Once I was in, it was pretty good. Back to today; I was astonished to find that we just walked straight in. Absolutely gobsmacked actually. Upon arrival in the Great Hall, we observed the various locomotives on display, taking photos as I went (some on citaro5284's instruction, there were several things he was after in particular). After doing a loop of the Great Hall, we walked into the Flying Scotsman area, before having a look up to the viewing balcony (observing a First TransPennine Express 185 flying past; screaming like a dog giving birth) and then The Works. Following this, we had a look at the Japanese Bullet Train, which citaro5284 took a particular interest in. Having seen just about everything, we exited the National Railway Museum at about 11:20.  

#44 – York Railway Station to York Piccadilly Bus Stands – (11:41 --- 11:45) – Transdev 1076 – Volvo B10BLE/Wright Renown – ''unibus''
As we walked back up to the station, citaro5284 spotted an AEC Routemaster. I crossed the road for a photo (was stupid of me to cross at a bend, a car came flying round and just missed me) and rejoined citaro5284 moments later. The vehicle appeared to be seeing use on a Wedding Special of some sort, it was quite a smart bus. I've never travelled on a Routemaster before and would like to at the Seaburn Rally on Monday. We got back to the station for about 11:35; citaro5284 sat down outside where the bus stands were, and asked me if I minded going into the nearest shop for a drink for him. A few moments later, I returned with a bottle of Coca Cola for him and some water for myself (refuse to drink anything else on my outings). Just as I sat down, I saw one of the Renowns that see use on the 44 service, linking the University to the City Centre and Acomb; so we decided to start our bus bashing from here. The driver had turned the engines off upon arrival at the bus stop, so we casually strolled over to it. The vehicle in question was Transdev's 1076 (Y176 HRN). I greeted the driver as I boarded, he smiled back at me and said hello; before I asked him for an All York Day Ticket, priced at £4.50; the ticket is valid within the main areas of the city centre and after using one today, I can say it certainly is value for money. Ticket machine was a Wayfayer, similar to what Arriva use. The seating was fantastic for comfort, and 1076 sounded so healthy. Puts some of the Go North East examples to shame... I was sad to get off, but I don't think citaro5284 was (#cynicalcitaro). 

#66 – York Piccadilly Bus Stands to York Railway Station – (12:01 --- 12:06) – First in York 37066 – Volvo B9TL/Wright Eclipse – ''66''
After alighting the Renown at Piccadilly, we decided to catch the next thing back to York Railway Station. My hopes of riding my first East Yorkshire Motor Services bus were dashed when I noticed that their services only used our bus stop to set down passengers. Having photographed the Renown, we waited for what felt like a lifetime for the next bus back. Fortunately, I could see one of the rather eyecatching ''66'' branded Gemini 1-bodied vehicles approaching, so I flagged it to a halt. Once the heavy load of disembarking passengers had dispersed, I boarded, followed by citaro5284. As it was just a short journey, we remained in the lower saloon. It wasn't the most thrilling journey we made today, as we spent a lot of time moving from one line of traffic to the next. A woman was allowed to alight in the midst of the traffic by the driver. When we could see the railway station's identifiable structure, I pressed the bell to alight. Our next move was onto one of the ''York Park & Ride'' routes; we decided to go with the next thing to appear to conserve time. As it turned out, this was one of the articulated Citaros (in other words; a bendy bus).

Designer Outlet Park & Ride
The vehicle was number 11102, operating the 7 to Designer Outlet; I had not made a journey on a bendy vehicle since the ''X66'' branded examples departed for Brighton & Hove (can't even remember when it was, I cared so little for them). My recollection is that they squeaked horrendously on the route, and really seemed to sound worn out. On the whole, I was not fond of them. Despite what I admit I thought was a striking livery, I was expecting to be unimpressed by this one. However, I was wrong. In fact, it was very good, as were the other Articulated Citaros that I sampled today. With no irritating squeaking that I could hear, and comfortable seating, I was in fact very impressed. It handled the route faultlessly; despite not getting up to any decent speeds due to some of the traffic when exiting the main areas of the city, it provided a comfortable ride. When we reached the Park & Ride site, we jumped ship. Fortunately, a single decker Park & Ride vehicle was waiting in front of us, so we headed down to that. The number was 69370, a vehicle with a Wright Eclipse type of body. The driver had turned the engines off while he sat waiting, with only a couple of passengers on board. The air conditioning was absolutely brilliant, I was hit with a wave of cool air as I made my way towards the rear of the bus. The driver was obviously waiting for his time to be due out; using said time to have a cigarette outside of the bus. While other passengers boarded, he jumped back in his cab, and we departed Designer Outlet with a load of about twenty passengers at the most. A lot of whom were asking for ''there and backs'' and ''two adults''. It seems they use a different language to purchase tickets in the York area. Throughout the route, the odd person alighted, and arrival back at the railway station was soon thereafter. citaro5284 pointed out that, from where he was sat, he could see that the bus was in fact a Volvo; rather than a Scania as we had assumed. Now that we had done the Designer Outlet Park & Ride, we decided to go for Askham Bar next.

Askham Bar Park & Ride
We didn't have a long time to wait before I could see the now distinctive ''York Park & Ride'' livery coming towards us; this time in the form of another Articulated Mercedes. We were landed with number 11111 (which I was happy about for some reason), and sat in similar seats to that we had to on our first Bendy. Once again, the air conditioning on this Citaro was spot on; we discussed the new B8RLE demonstrator for the majority of this journey. citaro5284 pointed out, that not many buses actually exceed 45mph (which is the vehicle's supposed top speed) unless on motorways. The ''Tyne Tees Express'' would be an example of a bus going over that speed, on the A19 motorway. After a smooth and enjoyable journey, we arrived at Askham Bar. On the recommendation of Sean, I was tempted to get a photograph of one of the Articulated Citaros while it was at a standstill, but after doing a loop of the small building; found another Bendy was preparing to depart, so we jumped on that back to York. 11103 was the vehicle providing the journey back to the city centre. I instinctively made my way towards the rear of the bus, however citaro5284 bailed out half way along and just sat in the OAP section (where he belongs!). Another really nice journey on this bus; I couldn't believe how much nicer these were to the vehicles we had on the X66. If anybody is considering a trip to York, I'd recommend the Park & Ride Articulated Citaros. They're hard to fault.

Poppleton Bar Park & Ride
Once again, we were back at the railway station. As we were doing well for time, we decided we'd go for another ride on the Park & Ride services. Another service that seemed very mainstream was the 59 to Poppleton Bar. Our luck was in, because one was due imminently when we got to the bus stand. Operating this run was Optare Versa 49905. I made my way towards the back of the bus, and on the way noticed that it was e-leather seating, almost identical to that on a Go North East vehicle. However, when I sat down, I was pleasantly surprised to find it was extremely comfortable. citaro5284 said it was all down to the padding in the seats themselves, explaining that these buses had more of a ''cushion''. The engine noise was rather peculiar, it wasn't very quick off the mark however when it was going again, it was pretty good. We came to the conclusion that it was in fact an electric bus when we saw some of the refuelling facilities at Poppleton Bar Park & Ride site. While 49905 immediately started picking up passengers again, 49909 behind it was refuelling. 49902 came in soon after, it was quite a sight to see all three of them together. 49905 left before long, and Optare Versa 49909 was quickly put into service. Departing Poppleton Bar with a reasonable load of about fifteen passengers; we had another smooth ride back to York. The driver had to blare the horn at some youths who were riding down the main road on their bikes... Hooligans.

1S19 – York Railway Station to Durham Railway Station – (15:36 --- 16:22) – Virgin Trains East Coast Class 91 91102 and Class 82 DVT 822xx – InterCity 225 Mk4 Set
After deciding to call it a day with our All York tickets, we headed back into the station at about 14:30. As we were in need of some food, citaro5284 led us into the West Cornwall Pasty Co. (or something like that). It wasn't particularly nice, I paid £3.95 for mine(!!). A trip to Costa was then made; I've never had such friendly staff before in any Costa. They asked us how we were, if we were having a good day, and what we were doing in York. Certainly a nice atmosphere there. After thanking the people in the small Costa, we perched ourselves on some seats near the end of Platform 9. Watching all of the activity in the station, the time flew by, and before we knew it, our Virgin Trains East Coast service that would take us north again was pulling in. Leading the train was 91102 ''City of York'' (coincidence?), a locomotive that still retains the contemporary vinyl that was placed upon Virgin takeover. We located our seats without any issues whatsoever, and had an enjoyable ride back. Our reservations were D59 and D60. The service wasn't very busy; we flicked through some train timetables and citaro5284 explained to me how the repainting process of the sets was taking so long. It actually makes sense now. After the announcement for Durham came, I bade farewell to citaro5284 (who carried on to Newcastle) and once the train had stopped, I pressed the release button to open the door. I forgot to note the number of the DVT on the rear of the train as I departed... D'oh.

My father picked me up outside of the station, and I was home for about 16:40. It was a fantastic outing, I really enjoyed it. I'd recommend a trip to York to anybody who is looking to step outside of the north east; it's relatively cheap by train and the All York day ticket is fantastic value for money. Thanks to citaro5284 for tagging along and keeping me company. Thanks for reading. 

R852 PRG