(17 Dec 2015, 10:35 am)Charles41 wrote Yesterday I had a cracking day out in County Durham. I had two objectives; firstly visit the garages of some independent operators and secondly get my Christmas shopping in Durham city centre. The day started on GNE 4936, a Wright bodied Scania working the 09.42 X25 service which I boarded at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Gateshead. There was only a single person on this bus when it arrived after powering it’s way up Sheriff Hill. No sooner had we set off than I spotted a brand new 16 seat Ford Transit belonging to Gateshead NHS Trust. I knew it was going to be an exciting and interesting day.

Next I spotted Plaxton bodied Plasma KX59GOE of the Jim Hughes fleet working the 23 at Wrekenton. This vehicle looked really smart externally. I’ll have to give the 23 service a go some day. The journey on 4936 passed without incident and the bus picked up additional passengers at Wrekenton. I got off at Portobello and decided to visit the Jim Hughes depot. This company is now majority owned by the Shipley family. I had visited the old Jim Hughes depot at Southwick in the late 1980s when the company was owned by the Hughes family. Mrs Hughes was amazed that anyone would be interested in her husband’s buses! The company has really expanded since the Shipley family took majority ownership.

I asked for permission to look round and take some photos. The staff had no objection to this as long as I did not photograph inside the workshop. There were 27 vehicles on site; I took my time and got some good photos. The fleet looked very smart and the vehicles are striking in the gold-based livery. The coaches were really impressive. JH15BUS, a Sunsundegui bodied Volvo was particularly interesting and a rare find. I noted that the company appears to undertake National Express work, a number of vehicles present were wearing their livery. There were also a number of Dennis Trident deckers present. I thanked the staff for a most enjoyable visit and made my way over to Kingsley Coaches.

Kingsley’s main yard is about 5 minutes walk from the Jim Hughes garage. Kingsley Coaches is 100% owned by various members of the Kingsley family. I asked Ian Kingsley if it was OK to look round the yard. He had no objection to this as long as I wore a hi-vis. I counted 23 members of Kingsley fleet present and again I got some really good photos. There were plenty of double deckers in the yard resting between school duties. Also present at the rear of the yard was some interesting withdrawn stock including former A-Line Dennis Dart T601JBA. Also present was a Volvo B10M belonging to Altona Coach Services who keep their vehicles in Kingsley’s yard. Rodham (Calvary Coaches) also has Kingsley’s yard as his operating centre but currently does not own any vehicles. I thanked the staff for letting me look around and headed to Kingsley’s other yard on the industrial estate. However this was locked up with no vehicles present. Opposite this yard is the Felling MOT Centre. A Mr and Mrs Allen have recently applied for a 5 vehicle national o-licence based at the MOT Centre. No vehicles were present at the time of my visit.

I did not have to wait long for my next bus which was 4927 working the 10.53 X25. I took this service to Chester-le-Street. It was a short journey with 6 passengers on the bus when I boarded. On the way I spotted 2 further Kingsley’s vehicles heading to their depot. At Chester-le-Street I just had time to spot a Mercedes Sprinter belonging to Mitcheson (Birtley Minibus) before changing to Citaro 5298 on the 11.13 36 service. This was a well used bus and a nice journey with good scenery. I took the 36 to Woodstone. There were good views of Lumley Castle, Durham County Cricket Ground and the Penshaw Monument on this journey.

At Woodstone I visited the premises of Johnson (County Coaches). This garage was easy to find being near the main road on an industrial estate. I was able to look around the garage and get plenty of photos. Recent acquisitions here are a Bova WA04TYU (ex Dawlish Coaches) and a Plaxton bodied Mercedes YN10HHZ (ex Aydons, Doncaster). The garage building itself is part of the former colliery. County Coaches share their yard with a firm of hauliers. I remember seeing County Coaches minibuses in late 1980s when they used to operate ‘bread van’ conversions of Ford Transits on contracts to special schools in the Gateshead area. Also based on this industrial estate is Couzens (KC Minicoach Hire), However I could not find any trace of his yard after a good look around. I had only just returned at the bus stop when the 78 arrived. I was pleased as this was operated by busy StreetLite 5400. It did not take long to arrive back at Chester-le-Street. On the way we passed Lumley Evangelical Church who operate a non-psv LDV Maxus. This is a cracking journey on a StreetLite as it powered downhill.

On arrival at Chester I made my way to the GNE garage. I was hoping to spot some of their new Lagunas. Only one of these coaches was present and this was sandwiched behind other vehicles so I could not get details of the registration or fleet number. I was able to spot a number of other coaches in the depot, including two that I had not seen previously. This was a good result in itself as these coaches can take some tracking down. On the way back into the town centre I passed the Territorial Army Centre. There were two new style Transits present for the Durham Army Cadets and one for the Air Cadets in the yard.

I was planning to get some lunch at Chester-le-Street, however East Lancs bodied Trident 3872 shortly appeared working the 12.08 X25. I noticed the seat above the driver was free, so I decided to have a trip on this service. Witton Gilbert was my objective; there were excellent views along the way especially over Waldridge Fell. This was a lovely journey in the early afternoon sunshine. Even Sacriston looked OK, I must have been in a good mood! The bus struggled on the climb out of Chester towards the Hermitage School but made it in the end. It did not take long until we arrived at the Witton Gilbert Working Men’s Club.

Taxibus proprietor Fred Prophet was my objective. Mr Prophet operates a local service around Lanchester and appears in latest VOSA Notices and Proceedings due to a change of route and timetable. I had not spotted any of Mr Prophet’s vehicles before and wanted to get some photos of his bus. Unfortunately no vehicles were present at his given address on Durham Gardens. I headed to his previous address on Dene Terrace, unfortunately no vehicles were here either. I therefore am no wiser as to the composition of Mr Prophet’s fleet. I also checked out the premises of Gladstone (Brians Minibus) on Brookside, but there were no vehicles present. Neither for that matter was Sinbad! Undeterred I made my way along Front Street to the premises of minibus operator Colors Taxis. Witton Gilbert was a bit of a write off as there were no vehicles here either.

After the disaster of Witton Gilbert, I jumped on Scania 4934 working the 13.00 X25 to Langley Park. This bus arrived promptly and I was only aboard for a few minutes until we arrived. I made my way to owner-operator Hartshorn on Garden Avenue. Unfortunately his single minibus was not present. I therefore walked along the old railway to industrial estate. This is the home of Diggerland which is very popular with small children and also grown men reliving their childhood. Also here is the garage of Harrison (Diamond Travel). Mr Harrison operates a single Bova which I was able to photograph.

My final destination in Langley Park was Smith (Bob Smith Coaches). This operator is located in the former garage of Cox (Gypsy Queen). Gypsy Queen was a long-established independent bus operator the area before being taken over by Go-Ahead. They used to operate a very smart Duple bus bodied Volvo B10 on their local service to Durham. Bob Smith used to be based further up Front Street in an old cinema which had been converted into a garage. I visited this location a number of times in the early 1990s. The Bob Smith fleet used to be a lot bigger at approximately 25 vehicles which used to operate on a number of local services around Durham. The site of the old Bob Smith garage has now been redeveloped. There was only vehicle present during this visit; a Van Hool bodied Volvo B10. This is now the Smith family’s only full size vehicle.

Next I caught Trident 3864 working the 13.30 service 13 to Durham. I backtracked somewhat going through Witton Gilbert and Sacriston again, however it was worth it for the fine views. The bus surged up the bank towards Sacriston from Witton Gilbert. Again I had the seat above the driver. This journey got quite busy in Sacriston with shoppers heading to Durham. The local Fyndoune Community College has a small minibus fleet which consists of a single non-psv Ford Transit. I alighted from this bus at Durham Hospital.

I wanted to get some photos of Dryburn Hall which has been incorporated into the hospital complex. This former mansion is now virtually surrounded by hospital buildings but is still standing. The site was very busy as it is opposite the main entrance to the accident and emergency department. Whilst here I spotted a number of patent transport minibuses including Mercedes Sprinter NK07EPR which is currently the oldest patent transport vehicle in service with the North East Ambulance NHS Trust. I did not stay long at the hospital site, catching Plaxton bodied Volvo B7 6034 working the Pronto X21 at 13.53.

On arrival at Durham bus station I alighted and bought some dinner. I ate this at the Market Place. Here an oldish guy was entertaining shoppers by belting out Christmas songs on a Karaoke machine. He managed to slaughter a number of favourite festive tunes. He had just launched into Blue Blue Christmas when a chav stole his microphone. The chav pretended to be a DJ which livened things up. Unfortunately the singer got his mike back and proceeded to destroy Blue Blue Christmas. After this bit of entertainment I had a good look around the shops and market at Durham. I was able to get virtually all of my Christmas shopping and now only have a couple of little things left to get. I then returned to the bus station and did a bit spotting by the roundabout. I like the Sapphire branded Arriva deckers which look good. The GNE Indigo Solos also look rather smart.  

Dusk was falling when I decided to head home. I caught Scania Omnicity 5255 on the 15.58 service 50 South Shields. This was a decent journey and there was little in the way of traffic at the Arnison Centre. The Scania thrashed it’s way along the motorway section and then downhill from Waldridge into Chester-Le-Street. At Chester I got a few photos before changing into Wrightbus Gemini bodied Volvo 6061 working the 16.30 21 Angel Service. This bus was busy with people returning home from work stopping at just about every stop on the route. I just spent the journey playing on my phone as there was not much to see night having fallen. I alighted from the bus at Low Fell and made my way home through the cold evening air, happy after a good day’s spotting and shopping.

I hope you enjoyed this review, I certainly had a cracking day despite the disappointment at Witton Gilbert. The visits to Hughes’ and Kingsley’s yards more than made up for it. The day had cost only £7.80 with GNE’s three zone plus ticket. I thought this was excellent value given the amount of buses I travelled on. I also got to experience a god variety of vehicles in GNE’s fleet. Now I just have to photograph the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s new Transit. Thanks very much for reading. I’ll try and do one final trip before Christmas.

Charles