Saturday 19th December 2015

Had an enjoyable day in the southern end of the region today on an Explorer, accompanied by Adrian and Sean. 

08:29 X12 7620 Chester-le-Street Red Lion to Durham Bus Station
Having agreed to meet Adrian in Chester-le-Street to catch the 08:26 X12 service through to Durham, I left my house at 07:50 and had a long but leisurely walk into town, arriving by 08:15. Adrian had only just come in on an 8 from Sunderland, and while walking down the Front Street, I managed to get a photo of ''Angel'' 6066 at the Black Horse in the dark, which I think came out quite well. We sat down on a bench and awaited the X12, which pulled into the stop three minutes late. Baffling how a bus can be running late when there is no traffic, and the service in question only starts at Birtley. Driver seemed pleasant enough, and we sat down in some of the OAP seating in the downstairs saloon. Prefer the Pulsars to the Geminis, but I'm not overly fussed as long as the vehicle itself is nice enough. Was a smooth journey through to Durham, and the driver made up some time, arriving into the bus station on-time at 08:45.

08:57 57A 2818 Durham Bus Station to Hartlepool Yates
Adrian had suggested we catch the 57A service down to Hartlepool and go from there, which I agreed would be nice as I'd not been to Hartlepool before for buses (once in total, for the Tall Ships Gala in 2010 with my parents). He had filled me with hope of more than just a clapped out Belmont Solo; explaining that a ''MAX'' Gemini had appeared on the service earlier in the week, and that Lowlanders and Pulsars were frequently allocated. Alas, when the time came, 2818 came into the stand. Adrian, who frequently uses the Solos on the Durham services as a means of commuting to work, told me that 2818 wasn't a bad one in comparison to some of the others. Even when we were idle in the bus station, the back of the bus was shaking violently, but I had limited experience of the Belmont Solos prior to this, so was determined to make do with it. All in all; a good ride down to Hartlepool, the service remained lightly loaded throughout the journey, and the Solo was quite smooth (despite sounding like a Lowlander scraping off the bottom of road at some points!).

10:27 1 35158 Hartlepool Yates to Middlesbrough Bus Station
We alighted 2818 and watched it sail off onto another run back to Durham, before taking some photos for about fifteen minutes and then locating the bus stop for the 1 to Middlesbrough. In our time at Hartlepool, we had a walk to the Stagecoach office to see what was there, to find nothing, and got photos of an Arriva ''Eco-Green'' Streetlite amongst some local Stagecoach vehicles. Fortunately for us, we landed one of Hartlepool's Darts on the 10:23 (running four minutes late) service to Middlesbrough. While we were initially going to catch the ''Zones'' 36, we opted against it after realising the length of time for the journey would set us back towards noon. Managed to secure the back seats of this already busy service, and we talked generally for the fifty minute journey (longer than timetabled, with frequent stops, a full load and dawdling passengers) to Middlesbrough. A very nice bus though; with an immaculate interior and a speedy engine. 

11:45 64 4706 Middlesbrough Bus Station to South Bank
Upon arrival at Middlesbrough; we headed out to the BBC Tees building for some photos of buses entering and exiting the bus station. Sean was nearby, and joined us within ten minutes. Following some more photos, we headed back into the bus station with the intention of getting something somewhere. One of Redcar's notorious Temsa Avenue's, 4706, appeared with a 64 to New Marske. We opted to have a ride on this for about ten minutes and then catch something back. Seating was dreadful, although I imagine NK53 TKT would be over the moon with them...! A nice ZF gearbox as well, was quite surprised to hear one in this sort of vehicle. Internally, it was quite scruffy, and I have to say I don't understand the sense in such an inconsistent seating plan. Then again, the vehicle is Turkish, and Sean nicknamed them ''Turkish Delights''... Matter of opinion! He used his invaluable Bus Checker app to work out where we could get off and make an almost immediate connection back, and we bailed in the South Bank area.

12:03 64A 4704 South Bank to Middlesbrough Bus Station
South Bank, at first sight, appeared to be a dreadful place, and I was pleased to see the bus out of here coming along the road, back to Middlesbrough. Another Temsa, this time 4704, operating the 64A. As I somewhat expected, it was fairly loaded, and the awkward seating layout of these vehicles made it look busier than it actually was. Some annoying young children were sat at the back, and the pain of the seating was dreadful. While the Temsas seem to have a novelty value to them, and I'm pleased I managed to ride two today; they are only good for smaller journeys in my opinion, I can't imagine I would last as long as an hour on one. Arrival back into Middlesbrough was at 12:13, and Sean saw a ''MANviro'' that he decided he wanted to bash, in the stand behind us.

12:14 39 24106 Middlesbrough Bus Station to Middlesbrough Bus Station via Park End
Having never experienced one of these before, I was intrigued to see what they were all about. Sean picked up some timetables at the front of the bus while the driver pulled out of the stand, and we quickly studied them before deciding to do a round trip on this service. The roar of the MAN engine was very prevalent, I love how these sound. Very impressive vehicle internally, was in immaculate condition until Sean spilled some Greggs Mince Pie things everywhere, and when I deliberately tried to make him laugh after he attempted to follow the guidelines of the ''five second rule'' (basically it's apparently okay to eat something that has been dropped within five seconds), and he began sending sugar and pastry everywhere. The journey to Park End was very quiet but we picked up a decent load for the return journey. Enjoyed having a ride on this vehicle, and we saw the famous Tony Kuy standing doing some spotting upon return to Middlesbrough bus station.

13:01 11 17027 Middlesbrough Bus Station to Carter Bequest Hospital
We were originally going to catch an X66 or X67 across to Darlington next; but something caught my eye that was entering the bus station. One of the Stagecoach ALX400s that are stabled at Stockton depot was in service, so we followed it to where it stopped and decided to go with it. Didn't even bother to check which service it was operating and just jumped on board, the driver had a face like a smacked backside but the original interior of this vehicle was outstanding. It still retained bench-style seating and had a number of other original fittings. Once more, this service was very lightly loaded, and I was initially going to head upstairs but Sean ordered me to head to the back for ''the engine''... Sad. The throaty roar of the Dennis Trident engine was absolutely superb; I was still happy with this winner five minutes out of Middlesbrough. As we had done with the Temsas, and after realising that we were on an 11, and that service does not serve Stockton High Street, we decided to bail at the next stop. We'd been leap-frogging an Arriva Cadet, which we were hoping to jump on immediately afterwards, but it flew past as we alighted. An absolutely brilliant journey; a healthy machine with a very nostalgic feeling to it. Strongly recommend riding one.

13:30 12 27240 Carter Bequest Hospital to Middlesbrough Bus Station
Following a ten minute wait at the bus stop for the next bus, we jumped on 27240; a relatively new 65-plate Enviro300, on the 12 back to Middlesbrough. This was my first experience of one of Stockton's latest E300s, so I was happy to see the registration plate. I'm terrible with knowledge on the Stagecoach fleet numbers, so wouldn't be able to tell if this was new or not otherwise. The ''new bus smell'' was not detectable at all on board, which was a shame as I quite like the fresh smell. Made a bad decision by sitting at the seats located behind the wheel arch towards the back of the saloon, I ended up having to move next to Sean because I couldn't bear it any longer. Mechanically the vehicle was sound and offered a great journey back to Middlesbrough; it was a shame that we had missed the Cadet on the 17, but I was also happy to be able to tick off a few Stagecoach on Teesside buses for haulage. 

13:57 X66 1405 Middlesbrough Bus Station to Stockton High Street
The plan was to now head across to Stockton for some photos, and for some variety, I decided we'd catch the Arriva X66/X67 across. After seeing one of Darlington's ''Frequenta'' Solos on there in the morning, I was hoping we might have a rare cop, but Pulsar 1405 rolled in with the next X66 to Darlington. This was one of the recently refurbished examples, so I was quite happy with this. One of the oldest Pulsars in the Arriva North East fleet as well, so it was another bonus. Similar to the Stagecoach Dart that Adrian and I had sampled on the 1 from Hartlepool earlier in the day, this was another flying machine and hit 60mph at one point (according to my Speedometer app on my phone). Something that didn't look quite right was that the backs of the seats were still coloured green from the vehicle's time as a standard spare vehicle. Was somewhat nostalgic as well though, as it was a trait that this vehicle held from it's entry into service. That aside, no different to any other ''MAX'' bus. When Stockton High Street came into view, we prepared to alight.

14:27 X12 7627 Stockton High Street to Durham Bus Station
Got some nice photos in Stockton, including a photo I intend to use as my ''Christmas Photo'' on Flickr. Managed to photograph the Stagecarriage 84 and also some ''Dots'' and ''Zones'' E300s. All in the space of about ten minutes, I understand why Stockton is popular with enthusiasts. I managed to convince Adrian and Sean onto the next Durham-bound X12, and it appeared in the form of 7627. My second ''MAX'' DB300 journey of the outing, and arguably a similar one. Felt no different to 7620, although the route covered was not the same. The X12 route is very scenic between Stockton and Durham, with some particular nice parts in the Sedgefield and Coxhoe areas. Although it took just shy of an hour, I think the journey flew over. I can usually tolerate journeys just over an hour, providing I'm content with the vehicle being used. The DB300s aren't as fast as the SB200s, and I like speed, so they can't compete with a decent Pulsar in my opinion.

15:29 21 6067 Durham Bus Station to Chester-le-Street Clifford Terrace
We decided to switch buses at Durham for the sake of some more variety. I was intending to catch the 15:31 ''Angel'' back to Chester-le-Street as it would stop at my local stop unlike the X12, and the vehicle that would be operating it was 6067, as it was sat in the drop-off stand at the top of the bus station. As expected; this service was absolutely loaded with Christmas shoppers (believe this Saturday is the busiest shopping day of the year?) and we departed with a busy load. 6067 is one of my favourite B5LHs, simply because it's in model form. Usual journey on one of these, despite sounding a bit rough when pulling out of the bus station, and I alighted at my local stop after saying goodbye to Adrian and Sean.

All in all; was a fantastic outing that I really enjoyed. 17027 was a highlight and I was pleased to step out of my comfort zone and have a rare trip down to Teesside. Intend to do it again in the near future as there is a lot of old and new stuff down there that I don't generally experience further north. Thanks for reading, and given that this is my last review before Christmas, have a nice Christmas.

R852 PRG