Had a good day out today on a Get Around day ticket, details are below.

Saturday 6th February 2016

#50 - Chester-le-Street Corals to South Shields Market Place - Go North East 5259
#50 - South Shields Market Place to Chester-le-Street Red Lion - Go North East 5259
#21 - Chester-le-Street Red Lion to Durham Bus Station - Go North East 6061
#20A - Durham Bus Station to Houghton-le-Spring Church - Go North East 5216
#20A - Houghton-le-Spring Church to Sunderland Park Lane Interchange - Go North East 4972
#78 - Sunderland Park Lane Interchange to Chester-le-Street South Burns - Go North East 5396
#34A - Chester-le-Street Red Lion to Chester-le-Street Corals via Waldridge Park - Go North East 8303
#X22 - Chester-le-Street Red Lion to Chester-le-Street Clifford Terrace - Go North East 3875

The day commenced with an 07:30 alarm, and I woke up and dressed myself before leaving my house at around 07:55. Had a leisurely walk into Chester-le-Street, arriving at the foot of the Front Street for 08:15. I've made a habit of spending a while in Chester-le-Street on a Saturday morning, getting photos for my archives, but I didn't do this today, as I'd agreed to have a jolly to South Shields and back with Chester-le-Street driver Ben Stoves on service 50. He ran light from the depot, and turned the bus around in a u-turn, before pulling into the stand and sitting for a while. Scania OmniCity 5259 was the haulage for this little trip. Ben, who has been a driver for Go North East since June 2015, is also an enthusiast, and has amassed a small collection of photographs taken by other enthusiasts of him driving, so I offered to come and take some photos of him driving to add to that. We left on-time, and the run to South Shields was quite quiet, with the passenger numbers never rising beyond a dozen. I've grown to like the OmniCities over time, while I wasn't overly keen on them at one point. Ben and other drivers that I associate with seemingly view them as the nicest vehicles at Chester-le-Street depot to drive. He allowed me to get a photograph of tri-axle Scania K340EB/Caetano Levante 7095 on the 426 at South Shields, and the return journey to Chester-le-Street was punctual.

Ben's first shift was only to South Shields and back, from 08:17 until 10:22, and he had a short break before then going onto the 10:45 21 service to Durham, followed by a run all the way through to Newcastle, then returning to Chester-le-Street for another break. Ben went off to the staff canteen while I floated around and conversed with Chester-le-Street Supervisor Gary Wheatley. During this time, I was overjoyed to see Stanley-based Wright Renown 4896 coming along with the 10:25 78 for Consett. I took countless photos of it, as I was so happy to see this blast from the past. I regret not taking many photos of the B10s when they were allocated to the 8/78, so this was a good opportunity to get one. When I returned to Gary's company, he told me that he used to enjoy driving Optare Deltas on those routes, presumably when he was a PCV Driver at Stanley. Ben soon returned, and ''Angel'' branded Volvo B5LH/Wright Gemini 2 6061 was my next ride. We left on-time, and the journey through to Durham was enjoyable, if not somewhat mundane, having done the route countless times before. Upon arrival in Durham, Ben had several minutes to layover, so I got some photos of 6061 displaying various ''special'' blinds. We parted company at this point.

My next decided move was to go to Houghton-le-Spring for some photos. Deptford-based ''Prince Bishops'' branded Solar 5216 entered the bus station with a 20A for South Shields, so I decided to catch that across. It had a nice ZF gearbox, although we encountered a brief issue with the alarms at Millburngate. Driver started to rev the engines repeatedly until the alarm ceased to sound, and we carried on from there. The journey to Houghton-le-Spring took just over half an hour, and the scenery on this section of the route is quite nice in some places, so it was an enjoyable journey. I sat at the nearside quadrant as the one on the offside was taken (grr). Alighted in Houghton-le-Spring and noticed a Red Arrows B9TL was parked up out of service, so I headed across and conversed with the driver for a short while, who informed me it was a problem with the oil pressure that had caused the breakdown. I got some photos for about half an hour, and the replacement vehicle turned out to be 5366, which I got a photo of. 4972 was my ride through to Sunderland; I couldn't tell if this had a ZF or Voith gearbox as it was indistinguisable, and sounded flat as a fart. Was glad to get off in Park Lane, and I then headed out to get some photos, and Sean soon joined me. Biglugs@yahoo.com was floating around the same area; as were two other enthusiasts. 

Sean and I boarded 5396 on the 13:37 (albeit running quite late) 78 to Consett, and like Adrian frequently experiences, the plug sockets were not working. It's disgraceful that they are fully aware of the issue, following Adrian's many complaints, but nothing seems to have been done to the plug sockets on 5396. I think the Streetlites aren't so bad, now that they've been worn in, with 9 months in service as of this month. The whine of the Voith gearbox and retarder sounds annoying, but aside from that and the cab door and emergency exit door rattles, they're pretty smooth buses. Don't know if I will be saying that in a few years' time, but it's my opinion on them at present. When we got back to my hometown of Chester-le-Street, I offered to take Sean on one of the Lambton Worm routes, so that he could get one of the Versas cleared for haulage and so that he could experience the route. The 34/34A were on diversion today, so I was hoping to do the Waldridge Park part anyway. 8303 was our ride, and we observed the diversion route as we went along. Sean commented on how nice the heating was at the back of this Versa. I understand the Versas are horrible to drive, but I quite like them as a passenger. When we came back to the Front Street, I told Sean how to get up to Chester-le-Street station for some photos of trains at speed. I headed over to talk to two veteran drivers, one of which commented that he now had to look up to talk to me because I was so tall. Lolyne 3875, reportedly the most unreliable bus at Chester-le-Street depot, came in with a late-running X22 to Durham, so I decided to end the day at this point, and caught this home. I waved at the two drivers as the service departed, and I was shortly home after alighting at my local bus stop. 

It was a great day out, and I intend to have one similar in the future at some point. My thanks to Ben for allowing me to tag along in the morning.

R852 PRG