Saturday 5th March 2016

A delayed review of my Get Around outing on Saturday.

My day started with an alarm at 07:00, I left my house at 07:45 and walked to Chester-le-Street depot for 08:10. I'd decided, the night prior, to try and time 6301 leaving the depot on it's way to Bishop Auckland for the launch (with the launch starting at 10:00, I figured it would leave the depot at around 09:00 in order to get there for around 09:30, therefore allowing sufficient time to get into position and set everything up). Upon arrival at the depot, one of my friends in the engineering department, Craig Smith (of the Northern National Restoration Group) came over and spoke with me for about five minutes. I hovered around the depot until about 09:25, photographing 6301 leaving for Bishop Auckland, 6303 out on an engineering run, 7093 leaving on a National Express turn, and 572 leaving, all of which were required for photograph.

09:37 X21 6035 Chester-le-Street Red Lion to Bishop Auckland Market Place
Following my successful session down by the depot, I walked to Front Street, arriving at about 09:30. My intention was to catch the shortly due X21 through to Bishop Auckland. When it appeared, my favourite of the Pronto B7s, 6035, appeared. Of the 6 B7s left in service as of Saturday, 6035 and 6040 were the best in condition (although I saw the latter leaving the depot with an engineer at the wheel when I first arrived!), with the others stringing along in no particular order of preference for me. One of the older drivers at Crook was at the wheel, and after obtaining my Get Around day ticket at the price of £3.75 (great value for money if it is milked), I took a seat at the very back downstairs. When the lower deck emptied at Durham Bus Station, I took the seat of the passenger who had been sat in the offside corner next to the emergency exit door. As it always has done in the past, 6035 provided a superb journey through to Bishop Auckland, where I alighted at the Market Place. Two other forum members had been sat upstairs, and also alighted here. 

11:29 X21 6037 Bishop Auckland Bus Station to Durham Bus Station
I walked across to where 6301 was parked, and spent a few minutes standing with Ian Robinson and Andrew Tydsley, taking photos, before heading across to the Streetdeck to have a look inside. The driver who had brought 6301 from Chester-le-Street was Gary Hindhaugh, I hadn't spoken to him in years, at one point he used to drive one of my scholars and we got on well. He didn't fail to recognise me when I walked over, and we stood and had a catch up for around 15 minutes. I had a little look around inside, I was certainly impressed, and I can't wait to try the Castles Express for myself, this Saturday, at some point. Having got all of my photos, I departed company with Gary with a handshake, and proceeded to wake my way along to the bus station. Spent about 20 minutes getting photos in the bus station, before the same driver as before, having had his meal break, took 6037 out of the layover bays and started boarding passengers. I took the front seat upstairs, above the driver, and shortly realised that BusLoverMum and Big'un were sat a few rows behind me. 6037 was never one of the better Presidents on the X21; lacking power on inclines and struggling up gradients, which was demonstrated on this occasion, which was to be my final ride on 6037.

12:25 21 6068 Durham Bus Station to Chester-le-Street Corals
I decided to bail from 6037 at Durham, saying goodbye to BusLoverMum as I made my way downstairs, and proceeded to walk out onto North Road for some photos. Managed to snap 7438 and 7442 (both duds for photo and haulage, sadly) on the 64, which I was fairly pleased about, and then I headed back into the bus station, intent on catching the next service back to Chester-le-Street. This came in the form of 6068, an Angel Hybrid. Rather than head upstairs, I sat at the offside quadrant, adjacent to the emergency exit door, and watched the journey go by. It passed quite quickly, and before I knew it we were in the vicinity of Chester-le-Street. In my recent rides on Angel Hybrids, I have noticed some are started to sound a bit ''off'', making strange noises when pulling away, which I noticed on 6068. As I alighted, the driver made a sarcastic remark, asking if I'd been through to Bishop Auckland to see the new Streetdeck. As nothing of any real interest to me was present, I headed across to the ''Isle of Wheat'' to speak to Gary Wheatley, the supervisor at Chester-le-Street. 

13:06 50 3869 Chester-le-Street Red Lion to Durham Bus Station
Following about 15 minutes of talking to Gary, I sighted 3983, Chester-le-Street's single Vyking allocation, coming in with the 13:04 34A service up to Urpeth Grange. Was quite tempted to bash it up to Urpeth Grange and back, but as I was about to join the end of the queue, I saw Lolyne 3869 coming in with a late-running 50 for Durham. The driver, who, in my opinion, is the most miserable one at Chester-le-Street, showing absolutely no customer service skills, and always looking like he's sick to death of his life. A disabled passenger in front of me fell victim to his abusive manner, when he ripped the ticket from the machine and caused something to jam, resulting in ''oh why don't do you just break me flaming ticket machine while you're at it''. As we were running late, he pulled away as soon as I had showed him my Get Around, and I consequently made my way towards the back. While 3869 is the eldest Lolyne at Chester-le-Street, in my opinion, it is also the slowest. It didn't top 30mph at the very best, and travelled along the A167 in snail mode. 

13:37 X21 3878 Durham Bus Station to Chester-le-Street Corals
Headed up to North Road roundabout for a photograph of 3869 (which did not come out with a destination blind), and then retreated back to the bus station. Fortunately, my luck was in once again, as Lolyne 3878 came in with the 13:39 X21 for Newcastle. As I've discussed many times in my reviews, 3878 is my favourite of the four Lolynes still in service at Chester-le-Street, for sentimental reasons, and it is always a pleasure to ride, or even just see in service. As per usual, I hit the back seats, sitting directly next to the emergency exit door, and I enjoyed the ride back to Chester-le-Street. While the Durham-Chester-le-Street route is quite mundane, when, like me, you've done it many times, it is always worth doing just for a ride on something decent, in this instance, 3878. Sounding as good as ever, and speeding along at a much faster pace than 3869 did, I arrived back into Chester-le-Street at just before 14:00.

14:04 34A 3983 Chester-le-Street Corals to Chester-le-Street Red Lion via Urpeth Grange
Having seen 3983 on the 34A earlier in the day, I was looking forward to a ride on it at some point, and it just so happened that it was due in just a few minutes after I returned. I'd photographed it leaving the depot earlier in the morning, assuming it was going out on Metro Replacements, as Chester-le-Street were covering a few duties on them on this occasion. However, a ride on 3983 is always hard to turn down, as it is arguably one of the better Vykings in the Go North East fleet, as well as being something of a novelty to me, as it is the only one of it's type left at Chester-le-Street (with the depot once being swarmed with an allocation of them on the Angel routes). I enjoyed a return journey up to Urpeth Grange and back behind 3983, while the interior is very shabby, with lots of vandalism evident through etched names on the side of the interior, I think 3983 has an abundance of power when the right sort of driver is behind the wheel.

When I got back to Chester-le-Street, I decided to end the outing there, and after doing a few things that I needed to, I headed home, arriving back at around 15:30. Thanks for reading.

R852 PRG