Not something I do often, but why not.
Woke quite early this morning to the news that the Streetdeck was going to be out today. But first I had the oppotunity to move my car to a more desired parking spot nearer to my house.
With that out of the way, it was off to the bus stop for the 22 to Toon. Get to the bus stop in perfect time for the 22 with my waiting time of being about 5 seconds. During the journey to Toon, I received details of 80028s workings, and lo and behold I would time it perfectly for the trip to Whickham View in Newcastle.
Waited on Pilgrim St, 80028 turned up slightly late and couldn't get onto the stop and resulted in me climbing a roadworks barrier. Was concerned that the bus wouldn't have any layover time at Whickham View with the later running, but with the schools being off 80028 made it to the terminus on time for it's 5 min layover.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...ateposted/
Couple of photos later, then it was back on 80028 to the Freeman Hospital this time, uneventful trip did notice a youngun taking a photo on Westgate Rd near the Carling Academy. Got to Freeman, some more photos, then trip back to Toon on it.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...ateposted/
Decided to hang around Pilgrim Street for a short while as I noted a few Kinetics out and about on the 10 / 11 and since I have a soft spot for them for being a rare vehicle type (only 17 of them built), I managed to get 22515 from Pilgrim St to North Kenton. A number of things delayed the journey, so it departed pretty much straight away from Kenton.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...ateposted/
I decided to return to Newcastle on 22081 and alighted in Grainger Street after a pretty fast run.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...ateposted/
After grabbing a quick sandwich and hoping that Weardales Chinese Takeout was on the X21 (It wasn't), I decided to get the 22 to go past the coach park to see if there was anything interesting in (There was just a Solo, so thats a big nope). The 22 turned up and it was driven by Stan, the guy who was behind that Bristol LH trip in January, and he was driving MAN 22022 instead of the usual ADL Enviro 400. So a journey to Lemington was done where I alighted to catch the 6 to the Metrocentre which was one of the MANviro 200s.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...ateposted/
The visit to the Metrocentre was brief as I decided since I had already been on 4 MAN buses, I would seek out the other 2 type of MAN buses that see use in Tyne and Wear, first one was easy as Stagecoach now uses MANviro 300s on the Metrocentre Shuttle 100. A quick run to Newcastle, and a brief worrying moment about high winds as it approached the Redheugh Bridge, but fortuantley the winds didn't cause any issues.
The other type of MAN bus in Tyne and Wear would be more difficult and only ran to Sunderland, so it was onboard the fantastic X24 service with Scania 24001 being my steed to Wearside.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...ateposted/
More excellent timing meant I only had a short wait for the X21 which I caught to Grangetown, and this will annoy Jimmi, it was former Demo 4812. But nonetheless that was my MANathon complete.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...ateposted/
Back to Sunderland in a bit to get one of the freshly branded Solo SRs for the WearXpress, annoyingly the first one I saw was a Scania Solar, so after alighting at the Interchange I had the misfortune of spotting a certain enthusiast who seems to change his name every few months along with two others. I don't know half of you younguns, so I'm usually reluctent to talk to them. I took the decision to go and photo at the junction of Mary St and Stockton Road, and got some pretty good shots...
635 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...ateposted/
692 (F) - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...ateposted/
692 ® - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...ateposted/
699 - https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...ateposted/
Unfortuantley not the best photos, but they do for now, will probably try for better shots in a few weeks after I return from my holidays.
Anyway having done this, I noted my phone battery was low. so decided to take a trip on a Streetlite to South Shields on the 20A (or 28 as the next stop seemed to pronounce), and suprise suprise the plugs / USB ports weren't working. Was rather annoyed when I alighted, so decided to have a trip on the 7 from South Shields to Marsden. Alighted there and after a brief wait, I doubled back on myself with a service 8 to Harton Nook, then another 20A to Sunderland, again the plugs weren't working. I alighted at the Winter Gardens and went into the Weatherspoons to charge my phone and await the next X24 which wasn't for another 45 minutes.
Back out for the X24 with 24003 being my steed, I decided to make use of the plugs this time and made sure I had a seat with them, and guess what, they actually work despite the buses approaching 10 years old their electrical equipment works. Journey into Newcastle was quite quick despite it being the rush hour.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...ateposted/
Looking at the 38 times, I realised I was just in time for the Streetdeck to pass through again, so thought I get some night shots of it.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gjm-photog...ateposted/
All in all a good day. Now at work for next 3 days before I break up for my holidays and do my road trip down to York, Manchester, The Potteries, Merseyside and Lancashire.
RE: Bus Related Outings and Reviews
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Who needs heroes anyway? Villians have more fun.
Who needs heroes anyway? Villians have more fun.