Decided to head out on a outing on the Moorsbus network.
0727 Newton Aycliffe - Darlington (Northern 142071)
Started the day out on a Pacer, although these are hated by many, I actually don't mind them, I've grown up with these and will actually be sad when they will soon be gone. This was my only way to reach Darlington to do the Moorsbus network seem as Northern was running a normal weekday timetable, it is not really possible to do on a Sunday except for expensive taxi fares.
0825 M2 Darlington, Tubwell Row - Guisborough, Market Place (ANE 1511)
Last year's regular offering from Darlington depot was my first offering on this outing, it arrived 5 minutes late, this is one of the faster Pulsar's at Darlington and performed quite well on this run. There was some confusion in Middlesbrough Bus Station as to which stand this service should leave from, so both stands 8 and 17 were served although no passengers were picked up.
0930 M4 Stokesley High Street (ANE 1569)
Next bus was also late, which was provided by Sapphire X3/X4 branded StreetLite 1569 which I must say is looking a bit shabby as the Wright badge was missing, as was parts of the route branding. This was a surprisingly quick trip but even more surprising, it barely rattled at all!
0955 M5 Helmsley (Reliance Motor Services: BF62UYO)
Took some shots of this and 1569 after alighting, some old guy who I gathered was from Friendsofmoorsbus asked if I could upload the photos to their Facebook page and was also asked by the Reliance driver if I could the photos of their bus to a Facebook group, he seemingly recognised me as I have had this driver previously. This journey also departed late owing to the late arrival of the M4, it was shortly back on-time though, asked the driver if I could get a shot in Northallerton as we had a few minutes waiting time. The service started to fall behind the timetable once we got towards Thirsk and we arrived into Helmsley 5 minutes late which resulted in a missed connection with the Scarborough & District 128 service which I was intending to catch, so I had to rethink my plans.
1247 M4 Rievaulx Abbey & Helmsley (Reliance Motor Services: BF62UYO)
As the next 128 wasn't until 13:30, I did a round trip on this to kill time. This bus was still late and fell even further behind schedule on its short round trip to Thirsk and back. I had a woman ask me if I was waiting for the Rievaulx Abbey bus to which I said I was and started talking about missing the 128 and she said that they are bad for doing that (how terrible of a bus company to leave on time ), I then said about the bus running late and said that the timetable could do with a bit work, ooh she didn't like that comment "a lot of hard work has gone into the timetables" annoying thing about that was, I said it as a concern rather than just slagging it off. Not much to say about the run itself.
1335 128 Pickering (Scarborough & District 740)
Next bus was a Wright Eclipse Gemini bodied Volvo B9TL, this was a pretty quiet run. I have done the Pickering - Scarborough stretch of this route a few times but this is the first time I've done the route from Helmsley. Got some photos of the other Moorsbus services in Pickering and also photographed a steam train arriving into Pickering Station on the North Yorkshire Moors Railway as I had time to kill.
1500 M7 Dalby Forest & Pickering
1540 M6 Danby Station (Stephensons of Easingwold: SN66WKG)
These journeys were provided by Stephensons of Easingwold Enviro 200 SN66WKG, typical E200 really, it had the standard ADL rattles from the back of the bus but it was otherwise a comfortable bus.
1645 M3 Hutton-le-Hole (Reliance Motor Services: BA15BXS)
Next was the MoorsPlus service which Reliance operate on Saturdays and Mondays, I alighted the previous bus here and there was no indication of there being a bus stop here, so this was a slightly nervous wait for me. I have encountered this bus a few times now, the first being whilst it was still a demonstrator during its trial with Go North East on the 20/20A. I caught this bus over to Hutton-le-Hole to catch the Arriva Sunday service M3 home which was another place with no viable bus stops.
1730 M3/M2 Darlington Tubwell Row (ANE 1511)
Back with the bus that I started with, the route was as the previous journey as far as Danby then as it got closer to Guisborough it was essentially the X93 route, we had a bit of a wait in Guisborough for the connecting Moorsbus service M4 to arrive which would then run to Saltburn as the M1 which was again provided by 1569. Pretty speedy journey back to Darlington after Guisborough.
1945 5A Newton Aycliffe (ANE 2864)
Last bus of the day was Solo 2864 on a Sunday short 5A which terminates at Newton Aycliffe, Greenfield School although it runs in a circular via Meadowfield Way and Greenfield Way. As it arrived into Darlington Town Centre the bus was incorrectly blinded up for service 5 to Newton Aycliffe, Meadowfield Way which these days is a destination display normally only seen on Christmas Eve and New Years Eve when services finish early and don't do full journeys. Nowt much to say about the journey really.
Thanks for reading. This was mostly a enjoyable day out which I may try to do again but may be tricky due to difficulties getting the bus from Darlington on a morning.
Photos from the outing, some of which are a bit scenic, can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/127079988@...196429986/
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