(20 Jul 2025, 8:44 pm)PH - BQA wrote 7626/7 were new to Durham and regularly appeared on the X1/2 from new, and were refurbished for the transition to X12. 

So you're saying the Omnicities were allocated to the 43 and X1/2 from new... So then the route has had new vehicles then hasn't it?  

Right, but then in 2028 there'll need to be replacements... That's only 3 years away, and the youngest Pulsars in the fleet will be 15 by then. The Blyth Pulsars are only a few months younger than the youngest X12 buses at present.

7626/27 were new to Belmont for service 49A between Durham & Crook via Brandon but moved onto the X1/X2 (later renumbered X12) by autumn 2012 along with 7618/19 transferring from Blyth, 7609/10/20 would also later move to Belmont.

(20 Jul 2025, 9:58 pm)PH - BQA wrote From further searches they seem to have been moved off, at least in part, by around 2007-8 - with the L113s and Prestiges appearing. 

The Overdrive stuff seemed to die off pretty quickly from memory - didn’t 7445/6 almost immediately move away to Jesmond?

Operation Overdrive died pretty quickly, for whatever reason, they didn't seem to want deckers on service work at Durham depot at the time, so 7445/6 instead were diverted to Darlington depot for their 723 workings to Durham, the elderly school deckers didn't take long to reappear on services in the area (albeit often when on loan to Peterlee depot) then as is typical, stuff started transferring elsewhere.