(26 Aug 2014, 9:50 pm)Robert wrote I believe 4850-4855 (and possibly a few others) were new to Chester back in 1998. They then transferred to Stanley for use on services 765/766 and 775/778. They remained there until they were repainted green for Lime then moved back down to Chester and saw use on mostly service 729.
Yes a batch of Renown's with registrations R***PRG were introduced to the 21 in Chester le Street in 1998 with quite a blaze of press publicity at the time. This was the result of the deal between Classic and GNE when Classic withdrew their 21 and GNE started their 21. GNE made several press releases stating that they had invested in new low floor buses for the high frequency 21 service with photos of the buses in the local press.