So, yesterday, after managing to scrounge a tenner from somewhere (skint otherwise!) I went on an Explorer day with a mate. It went something like this:

SNW 0643 685 27141 Greenhead to Hexham Bus Station

27141 this time on the first 685 of the day, rather quiet. Not been on 141 for a month or two so it was nice to go on this for a change! Mounted 3 kerbs on the way in too but the driver was one of the old-timers so I let him off.

GNE 0740 10 6071 Hexham Bus Station to Eldon Square

Decided to stop off at Hexham and go on a B9TL over on the TEN. Fairly decent choice, was a very nice ride in on the back seats. Bus was nice and warm too. Had phones plugged in and I read my copy of the Railway Magazine. We decided that we would just go for whatever we fancy as we had no real plans for what we wanted to do.

ANE 0903 43 7446 Haymarket to Regent Centre

Walked over the road to Haymarket as I was wanting a Sapphire Enviro 400. As we were waiting in a queue as the driver disappeared, I thought to myself 'why am I doing this' as a DAF ALX400 stood on the next couple of stands up so we headed for that instead. Brilliant bus at speed it was, really coped on the road up to Gosforth past Town Moor at 40-50mph! We weren't on for long as I decided to bail at Regent Centre, get a Metro trip in and then head south ish for the rest of the day.
As soon as we got off I noticed an X15-branded Omnicity which I was pretty gutted to miss going the other way! Hey ho, went to the Metro platform and waited for the next one south.

TWM 0917 4044 4072* Regent Centre to Gateshead Interchange

Boarded this lightly-loaded Metro and agreed to go to Gateshead to see what was there. Nothing to be said from this trip really apart from how much I love the Metro

GNE 0933 64 8245 Gateshead Interchange to Ravensworth Road, Dunston

I was wanting a Cadet of some sort today so we thought to try 8245 working a 64 through to the Teams, neither of us really being on a proper Cadet trip before. This thing was bloody brilliant, the noises it made were nothing short of spectacular! Wasn't afraid to kick down and doing so, you could hear the turbo pretty well. Screamed all the way through to Dunston where we alighted and walked across, observing a non-English named Post Office (being the most English establishment you could enter) over to Gasworks Bridge Road where we awaited our next service.

GNE 0957 47 5147 Gasworks Bridge Road to Metrocentre Interchange

Short hop over to the Metrocentre where we'd decide what to go for next plus a toilet and food break. All OK apart from the horrible stench of what I relate to baby sick, that humid smell, eugh. Not too bad once we got up to speed along Handy Drive as all of the windows were open.
Went for the S1 only to be told by the cow of a driver "I'm going to the Coach Park". Instead of waiting for her to come back round we waited and observed until I spotted something yellow coming round the corner from the west... an Olympian!!!

GNE 1019 45 3825 Metrocentre Interchange to Eldon Square

3825 was our chariot and something we both couldn't turn down in a million years. Picked the back seats on the lower deck to get the engine notes (even idling she sounded brilliant) and headed to Newcastle through some pretty heavy traffic in the city centre. Got to the Square and asked the driver if we could just stay on to go back to which she obliged if we sohwed our tickets again. Went to the top deck at the front to wave at any spotters en route

GNE 1040 46 3825 Eldon Square to Consett Bus Station

Was an excellent journey to Consett even though the suspension on the nearside front wheel was terrible, I was groaning in pain after hitting every pothole there! A lot of cyclists about though (even a bloody horse causing a massive queue of traffic), one of the 'highlights' of the trip was when two cyclists went along in a wooded area with bends in the road in single file, just as the bus was about to pull out to overtake the woman behind, without looking, cycled in the middle of the bloody road, causing the brakes to be slammed on!!!
No spotters en route which was a shame as I wanted to be famous!
Five Olympians were at Consett with two (including ours) on stands but we seen something on Stand A...

GNE 1149 15A 6010 Consett Bus Station to Durham Bus Station

With 2-3 minutes to spare we boarded 6010 over to Durham on the 15A. Pleasant enough trip, sitting two-thirds back on the top deck. Suspension on this was a tad better so I didn't have my spine broken again which was an upside! Nothing really to comment on otherwise as the bus was just a standard B7TL!

We decided to go for the ScotRail 170s passing Durham which were due in around 10-15 minutes so after a long and arduous climb up the bloody hill to the rail station to then walk another 5 minutes to a 'proper' location for pics, we realised with the units being only 4 signal sections away, we weren't going to make it. Rushed back to the station for a quick platform shot as I heard a rasping in the background, then they whizzed past to be shortly followed by a VTEC HST (43310 on the back I recall) going northbound - if the 170s were delayed by another minute we would've had our shot 'bowled'!!

Walked back to the city centre and got a few pics of a VTEC red Mk4 set with 91110 on the rear going across the viaduct south. My first time seeing a 'red' set in the flesh so it was something good out of the trip. Went and got some pics from North Road roundabout, featuring a very attractive sight of a hideous-looking teenage girl giving us the V's as I photted a President coming into Durham. I'll edit her out when I sort the pics out!
Had some chips from a chippy right next to Tesco and the bus station which were bloody gorgeous. Walked to the bus stop opposite the station as I was in need for some E200s!

ANE 1309 64 1324 Durham to Rennys Lane

This was a good little bus even though I think this batch looks stupid from the outside. Decent ride over, went to Rennys Lane near the shopping centre thing where I bought some replenishments from B&M Bargains - reduced Cadburys 'Egg n Spoon' things (4 pack for £1), £1 bar of Dairy Milk Whole Nut and a Choc Dip for 32p. My mate said he sworn he seen a Fab 56 Volvo B9TL down the road, which I said back he's seeing things. Turned out he wasn't - when we went into B&Ms we seen it pass on a 20, b*llocks!!

GNE 1345 20 4971 Eden Terrace to Park Lane Interchange
Walked up to the bus stop on Eden Terrace, the main road at the Durham City Retail Park thing. In a field next to the stop there were some kids with remote control cars (not just ordinary crappy battery ones, these sounded noisy) as they went round a little course marked by cones. Was pretty ace to watch as some were drifting round corners! Lovely bus stop/shelter too, one of the nicest I've seen I think. 4971 appeared on a 20 for Shields so we boarded. Was pretty full and got even worse at Houghton-le-Spring where a dozen kids appeared and talked loudly at the back for the rest of the journey. I didn't want to hang around at Park Lane for long, purely because I hate the sodding place!
I was wanting a trip on the South Hylton branch as I'd not been on it for a good while so we awaited the next Metro.

TWM 1437 4036 4079* Park Lane to South Hylton
TWM 1449 4079* 4036 South Hylton to Newcastle Airport
Went through the delights of south east Sunderland, the sun was out though so it wasn't a bad journey. I decided that we'd do a full trip up to the Airport from South Hylton as we had front seats all the way. Not done a full trip on one service yet, but to be honest I rather enjoyed it - will have to do more in the future! Was quite busy from Sunderland Station up to Newcastle and South Gosforth where it quietened down a bit.
Got to Bank Foot and as we departed, seen a Jet2 Boeing 737 take off, pretty close to the Metro too! One of the best sights I saw all day that was, genuinely made me happy.

Got to the Airport and went for a toilet break and a Greggs before seeing if we could see any planes about, noticed a Dash 8 take off as well as a helicopter going around. There was the 1615 Easyjet to Geneva about to leave however our 353 Solo turned up as it was taxiing. Rather than wait an hour to see it leave we went on the Optare...

GNE 1619 353 638 Newcastle Airport to Kingston Park
Was another pretty decent journey, apart from the Solo SR sounded like some sort of washing machine. Luckily we weren't on it long before we got to Kingston Park as our X47 went past to turn around.

SNE 1631 X47 22021 Kingston Park to New Bridge Street
Bailed from our ALX200 which sounded pretty alright! Got to New Bridge Street where the driver knocked the engine off so rather than waiting we alighted and walked down New Bridge Street. I was wanting to go on a Metro somewhere again however my mate spotted a coach down Pilgrim Street so we went down there... thankfully...
He was taking a shot of this coach (can't remember what it was now) as I happened to look to my right to see another Yellow Bus Olympian on the 97! We both ran (I mean ran!) to the bottom end of Pilgrim Street to flag the bus down...

GNE 1651 97 3824 Pilgrim Street to Gateshead Interchange
The plan was to go round on this to Metrocentre where we'd catch a Stagecoach 6 or 7 to Lemington Road ends with around 12 mins to spare before the last 'through' 85/685 home. This vehicle was heaven, no silly belt screaming like 3823, just pure Volvo goodness. However, our good luck turned on its head once we got to Gateshead as everyone was told to get on a branded Solar in front... balls! I really was disappointed at this as it ruined this little trip. Rather than go on that 97, running now even later, we chose to get the X66 to Metrocentre.

GNE 1707 X66 4944 Gateshead Interchange to Metrocentre Interchange
Boarded this red Scania over on the X66. Nothing to be said about this ride as we were both in a right mood by now because of the replacement of that Olly! Got to Metrocentre where we'd get the next 6 up to Lemington. I walked over to the rail station to see ScotRail's 156449 depart with 1S73 1716 Newcastle to Glasgow via Carlisle and Dumfries. Noticed our Dart pull round to the stand on the 6 a few minutes early so we dashed back over there to board.

SNE 1727 6 34614 Metrocentre Interchange to Lemington Union Hall Road
By the time we boarded it was full and standing so we had to stand near to the front. Departed and the bus was another lovely sounding one, proper Cummins engine! Noticed a little notice in the driver's cab that listed around 6 or 7 Green Road hotspots, rather interesting read - included New Bridge St, Market St and Welbeck Road. Just outside Metrocentre a deluded-looking man boarded and decided to stand right at the front window, totally blocking the driver's view of his mirror... he was then told to shift which in my eyes would've been obvious! 10 minutes later and we alighted at Lemington, finally!

Walked over to the A69 overbridge and roundabout and had a little gander about as we tracked our 1745 85 from Newcastle which was running 3 to 7 minutes late. Noticed it drop down West Road, the visibility for us was brilliant! To my relief, I had avoided an Omnicity again!

ANE 1497 85/685 1804 Lemington Road Ends to Greenhead
Brilliant little vehicle, not limited and hit 62mph at one point! Better than Scania sh*te!
The best part about this plan was that we managed to avoid the absolute dive that is West Road, full of Halal shops - I call it the Birmingham part of Newcastle. Might do this in the future actually as going along Scotswood Road was a million miles better than going through that dump!!!



Thanks for reading, I'll have do another soon however I don't get paid for a couple of weeks yet!

Sean.