(30 Jan 2016, 5:33 pm)Jimmi wrote Did not enjoy that bus tour I went on today.

Half of the things planned for the day got dropped and we got a pointless 15 minute break for Wetherspoons in Bedlington where we waited about 5 minutes before walking out as no-one got served, then then we got to spend over an hour lingering round the bleeding MetroCentre. I paid £15 for this displeasure, now on the X22 back to Durham.

I'm never doing another one of these trips again! Feel totally conned and felt like I have wasted my money and my day.

I decided not to attend the trip, as I feared the itinerary would just go out of the window and stuff would get dropped or time would be forgotten about. Were there any positives to be drawn from it?

(30 Jan 2016, 5:40 pm)R852 PRG wrote I decided not to attend the trip, as I feared the itinerary would just go out of the window and stuff would get dropped or time would be forgotten about. Were there any positives to be drawn from it?

Only positives were I have photos of certain buses belonging to the companies we actually visited, which no doubt will receive zero intrest as these things often do on my Flickr, so I may take a half arsed approach to uploading them, no cropping or owt.

I actually did a similar sort of tour round the North East about two years back and that was the exact opposite of today, we got everything that was advertised and even got an additional bus which wasn't advertised and we got more out of the day and it costed a damn sight less as well.

(30 Jan 2016, 5:48 pm)Jimmi wrote Only positives were I have photos of certain buses belonging to the companies we actually visited, which no doubt will receive zero intrest as these things often do on my Flickr, so I may take a half arsed approach to uploading them, no cropping or owt.

I actually did a similar sort of tour round the North East about two years back and that was the exact opposite of today, we got everything that was advertised and even got an additional bus which wasn't advertised and we got more out of the day and it costed a damn sight less as well.

What were the numbers on today's tour like? Am I right in suggesting the guy who organised it isn't from the region?

(30 Jan 2016, 5:50 pm)R852 PRG wrote What were the numbers on today's tour like? Am I right in suggesting the guy who organised it isn't from the region?

Think him and a load of others came up from Sheffield way or somewhere. Think there must have been around 20 odd people all together. The North East enthusiasts seem to comprise of myself, Tommy and Biglugs and I think that may have been it. Biglugs didn't seem to rejoin us after the hours break at the MetroCentre.

(30 Jan 2016, 5:56 pm)Jimmi wrote Think him and a load of others came up from Sheffield way or somewhere. Think there must have been around 20 odd people all together. The North East enthusiasts seem to comprise of myself, Tommy and Biglugs and I think that may have been it. Biglugs didn't seem to rejoin us after the hours break at the MetroCentre.

So what did you actually end up doing, and not doing? Can remember Biglugs attended the NNRG running day in September as well.

(30 Jan 2016, 5:59 pm)R852 PRG wrote So what did you actually end up doing, and not doing? Can remember Biglugs attended the NNRG running day in September as well.

First we visited Henry Cooper's depot where things started off okay, then we got to Bedlington on our second bus of the day where we then gave the opportunity for people to go to bleeding Wetherspoons for 15 minutes which was rather pointless. Then we got over an hour to spend at the MetroCentre for a late lunch. After that we visited Primrose Coaches where we sampled some small Mercedes thing which had poor legroom then we sampled their two Leyland Tigers with the second one dropping us off at the MetroCentre. Rowells Coaches was not visited and Coopers Tourmaster pulled out at the last minute which is not entirely the organisers fault but it would have been nice to have notified before we actually got on the first bus of the day. Oh and one person kept turning up late, we left Central Station on our bus and had to go straight back to pick him up then we nearly bloody left him again in Bedlington.

What a load of bollocks that tour was. I arrived back in Ashington no later that 2020, after spending three hours at both MetroCentre and Morpeth doing fuck all.

Jesus. I was going to choke on one of Primrose's Tigers. A very strong smell of smoke and petrol since we boarded.

And the people on board never stopped talking about bloody buses! I'm sick of buses after today!

(30 Jan 2016, 9:03 pm)GX03 SVC wrote What a load of bollocks that tour was. I arrived back in Ashington no later that 2020, after spending three hours at both MetroCentre and Morpeth doing fuck all.

Jesus. I was going to choke on one of Primrose's Tigers. A very strong smell of smoke and petrol since we boarded.

And the people on board never stopped talking about bloody buses! I'm sick of buses after today!

Aversion therapy!

(30 Jan 2016, 10:47 pm)BusLoverMum wrote Aversion therapy!

Jimmi probably thought he had landed with Karl Pilkington for the whole day with the amount of cursing and moans that were being produced.

If having a Vario on the tour was stressful enough...Crapital FM was being played!

(30 Jan 2016, 11:03 pm)GX03 SVC wrote Jimmi probably thought he had landed with Karl Pilkington for the whole day with the amount of cursing and moans that were being produced.

If having a Vario on the tour was stressful enough...Crapital FM was being played!

I certainly got my fair share of moaning in, especially on that journey where the legroom was pitiful, gave me horror flashbacks to Arriva's X---GGO Darts.

(30 Jan 2016, 11:07 pm)Jimmi wrote I certainly got my fair share of moaning in, especially on that journey where the legroom was pitiful, gave me horror flashbacks to Arriva's X---GGO Darts.

The OK way darts are exactly that bad!

So today the amount of wasted time by me and the tour was...
15 minutes - MetroCentre...Waiting for delayed coach.
15 minutes - Bedlington...Wetherspoons...why?
55 minutes - MetroCentre...Lunch...I was out in 10 minutes!
58 minutes - MetroCentre...Missed train.
54 minutes - Morpeth...Missed bus.

So Tommy's Top Tip is...
Refuse to get on any tour that calls at MetroCentre
Live somewhere located ideally to where the coach departs...otherwise you'll be catching the first bus tomorrow morning...
Make sure THAT YOU ARE AT THE STOP AT THE DEPARTURE TIME
Don't prance around in other peoples shots

Thanks.

Had a feeling it wouldn't go well with this tour.

I refused to do anymore bus tours with this organiser as a few years ago he set up a decoy page to poach people (and sabotage) another tour organised by a rival enthusiast. I was actually planning on attending this rivals tour because it was using ex GNE Olympians and double checking the details I noticed the tour I was going on went missing from the page, turn out the set up similar blog page to misguide people to his tour.

As for the person turning up late each time. They didn't have a dog by chance and a Newcastle United hat on.

(31 Jan 2016, 1:27 am)GMitchelhill wrote Had a feeling it wouldn't go well with this tour.

I refused to do anymore bus tours with this organiser as a few years ago he set up a decoy page to poach people (and sabotage) another tour organised by a rival enthusiast. I was actually planning on attending this rivals tour because it was using ex GNE Olympians and double checking the details I noticed the tour I was going on went missing from the page, turn out the set up similar blog page to misguide people to his tour.

As for the person turning up late each time. They didn't have a dog by chance and a Newcastle United hat on.

Oh dear. For future reference, if anyone sees a tour advertised by J.B. Bus Tours, do not go on it, waste of time and money and I now feel as if I should take part of the blame for Tommy having a bad day simply as I'm the one who found this event whilst I was doing some searching for rallies and such, wish I flaming hadn't as we'd have both would have had a better day yesterday by not going on this farce of a trip.

The event details (at least the Facebook event details said) that we should have got rides on 3x Henry Cooper coaches (that actually happened), 1x Primrose Coaches (actually ended up on three) and 2x Tyne Valley Coaches where we actually got no rides on their fleet and that went tits up as well, if it wasn't for the fact that Tyne Valley Coaches share the premises with Primrose I dare bet we'd have gotten nothing from them at all, so nearly all the photos of Tyne Valley Coaches are of their fleet facing inwards in a metal shed, don't know why I bothered even taking photos as nobody wants to see rear shots. Also the sheet we were given at the start of the day said we'd be visiting Rowells Coaches, don't know what the hell happened to that, probably either another operator didn't want to be part of it or there was no bloody time after all these stupid long breaks. So yesterday I essentially paid £15 to stand at the MetroCentre for an hour, I've been left with some photos that will never see the light of day on Flickr as they are rear shots and the fact about the only bit of joy I really received in that whole day was during our stupidly long MetroCentre break 3832 turned up on the 6 with the Weardale X21 service turning up shortly afterwards which I didn't have a photo of.

I think he was wearing a hat but I'm unsure whether it was a Newcastle one or not and no-one had a dog with them, first time this person naffed off to either Greggs or Costa when they first arrived in Newcastle, so once we left Central Station we had to do a loop and go straight back there to pick him up and then same bloke almost got left behind in Bedlington.

So this has totally left me feeling miserable, the last few days when I've been out and about within this hobby has taken such a battering that I fear I've lost some enthusiasm to go out and do another outing for a while, on Friday a road closure twinned with annoying passengers sent me over the edge and all this yesterday was basically me falling to my death. Hopefully I can bring myself to do my planned outing in Stanley, Chester-le-Street, Washington and other areas next Saturday, especially as I'd like a shot of the Nightingale Coaches 28C shuttle service.

Rowells I believe is now owned by the same people as Primrose

(31 Jan 2016, 12:52 pm)GMitchelhill wrote Rowells I believe is now owned by the same people as Primrose

Certainly saw nowt from Rowells yesterday.

He seems to think it went quite well, given the article on his blog? http://jb-tours.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/n...-tour.html

Did anyone provide feedback to the operator on the day?

I suspect that is the standard response to most of his trips.

There's nothing to feel bad for Jimmi, about me having a bad day. There was poor organising on my part too for not planning, not like I could as I was never given a return time to MetroCentre...

I had to choose the quickest way to MetroCentre as possible, and that meant going via Morpeth and using rail. On return, the plan went badly wrong and left me stranded at both MetroCentre and Morpeth for hours.

The bloke who kept turning up to the stop late, despite being given the departure times, was wearing a camo jacket and was bald and big of build.

Before departure at MetroCentre, as the coach was running at least 10 minutes late, I messaged the organiser on Facebook, asking what his ETA was. No response nor apology for delay, and he's read it.

Going the way this tour has gone, I'm not going to give feedback to him, as he will probably end up giving me a generic response.

I haven't had much motivation recently. This has put me well back and I'm considering just not bothering with the bloody damn buses any more. At the moment, I don't even feel like getting the bus into Ashington as I'm so sick. Although it might give me a bit more satisfaction for a whole lot less.

(31 Jan 2016, 2:36 pm)GX03 SVC wrote There's nothing to feel bad for Jimmi, about me having a bad day. There was poor organising on my part too for not planning, not like I could as I was never given a return time to MetroCentre...

I had to choose the quickest way to MetroCentre as possible, and that meant going via Morpeth and using rail. On return, the plan went badly wrong and left me stranded at both MetroCentre and Morpeth for hours.

The bloke who kept turning up to the stop late, despite being given the departure times, was wearing a camo jacket and was bald and big of build.

Before departure at MetroCentre, as the coach was running at least 10 minutes late, I messaged the organiser on Facebook, asking what his ETA was. No response nor apology for delay, and he's read it.

Going the way this tour has gone, I'm not going to give feedback to him, as he will probably end up giving me a generic response.

I haven't had much motivation recently. This has put me well back and I'm considering just not bothering with the bloody damn buses any more. At the moment, I don't even feel like getting the bus into Ashington as I'm so sick. Although it might give me a bit more satisfaction for a whole lot less.

Thanks. Organisation was non existent yesterday. Unfortunately there isn't usually a time given for what time it will end as very often they will finish either earlier or later than a certain time. It was just very unfortunate for you that we arrived back at the MetroCentre around two minutes after you're train to Morpeth left and non ideal connection times due to the lower level of service in the evenings. I found getting to Gateshead Interchange for a photo of the A-Line Solo a bit of a pain as I had to get the X12 to Low Fell where I got a photo of the X12 shuttle which left Low Fell 3 minutes earlier than the timetable on Nexus' website indicates so I had to get the 1 to Gateshead, certainly no where near as bad as what you faced...

If you have a site where you want people to attend these tours, you would hardly want to tell people that things didn't go exactly right as it may stop people from wishing to attend any of his future events, there already is a few in the coming months in other places.

Perhaps it may be worth taking a break for a week or so from riding buses, I've had a awful few days out on the buses this week so I may be avoiding outings until next weekend now, although annoyingly I have to go to Bishop Auckland for a dentist appointment on Tuesday afternoon which annoyingly means I'll have to get the 5 at school chucking out time where the last time I did this journey I ended with water being thrown allover me.

They used to be the hot topic in this thread - so seeing as mine is on its last legs...
My phone is doing my head in!

A few weeks back, the usb charging stopped working.
Tried a few plugs, connected to laptop - nowt. Still nothing.
Had a little look inside and it looks like there has been a slip of some sort in the phone charging point.
After a brainwave, I ordered a charging plate off amazon.
My phone has the charging plate functionality built in, so for a few weeks - perfect.

Except, today my phone has developed a bleed after it fell into the wood flooring in the house.

Only a matter of time before it gives up the ghost completely by the looks of it.

Three rough chavvy Pakistani teenage boys sitting opposite on the train generally being ignorant and finding it hilarious to slap each other. Hope they get hit by a bus

I came away for the weekend to actually be able to do a day out that isn't 0750-1800. So why, at 5 to 10 on a Sunday am I laid on the bed in the hotel room instead of out and about!? Weather earlier and lack of a good night sleep doesn't help matters and I can at least see the trains fly by and the buses entering the interchange. Home tomorrow.

(31 Jan 2016, 1:21 pm)GMitchelhill wrote I suspect that is the standard response to most of his trips.

I was quite looking forward to the trip. On the day it did not meet my expectations. It may have been because I'd been working long hours and was tired but here's my list of issues:

*Organisation was lacking. Some people just seemed to disappear after the Metrocentre
*We did not visit Rowells or Primrose. When I asked about the Primrose yard in Acomb, I was told it was locked up. Likewise no mention was made of Rowell's Prudhoe yard.
*Some guy nearly got left behind twice. It was a tour not a taxi service.
*The Metrocentre break was ill-advised. I believe time could have been better spent travelling direct from Coopers to Acomb via Morpeth and Scots Gap with a lunch break in the middle rather than going back to Newcastle.
*Quite frankly many of the people from Yorkshire were bloody scruffy and unkempt to put it mildly. I was ashamed to be associated with them.

I'm just going to stick to my own trips from on.

A disappointed...Charles

(01 Feb 2016, 2:05 pm)Charles41 wrote I was quite looking forward to the trip. On the day it did not meet my expectations. It may have been because I'd been working long hours and was tired but here's my list of issues:

*Organisation was lacking. Some people just seemed to disappear after the Metrocentre
*We did not visit Rowells or Primrose. When I asked about the Primrose yard in Acomb, I was told it was locked up. Likewise no mention was made of Rowell's Prudhoe yard.
*Some guy nearly got left behind twice. It was a tour not a taxi service.
*The Metrocentre break was ill-advised. I believe time could have been better spent travelling direct from Coopers to Acomb via Morpeth and Scots Gap with a lunch break in the middle rather than going back to Newcastle.
*Quite frankly many of the people from Yorkshire were bloody scruffy and unkempt to put it mildly. I was ashamed to be associated with them.

I'm just going to stick to my own trips from on.

A disappointed...Charles

Glad someone else thought that the expectations were far from being met.

Perhaps these sort of occurrences seem fine in Yorkshire but it does not seem to wash well with those of us on Tyneside.

Know what you mean about them being scruffy, this is probably why there is the typical stereotypes for bus enthusiasts wearing anoraks because some of these are living up to the stereotypes, whilst I just dress like a typical 22 year old although I should probably be shot down for wearing a coat in Newcastle.

To be honest, when he started doing the trips years ago they used to be quite decent. Trips were usually once every few weeks. But it got to the point where he had gone for Quantity rather then Quality. Think the last trip I did with him was with PC Coaches in 2012 and unfortuantley one of the advertised vehicles (a rare Scania K92 Double decker) was unavailable (not the guys fault). I had planned to do more of his trips but I was put off then he set up another trip in the same area as the one I was going on to try and poach passengers from the other guys trips. The last time I actually did one of these bus tours was 2014 when we did Golden Eagle in Scotland which was really enjoyable. Just haven't felt the urge to do any at the moment.

Nexus are not allowing Bus Enthusiasts to take photos at Park lane I am annoyed this is what David Archbold said I was annoyed when I had entered the bus station to meet up with my mates Michael and Pete along with Steven and I got told that bus enthusiasts are not allowed to take photos inside Park Lane I usually take photos where the fence is like any regular bus enthusiast I got an idea I got this from a fellow enthusiast he once said if he is there next time could all head to Sunderland with a Camera when this incident occurred I was on 4916 on 9 after finishing work I missed the first bus by 5 minutes but got the next one half hour later I am fuming David said this but I heard via his boss I can guess who Probs told a lie about us was I know his name inbox me and I can reveal who was there as my mates spotted him roaming about like a idiot

(02 Feb 2016, 6:02 pm)Diamond One wrote Nexus are not allowing Bus Enthusiasts to take photos at Park lane I am annoyed this is what David Archbold said I was annoyed when I had entered the bus station to meet up with my mates Michael and Pete along with Steven and I got told that bus enthusiasts are not allowed to take photos inside Park Lane I usually take photos where the fence is like any regular bus enthusiast I got an idea I got this from a fellow enthusiast he once said if he is there next time could all head to Sunderland with a Camera when this incident occurred I was on 4916 on 9 after finishing work I missed the first bus by 5 minutes but got the next one half hour later I am fuming David said this but I heard via his boss

Its their property so they can put what rules they want on it, sure this has been said many times before.

(02 Feb 2016, 6:06 pm)Michael wrote Its their property so they can put what rules they want on it, sure this has been said many times before.

I only took 1 photo today that was outside St Peters

(02 Feb 2016, 6:02 pm)Diamond One wrote Nexus are not allowing Bus Enthusiasts to take photos at Park lane I am annoyed this is what David Archbold said I was annoyed when I had entered the bus station to meet up with my mates Michael and Pete along with Steven and I got told that bus enthusiasts are not allowed to take photos inside Park Lane I usually take photos where the fence is like any regular bus enthusiast I got an idea I got this from a fellow enthusiast he once said if he is there next time could all head to Sunderland with a Camera when this incident occurred I was on 4916 on 9 after finishing work I missed the first bus by 5 minutes but got the next one half hour later I am fuming David said this but I heard via his boss I can guess who Probs told a lie about us was I know his name inbox me and I can reveal who was there as my mates spotted him roaming about like a idiot

I'm always here if you need anything.

(02 Feb 2016, 6:06 pm)Michael wrote Its their property so they can put what rules they want on it, sure this has been said many times before.

I think what he meant to say was he got annoyed for getting told off for going into the bus station.