Livery's
1998- Go Northern Easy Access
2000- Go Northern cut off livery Easy Access
2008- Go Northeast LIME V1 livery
2011- Go Northeast LIME V2 livery
2016- Go Northern Easy Access

R855 PRG started life in 1998 at Chester LE Street as part of the second batch of 8 Volvo B10BLE's that were delivered to Go, Northern. The Volvo B10BLE with Wright Renown body and Volvo D10H engine with ZF HP500 gearbox was the first low floor bus that Go Northeast had got in any number. The previous low floor buses were 4 Dennis Lance SLF's at Percy Main and a handful of Optare Excels. Painted in A variant of the corporate livery she was branded with the legend Easy Access on the body sides with the Go Northern above the entrance doors, on the front panel, on the rear window and above the cab window.

At Chester, she replaced some of the Leyland National 2's from front line services. Once inspected 4855 started working on the service 21 and 734. The arrival of the Volvo's started the end for the Leyland National 2's. Hear 4855 stayed until late 1999. The 8 Volvo's and the rest of the Leyland Nationals being replaced by 14 brand new Daf SB220GS. 4855 along with the rest of her batch were transferred to Stanley for work on the 775 and 778 replacing the Daf SB220 Optare Delta's. Here she was joined by brand new B10BLE's 4896 to 4909.

At Stanley, she was fitted with a dot-matrix destination blind replacing the manual blind. While at Stanley she worked on all of the services including the prestigious X30. Later in 2000 at Stanley, she was repainted into A simple form of the corporate livery that did away with the flashers on the side panels and instead has A 45 degree cut off slant

4855 stayed at Stanley until 2008 when 4896, 97, 98, 99, 4900 and 4848 to 4855 were returned to Chester for work on the revised service X8, 8, 78. New MD Peter Huntley had started his pointless rout branding drive. So 4855 along with the rest of the B10BLE's were painted in lime green apart from 4849. She was painted plain white. After the vinyl's had been fitted the once smart liveried bus looked more like A 40-foot lime. The service had been branded "lime"

After 3 years 4855 along with every other Volvo B10BLE apart from the x reg examples were "refurbished" This was mainly A repaint inside and out and a re-trim into the new "GO" seat moquette. The livery was also simplified and did not now have the light green bands along the body sides. Nothing was done mechanically but 4855 did get An LED
destination screen fitted to the front. 4897 to 4900 and 4848 and 4849 did not return to Chester and were reallocated back to Stanley.

Returning to the "Lime" rout 4855 very seldom got to spread her powerful wings on other services. However due to more modern double-deck buses arriving for the service 21 and to other depots so cascading Y reg Scania L94 UB's the Daf SB220's were starting to be moved out to other depots. The first batch of Volvo B10BLE's that were new to Washington for the 194 and 294 were moved to Stanley for the service 44 in 2010 after being replaced by the new Mercedes Citaro's.

With the influx of yet more new buses in late 2013 it was the start of the end for the Volvo B10BLE's. The Volvo's on the 44 was replaced with 08 reg Citaro's. Some of these were repainted into Northern Red which had been adopted by new MD Kevin Carr for buses that were not rout branded. Others were sent to Gateshead for work on more branded services. These, however, were only A stop-gap and in 2014 the first Volvo B10BLE was withdrawn as life expired. 4840 or 340 GUP as she was known had been stopped with engine trouble at Gateshead Riverside Depot and with repairs not being authorized she was parked up and used for parts.

Next to go were 4837, 38, 39 from Chester in June 2014. These were thankfully sold for further service. However, after another 4 Volvo's and 5 Daf SB220's were simply switched off and scrapped by Alpha the writing was on the wall for the surviving R reg examples. Now the surviving "Lime" Volvo's were all repainted into Northern red leaving only the R reg examples left in the lime green livery. It was now known that they were going to be replaced at Chester by Wright Streetlight's in May 2015 and a major fleet shuffle would then take place.

It was October 2014 that the Northern National Restoration Group began to look for A Volvo B10BLE to preserve. We would have plenty of time to pick one for restoration and preservation. The Group's Operations Engineer, Craig Smith inspected the 5 remaining Volvo's at Chester LE Street. Then without warning 4850, 51 and 4852 were suddenly withdrawn in November. 4850 was parked up at Chester for parts 4851 donated her engine and gearbox to Stanley B10BLE 4898. 4852 was taken to Riverside as A replacement for the now-scrapped 4840.

Time was now running out for 4853, 4854 and 4855. By this time one stuck out far from the rest. 4855 was the last B10BLE to receive major engine work at Volvo in 2013. She was also the one with the best chassis and bodywork. She also was the last fitted with A working Bode electric ramp. In February 2015 Craig approached Go Northeast with the view to acquiring 4855 when she became available in May.

Go Northeast agreed to supply 4855 to the NNRG as soon as she was withdrawn but at A price of £2,204.04 including tyres and vat. Finally, on May 18th 4855 was sold to Craig Smith, Operations Engineer of the NNRG. However, due to GNE requiring the digital destination display and other electronic devices 4855 was required to stay at Saltmeddows. While this was taking place the interior was re-trimmed in the graffiti color moquette by GNE at a cost of £1,250. While not the correct style of fabric it was necessary to replace the GO style fabric.

Depot Allocations
1998-1999 Chester LE Street
1999-2008 Stanley
2008-2016 Chester LE Street
2016-2019 NNRG Salters Gate
​2019-present NNRG Philadelphia

This was all academic on August the 7th as 4855 was removed from Saltmeddows Road and made her way via Chester LE Street depot to her new home at Salter's Gate. Hear she joined NNRG stablemates 4681 and 4710. Still resplendent in full Lime livery complete with all the digital destination gear. This was of no concern to us as 4855 will be repainted into GNE Easy Access livery and the display will be removed in favor of A roller blind which 4855 and all the other Wright Renown's carried from new. Full-on restoration started to happen in September of 2015. The first job was to move the shed around and have A general throw out and tidy up to give us more space. This was also the time to build our internal storage shed and put another 5 lights up. 4710 and 4855 swapped places in the shed to give us more room.

To undertake the transformation of A battle scared Volvo B10BLE in Lime livery to A gleaming bus that looked like it's just been built would not be easy. First the team that would be needed to do the work. Again Alan Smith would do his paint magic and plan the livery on the bus. Craig Smith would do the bodywork and mechanical work. Alex Tighe, Ian Robinson, Doug Robinson, and our new recruit Robert Facey would handle the interior repaint and assist Alan on the outside.

The damage to the front was easy to see but it wasn't until the panels were removed that the extent of the damage was apparent. It took Craig 4 days to reconstruct the front end. The bumper had to be removed to give access to the substructure. Once this was pulled straight the front end could be cut and reattached in its correct position. 4 sections of 2x1/2 inch angle were used to strengthen the front and sides. All the lower panels were changed with new or good second-hand ones. All the wheel arch trims were very badly damaged so new ones were fitted. On the mechanical side, the batteries were found to be no good at only 7 months old. Go Northeast kindly exchanged these under warranty.

The air system proved very problematic. The rear service tank was holed by corrosion and had to be changed as was the relay valve. This brought about its own problems of working on A low floor bus without A pit. 4855 had to be raised 3 feet from the ground and then lifted on her suspension to give the height to get under. Even then the repairs were very difficult.

By March 2016 restoration was coming on nicely so the test date was put in for the 18th of April. But the air system again struck problems with the relay valve starting to leak. Then the retarder air pipes were found to be leaking so they were changed as well. The interior was coming together by this time and things looked good on the outside.

In every project there is A time when you get A breakthrough. This happened in late March early April. It was A busy Month with lots of work being done. The cab and dash were completely overhauled and the steering wheel was changed. Attention was also given to all the "driver aides" that GNE installed. All were removed as was the tracking devises. The first coats of paint were put on in late March with 4855 being completely repainted by April
the 13th. The rear graphics were fitted as was the legal lettering and the NNRG legal address.

The MOT was booked for April the 18th. On the run up to the test we were going up the shed to work on 4855 every chance we could. Everything that could be inspected was. On the morning of the test it was found that the main beam was not working on the head lights. Fortunately the offending part was the column switch and we had A brand new unit and A good spare. The test went without A hitch and both FTN 710W and R855 PRG came away from Durham tested without any advisory items.

The bodywork was again looked at when we got back to the shed. The off side was wet sanded to smooth it down. Once the body was cleaned off the Easy Access legend was fitted. Fitting these large graphics requires A slight touch and plenty of hands to hold it. Once fitted and smoothed down the off side looked amazing.

Next time up was A very different affaire. With the test's passed A much more relaxed atmosphere was in the air. We were able to start the cleaning of 4855 and fitting the remaining vinyl's. By now 4855 was looking like something from 1998. Unfortunately the destination mechanism that was earmarked to be fitted to 4855 was the wrong one. This meant that it was not ready to be fitted for her first rally as many changes to the mechanism were needed to be done. So A flip dot Hanover display was fitted in place of the GNE colour LED unit. This was taken back to GNE with all the other redundant gear.

R855 PRG,s first outing was the Metrocenter. Hear she was joined by the like liveried Leyland National 2 FTN 708W. The Volvo B10BLE has come A long way since last May when she was offered to the NNRG. Her sister 4854 was the last "Lime" Volvo B10BLE to be at A rally in 2015 so its fitting that 4855 will be the first ex Go Northeast B10BLE at A show in 2016.

4855 joins A list second to none of former Northern buses that are preserved in there native North East. The NNRG together with the County Durham Bus Preservation Group have around 14 ex Northern buses preserved. Non would be hear now if it wasn't for the dedication of a few individuals who saved them for preservation.