Spooktacular Open Day looks back at 40 years

4710, 4708, 981, 4855, 4922, 574 and 5217, celebrating over 40 years of Go Ahead.

October 2023 marked the final open day of the year and it definitely didn’t disappoint.

After running eight open days across the past three years this one was the most successful Open Days with a great turn out of vehicles and supporters. An amazing 22 buses, a gritter, road sweeper, and 7 visiting cars the open day was definitely going to a tight squeeze. Inside we had some wonderful stall holders and support from local community groups.

Local operators and other bus groups supporting the event

Due to a local bus operator going on strike unfortunately we lost our only bus service past the depot at Philadelphia. Lucky a local independent bus operator asked us if we would like them to run a shuttle bus service to our charity open day at the depot. We thought this was a lovely idea and kindly offered. The local bus company, A-Line coaches ran services from Newcastle, Gateshead, Heworth, Chester LE Street, Washington Galleries, and local bus preservationists Jonathan, Kurt and Will very kindly offered to run a shuttle from Durham City and Sunderland. Huge thank you to these guys for getting a lot of local people into the event.

A huge turn out from a lot of local bus companies and bus preservationists made this open day our busiest yet. With 11 vehicles doing runs on the half past the hour going to various locations around the local area it made our runs out great fun. With loads of people photographing us and coming out pubs there were definitely some heads turned. Chester LE Street with FTN710W, 4710, at 13.00 was like a movie scene with cameras everywhere even from the fruit and veg man!

The Scare-bus at the NNRG Halloween Open Day

Inside the depot the scare-bus which 4898 had become very popular with young Emma giving people the fright of there lives. The bus had been made into a bus full of spooky going ons. The group had blanked out the windows, se some lights up which were donated for the event from KS Sound and they sported the group though out the day. The bus was a huge hit and success.

Norman the lion next to 5217 on her launch day!

Outside lots was happening, from bus run to line ups, as well as Norman the Lion the new NNRG mascot launching the return of group owned Scania L94, 5217. At 14.30 5217 headed to the bus stop for her maiden voyage down to Chester LE Street. The first run in preservation, the first time on the road except her run to the MOT test centre just days beforehand.

Callum Bowes, NNRG member, who drove 5217 on part of her debut run with the NNRG said, 5217 was a dream to drive, she felt like she hadn't been off the road for 4 years. The sounds, the smells, and the memories were all well alive. With a full bus of people loving the moment a huge grin was definitely on my face.

4 years of restoration and this was it, the bus which was dedicated to Chris Moyes in 2006, now back on the road in Preservation heading to local community events once more this time with the NNRG.

5217 carries Go Gateshead logos, Alex Davies explains, the answer is simple, in 1883 parliament passed a decree that allowed the Gateshead and District Tramways to construct a tramway, 140 years on we celebrate how far transport has come within the Gateshead boundary. On the 29th of November 1913, the Northern General Transport company was formed, and a depot built at Chester-Le-Street. sadly the 109 year old depot was closed for good in 2022 and not long after was demolished.

Volvo B11RT Caetano Levante 3 named after Jim Walker

At the event it was also wonderful to have VOLVO B7RLE WRIGHT URBAN ECLIPSE 255 from A-line coaches debut its 50 years of Aline Coaches livery as well as 22018 MAN ALX 300 and Mercedes-Benz Citaro  5292, make there debut for the first time in preservation. National Express brought their Volvo B11RT Caetano Levante 3 coach which has been dedicated to the late Jim Walker.

The 2023 open day finished with a road convoy of all the vehicles, and a line up. The convoy took in the sights of local landmark past Penshaw Monument, the buses were lined up in order of build, with a wide range of vehicles turning up in Easy Access livery it allowed for a picture of what it would have looked like once on the road.  Starting with the Leyland National, followed by, Volvo, DAF, Dart and Scania. The Leyland National entered service in 1981, which was then replaced by the Volvo B10 BLE, super pointer Darts, solos and Olympians in 1998, this was after a major fleet update after the four subsidiary companies came into being Go Northern, Go Gateshead, Go Wear Buses and Go Coastline. In 2004 the Scania L94 joined and entered service. The line up highlighted the past 40 years of Go Ahead Easy Access brand.

Norman the Lion with visiting cars

Norman the Lion which is now the NNRG mascot made an appearance at the open day, he will be used at all of events and will attend events where the NNRG go. So if you do see him please say hello and find out more about what he is about.

Chris who had traveled from Leeds for the event said; the line up was the best part of the day, where else could you have seen that with so many vehicles in the same livery but different sectors of the group. It is so lovely to see local groups working together and shows how many buses are preserved in the North East.

2023 marked a special moment from the Northern National Restoration Group, from launching 4710 into a new livery to mark 10 years since purchase and a tribute to the former Philadelphia depot. It was great to finish the season in such a company and high spirits. Next week we will host a bus in lights event.