The Philadelphia Tribute

2022 was a year many people will remember from the memories. From 50 years of the Leyland National to the demolition of Philadelphia Depot, 2022 was a cracking year but also a sad one for many people who not only loved Philadelphia Depot, but those that worked in it. 

Today, 6th May 2023 the NNRG unveiled a white bumper on Leyland National 4710 at Beamish Museum as part of the King's Coronation Weekend and an event celebrating 50 years of the tram network. The bumper is a tribute to the former depot at Philadelphia Depot which was demolished last year.

4710 standing in the former Philadelphia Depot in 2022.

Just before demolition last year the Northern National Restoration group had the honour of being able to drive FTN710W, 4710 group owned Leyland National into the depot for one last time.

Leyland National 2, FTN 710W, 4710 started her working life at Bensham Works after delivery in 1981., 42 years ago this year. Whilst at Bensham works 4710 was fitted with the omo gear and destination blind. All ready for the road, the next phase was when she was allocated to Philadelphia Depot of National Bus Company subsidiary Northern General Transport. 

FTN710W, 4710 as well as many other Leyland National’s arrived to replace the last manual drive Leyland Leopards and Bristol REs. 4710 worked some of the long-distance services that Philadelphia Depot had at the time. She also did service 194 with the PTE liveried National 2's. 4710 also ran the Miners specials in the dead of night to and from the many North Sea pits down the County Durham coast. A blind which 4710 still carries today. 

4710 was purchased by Craig Smith in 2013 from the NEBPT, North East Bus Preservation Trust and after a lengthy 13 weeks, a lot of work and hours 4710 attended the 2013 Metrocentre Rally. Since then 4710 has traveled to many rallies including Whitehaven for Leyland 50, celebrating 50 years of Leyland in 2021. She also attended Workington in 2015 for the building in Workington. As well as this she has attended the local rally season year in year out of NEBPT events, Tyne Tees Run and Beamish Museum.

Our group, The Northern National Restoration Group was founded in 2006 by a group of bus enthusiasts. Since then, the group has grown into what it is today, with six vehicles, over 10 working members and a large operating facility. Our shared interest is in preserving the transport heritage of the North East of England.

Our fleet has previously worked all over the region in the service of Go North East and its predecessors. We aim to exhibit a wide range of immaculately restored vehicles from the recent past while educating and demonstrating a wide range of skills and knowledge across the relevant areas.

NNRG and Friends line up outside the former depot, days before demolition started.

At the start of 2023 the NNRG Trustees thought about how they could tribute the former depot and its former workers, staff and employees. They also wanted to mark 10 years of having FTN710W in their ownership. The idea came from Ian Robinson to paint 4710s bumper white, a tribute to ‘Philly Depot’.

You may wonder why the NNRG decided to paint the bumper of 4710 white as a tribute? Well; Not long after the NBC Northern fleet had been bought by the management after deregulation of the National Bus Company in 1986 the fleet was repainted extremely quickly. But with a huge fleet of buses it did take a while. At Philly Depot the Fleet Engineer was called Brian Smith. Brian was something of a maverick and liked his fleet to stand out.

To this end he instructed the Coachbuilders to paint the front bumpers of the Philly allocation white. No matter what they were, he wanted the front bumper white. While the repaint program was in full swing with many buses getting painted by the depot staff, no matter what trade they were in. 

Some looked extremely good while others just did not suit the white bumper. Some Nationals received the white bumper while still in poppy red. This was only a handful of National 2's. 

The white bumper lasted some 4 years until Brian left the company in 1990. In the days of livery standardization quite how they lasted so long is a mystery. Indeed, when something was sent to Bensham for repaint it came back in standard livery very quickly, sometimes as soon as it got back in the depot the bumper was repainted white. The only buses that escaped the white bumper were the DP coaches. They were already white! 

It was refreshing to see a livery variation that was so noticeable. Other slight changes were the fitting of the Go Ahead Northern fleet names on some Nationals onto the side panels instead of the cove panels, the fleet numbers were sometimes put in a different position. Then the Wear District were the first to have a motif of a famous landmark in Penshaw Monument.

In 1899 - 1900 authorization to construct a tramway was given, but due to financial difficulties, the Company was unable to proceed with construction. In January 1904 work commenced and in 1905 the tramway opened for business with the first tram service from Houghton le Spring to Grangetown opened. With the increase of tram operations in 1906 Philadelphia depot was built, today the home of the Northern National Restoration Group. Unfortunately in 1924 the decision was taken to abandon the tramways completely; this was due to the cost of the operation, Northern saved the company from bankruptcy and purchased the depot. In 1925 Sunderland & District Electric Tramways was renamed as the Sunderland and District Omnibus Company, which after 6 years of operations was sold to Northern General Transport.

In 1957 construction began to extend the Philadelphia depot for usage, this was completed in 1959. Over the next 23 years alot of changes were made with the National Bus Company being formed as well as Sunderland District, Sunderland & District Omnibus Company became part of the Northern General Transport and Sunderland & District Omnibus company became Go Wear Buses. Unfortunately in June 1998 Philadelphia closed its doors as an operational depot after 90 years of service. 

4710 below the world famous Red Arrows at Teesside Airport.

Since 1998 the depot has been occupied with a few different companies such as L.H Cars and Commercials, and L.H. Warehousing and most recently KB Tyres. In 2008 it was announced the depot was earmarked for demolition and with the sad news former Drivers, Engineers, and other related staff were invited to have a last look around the depot before demolition crews moved in, a photoshoot then followed on the depot forecourt. After 14 years in July 2022 the depot was finally demolished, resulting in an unrecognisable site by August. 

2023 will see group owned 4710 carry the white bumper as a tribute to Philadelphia Dept, and 4710, to mark 10 years of her in the NNRG ownership.We look forward to seeing you at the rallies we attend this year.