The Yorkshire Wanderer Tour - Saturday 1st August 2009

Report by Ken Pitt
 

About 20 GB BG members gathered outside Leeds Rail Station on 1^st August for the 'Yorkshire Wanderer' trip to Transdev Depots, with Volvo B7 450 YJ05FNH promised from York Depot, which duly arrived at 0945 displaying “GB Bus Group” on the digital front indicator! With the vehicle were Paul Hollingsbee, General Manager of Transdev Claims and Keith Sykes, Operations Manager at York as Driver. Paul had for everyone a current Fleet List, as well as a Timetable Pack supplied by Transdev Publicity Department.

450 is a Volvo B7RLE with Wright Eclipse Urban DP44F body, new to Yorkshire Coastliner, transferred to Harrogate & District in 2008 and Transdev York in 2009 and currently in Coastliner livery.

We were  away a little early, the route being via A61 to Harrogate (the Transdev 36 Route), through the town and a brief  pause beside the Bus Station. We then went to the Harrogate & District Depot at Starbeck outside the town.

From there, we were on the A59 towards Skipton, passing the giant “golfballs “of RAF Menwith Hill, the Bolton Abbey Steam Railway station and the Harrogate & District B6 on the X59 service from Skipton to Harrogate. Skirting Skipton, we came on the A650 to Keighley.  There we saw the new “outstation” for My Bus School Bus Vehicles (full up with 15 buses), and into the main Depot in the town  Then Keighley Bus Station for lunch break and on to the Dalton Lane site of Keighley Bus Museum Trust. In the Keighley area Paul stepped into the driving seat to allow Keith time for his break.

We continued via the A650 and A6068 towards Burnley. Keeping along the line of the busy “Mainline” routes and then along the “Witchway” route we went through Colne town centre, past the Bus Station and through Nelson town centre past the new Interchange.

Next visit was Burnley & Pendle’s Queensgate Depot, now also shared by the Northern Blue operation. A group photograph was taken. Then, lastly into Burnley Bus Station, where we saw a huge selection of vehicles and liveries and more “Witchways” and  “Starship7U” Versas.

We reluctantly left Burnley to return to Leeds, our route being via Queensgate again, thence the M65, A6068, and A650 (bypassing Keighley) then direct to Leeds Station arriving at 1715 (some remained on to go to Leeds Bus Station), to end a great day out, made all the more enjoyable by our Transdev colleagues Paul and Keith. Thanks also due to Keith Roebuck, Operations Manager for initially “setting the wheels in motion” and allowing the visits.

We eagerly await GB-BG’s next trip, likely to be in March 2010 from the Birmingham area.

View the Sightings Log for this tour (downloads as a pdf file)

Report and photos from our inaugural 'Warwickshire Wanderer' tour here