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(13/04/2014 07:12)sth6168 Wrote: [ -> ]He also said some solos or going to wales mod replacements apparently

He being who sorry?

Two VLW's on 10A today, seen them at around 5.20 going in opposite directions round about Knotty Ash. I know that they have been on there before but the first time I personally have seen them, bit like going back in time seeing deckers on that route.

(15/04/2014 18:31)MPTE1955 Wrote: [ -> ]Two VLW's on 10A today, seen them at around 5.20 going in opposite directions round about Knotty Ash. I know that they have been on there before but the first time I personally have seen them, bit like going back in time seeing deckers on that route.

It's certainly nice seeing 'deckers on the 10s, however I seen one leaving Liverpool out of service this afternoon near Kensington St Helens-bound with a packed Pulsar in service behind it!

Both 4206 and 4207 were indeed on the 10 and 10A respectively, however both times I seen them they were both relatively empty which was a shame. Managed to catch a ride on 4206 and the suspension is rock solid but I'm not complaining, hopefully the start of better things for the 10 corridor!

I had a ride on 4207 this evening leaving town at around 18.20 and I have to be completely honest here - it was a dreadful bus. The ride was sluggish, the suspension unforgiving and the ride itself riddled with crashing and squeaking. Put simply, this is significantly worse to ride than any of the 50 North West DLAs I've sampled.

I believe this is one of the examples refurbished at St Helens and, although the external repaint is better than the Blackburn ones, the interiors simply aren't up to scratch. Credit to Blackburn for their excellent internal refurbishments of the VLWs which were fully repainted internally and given new flooring and cream handrails. This example hadn't had its interior panels repainted and retained yellow handrails and black floor. There is already a fair bit of vandalism upstairs too, presumably from its use on school work, including a slashed seat, another burnt and another graffitied. A real pity to see this already, but certainly no surprise.

The major positive note though was seeing two deckers on the 10 corridor again. Very welcome indeed. If present rumours are to be believed, this is merely a taster of what's to come and I'm sure I speak for the many hundreds of regular 10 passengers when I say new deckers can't come soon enough.

(15/04/2014 20:21)507009 Wrote: [ -> ]I believe this is one of the examples refurbished at St Helens and, although the external repaint is better than the Blackburn ones, the interiors simply aren't up to scratch. Credit to Blackburn for their excellent internal refurbishments of the VLWs which were fully repainted internally and given new flooring and cream handrails.

I believe that the others were done-up at Thorntons as opposed to Blackburn.

Credit goes to Thorntons then in that case!

Don't want to sound like I'm being too harsh here because it really was great to see deckers on the 10, it's just that 4207 was a disappointing ride and I'm surprised it hasn't been refurbished to the standards of the other recent VLW cascades. This one looked a lot more like the Birkenhead ones internally.

Just to add, our journey on 4207 had a decent load despite it arriving immediately after a Stagecoach 10A (this departed with a standing load), while 4206 was well loaded as well, passed in Kenny going in the opposite direction.

2800 out on 31 lates tonight - first time i've seen this out late.

4207 was done by an external contractor as it was 4206 that was done in house.

(15/04/2014 22:11)motormayhem1 Wrote: [ -> ]4207 was done by an external contractor as it was 4206 that was done in house.

Well, looking at in from photos and comparing it to photos of the others plus the examples here in the North East, 4207 was certainly not one of Thornton's jobs, given the external paint job is completely different on that example to that on 4208-16 and ANE's 7484-94 plus the interior looks completely different (yellow poles rather than the cream ones in the others).

As I've mentioned previously elsewhere, Thornton's are a quality outfit who have been doing refurbishment work for Go North East since 2009 along with First Group since 2011 and Arriva North East since 2012. It also now started picking up refurbishment contracts for mid-life London refurbishment.