Dennis Dorchester Plaxton Coachline 76 South Yorkshire Transport Museum Aldwarke Rotherham

Another early start on Sunday, as we hop aboard Cleveland Transit H106, 1977 Northern Counties Bristol VR as we depart Stagecoach Stockton depot at 7.30am prompt. The Teesside 500 group had organised a trip to the South Yorkshire transport Museum's running day event at Aldwark Rotherham.
A few months ago I had been to Newark AEC rally and on static display was Coachline 76 a rare 1985 Dennis Dorchester chassis with a Plaxton Paramount body, powered with a Gardener engine and mated to a ZF automatic gearbox. I got talking with the driver and he was promoting the museum and said this vehicle would be taking part on running day events, and that sowed the seed for me to visit and hopefully catch a ride and also explore the exhibits within the museum. I did catch a ride on the Dennis, and it was a lovely ride, I did capture a bit of video footage which I will edit and share with you all shortly. It was a really busy event, not many vehicles running but poorly organised, all for the sake of a dedicated bus stop stand, as you queue to hop aboard the chosen vehicle and when that was full, they would put on a duplicate behind, so you end up back of the queue once again and miss out.
I did get a ride on a Mainline livery Dennis Dominator 2120 into Rotherham loop service, on the last run of the day, sadly the rain had arrived and many visitors had left early and wasn't able to capture any video but I did enjoy the ride.
Many photos where taken at the museum and a good browse of the exhibits, even The Teesside 500 Group set up the mobile stall to sell a few memorabilia trinkets and from what I gather they did rather well to keep the funds coming in to support the cost of running the heritage fleet and repairs, and next on the list is an overhaul of the steering box on H106 which could cost around £5000 ! that's a lot of 50p photos to sell.
We packed up the stall and left the event at 4.30pm and brought the heavy rain back into Teesside and got back to dark dreary Stockton at 7.30pm.

It was a grand day out, and think that could be the last event I attend with The Teesside 500 Group as the proposed future events are still to be confirmed, ref Keighley Bus Museum Twilight running event is currently cancelled due to the recent fire damage of the museum building .

It was a busy Sunday and many visitors tried to keep dry and out of the weather in the museum, whilst others hopped aboard the few buses running as and when every 30 minutes ?

Hold Tight Please !
Catch you all on the next one .........