Durham City Coaches Van Hool P700 DCC Hop Aboard Aycliffe

We hop aboard this Volvo B10M Van Hool Alizee coach at Aycliffe & District Bus Preservation Society.
This bus has a very interesting history and ownership and a week later after still trying to dry myself out along with my camera gear never mind remembering the details so I can add it to the description, which can be easily edited if you watchers know better ?
P312 VWR was new to Wallace Arnold in June/1997, then to Walls of Wigan in 2006 till it was acquired by Lee's Coaches Durham in May 2012 and then moved on to Enterprise Travel in Sept 2019. After Enterprise ceased trading this vehicle returned to Lee's Coaches .
Our driver Ian Robinson whom works for 626 Coach Hire, explained this coach was used by Durham City Coaches but not owned by (DCC) and was just owned and operated by Lee's of Durham.
Kevin Thwaites owner of 626 Coach hire was given the opportunity to purchase the vehicle as this was driven by his Dad, Colin James Thwaites and always known as his dads bus whom sadly a few years ago went on to his last journey and final destination and hence the tribute displayed under the drivers window panel.
I assume this coach was only mainly allocated and driven by Colin, and when it was transferred back to Lee's Of Durham it was also operated by a dedicated only driver and kept in immaculate original condition, as it was kept as a spare when the modern rubbish decided to have a wobble and the Volvo no matter how long it would have been rested up would always start up first time every time. It's a three and two interior seating layout with a retro CRT tv screen still fitted up front. It had 47 seats in from new with WA, but with its job mainly on school contracts it now squeezed up at 70 seats. The milage was showing nearer 900,000 kms on the tacho but Ian thinks it's double or treble that as these clocks did fail and get replaced, due to calibration. From what Ian says he thinks it the original engine and it still looks oil tight and still very responsive. Due to the constant heavy rain on Saturday, I suspect some of it went in the camera and we had a microphone glitch so you cannot really hear the roar of that Volvo power pack and just catch a glimpse of the huge smile on Ian's face as we toured around Newton Aycliffe ... a very smooth comfortable ride and the passengers seats also far better than this modern stuff we sit on and endure.
So apologies for the sound, it glitched to I assume dedicated voice, rather than general ambient sounds hence why you can clearly hear the passengers and it removed the roar of the engine, I wasn't going to release it but its only what you would hear if you travelled on the bus too.
Better than time lapse with speeded up squeaky sounds and video ?
Just proves you don't know what you record on the day, or how it comes out, but now know my camera is waterproof but not water resistant !
Durham City Coaches was acquired by European Travel Group in 2016 which owns Lee's Coaches and also Enterprise Travel Group.
It was this time DCC lost its iconic established Black based livery for a vibrant white based scheme.
626 Coaches have permission to use DCC livery from the MD at DCC Michael Lightfoot, and recently re- registered as P700 DCC

Aycliffe & District Bus Preservation Society
Birthday Bash Event Celebrating 45 Years of the Museum.

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

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