Northern National Restoration Group



[pic] Northern National Restoration Group

Proud owners of UPT 681V (4681) FTN 708W (4708) FTN 710W (4710) and R855 PRG (4855)

History of 4855

R855 PRG started life in 1998 at Chester LE Street as part of the second batch of 8 Volvo B10BLE's that were delivered to Go Northern. The Volvo B10BLE with Wright Renown body and Volvo D10H engine with ZF HP500 gearbox was the first low floor bus that Go Northeast had got in any number. The previous low floor buses were 4 Dennis Lance SLF's at Percy Main and a handful of Optare Excel's. Painted in A variant of the corporate livery she was branded with the legend Easy Access on the body sides with the Go Northern above the entrance doors, on the front panel, on the rear window and above the cab window.

At Chester she replaced some the Leyland National 2's from front line services. Once inspected 4855 started working on the service 21 and 734. The arrival of the Volvo's started the end for the Leyland National 2's. Hear 4855 stayed until late 1999. The 8 Volvo's and the rest of the Leyland Nationals being replaced by 14 brand new Daf SB220GS. 4855 along with the rest of her batch were transferred to Stanley for work on the 775 and 778 replacing the Daf SB220 Optare Delta's. Hear she was joined by brand new B10BLE's 4896 to 4909.

At Stanley she was fitted with a dot matrix destination blind replacing the manual blind. Wile at Stanley she worked on all of the services including the prestigious X30. Later in 2000 at Stanley she was repainted into A simple form of the corporate livery that did away with the flashers on the side panels and instead has A 45 degree cut off slant

4855 stayed at Stanley until 2008 when 4896, 97, 98, 99, 4900 and 4848 to 4855 were returned to Chester for work on the revised service X8, 8, 78. New MD Peter Huntley had started his pointless rout branding drive. So 4855 along with the rest of the B10BLE's were painted in lime green apart from 4849. She was painted in plain white. After the vinyl's had been fitted the once smart liveried bus looked more like A 40 foot lime. The service had been branded "lime"

After 3 years 4855 along with every other Volvo B10BLE apart from the x reg examples were "refurbished" This was mainly A repaint inside and out and a re trim into the new "GO" seat mowquett. The livery was also simplified and did not now have the light green bands along the body side's. Nothing was done mechanically but 4855 did get A LED destination screen fitted to the front. 4897 to 4900 and 4848 and 4849 did not return to Chester and were reallocated back to Stanley.

Returning to the "Lime" rout 4855 very seldom got to spread her powerful wings on other services. However due to more modern double deck buses arriving for the service 21 and to other depots so cascading Y reg Scania L94 UB's the Daf SB220's were starting to be moved out to other depots. The first batch of Volvo B10BLE's that were new to Washington for the 194 and 294 were moved to Stanley for the service 44 in 2010 after being replaced by the new Mercedes Citaro's.

With the influx of yet more new buses in late 2013 it was the start of the end for the Volvo B10BLE's. The Volvo's on the 44 were replaced with 08 reg Citaro's. Some of these were repainted into Northern Red which had been adopted by new MD Kevin Carr for buses that were not rout branded. Others were sent to Gateshead for work on more branded services. These however were only A stop gap and in 2014 the first Volvo B10BLE was withdrawn as life expired. 4840 or 340 GUP as she was known had been stopped with engine trouble at Gateshead Riverside Depot and with repairs not being authorized she was parked up and used for parts.

Next to go were 4837, 38, 39 from Chester in June 2014. These were thankfully sold for further service. However after another 4 Volvo's and 5 Daf SB220's were simply switched off and scrapped by Alpher the writing was on the wall for the surviving R reg examples. Now the surviving "Lime" Volvo's were all repainted into Northern red leaving only the R reg examples left in the lime green livery. It was now known that they were going to be replaced at Chester by Wright Streetlight's in May 2015 and a major fleet shuffle would then take place.

It was October 2014 that the Northern National Restoration Group began to look for A Volvo B10BLE to preserve. We would have plenty of time to pick one for restoration and preservation. The Group's Operations Engineer, Craig Smith inspected the 5 remaining Volvo's at Chester LE Street. Then without warning 4850, 51 and 4852 were suddenly withdrawn in November. 4850 was parked up at Chester for parts 4851 donated her engine and gearbox to Stanley B10BLE 4898. 4852 was taken to Riverside as A replacement for the now scrapped 4840.

Time was now running out for 4853 4854 and 4855. By this time one stuck out far from the rest. 4855 was the last B10BLE to receive major engine work at Volvo in 2013. She was also the one with the best chassis and bodywork. She also was the last fitted with A working Bode electric ramp. In February 2015 Craig approached Go Northeast with the view to acquiring 4855 when she became available in May.

Go Northeast agreed to supply 4855 to the NNRG as soon as she was withdrawn but at A price of £2,204.04 including tyres and vat. Finally on May the 18th 4855 was sold to Craig Smith, Operations Engineer of the NNRG. However due to GNE requiring the digital destination display and other electronic devices 4855 was required to stay at Saltmeddows. Wile this was taking place the interior was re trimmed in the graffiti colour mowquett by GNE at a cost of £1,250. Wile not the correct style of fabric it was necessary to replace the GO style fabric.

This was all academic on August the 7th as 4855 was removed from Saltmeddows Road and made her way via Chester LE Street depot to her new home at Salter's Gate. Hear she joined NNRG stable mates 4681 and 4710. Still resplendent in full Lime livery complete with all the digital destination gear. This was of no concern to us as 4855 will be repainted into GNE Easy Access livery and the display will be removed in favour of A roller blind which 4855 and all the other Wright Renown's carried from new.

Full on restoration started to happen in September of 2015. First job was to move the shed around and have A general throw out and tidy up to give us more space. This was also the time to build our internal storage shed and put another 5 lights up. 4710 and 4855 swapped places in the shed to give us more room.

To undertake the transformation of A battle scared Volvo B10BLE in Lime livery to A gleaming bus that looked like its just been built would not be easy. First the team that would be needed to do the work. Again Alan Smith would do his paint magic and plan the livery on the bus. Craig Smith would do the bodywork and mechanical work. Ian Robinson, Doug Robinson and our new recruit Robert Facey would handle the interior repaint and assist Alan on the outside.

The damage to the front was easy to see but it wasn't until the panels were removed that the extent of the damage was apparent. It took Craig 4 days to re construct the front end. The bumper had to be removed to give access to the sub structure. Once this was pulled straight the front end could be cut and re attached in its correct position. 4 sections of 2x1/2 inch angle were used to strengthen the front and side's. All the lower panels were changed with new or good second hand ones. All the wheel arch trims were very badly damaged so new ones were fitted. On the mechanical side the batteries were found to be no good at only 7 months old. Go Northeast kindly exchanged these under warranty.

The air system proved very problematic. The rear service tank was holed by corrosion and had to be changed as was the relay valve. This brought about its own problems of working on A low floor bus without A pit. 4855 had to be raised 3 feet from the ground and then lifted on her suspension to give the height to get under. Even then repairs were very difficult.

By March 2016 restoration was coming on nicely so the test date was put in for the 18th of April.

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