Birthday is a real busman’s holiday for Robert Forsythe

Nov 2 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

IT was a transport of delight for Robert Forsythe when he celebrated his 50th birthday at the weekend.

Over the years Robert and wife Fiona collected more than 125,000 items on rail, air, bus and coach and water transport, including timetables, brochures, booklets, hand bills, and other paper ephemera. The collection was acquired earlier this year by the National Railway Museum in York.

So naturally it was a bit of a busman’s birthday bash on Saturday for Robert and Fiona, who live in Prudhoe, Northumberland.

They hired a Leyland Titan 1952 double decker bus for a day-long tour of the North Pennines.

A total of 57 invited guests piled on to the bus, with Robert and Fiona’s daughter Clare, aged nine, on duty in original bus conductress’s cap and ticket machine.

The bus set off from Newcastle Central Station for Stanhope in Weardale and then on to Killhope and Alston. At Alston, guests switched from bus to rail for a ride on the South Tynedale steam railway.

Then it was back on the double decker to Stocksfield Institute in Northumberland for a traditional North Pennines tea, laid on by the ladies of the Snods Edge Church Hall Sunday Afternoon Teas group. The day also raised funds for Tiny Lives, the Newcastle charity for premature births and Sarnelli House orphanage in Thailand, which Robert and Fiona’s neighbour supports. The Snods Edge ladies donated their proceeds to Tynedale Hospice.

Robert chose the North Pennines because it has a special place in his memories as a regular destination when he joined an industrial archaeology society while studying at Durham University.