ALMOST 200 trucks, vans and buses snaked their way across the North-East yesterday.

But it was nothing to do with protests over a possible rise in fuel tax.

The convoy of classic vehicles hit the region's roads in celebration of the joys of automobile engineering.

There were old buses, lorries of all shapes and sizes, vintage fire engines, pick-ups, vans and military vehicles, as well as museum pieces with the gleam of showroom models.

The oldest was a Morris Commercial Type charabanc, built in 1925 - six years before Chris Moyles' 1931 Bedford bus picked up its first passenger.

Enthusiast Mr Moyles, from Durham, had three buses in the Tyne-Tees Run.

The biggest lorry on the 50-mile run from Thornaby to South Shields was a Scammell Contractor tractor, whose owner lives at Newton Aycliffe, County Durham.

However, it was a 1961 Austin A35 panel van that travelled the greatest distance, arriving from Jersey.

Not to be outdone, ice creams were sold from a 1958 Morris JB ice cream van, entered by Bill Mathews from Seaham. There was also a 1950 Albion flatbed lorry, bought in 1971 by the man who drove it for the first 18 months of its life.

Organised by the Historic Commercial Vehicle Society, the 22nd annual Tyne Tees Run was sponsored by the Tyneside Go-Ahead transport company for the sixth year in succession.