Saturday 30 April 2011

Trip to Ellesmere Port / Chester 30-04-2011


















































BusFromToServiceOperator

2448Ellesmere Port BSChester BS401Arriva NW&W
2122Chester BSQueensferry, Station Road Q310Arriva NW&W
2328Queensferry, Station Road Q4Chester BS10AArriva NW&W
2360Chester BSQueensferry, Station Road Q310AArriva NW&W
2570Queensferry, Station Road Q4Chester BS10Arriva NW&W




Given a few place to go to today Matthew chose to do the Ellesmere Port / Chester trip. When doing some research for the Llandudno trip, I notice the Deeside network day ticket and noticed that it went into wales as far as Flint. So today when we booked our ticket it was decide that we were going to get the Day tickets at £3.70. we set of just after 12:00 on this fine sunny day, leaving Staffordshire we passed the Morecambe team coach again and after hearing the radio later we discovered that this time they were playing at Port Vale! We arrived in Ellesmere Port shortly after 13:00 and ate in the market food court. We had 3 sandwiches, a full breakfast for Matthew and 3 drinks for £11 pound from Tommy Tuckers! After dinner we went straight to the bus station to ensure we managed to get a picture of the double decker parked up on driver mess duties.


GHA double decker DD09 parked up in Ellesmere Port bus station (Matt)

We didn't have to wait for long for the #401 Chester, but a car was parked up at the end of the bus station so Matthew couldn't get a very good picture. We jumped on Cadet 2448 and booked our Deeside rover tickets and off we went. On the way down we saw a Robin Hood coach of Leek parked up next to the sports centre, not sure which team this was for and who they were playing. On arrival at Chester we got a better picture of 2448
.

2448 on arrival from Liverpool on service #401 (Matt)

As we took this picture NC bodied First Manchester double decker 30069 went past displaying 'Private' and we didn't manage to get a very good picture.


30069 in Chester bus station (Mark)

As we took pictures of 30069, we noticed Arriva NW&W bus 2122 on a number 10. I asked Matthew if he wanted to do this and he said yes so we did. As Matthew was leaving England and his pas wasn't valid in Wales I asked the driver what ticket he needed. We were able to purchase aa concessionary day rover for £2.20. So off we went. I had intended to go to Shotton, but as this was new territory and we didn't know where we were going, we ended up getting off in Queensferry. because we passed an entrance to Shotton steel work we thought we were in Shotton! Matthew took a photo of 2122.


2122 departs from Station Road Queensferry (matt)

We crossed the road as there was a bus stop almost immediately opposite. The bus had an electronic display telling us that there was a 10A due 14:49. Sure enough after a few minutes wait 2328 appeared on this service.


2328 in Queensferry on the #10 to Caer / Chester (matt)

Another 20 or so minutes and we were back in Chester bus station. As we left the bus Matthew photographed the inside of this bus.


Inside 2328 (Matt)

At this point we decided to re-group and think about what to do next. We went to our usual spot to take pictures and photograph a few buses whilst we thought. First Manchester open top bus 39939 made an appearance.


Open tops are back again...The open top service has resumed again with 39939 out today (Matt)

Short after that 30077 appeared on a #53 Kingsway. Had we not had an Arrive day ticket we would have done this. There seemed to be a lot of bus photographers out today and this old beast was getting plenty of attention.


30077 is still going strong seen here on the #53. There was a few people here to see this bus as can be seen to the right of the photo (Matt)

After what seemd like quite a while 2328 departed on it's next #10 duty.


2328 departs Chester (matt)

We decided to have a quick toilet break and to do the next 10/10A to turn up. We didn't have to wait long before Chester allocated 2360 appeared to work a 10A


2360 in Chester bus station about to work the #10A (Matt)

As before we decide to do this to Queensferry as we knew we would have bus information. The next 10 was at 16:04 and we guessed that it might be 2570 which we had going in on 2328. Supprisingly we had guessed correctly and it was 2570!


2570 in Station Road, Queensferry (Matt)

So back to Chester, the only notable thing about this journey was a near riot when a wasp flew into the bus and a few kids started shrieking and waving shoes about, eventually killing the poor thing.


2570 in Chester bus station (Matt)

When we got back to Chester, we decided to call it a day. we took a couple more pictures and then went to the car park. After a customary sausage roll break we set off home, Put the radio on to Listen to the Blackpool - Stoke match and heard them nearly score a late winner with the eventual score 0-0 crewe had beaten Stockport 2-0 and vale had stuffed Morecambe 7-2! Morecambe have not had a good week in the North Staffs / South Cheshire area (Mark)

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