Trip to Stoke 25-07-2011

Bus	From	To	Service	Operator
40154	Waterside Drive, Shepley Grove	Stoke railway station	23	First Potteries
66847	Stoke railway station	Church Street, Stoke	25	First Potteries
66841	Church Street, Stoke	Stoke railway station	25	First Potteries
2931	Stoke railway station	Stanley Matthews Way, Hem Heath	500	Wardle Transport

Matthew has been away with respite, so I decided to take him out tonight to ride a few buses. I had seen 40379 earlier and because of the time I had assumed it was going to be on the 23A evening diagram. The bus was not required, but it had been a while since we had been on this bus. We walked to the stop in Newstead, and from he stop you could see a factory which had been on fire early that evening. When an ALX200 turned the corner we were most surprised! With only 3 AG allocated ALX200 to choose from, it turned out to be 40154. This was another bus that was not required, but we had been nearly 3 years since we last went on this bus too! As it pulled up at the stop, Matthew got a good picture...


40154 in Newstead (Matt)

We did the journey to Stoke which was relatively uneventful. There was a man on the bus who wanted to go to Dresden, but was not aware that this bus was only going to Newstead as most evening service don't go to Longton. He was advised to get off in Fenton and catch the #26. Just after he was dropped of we passed a Marshall bodied Dart on a #26, so that would have worked out quite well for him. As we got of we looked across the road to see 1 person at the stop. We must have missed the #25 Keele... Matthew took a picture of the bus we had traveled down on.


40154 outside Stoke railway station (Matt)

After we took the picture, we saw the #25 Keele so we ran across the road to catch it. It was required Volvo 66847 with the silver 'W'. We did the short trip into Stoke town centre and we did not pass the #25 hanley. As we got off to take the picture of 66847, 66841 pulled up on the opposite side of the road and Matthew took a snap picture. In the end we weren't able to get a picture of 66847.


Here's one he took earlier...66847 as seen on the 10th July (Matt)


66841 in Stoke (Matt)

We crossed the road and were just able to get on it. When we got back to the station Matthew was able to get another better picture using his timer to holder the camera steadier.


66841 outside Stoke railway station (Matt)

Round the back of the north Staffs hotel was a national holidays coach which Matthew was able to get a picture of by using a post to steady his camera and using his timer again. It did take a couple of attempt to get a shot with no car in front of it. after we sat and waited for the #500. Tonight it was another Solo, 2931 (BU54 ALL) which we had been on a few week previously on the #58. We did the journey now in darkness. Matthew photographed some of the passenger notices inside the bus. What he did not photograph was the 3" high Spongebob Squarepants sticker under the handrail next to the ticket machine! . It's the little details like this that make buses so individual. We got off on Stanley Matthews Way and then crossed the road to photographed the bus before it's return.


Wardle Transport Solo 2931 (BU54 ALL) on Stanley Matthews Way (Matt)

After taking a few pictures with the aid of posts and timers we set off on the long walk home...Mark.