Northern Day Ranger.

Saturday 31st March 2012.

To get to the Northern Rail area we needed to leave Studley early enough to walk to Washford, Redditch to get a 58 to Redditch, this turned out to be 67636 which had recently been on loan to Kidderminster garage, surprisingly for First Midlands West this was on time and a smooth run into Redditch ready for the 06:57 train to Birmingham.

From Redditch we boarded 323205 on the 06:57 2R14 Cross City service to Birmingham run by London Midland with the service running to time throughout this gave us 50ish minutes in Birmingham (best to arrive for an advanced booked journey in plenty of time!) this allowed time for a few bus photos in Birmingham. (To the right is a photo of Perry Barr's 4496, BJ03EWG which is seen on a service 907 from Birmingham to Sutton Coldfield via Perry Barr.)

After a quick walk around town we returned to New Street station ready for the 08:20 Virgin Service to Wigan North Western, i had chosen Wigan as it was a station that could be got to quickly and also has a Northern Rail station located just yards away (Wigan Wallgate), the 08:20 service was formed of a double Super Voyager in the form of 221101 and 221110 for this journey we sat in Coach D on 221110 the leading Voyager, the service ran smoothly with no delays more than a few minutes and 1S44 arrived at Wigan just 2 minutes late.

With an hour scheduled on the plan in Wigan we moved to the Bus Station after a quick stop of at Wigan Wallgate station to pick up Northern tickets, Wigan Bus Station is located just a 5 minute walk from the Train Stations and provides a variety of services from a number of operators such as First Manchester and Arriva Manchester as well as independents South Lanc Travel and Wigan Buses Ltd.
(To the left is an image of First Manchester driver trainer 61351, L204 KSX seen laying over just beside Wigan Bus Station.)


The next move was to get a Northern service to Bolton 2J68 which was 142061 with an on time service to Bolton although the unit heading to Rochdale the previous working was former London Midland unit 150119.

Upon arrival at Bolton we had a 20 minute wait for a service to Blackburn so took the opportunity to look at the Station interchange where several services stop on there way out of Bolton and can also produce a number of vehicle types from several operators, Maytree Travel use Enviro200's on the free centre link service and also Streetlites on local services, where as First and Arriva use standard company vehicles from Volvo and VDL respectively. (Seen in the photo the the right is a Maytree Travel Wright Streetlite with a local service on route 526.)

After a short time in Bolton we boarded 150268 towards Blackburn on 2N59 which was heading for Clitheroe, with Blackburn having a bus station just outside the rail station we took a few quick snaps of the Transdev operation in the town which included Optare Tempo's, Dennis Darts, Volvo B7RLE's amongst other types, with Stagecoach using ALX 400 bodied Tridents on there service 59 and a Plaxton Primo and Alexander Sprinter bodied Merc from the independent operators. (The Mercedes 709D was new to Dennis's of Dunkfield as N592WND and is seen operating for Darwen Coach Services as PLZ5592.)

Having stayed for a brief time in Blackburn the next move was 158753 to Halifax on 1B27 for which we had a 30 minute stay (no where near long enough when i discovered how far walk the bus station is!) Having arrived at the Bus Station we found services run by CentreBus, TJ Walsh's and First as well as the odd Arriva service and also some Ring and Ride style services run by modern Mercedes Low floor vehicles. (A TJ Walsh's Plaxton Primo MX56 ABV is seen passing Halifax bus Station while on service 700.)

From Halifax the next move was a Grand Central service to Bradford Interchange which was formed of 180105 (my first 180 trip, and i must say there not too bad), upon arrival to Bradford Interchange we found it like some sort of Maze, however once we found our way out we found a mostly First Group run operation with Arriva and Transdev running services and some National Express Contracts also running in we found a few unusual vehicles like ex Arriva Sales stock YJ58FFB working for a local independent and also former London First Optare Solos. (Named The Blackpool Tower is FJ60EGD working a National Express service for Stotts.)


After Bradford we moved on to Leeds taking 1B29 operating using 158759 which was running to time and upon arrival to Leeds we were able to photo several units including 170302, 333004 and 155343, the 333/155 being new types for photoing. In Leeds we decided not to walk to the bus station and stayed in the centre by the Train Station where we found several types, Hybrid Gemini's, Optare Spectra's, MCV Evolution's, FTR's amongst other types.
(Hybrid Volvo B5L with Wright Eclipse Gemini 2 bodywork 39202, BJ60BZB named Rob Burrow is seen on a service 7 in Leeds.)


From Leeds we proceded to York but not before a brief meeting with Tom Brant who left 158757 which was running around 20 minutes late (Maybe a sign of things to come?) we arrived into York around 20 minutes late but once we arrived found Adam Priseman waiting from here we decided to photo the vehicles outside the train station which saw a vast variety from Volvo Olympians and Volvo B9TL's from Transdev too Volvo B7RLE's to Mercedes Citaro Arctic on Park and Ride services for First as well as several independents with a mix of modern low floor vehicles. (Seen photoed is Transdev 1015, YD02UMX in the attractive CoastLiner livery on service 844.)


We then went to board the 18:05 Northern service back to Leeds and got as far as Church Fenton before the service was Cancelled due to Copper Wire Theft just south of there and were told that our train 158795 would return to York and replacement Coaches to be found, however this messed up our connections at Sheffield where we were meant to board the 20:27 service to Derby, however with the delays we would not have made it to the booked train so we needed to buy new Tickets from York to Derby (Ouch!) before continuing to Birmingham from there, we boarded the late 19:34 service to Birmingham New Street at 19:41 with 220025 being the train operated by Cross Country with Mr Priseman joining us to Derby. (York Pullman provided some Coaches for Rail Replacement services seen here outside York station are XJI2605 and OJZ1936)


On arrival at Birmingham we had 2 minutes to change platforms and after a quick jog along the concourse just made the 21:43 service to Redditch formed of 323201 run by London Midland.

A quick taxi ride home from Redditch with no buses running after 20:30pm anymore Redditch has to be one of the largest places without such a night service?

Thanks For Reading.