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2024
Bus Tour weekend: |
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Please check for updates.
Friday 3 May 2024
Evening visit to the club rooms of the Liverpool and West Lancashire Gauge
0 Group in Bootle at 19.45. Please email jonathan.cadwallader@gmail.com
if you wish to attend so that we know how many to expect. Address will be
advised on booking.
Saturday 4 May 2024
The 45th LUPTS Bus Tour
Message from Bus Tour Supremo,
Jonathan Cadwallader:
I can now provide more details of our 2024 Bus Tour, The Staffordshire
Knot. We will be travelling in another of Steve Graham’s collection of Bristol
RE vehicles, this time a recently acquired former Lincolnshire Road Car RELH6G, CVL850D, fleet number
1431, fitted with a coach body by ECW, new in 1966.
Departing from our usual Liverpool City Centre stop in Tithebarn Street,
adjacent to the junction with Moorfields, at 08.30, we will travel out to the M62 and then head south on the M6.
After a service station stop we will leave the motorway at Junction 14. There
will be a pick-up point on the outskirts of Stafford, the precise location will
be determined shortly with details to be forwarded to those who have expressed
an interest in joining us there.
Our first attraction of the day will be the 2ft
gauge Amerton Railway. The line was established from
scratch in 1990 at the side of a farm field, originally to provide a running
line for 0-4-0 saddle tank Isabel, built in 1897 by W G Bagnall in
Stafford. The rolling stock collection has grown and the railway now has a
circuit running line of just under a mile in length. Over the years a station,
carriage shed and works have been constructed and we will be provided with a
tour of these facilities before joining the first train of the day at 11.30.
The line now provides a home for the signalbox from Waterhouses Station where it had controlled both LMS standard gauge and the narrow gauge Leek & Manifold
line.
Our second call will be at the Aldridge Transport Museum on the outskirts
of Walsall. Formerly known as the Aston Manor Road Transport Museum, this
varied collection of buses, commercial vehicles, cars and memorabilia relocated
to its present home in 2011. As might be expected, the majority of the exhibits
have a Midlands connection.
The third and final visit of the day will be to the Chasewater
Railway. Largely constructed on a mixture of former colliery and Midland
Railway trackbeds, this standard gauge line is home
to a large collection of industrial locomotives and rolling stock and
circumnavigates a canal feeder reservoir built in 1797. From the line’s main
station at Brownhills West we will be taking the four mile round trip to
Chasetown and will also have time to visit the railway’s museum. There is a tea
room on site.
Following our departure from Chasewater we will
be making a chip shop stop before dropping off our Stafford passengers and then
continuing on our way back to Liverpool. I expect that we will have returned
shortly before 20.00.
I hope that you will be able to join us and get knotted. Tony Kletz is
handling tour bookings. The fare is £38.00 per person, inclusive of admission
to all three attractions. Please email Tony at tony.kletz@btinternet.com to make
your booking. Preferred method of payment is by bank transfer – Tony will
provide details when you book. Cash or cheque payments can be made on the day
for anyone unable to make a bank transfer. Tony’s telephone number is 07801
069431.
Sunday 5 May 2024
NOTE
CHANGE TO ORIGINALLY-SUGGESTED LUNCH AND VISIT
LOCATIONS
Lunch and an
interesting visit will be arranged to conclude the weekend. Details to follow.
[Lunch will *probably* be at The Chimneys Country Pub and Restaurant in Hooton.]
Lunch will be at the Rufford
Arms, 380 Liverpool Road, Rufford, Ormskirk L40 1SQ.
Table booked 12:15 for 12:30.
Please send Charles Roberts
an email to book a place: charlesroberts904@btinternet.com
Lunch will be followed by a
visit to the West Lancashire Light Railway, Station Road, Hesketh Bank, Preston
PR4 6SP. This is just 6km north of the lunch venue, along the A59
and straight on at the traffic lights. Details here: https://www.westlancsrailway.org/
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Last updated:
28 April 2024
© Charles Roberts/LUPTS 2024