2011 - Day Out 18: The 246 Route by foot

Date: Tuesday 02 August 2011

There I was walking down Market Street in Stourbridge after a hard day's work when someone shouts my name, it was a colleague of Mr UKBuses, a driver from National Express West Midlands Pensnett Garage called David Gerrard. I know of him as I used to work with his wife Carol years ago. 

A few months ago, Dave raised money for Help for Heroes by giving up telling jokes for a month, and fair play to Dave, a hard task for a man who is constantly a joker. His latest fund-raising scheme is to walk the service 246 route, and it was happening this Sunday. After a little gentle persuasion, I gave in and said that I may see him Sunday. 

I wasn't going to do this alone, so I roped in Mr UKBuses to help with the walkers along the way. 

Date: Sunday 07 August 2011

The day of the walk had come. I arranged to meet Mr UKBuses at 10.45, but at 10.30, the doorbell rang and the dog went into his usual barking mode. After escaping the dog's antics, we walked it into Stourbridge to get to Dudley. Mr UKBuses had arranged for transport to take us into Dudley to meet the other walkers. We were being picked up from the stop at Stourbridge Ring Road, so as we stood there, National Express West Midlands Service 246, the route we will be walking later, had pulled up. We wouldn't be catching this one. At about 11.25, our transport had arrived, one of National Express West Midlands Pensnett Garage Enviro 400 buses (which are used on the 246 route), which was on "Private Charter". Our driver, "Shuttle" Steve, who is driving the bus back to Stourbridge whilst we walk and he will be stopping along the way to help us cross busy junctions, pulled up to let us on, and we were on our way to Dudley, with Steve, Mr UKBuses and myself having the luxury of the bus all to ourselves. We were nearly at Dudley, so I became a honorary bus driver for the day, and put my Hi-Viz vest on ready for our walk.

Steve pulls up at the layover area in our "Chartered" bus, where we alight and meet the rest of the drivers all raring to go. As we pulled in to the layover, I'm sure that I could lipread and Dave said "Oh, look there's Roger on the bus". As we got off the bus, we were met by Dave Gerrard, the organiser of this event, and after shaking hands, we mingle with the other drivers. It is nearly midday, and time for us to go, but before we depart, a photographer has arrived to take a photograph for the local evening paper, The Express and Star. We assemble in front of the bus and have our photograph taken. After our photo shoot, it is now time to limber up as we are about to walk the 246 route.

We start our walk, and make our way past the 246 stand at Dudley bus station, at this point I shout to Dave and ask "Is it the 246 route we ware walking or the 246E to Brierley Hill?", a reply of "We are walking the whole way" answers my question and so we have seven miles ahead of us. As we leave the bus station, and head towards the bus mall, Steve and his helper, Mr UKBuses pass us, sounding the bandit alarm as they go, and we head towards King Street, where we pass the back of J D Wetherspoons, "The Full Moon", and as the back entrance is a fire door, there is no way in and so we have to carry on. We reach the end of King Street, and at the junction of King Street and High Street, Mr UKBuses makes an appearance and is standing in the middle of the road to help us cross safely. We carry on down towards Queens Cross, where Mr UKBuses has got ahead of us thanks to Steve's driving, and Steve and Mr UKBuses are on hand to get us safely across the traffic lights. After this we carry on towards Russell's Hall Hospital, walking down Stourbridge Road. On the way, Dave says that we haven't got long to go till we get to the hospital. He mentioned this at a very memorable point along the Stourbridge Road, and he wouldn't believe me when I replied that where we were standing was where the 1 mile marker had been when I did my Action Heart run in February. We make our way down Stourbridge Road, where we are met yet again by Mr UKBuses at the main island to help us across the road, and we are now on the main Kingswinford Road and on our way towards the hospital. It doesn't take us that long for us to walk to Russell's Hall Hospital.

It is now just before 12.40pm, and we are now about one-third of a way into our route. We have a little break outside main reception where we have a photograph taken. The original plan was for Mr UKBuses to arrive early with Steve, and for him to apprehend some nurses to appear in the photograph, but at  the main reception area, there were no nurses to be found, something that may have made Mr UKBuses unhappy. Photographs over, this was also an opportunity for us to have a quick bladder stop, which was a good idea as there was still some way to go. With our mini break over, we make our way to Kingswinford Road to carry on our journey, and with no need for Mr UKBuses, we use the pedestrian crossing outside the hospital so that we can carry on up towards Holly Hall via the Pensnett Road. As we arrive at the end of Pensnett Road, we arrive at Holly Hall, which we turn right into Stourbridge Road, and head towards Brierley Hill. There are no main roads to cross along this stretch of the route, so Steve and Mr UKBuses go ahead and have a well deserved break and stop off at a good photograph opportunity. After about ten minutes, we arrive at the photograph opportunity, and we stop for a couple of minutes to get our breath back, and also for the competitors to have their photograph taken outside the old Harts Hill Garage, a location where some of the buses used on the 246 route used to rest overnight, in the Midland Red and WMPTE days.

With the photograph taken, we make our way towards Brierley Hill., Mr UKBuses makes his way to the roundabout, to help us cross the road, and then swiftly onto the next set of traffic lights. After crossing us over the beginning of the Brierley Hill by-pass, Mr UKBuses makes his way to the main junction by the Civic Hall with myself helping out the walkers across the road. At this point Mr UKBuses realises that he has gone off Brierley Hill as there are two more crossings in the town centre for him to help us across. As we walk down Brierley Hill High Street, Dave pesters the passengers waiting for the 246, by asking them to walk with us, understandably no passengers joined in. We now make our way to the Five Ways junction and with three lanes to cover for us to get across, I help Steve and Mr UKBuses with the marshaling and at this point of the journey to Stourbridge, this is the only place along the walk so far that we have a problem with the traffic, with one ignorant driver who didn't want to wait for us to cross and virtually is on top of us as we cross. We now make our way to the end of Brierley Hill's High Street and we now have to cross the other end of the town's by-pass. This is an easy one for Mr UKBuses as there is a pelican crossing which helps with the crossing.

After Brierley Hill, we have a good stretch of the route that is downhill, and we make our way to Silver End, which Steve and Mr UKBuses have already made there way down there ready for us to get across. As we cross, a police car goes by and it is nice for the local constabulary to stop and help us, ay you may tell I was being sarcastic as they don't stop and carry on along Brettell Lane. We are safely across Delph Road, so Mr UKBuses gets back on the bus to get to our  next crossing point, I ask him to get us a pint ready at The Starving Rascal - I'm unsure what his reply was!. As we continue I ask Dave "Which is the next walk, the number 9 route?", he replies, "No, it is going to be the 120 a nice route with Cape Hill thrown in for good measure." I just hope that the reply was one of his jokes. As we are going along Brettell Lane, we are not far off from the Collis Street junction, so this also means that we are two-thirds along the route, so we are on the home straight. We arrive at Collis Street, and Mr UKBuses is there waiting for us, so we cross the road, but he also makes sure none of us cheat and use the short cut and he makes us continue along Brettell Lane and into Amblecote - There was no sign of the pint from the Starving Rasccal!

From Collis Street, we have a nice descent and it is not long before we arrive in Amblecote, and without stopping at The Maverick, we turn left at the end of Brettell Lane, and we walk down Amblecote High Street and arrive at The Fish, the name that people still call the junction at the end of Collis Street, even though The Fish Inn closed several years ago - It is now a a Cantonese restaurant. Mr UKBuses is waiting for us to stop the traffic at the bottom of Collis Street, and he makes his way back onto the bus to get him to the next junction. After Collis Street we head towards Stourbridge, and even though we have had a long descent, we have to climb a slight hill. After a ten minute climb, we arrive at The Royal Oak, and with Mr UKBuses not getting us a pint again, he duly crosses us over safely, and I agree with him when he says this is one of the busy junctions that we have had to cross due to the fact that you have traffic turning into Vicarage Road from two directions as well as a feeder lane turning left to get to Stourbridge. After Vicarage Road, Stourbridge Ring Road is in sight, and we make a short work of the downhill descent and arrive on the last road before we get to our final destination. As we turn onto the ring road we have a short climb before the walkers make it into Birmingham Street, and with Mr UKBuses and myself having one last go at the marshaling, we arrive at the terminus. 

We arrive at Stand F, and we have achieved the 246 route in just over two hours (only one and a half hours late from the published timetable). As we have a breather, organiser Dave Gerrard thanks everyone who took part, and also to Steve, Mr UK Buses and myself for giving up our time and helping out with the traffic marshaling (I think I had the rough part of the bargain as I walked all the way - Mr UKBuses had assistance from a Enviro 400 along the way - but if he didn't he wouldn't have been able to get to the next junction to cross us safely.). With £500 coming from National Express West Midlands, and with the sponsor money for all those who took part, it is hoped that over £1,000 will have been raised for the purchase of overnight beds for parents to use at The Children's Unit at Russell's Hall Hospital. Everyone who took part truly deserves a pat on the back for what they achieved. - To view the report that appeared in The Express and Star, click on the picture below.

With a few minutes for us to get our breath back, all those who took part, board our "Private Chartered" bus and "Shuttle" Steve undertakes his last duty for the day by taking all of us walkers back to Dudley along the 246 route that we have just walked. May I personally thank Steve for giving up his time and picking Mr UKBuses and myself up in the morning to take us to Dudley and also for driving the walkers back after their trek. Also may I thank the drivers who passed us whilst in service on the 246, by showing their support along the way and using the bandit alarms to top up our spirits along the way.  As we rest our weary feet, I finalise the details for Dave, as I have organised for him to tell the residents of Stourbridge about the walk on the following Saturday and he is due to make an appearance on The Bridge Radio (102.5 FM), and appear with fellow bus enthusiast Phil Tonks' on his Saturday "Bridge Brunch" show on the radio station. Good luck to Dave for the appearance and also a big big thank you needs to go to Dave for organising this fund-raiser for the Children's Unit.

We arrive in Dudley and after saying goodbye to the rest of the people who took part, and a thank you from Dave for us turning up, Steve takes the bus back to the depot, and Mr UKBuses and myself have a little time to spare, so we catch a National Express West Midlands Service 126 that is waiting in the bus station, to take us to Wolverhampton, where we decide to check out the new Wolverhampton bus station. We make our way along the Birmingham New Road, and it is not long before we arrive in Wolverhampton and we make our way onto the Ring Road, and into the new bus station entrance for the first time. As we arrive at our stand, we notice that a National Express West Midlands service 256 is waiting at its stand, so we quickly make our way around the new station to get to the stand, as we didn't want to wait another hour for the next bus. Our first visit is also a short visit, but we board our 256 before exiting the station as quick as we entered it, and make our way back to Stourbridge. I'm not impressed with the station on my first visit to the new facility, but seeing as it was only a brief glimpse, future visits may change my mind.

We make our way through Penn, and this is the first time since our last memorable journey on the route, and as we arrive at the dreaded bus stop, the door seems to behave and doesn't drop off. After another half hour we arrive back in Stourbridge, and since we sat down on the bus in Wolverhampton, the walk is beginning to take effect with my feet now starting to ache. Upon arrival, we make our way to J D Wetherspoons, "The Chequers Inn", for a well deserved drink, and before making our way back home, we also visit The Longlands Tavern and finally The Gigmill and then back to our respective homes to rest our feet.

I'm glad that I went along and supported Dave on his fund-raising, and I can truly say, and also on behalf of Mr UKBuses, that I feel proud on what we achieved today, oh and also Mr UKBuses is quite handy at stopping the traffic!!