Date: Saturday 11 February 2012
It is time for the third trip of 2012, and we decide that we try out a new location, Nottingham, a place where we can search for a couple of TV locations and explore a new city.
We have a bit of time to kill upon arrival at New Street, so we head to the main concourse where we decide to have some breakfast and sample a bacon roll from Burger King, we don't have to wait long after ordering, and we quickly devour our food before I pop outside for some "fresh air" and then head back indoors to W H Smiths to get some refreshments for our train journey ahead, we take advantage of the offers and get two bottles for £2.50, Mr UK Buses opts for a Cherry Coke and I opt for my usual Doctor Pepper, chocolate is also purchased for consumption on the train. We look at the screens and find out that we have to board at Platform 9A and we make our way down to the platform to find that the Arriva CrossCountry train is already waiting to depart. We board and find that a table seat is available, which gives us more room to get comfortable for the journey. The train leaves the station and we are on our way to Nottingham where we will pass through Tamworth, Burton-Upon-Trent and Derby. The train journey will take just over one hour and ten minutes, but this time is increased as disaster strikes just before we arrive at Derby Station. A train has broken down on the points ahead of us, which means that we cannot move forward as the train is blocking our line. Fortunately, Network Rail are quick on the scene and after twenty minutes the train has been moved and we are on our way again, the train stops at Derby and we pass through Beeston before we finally arrive at Nottingham Railway Station.
We alight and make our way into the streets of Nottingham, we manage to exit by the side of the station, and we only have a short walk down to the first destination of the day, so I opt for a quick bit of "fresh air", whilst Mr UK Buses has already got his camera out taking pictures of the Nottingham City Transport and Trent Barton buses in service. We make our way down Carrington Street to the Broadmarsh Bus Station which is an undercover bus station attached to the Westfield Broadmarsh Shopping Centre. After a few photographs have been taken, we head indoors to the Travel Centre to purchase our ticket for the day, Mr UK Buses is ahead in the queue and the woman behind the counter looks at Mr UK Buses with a confused look (something that happens quite often) when he asks for a Kangaroo day ticket. The woman tells him to "hop it" and that he has to purchase it from the driver on the bus. We make our way out of the bus station back into Carrington Street, on our way out we spot that they have catered for Mr D9 with a big "pay-to-use" toilet placed in the corner of the bus station. After we get to the end of Carrington Street, we turn into Collin Street, where we wait and wait until our first bus pulls up, CityLink C2 which is operated by Nottingham City Transport and is a "park and ride" route. We board and purchase our Kangaroo Day Tickets, priced at £3.70, and the C2 takes us to the first location of the day.
After a five minute journey we alight in Daleside Road, we opt for the next stop rather than the original stop that was on the plan, this was due to Mr UK Buses being half asleep and spots the stop just as we pass the stop. After we get off the bus, we make our way back down Daleside Road and turn left into Trent Lane which will take us to the Meadow Lane Industrial Estate. As we head down Trent Lane, Mr UK Buses is again haunted as a National Express Coach passes us. This coach is not in service due to the location of where it is going, but Mr UK Buses spots where it has gone. Meanwhile we arrive at the end of Trent Lane and spot our first location just past the entrance to Meadow Lane Industrial Estate. A few years ago, we went around Birmingham to visit a few filming locations that were used in the ITV series titled "Boon", which starred David Daker and Michael Elphick and also introduced Neil Morrissey to our screens. From the fourth series onwards, the series moved to Nottingham, so whilst we were in the area we thought that we would seek out another location, and located in Meadow Lane Industrial Estate is a building, pictured right, which was used as the office for Crawford-Boon Security (CBS) a joint business venture between the main characters of Harry (David Daker) and Ken (Micheal Elphick). A couple of photographs are taken and with no sign of Harry or Ken, we make our way back to Daleside Road, before we reach the end of the road, Mr UK Buses takes a detour and finds where the National Express coach went, Silverdale Coaches, a local day tour coach operator and also looks as if the company undertakes a few school bus services if the yellow double deckers are anything to go by. A few photographs are taken, and we get back on course and reach the bus stop at Daleside Road, just as we arrive, so does our Nottingham City Transport Citylink Service C2, which takes us back to Nottingham. We alight just before the city centre, and we walk to Pettyfoot Street where we stop at the Trent Barton Bus Depot and take a few photographs. We literally walk around the corner and we once again stop to take pictures of the Nottingham City Transport bus depot. After the depot pictures have been taken we have a short walk up Lower Parliament Street to Southwell Road, where a number of bus services serve the stop which will take us back to the city centre. A Nottingham City Transport Service 43 turns up and we are only on the bus for about seven minutes before we alight again at King Street.
It has now been decided that we are getting a bit peckish so we shall now have dinner, we have a short walk from King Street and end up outside of the City Council House and the magnificent Old Market Square, a pedestrianised area of Nottingham, where the Nottingham Express Transit tramway is the only traffic that is allowed in the square. We take a few pictures at the tram stop located near the Nottingham City Council House, and after we have finished taking some photographs, we take a couple of steps behind the tram stop and enter a J D Wetherspoons public house, "The Joseph Else", a clean looking establishment. I stand at the bar and order our drinks whilst Mr UK Buses tries to find a seat. It looks like we may be standing, but as I get served, Mr UK Buses spots that there is another area upstairs, so when I have been served, I take our drinks upstairs and Mr UK Buses has found a table and it is a lovely view as we can see across the huge Old Market Square watching people get on with their everyday lives whilst keeping warm. After looking at the menu, Mr UK Buses opts for the BBQ Chicken Melt but without the "Melt" and I opt for my usual beer and burger. It only takes about ten minutes for our food to arrive and after devouring our grub and letting it settle for a few minutes, we head back outside into the winter weather.
We make our way from the Old Market Square and up Friar Lane to Standard Hill, and just after we enter Standard Hill, I get a bit distracted by a lorry that is parked up outside of the Nottingham Castle museum, I have a close look and on the back are two Daleks and a police box otherwise known as the TARDIS, I cannot see the Doctor and whilst I have been investigating, Mr UK Buses has carried on up Standard Hill. I chase after him and as I look right I see our next location, and yell up the street to get Mr UK Buses attention. We take a few photographs, one of them pictured left, which is another location used by ITV for the series "Boon", and this was the office of Boon Investigations used by Ken Boon in series four. After we have taken the photographs we head back down Standard Hill and back to Friar Lane where we wait for our next bus. Whilst we wait a text has been sent to me by Mr D9 - "Mrs D9 has given birth to our baby daughter 8.10", I later find out that the baby was 8lb 10ounces and not delivered at 08.10am. I send a reply congratulating the happy couple (Congratulations on the birth of Harmony Grace). We see our bus turn around the corner and I put my hand out to stop the bus and the bus flies past us, it seems that Mr UK Buses has put down the wrong stop on the plan. Mr UK Buses runs down the road after it (does he want to take part in my run in a couple of weeks?), and we finally end up around the corner in Beast Market Hill where the bus has left its stop, so Mr UK Buses locates the stop and we wait, another bus turns up and it seems that it is going in the opposite direction of where we need to go, we are at the wrong stop again, our stop being a bit further up the road. We make our way to the correct stop for the second time and after a couple of minutes the correct Free CentreLink bus turns up and we board for the seven minute journey arriving at Victoria Bus Station.
We alight the bus and take a few photographs around the bus station. This is not a photograph friendly station as it is a "pull in - pull out" layout so photographs are hard to take unless you like to take a picture of the back end of the bus. We wait for our next CentreLink bus to turn up and it is not long as the Trent Barton buses operate to a ten minute frequency and we board our bus, which takes us ten minutes to get across the City of Nottingham and drops us off at the Broadmarsh Bus Station. A few more photographs are taken to add to the photographs taken this morning, we have about fifteen minutes to wait and they soon pass and our next bus arrives, Trent Barton's "Rainbow 4" route which will take us to our second City of the day. Our journey takes one hour and ten minutes, costing a fiver for a return ticket and we pass through Sandiacre and Stapleford along the way. As we make our way along the route on-board announcements are made, similar to the buses in London and these announcements are also voiced by the same woman used in the London version. Whilst on route, Mr UK Buses decides it is time for a nap, and as he is snoring away, the announcer has decided to be quiet, only speaking again when Mr UK Buses has awoken. It is my turn for a nap as I get a bit sleepy, but as I start to nod off I get awoken by the woman announcing the stops, does Mr UK Buses have a button to keep her quiet?
We arrive in Derby, and we alight at the bus station, the second station today with the "pull-in pull out" layout which I don't like. The bus station, which was opened in 2010, is situated under a newly built "Holiday Inn" hotel, and opposite the main bus station is a lay over area, which we investigate and are able to get some pictures at this location of the vehicles as they rest between duties. We have just under an hour in Derby, so we decide to have a warm and after a short walk from the bus station, we find a public house, "The White Horse", a traditional feeling pub and also the place of today's dearest round (£6 in total) paid for by Mr UK Buses, so he deserves a seat to recover and he does look a bit pale in the picture seen right. As Mr UK Buses is recovering and I am getting a warm we have a selection of 1960's and 1970's music playing loudly from the jukebox, and I resist the challenge laid down by Mr UK Buses to select some Metallica to play, I don't want to upset the locals. After finishing our drinks and Mr UK Buses makes sure he drinks every last drop to make sure he gets his moneys worth, we visit the toilet before our journey back. We make our way back to the bus station and Mr UK Buses seems to like his walking today as he walks right to the other end of the bus station before realising we have to catch our Rainbow 4 from bay 6 which is back at the other end of the station.
Our bus arrives on time and we board and take our seats at the back of the bus where we hope that the heat from the engine beneath us will keep us warm on the return journey. The journey is going great and the driver has got a speed on, he has to slam the brakes on when he flies past a passenger waiting at the bus stop, and finally pulls up a few hundred yards down the road, after a couple of minutes wait for the passenger reaches us, she boards and doesn't look to happy, and she isn't on the bus for long as she soon gets off in the next village, she should have only been charged half the fare as she had already walked half the distance. We arrive back in Nottingham just before half past five, arriving back in Broadmarsh Bus Station, the first port of call is in the shopping centre attached to the bus station and after walking half a mile around the shopping centre we arrive at the toilets for a much needed bladder stop. Luckily we arrive five minutes before they are due to shut. After we are relieved, we make our way back to the bus station, where it is now to dark to take any more photographs today, so we decide to take the short walk to the railway station, this time entering the station from the lovely looking front. We notice that a train is due to depart, so earlier than planned, we make our way to the platform and onto the filled train to take us back to Birmingham.
We take our seats and as soon as we sit down, the train leaves the station and we are now on our return journey back to Birmingham, passing through Derby Station, Burton-Upon-Trent and Tamworth along the way, with an escaped Chelsea Pensioner announcing the upcoming stations when we are near them. We are nearly back in Birmingham, and we cannot tell as it is dark outside, but we then spot the lit up Selfridges building at the Bull Ring. We arrive back in Birmingham New Street just after 19.00, and we spot the local train is about to depart to Smethwick Galton Bridge, so we make our way to the platform where our train is waiting for us. We depart on time at 19.08 and we soon arrive at Smethwick Galton Bridge and change platforms, and notice that we have a while to wait, so we pop out the front of the station for some "fresh air", before returning to our platform to find out that our train will be delayed by a couple of minutes. Our Class 172 train eventually arrives and we manage to find a seat on our train made up of two carriages, which then takes us to Stourbridge Junction, stopping off at all the stations in between. When we arrive at Stourbridge Junction, we change platforms and decide to wait in the warm waiting room before the "Stourbridge Dodger" arrives to take us down the small Stourbridge branch line into Stourbridge Town. We have a while to wait for our last bus of the day, so we decide to have a walk around the new interchange to see what is left to complete, the new interchange is due to be open at the beginning of April, so it looks like the works will be completed on time. After our brief tour, we head down to Birmingham Street, where we wait for our Black Diamond Service 276A which takes us back home. I alight first in Wollaston saying my goodbyes to Mr UK Buses before calling into Lucky House for my now traditional Chinese takeaway meal after a good day out.
It has now been decided that we are getting a bit peckish so we shall now have dinner, we have a short walk from King Street and end up outside of the City Council House and the magnificent Old Market Square, a pedestrianised area of Nottingham, where the Nottingham Express Transit tramway is the only traffic that is allowed in the square. We take a few pictures at the tram stop located near the Nottingham City Council House, and after we have finished taking some photographs, we take a couple of steps behind the tram stop and enter a J D Wetherspoons public house, "The Joseph Else", a clean looking establishment. I stand at the bar and order our drinks whilst Mr UK Buses tries to find a seat. It looks like we may be standing, but as I get served, Mr UK Buses spots that there is another area upstairs, so when I have been served, I take our drinks upstairs and Mr UK Buses has found a table and it is a lovely view as we can see across the huge Old Market Square watching people get on with their everyday lives whilst keeping warm. After looking at the menu, Mr UK Buses opts for the BBQ Chicken Melt but without the "Melt" and I opt for my usual beer and burger. It only takes about ten minutes for our food to arrive and after devouring our grub and letting it settle for a few minutes, we head back outside into the winter weather.
We alight the bus and take a few photographs around the bus station. This is not a photograph friendly station as it is a "pull in - pull out" layout so photographs are hard to take unless you like to take a picture of the back end of the bus. We wait for our next CentreLink bus to turn up and it is not long as the Trent Barton buses operate to a ten minute frequency and we board our bus, which takes us ten minutes to get across the City of Nottingham and drops us off at the Broadmarsh Bus Station. A few more photographs are taken to add to the photographs taken this morning, we have about fifteen minutes to wait and they soon pass and our next bus arrives, Trent Barton's "Rainbow 4" route which will take us to our second City of the day. Our journey takes one hour and ten minutes, costing a fiver for a return ticket and we pass through Sandiacre and Stapleford along the way. As we make our way along the route on-board announcements are made, similar to the buses in London and these announcements are also voiced by the same woman used in the London version. Whilst on route, Mr UK Buses decides it is time for a nap, and as he is snoring away, the announcer has decided to be quiet, only speaking again when Mr UK Buses has awoken. It is my turn for a nap as I get a bit sleepy, but as I start to nod off I get awoken by the woman announcing the stops, does Mr UK Buses have a button to keep her quiet?
Our bus arrives on time and we board and take our seats at the back of the bus where we hope that the heat from the engine beneath us will keep us warm on the return journey. The journey is going great and the driver has got a speed on, he has to slam the brakes on when he flies past a passenger waiting at the bus stop, and finally pulls up a few hundred yards down the road, after a couple of minutes wait for the passenger reaches us, she boards and doesn't look to happy, and she isn't on the bus for long as she soon gets off in the next village, she should have only been charged half the fare as she had already walked half the distance. We arrive back in Nottingham just before half past five, arriving back in Broadmarsh Bus Station, the first port of call is in the shopping centre attached to the bus station and after walking half a mile around the shopping centre we arrive at the toilets for a much needed bladder stop. Luckily we arrive five minutes before they are due to shut. After we are relieved, we make our way back to the bus station, where it is now to dark to take any more photographs today, so we decide to take the short walk to the railway station, this time entering the station from the lovely looking front. We notice that a train is due to depart, so earlier than planned, we make our way to the platform and onto the filled train to take us back to Birmingham.
We take our seats and as soon as we sit down, the train leaves the station and we are now on our return journey back to Birmingham, passing through Derby Station, Burton-Upon-Trent and Tamworth along the way, with an escaped Chelsea Pensioner announcing the upcoming stations when we are near them. We are nearly back in Birmingham, and we cannot tell as it is dark outside, but we then spot the lit up Selfridges building at the Bull Ring. We arrive back in Birmingham New Street just after 19.00, and we spot the local train is about to depart to Smethwick Galton Bridge, so we make our way to the platform where our train is waiting for us. We depart on time at 19.08 and we soon arrive at Smethwick Galton Bridge and change platforms, and notice that we have a while to wait, so we pop out the front of the station for some "fresh air", before returning to our platform to find out that our train will be delayed by a couple of minutes. Our Class 172 train eventually arrives and we manage to find a seat on our train made up of two carriages, which then takes us to Stourbridge Junction, stopping off at all the stations in between. When we arrive at Stourbridge Junction, we change platforms and decide to wait in the warm waiting room before the "Stourbridge Dodger" arrives to take us down the small Stourbridge branch line into Stourbridge Town. We have a while to wait for our last bus of the day, so we decide to have a walk around the new interchange to see what is left to complete, the new interchange is due to be open at the beginning of April, so it looks like the works will be completed on time. After our brief tour, we head down to Birmingham Street, where we wait for our Black Diamond Service 276A which takes us back home. I alight first in Wollaston saying my goodbyes to Mr UK Buses before calling into Lucky House for my now traditional Chinese takeaway meal after a good day out.
Overall it has been a brilliant day out, and this is due to the excellent planning carried out by Mr UK Buses (Thanks) both for the Boon locations and timing of the public transport. Nottingham is a wonderful city and I can say without doubt that we will be back, hopefully it will be warmer on our return visit.
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