2012 - Day Out 13: Weymouth Vintage Bus Running Day

Date Sunday 17 June 2012

It is our last full day in Weymouth and we will be spending most of the day at the now annual Weymouth Vintage Bus Running Day, which is held at Lodmoor Coach Park, offering rides to local destinations on classic buses.

I wake up and go outside for some "fresh air" before going back inside for our second Alendale breakfast of the year, Mr UKBuses arrives downstairs and we take our seats in the window again and order the same as yesterday, Mr UKBuses has the English and I go for the Scottish, complete with my Haggis and gorgeous Potato Scones. Once devoured we have a couple of minutes before we return to our rooms to get ourselves ready for the rally ahead. Once ready we make our way to Lodmoor and as we walk down the road to get to the coach park, Clive, an old Pensnett Garage driver passes on a First in Dorset Dennis Dart and stops and says hello to us. We arrive at the rally site and whilst the rides aren't in operation yet we go around the buses that are ready to be used today and take our photographs and look around the stalls before the crowds do eventually appear, now that these are out of the way we can concentrate on the rides for the day ahead.

Our first ride was on an ex Devon General Leyland Olympian (A680 KDV) which was operating the 10:10 journey on Service 454: Weymouth - Railway Station, arriving back at Lodmoor at 10:30. We have a little break and then catch another ex Devon General vehicle, an AEC Regent (CTT 518C), which was operating the 10:35 journey on Service 420: Weymouth - Littlemoor arriving back at Lodmoor at 11:05. Next up was another ride on the AEC regent, this time on Service 23: Weymouth - Bowleaze Cove which saw the vehicle struggling to get up the big hill close to the cove. We get off at The King's Statue as we are not sure if we would make it back to Lodmoor on time to get our next bus. Whilst Mr UKBuses is taking a few photo's I pop in the shop for a bottle of pop and when I come back out I do a classic "Interceptor" ambush on Mr UKBuses and creep up behind him squealing in his ear, Mr UKBuses did not find it funny, but the woman who was sitting outside the shop couldn't stop laughing.

It is now time to go to Portland Bill, and we are not sure if we would get there when a South West Coaches Mercedes-Benz minibus, pictured above, turns up operating the 12:00 journey on Service 22A: Weymouth - Portland Bill and we go a different route this year due to the Olympics due to take place in August. We arrive at Portland Bill at 12:40 so we have a bit of a break and decide to have a lunchtime pint at The Pulpit, see picture right (even the camera couldn't cope with the prices), after last years astonishing price, Mr UKBuses decides that it is my round so that he won't faint this year, we sit down in the big room overlooking the lighthouse and it is just before 13:00 so we make our back to the bus stop and catch an ex Plymouth Citybus Dennis Dart, pictured below, which takes us back to Weymouth, arriving at 13:40. When we arrive back at Lodmoor I have to rush to "The Lodmoor", a Brewers Fayre pub which is close to the rally site, which comes in useful as I am bursting for the toilet, whilst Mr UKBuses is on the rally site taking a few more photographs, I decide to have a sneaky pint before returning. After my pint goes down nicely I make my way back to the rally site and we catch South West Coaches Mercedes Minibus again on a mystery tour which is due to take about 50 minutes, we eventually took 1 hour and 30 minutes after the driver had to make a detour due to traffic problems en route which we went through Chickerell, Aylesbury and Burton Bradstock. We arrive back at the rally site and we catch an ex Stagecoach Devon Volvo B6LE (P701 BTA) which is operating the 15:20 journey on Service 23 to Bowleaze Cove, on the way back we decide to call it a day and get off at The Kings Statue and have a walk along the seafront back to The Alendale, with Mr UKBuses having an ice cream along the way.

We return to The Alendale to have a bit of a rest and a freshen up before we have a night touring the pubs of Weymouth. I have my usual starter around the corner in "The Waterloo" whilst Mr UKBuses gets himself ready and when it is close to time to meet back up, I make my way back around the corner, but before I make my way back I get to say hello to The Alendale owners Denise and Jim who have returned back from their few days off. Our first stop is our usual J D Wetherspoons, "The William Henry", where we decide to grab some tea before we venture around the planned pubs for this evening, I surprise Mr UKBuses by having Scampi and Chips rather than my usual choice of meal. After our food has gone down, we decide to make a move and we walk around the corner and down the main High Street and decide to pop into an unplanned pub, which is "The Clipper" for a quick one before we enter our planned session, see picture left. We are surprised at how nice and relaxing The Clipper is and why we haven't used the place before, I think we have been put off previously by the rowdiness of some of the people that have used the pub when we have previously walked past, but it is a difference when we actually went inside. Drinks finished we move onto the next public house.

Next we walk down to the end of the High Street and walk across the bridge to get to our next couple of pubs. For the first one we walk up Trinity Terrace to get to "The Chapelhay", we walk inside and nothing has changed with all the marine memorabilia still adorning the ceiling and walls and the pub dog still going strong with the sound of the Coastguard radio in the background, the only thing that surprised me on this visit to The Chapelhay is at how quiet it seemed, at the time of our visit, we were the only people using the place and I felt sorry for that landlord that we had to leave to get us to our next pub. We had to finish our drinks off and make a move and we walked down Dorset Terrace and Chapelhay Street and past the old Weymouth Town Hall to get to another favourite of ours, "The Boot Inn", which is situated near the harbour just off a side street. We decide that the weather is still pleasant and decide to have a sit on the bench outside sitting next to a big porcelain boot outside of The Boot!

Drinks finished at The Boot, it is time to look for another of Mr WME's finds from last year "The Duke of Cornwall", so we make our way back across the bridge and into the small back streets around by the harbour, but after walking down so many side streets and not quite remembering where about it was (I had no map allowance!) we get ourselves on the right track when we spot "The Globe" and seeing as how Mr Wood enjoyed the place last night we decide to give up on the search of The Duke and pop into The Globe for some more Jail Ale. We are luckier tonight as we get the highly coveted bar seats so we enjoy the atmosphere and friendly nature of the local regulars, but the last night is nearly over and we have one more pub left to try so we return back to "The Cutter", which is located just around the corner from The Globe and surprisingly this year they had everything on tap that we asked for. We got talking to the landlord and after having a couple of pints it is time to say goodbye to the pubs of Weymouth for another year and we walk back along The Esplanade back to The Alendale for our final nights sleep in Weymouth.

Another good day out visiting the likes of Bowleaze Cove and Portland Bill on the classic bus rides on a dry and rather sunny day (improving on the rally's weather from last year), it will be a sad morning tomorrow as we have to pack our cases and say goodbye to the friendly atmosphere of Weymouth.

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Date: Monday 18 June 2012

Its our last few hours in Weymouth before we get the train and return to the West Midlands, at least we console ourselves by enjoying our final cooked breakfast at The Alendale.

It is nearly time to leave Weymouth behind but at least before we leave, we get chance to have our final Alendale "gut-busting" breakfast to send us on our way. I make my way downstairs to have some "fresh air" before Mr UKBuses appears and when I arrive at our breakfast table, the host Moira has left me two cigarettes at my seating to say thanks for the one that I lent her yesterday afternoon in "The Waterloo", a nice touch for what have been nice hosts this weekend which has made our stay at The Alendale the more enjoyable, Moira and Jim do us proud by cooking us a large breakfast which will make us last until we return home. We devour our breakfasts and let it settle for a few minutes before we go to our rooms and ensure that everything is packed. Mr UKBuses and myself meet up downstairs and we sadly say goodbye to Moira and Bill and also to Denise and Jim. We now have a final walk up The Esplanade to The Kings Statue where we take some last day photographs at the bus stops and we make a final visit to J D Wetherspoons, "The William Henry" for a last pint in Weymouth before heading back to Weymouth Railway Station. The time that I dread each year is walking from The King's Statue to the Weymouth Railway Station, but it has to be done and we sluggishly walk down the streets leading to the station. I have chance to grab a "fresh air" break before we board our train and it is now time to sadly say goodbye to Weymouth as we board Stagecoach South West Trains 10:03 journey, which will take just under an hour and a half to reach our first destination of Southampton Central Railway Station and as we depart we wave a goodbye to Weymouth.

At 11:28, we arrive at Southampton Central and on the return journey I do get a chance to have a "fresh air" break here, so we make our way to the front of the station, but we have trouble getting out of the barriers with us trying all of our tickets, luckily a guard is nearby and after looking at the tickets, she lets us through and after the "fresh air" break is over, she is still by the barrier and kindly lets us back through. We have a couple of minutes before our Arriva CrossCountry train arrives, we board and after evicting a couple of people from our booked seats (they got off at the next station so we waited until then), we take our proper seats and rest for the rest of the journey with me raiding the buffet trolley a couple of times on the way back. After two and a half hours we arrive at Birmingham New Street at 14:18 where we promptly change platforms to get a train to Smethwick Galton Bridge where we change platforms again so that we can catch a  London Midland train to get us back to Stourbridge Junction. Upon arrival at Stourbridge Junction, we have a few minutes before "The Stourbridge Dodger" arrives so I make my way to the car park for a "fresh air" break, where we bump into Phil Tonks who has just finished his shift on "The Dodger" and comments on the Facebook check-ins we have made over the weekend. Break over, we make our way to Platform 1 where we board "The Dodger" which takes us the 0.8 miles back into Stourbridge Town Station and we walk over to the Stourbridge Interchange where we get the final journey of the day, National Express West Midlands service 276, which takes us on the final leg of the journey back home where we can unpack and get a bit of a rest after a long and sad journey back from Weymouth.

Overall it has been an enjoyable weekend with good company courtesy of Mr UKBuses, who I must give big thanks to for organising most of the week with the plans which is always appreciated and also a visit to old favourites and a big thank you goes out to Moira and Bill and also Denise and Jim from The Alendale - See you next year Weymouth, missing you already.