Heritage buses on normal services.

On Saturday 12th September, Stagecoach West celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Cheltenham District Traction Company, and the launch of "Stagecoach Gold"- 12 new luxury buses running on the 94 route between Gloucester and Cheltenham.

After finding out about this event by chance at lunchtime on the Saturday, we decided to walk into Gloucester town centre, to view the new buses, and also the vintage buses which were running alternate services on the 94, and the whole service for the day on routes 97 and 98.

I made sure I had plenty of battery life left in my camera, and some money for coffee (and ice cream /milkshakes /crisps, as we were taking the kids !), and we set off for town. We saw the first vintage bus as we got to London Road - 969 EHW, a Bristol Lodekka, and I diced with death by standing on a traffic island to get a few shots as it drove past!

Thirty seconds later, we saw the first of the new Stagecoach Gold buses- VX09 NBK coming up the hill. The 12 new buses are all Scania Enviro 400s, with the main selling points being: full height hand-stitched Italian leather seats, helpful uniformed drivers, and a greener engine to save the planet! (the seats do look very comfortable though).

When we arrived at the bus station, Liz, Lucy and Michael went off to the shops, and myself and Joseph found a good vantage point near the entrance, with a few fellow photographers. Within minutes, we had seen another "Gold" bus, a Bristol RE, and a Bristol VR.

We spent the next two hours taking photos of the various buses in and around the bus station, apart from the time spent queuing for a coffee and a milkshake in the bus station cafe, and when the others joined us, we decided to catch the 97 home.

We got onto the Bristol RELL (KHW 306E) and for the first time in my life, had to pay a conductor rather than the driver! Joseph was particularly interested in the vintage ticket machine with winding handle, and has kept the ticket for his scrapbook. After witnessing a brief argument between two Stagecoach drivers about who should drive; possession being nine tenths of the law, the chap in the driving seat won and we were off towards Longlevens.

I'm not sure that Stagecoach did enough publicity about the vintage buses running on normal services with the launch of Stagecoach Gold, as on the way back I overheard one elderly lady telling her friend that this bus looked older than the normal buses, "and it's not even painted gold" !

Frampton Country Fair

On Sunday, Stroud Division covered the annual Country Fair at Frampton on Severn.

There were 9 of us on duty, as well as Severnside Cadet Division, who were doing a PR and recruitment stand.

We arrived on site at 8am, and proceeded to erect the tent, in the same place as in previous years. We had just finished putting it up, when one of the organisers came running across the field to tell us we were in the wrong place. I went and assessed the access and egress routes, while the rest of the team moved the tent !

As I was going to be crewing the ambulance, Dan was going to be Duty Officer for the first time, so I stood back and let him organise the setting up of the first aid post, and deliver the pre-duty briefing. We had some response teams out and about in the crowd, but the ambulance crew were based at the first aid post, so I made myself comfy in a chair, with a good view of the main ring.

During the morning, we had some casualties turn up to the first aid post, all for minor injuries - blisters, small cuts, and a twisted ankle, and they were dealt with by the team. We then had an emergency call from the ambulance service, asking us to attend a 999 call in the nearby village. Myself and Dave got into the ambulance, and made our way (very slowly) through the crowd and out onto the main road. We arrived at the incident in 4 minutes, and then dealt with the football player who had injured her leg. An ambulance service paramedic turned up not long after us, shortly followed by another ambulance, so we all worked together to move her from the ground into the ambulance.

We returned to site, and the rest of the day was fairly uneventful, although one of our response teams did witness a fight, where a group of drunken youths were trying to drive away on some mobility scooters from one of the trade stands !

At 6pm we packed up, and somehow avoided all of the traffic queues that had been around the site all day, and managed to get back to Stroud in only 10 minutes - unlike the poor people stuck in the car parks, who took 1 1/2 hours to get to the road !