Imberbus 2023 - the video.

Get that bus out! Some video from Imberbus 2023 if you've nothing better to do for 15 minutes 🙂

Imberbus 2023

 19th August 2023

I made my annual visit to Salisbury Plain to ride bus route 23A, and I was far from alone! Imberbus has been running since 2009, taking passengers from Warminster railway station to the “lost” village of Imber and on to other villages around the edge of the military training area. I have been before and wrote about it here, here, and linked to a video here. It has become more popular as the years progressed and this year exceeded the expectations of everyone - including the organisers I think.

Last year there was a national rail strike coinciding with the event so I drove down and made a weekend of it, staying two nights at Market Lavington which is on the bus route. It was uncertain whether this would be the case again for 2023 and I considered doing the same but hotel prices had risen considerably and in the end the trains were running - sort of, more on that later.

 

 Half an hour later than planned due to a late running train from Reading missing the connection at Westbury I exited Warminster station, crossed the road and bought my £10 ticket (from none other than Baron Hendy of Richmond Hill himself perchance) and joined the queue for a bus to Imber. Ah yes, the queue. I queued for around 20 minutes. Later in the day the queue reached somewhere between an hour and three hours depending who was reporting on it. Rumour also has it that the manager of Lidl, whose shop and car park were entirely encircled, had a bit of a sense of humour failure and threatened to call the rozzers!

 

 At Imber I alighted for a bit of photography and a look around again. There was a very long queue for the church but I’ve seen that before so didn’t join it. Imber is often called a lost village but more truthfully it was stolen by the Ministry of Defence on behalf of the US Army in 1943 and never given back to the residents. For a few days of the year the roads are opened to the public to visit - mostly to give access to the church - and on an August Saturday opened just for the buses. After a while I joined the lengthening queue for a bus to the interchange “bus station” at Gore Cross. In previous years it was possible to be choosy about which buses you rode with obviously the classic Routemasters and RTs being preferred but it became obvious that with so many people this year it was going to be a case of just getting whichever came along next.

 

 Gore Cross is the hub of Route 23A, a windswept gravel patch in the countryside through which almost all the buses pass. For that reason it’s a top spot for taking photos and for MWLB. The buses approach via a narrow track from the public highway and circle around to one of stops A, B, C, or D depending on their destinations. Brazen Bottom (always gets a snigger) and The Lavingtons, Tilshead and Chitterne, New Zealand Farm Camp, or back to Imber and Warminster. I milled around for a bit watching the comings and goings and then the excitement occurred.

 

 The convoy of buses leaving Gore Cross stopped. The last bus reversed back up the track. Something had obviously gone tits up down at the junction of the tracks where the buses turned right towards the road. A busload of passengers walked back up to the bus station and a lot of others walked down to find out what had happened.

 

 What had happened was that a New Routemaster had fallen in a hole. A combination of a tight turn and an 11m bus whose driver didn’t quite swing wide enough and had dropped the rear offside wheel off the concrete and into the soft verge where it quickly dug itself a cosy little home. There was of course a bit of jollity and piss-taking from both onlookers and other passing drivers because this is England and such is traditional. It was apparent that LTZ1009 was going nowhere without assistance from the recovery truck which is always kept on hand for Imberbus at Gore Cross. It was also fortunate that buses could still get in and out via an alternative track while the stricken bus was winched out of the hole and eventually returned to service.

 

 It’s not the first time I’ve seen a New Routemaster come a cropper at Imberbus, in 2018 one dived into a large pothole in the car park at Imber and grounded the low-slung front, rendering it unable to go forward and unable to go backwards without very expensive sounding noises from beneath. Good for accessibility but they don’t have the ground clearance or approach and departure angles for off-roading!

Once the excitement was over I got a proper Routmaster to Chitterne to have my late picnic lunch and a very nice cup of tea from the village hall which derives much of its annual income from Imberbus visitors and more importantly has one of the few available toilets.

 

 At Chitterne I decided that it was getting on in the day and that I should start heading back towards Warminster to get a train home (Ha!) but first I wanted to do the loop via Brazen Bottom and the Lavingtons, a pleasant run through the country with some pretty steep hills, always interesting in a Routemaster. My ride for this journey would be AEC Routemaster RML880 registration number WLT880. There being no room up top I opted for the longitudinal seat over the rear wheels on the grounds that I wouldn’t have my knees jammed up against the seat in front. This area also tends to be where the other bus drivers and owners gather so it’s where the interesting and informed conversations happen. Not to mention quite a bit of banter.

 

 There is a timetable for Imberbus but this had gone somewhat awry early on due to the sheer number of passengers to be loaded and unloaded and not helped by the incident at Gore Cross. From Chitterne we headed to Tilshead. Well almost Tilshead as the driver forgot to turn right so the couple of passengers who wanted to get off there had an unexpected chance to stretch their legs from just outside the village. Then to Gore Cross where there was to be a driver change which we were assured would enable us to make up some lost time on the loop out through Brazen Bottom, Market Lavington, West Lavington, and back to Gore Cross before continuing to Imber and Warminster. Staying on the same bus at Gore Cross and at Imberbus on the way back was a good choice as the queues at both places were still very long.

 

 RML880 deposited us right at the head of the line of buses outside Warminster Railway Station ready to get the train to Westbury or Salisbury depending on final destination.

Except.

There weren’t any.

Not wanting to be outdone by Imberbus GWR had decided to mount their own attempt to win the Longest Queue In Warminster Championships. I and many others should have been able to catch the 1730 to Westbury but it was cancelled due to a shortage of train crew. As was the 1803. And the 1833. And some of the trains to Salisbury. The next train to Westbury would be at 1903. If it didn’t get cancelled before then that is and then there would be the fun of trying to get four train loads of passengers onto a two coach train.

I joined the refugees at the bus stop in the Market Place along with some surprised locals to get a Stagecoach D1 to Westbury where hopefully there would be a train to Reading. That train was late as well resulting in a long wait for a connection at Reading so I joined the usual Saturday night Reading Station ritual of a can of lager on the platform while I waited. I arrived home somewhat after 10pm.

 So what about 2024? Assuming it goes ahead I doubt that I'll be trusting GWR to get me there and back. There has been some suggestion that managing the number of passengers by using pre-booked timed tickets but that would detract from the whole hop on hop off go as you please nature of the event. Being able to roam about all day stopping for refreshments, taking photos, or a pint in a pub is one of the event's great attractions. Given the unreliability of the train service being on a fixed schedule would make getting there even more stressful. 

In spite of the travel issues I still enjoyed my Imberbus experience, it’s a quite barmy idea so I’ll see you there next year, maybe.

Here’s the photos that I took on the day, on Flickr

 

 

Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own

Anyone interested in the man, the legend, his art collection, and maybe cats should get themselves down to Sotheby's in Bond Street before the end of September if they can. There are two floors of art, furniture, and ephemera excellently presented.

 

 

 

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity as Mary Austin has decided it's time for it all to be sold so the collection will never be in one place again.

 

 

 

Details of this free exhibition are here:

https://www.sothebys.com/en/series/freddie-mercury-a-world-of-his-own?locale=en

 

 

 

 

Allow at least an hour, avoid weekends, ten-to-one on a Wednesday wasn't too busy although by no means quiet.

 

 

 

North Norfolk Railway

Never pass up the opportunity for a ride on a heritage railway line. Especially when they have the sort of train that you used to travel to college on. I took a trip on the North Norfolk Railway from Holt to Sheringham and back on a hot sunny day in June and it’s a great ride.

 

 

 

Oh, they run steam trains too.

 

 

 

Flickr Album is here.

 

and there’s a video (16m) below.

 

East Anglia Transport Museum

When I was a small child we used to pass through Carlton Colville on the way home from visiting grandparents in Oulton Broad. I would see the buses at the museum and ask whether we could stop to visit. The answer was always that we "didn't have time". Well after over half a century I decided that I certainly did have time so paid a visit on my way home from Happisburgh to the now much bigger East Anglia Transport Museum.

The site is now like a little village with a tram track and a circular trolleybus route plus a railway and various sheds and buildings with displays of vehicles etc. There is also a myriad of street furniture in place around the site road system. Your entry fee includes unlimited travel on whichever trams, trolleybuses, and trains are running that day (or indeed the next 12 months).

I particularly enjoyed the 1959 Bournemouth Corporation Sunbeam trolleybus, much more civilized than the rattly trams. So I rode it twice. 

There's a lot to see here and I spent over two hours - including a stop for tea and cake in the cafe. They have obtained a large plot of adjacent land into which they will be expanding so there will be even more in the future.

There are sheds full of trams, trolleybuses, and buses in various states of repair and/or restoration.

The East Anglia Transport Museum web site is here.

My Flickr Album is here.

And here's a short (3m 26s) video about the trams and trolleybuses.

And although unusually you can get in and out without going through the gift shop I took the opportunity to replace the mug that hit the kitchen floor terminally the previous week for just a fiver.

Happisburgh

I  have known the village of Happisburgh (pronounced Hays-bruh) in Northeast Norfolk since I was a child and we used to holiday in nearby Eccles-on-Sea but it must be about 10 years since I have visited. It’s famous for its lighthouse, once repainted by Anneka Rice (with a bit of help).

 

 

 

Happisburgh is also (in)famous for coastal erosion. Even so it was striking how much of the place had disappeared since I was last here. At the end of Beach Road there were a few buildings and a metal stairway from the clifftop to the beach below. This is the end of the road now.

 

 

 

To get to the beach now there is a steep earthen ramp from the Community Carpark leading down to a long shallow bay beneath the cliffs.

 

 

 

 There never used to be a bay here. When I was a child there was a road, or at least the remains of a road along the clifftops from Happisburgh to Cart Gap near Eccles-on-Sea. This would have bee some way to the left in the following photo. Those posts in the sea are the remains of sea defences that were once on the beach at the foot of the cliffs.

 

 

 

 The lifeboat station that was at the end of Beach Rd. has had to be relocated to the car park at Cart Gap and many clifftop properties along here have been lost to the sea. From Cart Gap south the land is protected by a strong concrete sea wall backed by sand dunes constructed after the North Sea flood of 1953.

 

 

 

On the other side of Happisburgh village there used to be a large static caravan park. This has moved inland now that a large part of it fell in the sea and the rest was no longer safe to use. The roadway that ran around the site now stops rather abruptly.

 

 

 

At the time of writing this Google Maps still shows where the road went even though the satellite image shows the caravan site has gone. 

 

 

 

I was surprised by how much Happisburgh has changed since I first came here. The coastal erosion isn’t likely to stop any time soon, so enjoy a visit while it’s still there.

A train trip to Scotland, part 3.

A train trip to Scotland Day 6: 15/05/2023 Thurso to Inverness.

Trains from Thurso to Inverness are a choice of stupid-o’clock in the morning or 1306, I chose the latter since although it meant an inconvenient hour’s wait between having to check out of the hotel and getting the train, taking the earlier departure would mean killing 90 minutes in Inverness before checking into the next hotel. The weather looked fine so about 1100 I decided to check out and get a picnic lunch to eat down on the promenade. Half way there and the sky darkened and it pissed down. There is a sad lack of shelters in Thurso and the rain lasted just long enough to ensure that there was now not a dry surface available to sit on in Thurso other than an uncomfortable bus shelter or the railway station train shed. The latter became my picnic lunch location. The views aren’t up to much but at least it was dry. I awaited the train and read my book. The train arrived with enough time to offload those who’d ventured from Wick to the bright lights of Thurso and load those of us heading south to leave on time at 1306. Goodbye Thurso, or perhaps Au Revoir.

My allocated seat got swiped by the wheelchair user's wife (I assume) so I'm travelling backwards again apart from the first 10 minutes. I’m on the coast side of the train though so should get better views as we head south. This journey is the reverse of the trip up so sort of familiar. At Kinbrace there were four deer next to the station but the train didn’t stop so if they had wanted to be on it they should have made their intent clear. Held out a hoof or something The expected good sea views came along the north side of Beauly Firth.

 

At Ardgay we paused and then came the announcement that we would remain here for 15 to 20 minutes, delayed by a fault on the northbound train which we needed to pass at Ardgay Station. Once it had arrived we carried on down the line. Conon Bridge and Beauly stations both have such short platforms that passengers have to board or alight from one specific set of doors in the middle of the two coach train, as directed by the guard. In contrast some of the other stations have platforms much longer than will ever be needed nowadays but presumably saw much longer trains in the past. By Muir of Ord we were running only 2 minutes late and were still only 2 minutes late when we pulled into a sunny Inverness. It didn’t feel like it had been a 4 hour journey although I did have my head in a book for quite a bit of it - The Necromancer’s Apprentice by Icy Sedgwick in case you were wondering. I walked out to Premier Inn Inverness not-so-Central and checked in again, nicer room this time but on the road and railway side of the building. I had a whole day in Inverness tomorrow so started looking online for something to do.

---

A train trip to Scotland Day 7: 16/05/2023 Inverness and Elgin.

Kilt makers and woollen shops aside the most touristy place to visit in Inverness is probably the castle and as that was closed while they had the builders in I decided to make a side trip to Elgin where the map showed an interesting-looking motor museum. Elgin is a short train ride away. By the time I got to the station I had to put my coat on. Sunny spells and spots of rain, fingers crossed that it didn’t get wetter. I eschewed the ScotRail app and bought my ticket at the station, in the actual ticket office as most of the self-service machines were out of order. £9 return with Senior Railcard isn’t too bad. The train departed at 0946. At Scotland’s newest railway station (at the time of writing) Inverness Airport which opened in February 2023 we paused for 5 minutes, perhaps to fully appreciate what £14m gets you in the way of a station nowadays. The answer is not a whole lot. Two platforms, a bridge with lifts, some bus stop style shelters and some dot matrix displays. And a longish walk to the airport.

 

The Moray Motor Museum is on the other side of Elgin town centre from the railway station, about a twenty minute walk so with the train arriving at 1040 and the museum opening at 1100 I was the first customer through the door, the man hadn’t even finished Hoovering. This is a small museum in one single storey building but has a really nice collection of cars from Veterans to a one-owner Mark 2 Ford Granada, a lot of motoring and other ephemera, and is well worth the tenner admission charge. I spent an hour there and then went across the road as the museum admission includes a complementary tea or coffee in the DIY shop restaurant opposite. However the queue to get a table there was so long that I gave up and went back into Elgin town centre and found a Costa instead.

 

Boosted by a flat white I climbed Lady Hill, which is a prominent piece of high ground to the east of the centre of Elgin and not a member of the Scottish aristocracy. Up there are the ruins of Elgin Castle which are small, and the Duke of Gordon's Monument, which is very large. The view’s not too shabby either.

 

After that I went back to the station for the 1325 train to Inverness. This was delayed till 1337 as it had been held for a customer connection at Keith - that doesn't happen around here, if you miss your connection because of a delayed train then it’s  tough, I got stranded at Ascot once by SWR because of a missed connection to a last train.

 

Back in Inverness I went for an explore. It’s a mixture of touristy, full on tartan and pipes touristy, and ordinary big town shopping centre. I fancied a pint. The Caledonian looked ok so I went in. There were lots of families munching away in raised booths around the outside of the large room and lots of empty tables in the middle. There was no one behind the bar. There was real ale. Some time passed as I stood watched by the ruminating diners. Still no one behind the bar. Fuck 'em then, I walked out and went to The Gellions instead. This turned out to be a very Scottish bar with a big saltire on the wall and a folk music soundtrack. It also had a friendly and attentive barmaid and decent beer at £4.50 a pint. I would have stayed for another but had started yawning so went back to the hotel, collecting something to eat on the way.

---

A train trip to Scotland Day 8: 17/05/2023 Inverness to Edinburgh.

I don’t know why I got up so early when my train to Edinburgh didn't depart until 1050 but I was packed and ready to go with an hour to spare so I went and got some food for an on-train lunch. In a piece of excellent timing I was standing by the gateline when the platform was announced so was first on board and bagged a forward facing seat with a cleanish window. We departed on time and the journey was uneventful, I read for most of it to be honest. I arrived at Edinburgh Waverley at 1429 and exited to Princes street via the multiple escalators. The city centre was very busy, a complete contrast to Thurso and Wick. I headed straight to my hotel, the Terrace again, where this time I had a huge room with a giant bed. Later I took a stroll down to Meadowbank Shopping Centre for KFC and then went to the Bellfield Brewery Tap Room for a pint to wash it down. Interesting place with a good range of beers. But probably more fun as a group especially as it was quiz night. Nice beer though, and the one I had in the Artisan Bar on the way back to the hotel was better still. I had a good night’s sleep - at least once the two talkative women next door had settled down.

 

---

A train trip to Scotland Day 9: 18/05/2023 Edinburgh to Home.

Up and ready for the trip home, starting with the 1030 LNER Azuma to London King’s Cross. I’d feared that this train would be crowded so had booked a seat to go with my open return ticket. So that’s another train company I’ve had to set up an account with. As it turned out it wasn’t too busy. The seat across the table was occupied to Newcastle and reserved from there to London but the guy that boarded at Newcastle decided to forego the window and sit on the aisle side so we both had legroom. He then proceeded to extract from his bags and spread out on the table and seat lunch, drinks, phone, toiletries, a mouse, a mouse mat, and two laptops! Make yourself at home son. I passed the time reading, listening to podcasts and watching the scenery rush by. The run down the north east coast is still spectacular.

 

At 1449 the train pulled into King’s Cross. All going well so far. It couldn’t last, I got the Hammersmith and City Line to Paddington only to find on arrival that everything was screwed with multiple cancellations and delays caused by a points failure somewhere near Slough. It always seems to me that when it all goes wrong GWR are involved  in some way. A tannoy announcement advised anyone heading for Reading to go via Waterloo instead so I got on the Bakerloo Line and crossed London for a second time. I caught a SWR train to Guildford, not entirely sure if my Super Off Peak ticket was valid but the ticket inspector didn’t query it. An angry posh mum sat opposite on the phone complaining about her little darling being suspended from her public school. It's all so unfair and all the school’s fault apparently. She carried on moaning all the way through Woking before a dropped signal cut her short. At Guildford I caught the next train to Sandhurst, it looked as if it was going to rain just to top things off. In the event I was home at 1735. And dry too.

---

I had a good trip despite the hiccups on the last leg (at least GWR has coughed up under delay repay and TfL only charged me for one journey from King’s Cross to Waterloo via Paddington) and enjoyed the North of Scotland. It had been some years since I’d been up there and I hope to return again in the future, whether by train or some other mode of transport. Meanwhile I’ve got about 250 photos to look through and this blog to remind me how much I enjoyed it.

Even if it did take a long time to get around to it. 

Here’s the Flickr Album with all the photos (249) that I took on the trip.