The Alton Adventure pt1: A story of beer, Bristols, short sleeves, shades and shorts! 18/07/15

To set the scene, your blogmaster started Friday 17 July stuck at a desk being inundated with angry sky customers, when he should in fact have been on holiday. Yep, I'd been shafted it seems, and 20:00 could not come soon enough as we prepared for the adventure ahead...the Alton Bus & Beer weekend. Paul, Michael Evans and I met up in Derby Bus Station, and set off in the direction of Clifton to pick up Calum, who had also had the misfortune of being stuck at work, and with daylight well and truly snuffed out we pressed on into the night, with a moulded plastic seat for a bed and the tune of a Gardner 6LX to try and drift off to sleep with. Alton was reached around 02:30 Saturday morning, and we were parked up and in our respective hotel rooms within the hour!

Tiredness does weird things to you, so a mere 3hrs after arriving at our hotel Paul and I found ourselves in the car park clearing out and cleaning the interior of 2599 ready for her big day, and her first ever passenger journey under our ownership. Once everyone had risen from their respective pits, we set off in the direction of Alton, and duly joined our place in the parking area with several other Bristol RE's before reporting to Steve Thorpe. And in usual fashion, a breakfast move was then the order of the day, although we soon lived to regret this (a 40 minute wait for a cold, mediocre, £7-something 'effort' of a breakfast does not go down well with your blogmaster, whom is something of a conniseur in full english breakfasts!) But I digress...

Breakfast abandoned, we returned to 2599, and the opportunity to shunt her next to sister Citybus RE 2565 (BXI2565) was too good to pass up! It was around this time that Steve Thorpe came running over, and asked us to dupe ex-Oxford VR 105 (NUD105L) on the 11:40 62 to Cheriton War Memorial, that had gone out with a full standing load leaving another busload behind! We pulled onto the stand at Alton Station, to be greeted with a sea of excited faces - this was it, our first passenger run, and what a sight to behold to look back and see 50-odd people sat behind me! With Paul in the hot seat, I nervously took up the navigator's position clutching the directions, and we proceeded to fly blind in the direction of Cheriton, which we duly reached around 40mins later. Photos taken, we abandoned many of our passengers for their first pub move of the day, and returned via the outward route to Alton Station to await further instructions.

(C) Jeff Tattersall

(C) Chris Stewart

At this point I bade farewell to Paul and Michael, and joined Ben Bartram who was piloting Southern Vectis 863 (TDL563K) for a spirited run to Chawton, where I vacated and enjoyed a couple of pints of cider in the Greyfriar before rejoining 863 to return to Alton. Once there, I sought out Royal Blue 2351 (837SUO) on service 89 for a trip to Selbourne. Initially I was going to enjoy a beer in the Selbourne Arms, but the unmistakable sound of a Gardner 6LX had me vacating the bar for the street outside, as Citybus 2565 materialised, and a trip back to Alton was made. After a quick pint in The Railway Inn, I regrouped with Calum and my old friend David 'the Oracle' Wilson, and a short leap across Alton was undertaken aboard Southdown VR 266 (JWV266W) on service 62 to The George Hotel, for their mini-beer fest and several pints. We vacated the Summery atmosphere of the beer garden to rejoin Paul and 2599 back to Alton Station, where the opportunity to photograph her with 2351 (one of the oldest surviving RE's in preservation) was too good to pass up! Paul then parked 2599 up, while Calum and I departed once again to rejoin Citybus 2565 for some more thrash.

(C) Jeff Tattersall

This time, we were heading for Hawkley, and after a few photos of 2565 at the outer terminus of route 89 (a bleak crossroads in open country), we sampled a pint in the Hawkley Inn before boarding Matt Carrol's Red & White RE GHB148N for the trip back to Alton. And wow, she did not fail to disappoint! The Leyland 680 underneath was suitably loud and raucous, getting the vote of many of the 'bashers' on board, with much flailing of arms and 'heads out' action being witnessed!

Upon our return, your blogmaster met up with our good friend Neil Markwick, who was driving Southern National flat-screen RE 2731 (POD830H) on a late turn on service 11C, a circular route via Binstead. Once back in Alton around 40mins later, we put 2731 to bed, said our goodbyes to Paul (who, bless him, having done a near-full shift behind the wheel of 2599 was knackered and decided to return to the hotel), before joining around 40 other cranks, bashers and enthusiasts for the evening 'beer-ex', our traction being Oxford VR 105 with Neil at the helm once again. We set off, before bringing 'entertainment' to the village of Medstead and the Castle of Comfort public house, and it was here the beer began to flow as the lights began to fade, and Calum and I had chance to catch up with familiar faces such as Brian O' Doherty, Steve Yeo, Steve Thorpe, Neil and other friends of the group, before being deposited safely back at Alton Station around midnight, suitably 'in drink'!

All in all, another excellent day, and credit to Steve and the gang for putting on another excellent show. Credit also to Paul, who as said earlier spent nearly 10hrs driving around rural Hampshire piloting 2599 and carrying many happy passengers - no easy feat with a 30-something year old bus with no creature comforts and no power steering! And finally, credit to 2599, which had performed faultlessly (apart from a blowing exhaust), and had successfully carried her first passengers in our ownership - another emotional moment in the group's history. We retired to bed, most pleased by the day's events, and excited for what lay ahead the next day...