Afternoon Tea on a Routemaster Bus in London

16/12/17

Christmas meal time with friends and this year was a bit different.

Afternoon tea and sightseeing tour of London on a Routemaster bus. The tour started and finished at Victoria Coach Station and lasted 90 minutes.

More info here

Here is the route we took:

 Some photos:

yummy

our bus on arrival

2 buses did the tour at 1200

Also saw this attractive art deco building afterwards out side the coach station:

A very enjoyable trip, lovely food and wonderful and helpful hostesses.

I recommend it to all.

Alpine Sunset Railtour to MHR

30/9/17

To celebrate the arrival of DEMU's to Mid-Hants route in 1957, the Hastings Unit 1001 visited on a railtour. The MHR Hampshire Unit 1125 was also running today.

I was fortunate to the Guard of 1001 while it was running on MHR metals.

Here is a link to the Hastings Diesels Limited website.

The train arrived in platform 2 at 1041 for an 1115 departure, non-stop to Alresford. This was for railtour passengers only.

arriving

arrived at Alton platform 2

1125 leaves Alton platform 3 on the 1050 departure

got the road!

The Guards area I was using today.

We arrived at platform 2 at Alresford at 1150 and the unit stayed until 1240.

It then did a trip to Alton and back for Watercress Line passengers calling at all stations.

my view at Medstead station

platform 3 at Alton

window detail

When we got back to Alresford we detrained the passengers and went down the sidings to water the set for its return journey.

We arrived back in platform 1 at Alresford for a 1530 departure, non-stop to Alton Signal box.

got the road to platform 2 at Alton

Back at platform 2 at Alton and my day was over. It departed at 1632.

Thank you to all the Hastings Diesels Ltd, GB Railfreight and MHR staff for a very enjoyable duty.

I finish with a video of 1001 leaving Alton platform 2 on the 1632 departure.

Tipsy Pig - Romsey

27/8/17

Another free ticket with my Annual Season Ticket Gold Card.

This pub transformed in December 2016 from the William IV to the Tipsy Pig.

I happened to notice on Facebook that they were having their first beer festival today.

And only a 5 minute walk from Romsey station.

The beer list is below:

A great selection of beer in my opinion and all fairly local. Good prices as well.

Some pub pics

The festival stillage and 2 pins on the bar

I spent a very enjoyable 3 hours spent there.

Ram Brewery - Wandsworth

17/8/17

On 22nd June 2006 I paid what I thought was my last visit to Youngs Brewery in Wandsworth.

In fact beer has continued to be brewed there ever since thanks to the efforts of a former Head brewer there called John Hatch.

As the brewery was being dismantled, he put in place and collected items to set up a very small scale brewery on part of the site that remains as some of the buildings have been listed.

The brewery in agreement with present day Youngs management is not commercially registered and is only available at the small bar on site.

The entrance is through an anonymous door in the hoardings on the main road,

into a courtyard

The bar:

Two beers were available:

Unfortunately a brewery tour is not possible but I took some photos a window in the door.

Around the of the bar are pumpclips of all the beers that have been brewed there.

Thanks to the Weekly Wind Up group who arranged a very enjoyable evening.

I also took a couple of photos outside

This area of the brewery was the stables, back then all beer for local pubs was delivered by horse drawn drays.

I end this blog with some photos from my 2006 visit.