A trip on a Leyland National in Lancashire

Saturday 17th March:

As part of the Leyland National Group AGM weekend, a visit had been organised to the Ribble Vehicle Preservation Trust at Freckleton. This is not a museum but a private area where their vehicles are stored, maintained and restored. Pick up was at 1200 from Preston station and GLJ681N was our bus for the day.

GLJ at Preston station

GLJ at Freckleton

The vehicles at Freckleton are packed in tightly in 2 large sheds with a few outside. The obligitory Routemaster was also spotted. Photos below are in some cases not very good but it shows the range of vehicles there.

It was then decided to take GLJ out on a short tour to Blackpool via Lytham St Annes along the coast road. A very scenic ride. Photos were taken at Starr Gate near the new tram depot.

On the way back to Preston we stopped at Wrea Green to  take some more photos.

A couple of pubs in Warrington

Friday 16th March.

As I'm spending 3 days based in Preston, it provided a good opportunity to revisit some pubs in Warrington but I visited a new pub for in Preston. The Continental is away from the town centre but was fairly close to my hotel so I went there first.

And a couple of photos of the adjacent railway viaduct.

Then on to Warrington. First stop was the Friar Penketh for a couple of Weterspoons festival beers.

Then to the Lower Angel for a new brewery and I was in luck. I had 2 beers from Tipsy Angel brewery which is located in a building at the back of the pub. Mild Angel 3.6% and  Paddy's Angel ( a stout) 4.5% were both drunk. The beers brewed here are based on old Taylor Walker beers which the brewer had researched for himself. He showed me the results and has quite a number of old recipe details. The recipes have had to be scaled for the Tipsy Angel brewery it brews just one brewers barrel at a time.

So here are the photos:

And the Tipsy Angel brewery is shown below:

I then went to the Ring O Bells but as it only had Wells & Youngs - Courage Directors, I declined a drink. photos taken of pub anyway.

Then to the Tavern which is the home of the 4T's brewery.

A fantastic choice of beers here with 8 handpumps plus the adjacent music room was open (fri sat and sun only I believe) with another 4 handpumps.

The outside of the pub:

And inside

Music bar

music bar

main bar

main bar

main bar

main bar

And finally the Looking Glass for food and festival beers. Then train back to Preston and bed.