NorthWestVRT Annual Running & Open Day 2022
With the great success
of our previous DVD programmes filmed at this excellent event, our cameras have
returned to record the event again in 2022.
The Annual Running & Open Day is organised by the North West Vehicle
Restoration Trust and was postponed in recent years due to the worldwide
coronavirus pandemic. As usual this
event is centred on the Trust’s premises on the Kirkby Industrial Estate near
Liverpool, Merseyside.
As always we
start our filming early in the morning as the vehicles are positioned and the
visiting vehicles arrive for the day’s action. There is always a large variety
of buses and coaches for you to see and enjoy.
This year is no exception - companies represented include local independents,
SELNEC/GMT, Crosville, Midland Red, MPTE, Merseybus, Liverpool Corporation,
Wallasey Corporation, Birkenhead Corporation, St Helens Corporation, and Widnes
Corporation as well as Ribble, Arriva, Stagecoach and many, many more! There is even a ‘bendy’ bus from Cardiff Bus,
recently retired, that proved very popular with the travelling enthusiasts. With the Leyland National celebrating it’s 50
year there was a good selection of ‘Nationals including three from the former
J. Fishwick and Sons company of Preston.
Our first bus ride of the day is in on board 0317 (R317 WVR) a former
MTL North Volvo Olympian with a Northern Counties Palatine II seventy-seven-seat
body. We travel on it on service 544 to
Liverpool city centre, terminating at Queens Square bus station and then back
to Charley Wood Road in Kirkby.
More
action is filmed along Charley Wood Road where the Trust’s premises are
situated. Filming also takes place on Lees Road
adjacent to the NWVRT site as our cameras witness a number of the buses
operating the 93 service that is the Kirkby Industrial Estate circular
service. We sample this service when our
cameras take a ride on board 42 (TTE 282D) a former Widnes Corporation Leyland
Titan with an East Lancs sixty-five seat body.
With more action filmed on Charley Wood Road we then join 1204 (XKC
831K) a former MPTE Leyland Atlantean PDR2/1 with an Alexander H80D body
smartly painted in a ‘what could have been’ livery. The bus is painted in a reversed cream and
green scheme similar to the one that was introduced on the ‘one-man’ operated Bristol
REs and Leyland Panthers, but no double-deckers were treated as such. We
travel on this bus on service 90 to nearby Prescot railway station and then
back to Charley Wood Road.
Filming is
concluded on the NWVRT site and also plenty of action on Charley Wood Road as
the visiting buses leave for home. We would like to thank the NWVRT for
organising this excellent event and we hope you enjoy watching our film.