How to Convert Your Graphics from Pixels to Imperial Measurements

Revealed: Your Recommended Social Media Image Sizes in Feet and Inches

Besides death and taxes, there is another certainty to the list for anyone with a social media account or three. That social media channels reserve the right to change recommended resolution sizes where they see fit. As devices add more bells and whistles, their power to handle bigger, higher resolution graphics improve. Faster connection speeds also gives us carte blanche to use glossier, sharper images.

Stagecoach Manchester Sponsors Body Confidence Event

TV Star to Speak at Body Confidence event in Manchester

• Popular TV personality Vicky Pattison joins line-up at city’s first Body Confidence Live event;
• 06 October afternoon event to promote body confidence, self-esteem and wellness;
• Event sponsored by Stagecoach Manchester and raising funds for Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital charity.

Whether you feel like the back end of a bus or wish to have a fresh start, Stagecoach Manchester are sponsoring an event which could change your life. What’s more, a fiver from each ticket will be donated to the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital charity.

Coming Soon to Greater Manchester: 105 All Electric Buses

£56m bus deal could see zero emission buses in Greater Manchester, though with strings attached 

• Introduction subject to Stagecoach Manchester winning Department for Transport grant;
• Transport for Greater Manchester to submit rival bid for all-electric Vantage and Metroshuttle routes and school buses.

Fiddlers Ferry Power Station: the power behind Stagecoach’s prospective 105 zero emission buses? Or TfGM’s 64 all-electric vehicles? Image by Sheri, 2009 (Creative Commons License: Attribution-Some Rights Reserved).

You can safely say that Greater Manchester is the spiritual home of the electric bus. 45 years ago it set the trend with Chloride’s Silent Rider – an all-electric Seddon single decker bus. Unlike today’s buses, it was only used at peak times and charged between the peaks. By 2012, the first electric-hybrid buses entered regular service and became a regular feature on trunk routes.

Homes of Football Exhibition Sponsors’ Photography Competition

Stagecoach Manchester marks sponsorship of Homes of Football exhibition with photographic competition

If you look at how many Stagecoach bus routes pass Greater Manchester’s football grounds, you may be surprised to find how many do. The 250, X50, and 256 routes pass Old Trafford for example; the 216 and 231, outside the Etihad Stadium. The 201 is good for getting to Ewen Fields, Hyde United’s humble abode. By day, the 236 and 237 pass Bower Fold and Surrey Street – the homes of Stalybridge Celtic and Glossop North End football clubs respectively.

In Pictures: Manchester’s Second Sinkhole

Exclusive pictures of yesterday’s sinkhole near the Mancunian Way

Photography by Adham Fisher

Paddock Street, just off the Mancunian Way in Ardwick, in the Ardwick Green area of the suburb. (Photograph by Adham Fisher, 2015).

So, what on Earth is behind Greater Manchester’s three sinkholes? Could Satan be wanting a slice of the Northern Powerhouse pizza? If so I suggest he or she coughs up the £329 Anytime Return fare from London Euston. Or make his or her way by other means.

The Golden Oldie Bus Picture Show ’14: Autumnal Gold

This autumn’s collection of elderly buses in the Rochdale, Oldham and Tameside areas.

In the last quarter, the step entrance double decker seems to be dwindling in numbers. Older low floor equivalents seem to have been cascaded. Most notably in Bury and Rochdale where Mercedes Citaros ply their trade. This summer saw the departure of Greater Manchester’s only Dennis Arrow with 34088, a First Greater Manchester Volvo Olympian set to follow her.

The Shock of the Old: Film or Digital Photography?

Is new really cracked up to be or is old better? Here’s the second of a series of posts on East of the M60.

For our second post in the series, the advantages and disadvantages of email and the Royal Mail are analogous to both digital and film media.

In our second post under The Shock of the Old, we focus on the differences between film and digital photography. In other words, the joys of waiting for your holiday photos or sharing them online.

A Midsummer Night’s Bus Theme

A spring and summer collection of older buses in Greater Manchester.

In the last quarter, we have seen the continuance of JPT’s operations by Stagecoach Manchester. Of late, some buses inherited from the JPT fleet, and a few former Bluebird Bus and Coach vehicles have been see on its commercial and subsidised services.

Cameras on Camera: Cameo Appearances by Film Cameras on Television and Film

Sightings of analogue photography instruments in music videos, television programmes and in films

*** Warning: This Entry May Contains Spoilers! ***

I blame Boy George. Honestly. Well, not wholly, there are two sources of inspiration behind this bit of anorakdom. One is the music video to Culture Club’s Church of the Poison Mind. The other is an episode of End of Part One from its second series. At the end of one episode, comedy actor extraordinaire Sue Holderness is doing a spoof weather continuity spot. Instead of the usual reference to the views, the kind of film and cameras used were mentioned. Kudos to Andrew Marshall and David Renwick for inserting ‘Ektachrome’ into a comedy script!

The Golden Oldie Bus Picture Show: More Older Buses in Tameside and Oldham

Even more superannuated step entrance and low floor vehicles.

When I get older, losing my flair
Fifteen years from now
Will you still be showing me the Claret Line
Schoolday runnings, seldom on time

If I’d been out on the 83
Will you drive so sure?
Will you still need me, though I’m not spritely,
On the 64?

Adapted from ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’ (with apologies to Lennon and McCartney).

It has been over a year since the new FirstGroup livery was introduced to its modern vehicles. In that time, we have also seen a sizeable chunk of First Greater Manchester’s Wigan operation and Bluebird Bus and Coach transfer to Stagecoach Manchester. Furthermore, albeit in the short term, we have seen First Greater Manchester regain lost ground after the transfer of some of Maytree Travel’s routes. It has also meant the hasty return to service of some of its older vehicles.