Stoke Steam Special, Apedale Railway

Stoke Steam Special, Apedale Valley Light Railway
Apedale Valley Railway location - near Chesterton
14-15 September

Apedale Valley Light Railway runs steam trains most weekends, but on 14-15 September they're running some special trains.  There will be steam and diesel trains, model railway layouts, vintage vehicles (cars, I'm assuming) and various other things.

It's £6 for adults, £3 for children 5-15 and under 5s are free.  There are unlimited train rides once you have your ticket, so if the weather's good, or your children really enjoy trains, this could be a good day out.  The brochure for the day is downloadable from the AVLR website, or you can use this direct link to the Steam Special Brochure.

I've been before, and there's plenty to see, less to do.  There's a small museum showing the history of mining in the area, and a small cafe, which overlooks the station (so it doubles as a waiting room).  The train ride is good, about 10-15 minutes if I recall correctly - out and back along a straight line, and with the variety of trains, should be even better!

Macclesfield Fire Station Open Day

Macclesfield Fire Station Open Day
Sunday 8 September, 10:30 - 4:00
Macclesfield Fire Station location

Cheshire Fire and Rescue continue their series of open days with Macclesfield; later in the season than Staffordshire (for which we are all very thankful).  This may be slightly further north than our usual readers would travel, but Macclesfield town centre is also worth a look around for the shops, and if the weather's good, Macclesfield park is also very pleasant (and has lots of swings, slides, etc).

The website doesn't give many details, but if it's like the Congleton open day, it should be good, especially if you have a Fireman Sam in your family!

Everything's Rosie Character Appearance, Potteries Shopping Centre

Rosie Character Appearance
Potteries Shopping Centre (intu Potteries)
Sunday 29 September

"Rosie" (from the CBeebies series "Everything's Rosie") will be appearing at intu Potteries (the new name for the Potteries Shopping Centre) on Sunday 29 September, and meeting and greeting younger visitors.  She will be making personal appearances at 11:00 am, 12:00 noon, 1:00 pm, 2:00 pm and 3:00 pm.

The booking page to meet Rosie will be live from Sunday 15th September on the intu Potteries website (link above). You will need to book a FREE slot in order to meet Rosie. You will need to take your booking email along with you on the day, and don't forget your camera.

A word of warning:  we recently attended one of these with Titan the Robot, and the queues were extremely long.  The queue started outside River Island and went past the adjacent store and out along the exit corridor; we had to queue for around 35-40 minutes (arriving 15 minutes early, and then having to wait in the queue).  You can get good views and decent photos just by loitering around that area when Rosie makes her appearance.  If, on the other hand, your children are massive Rosie fans, and will wait patiently, (or you have somebody who will queue for you while you take the children around the shopping centre to keep them entertained) then it's worth the wait to get a better photo with Rosie.

Toy Fair, Fenton Community Hall

Toy Train and Model Collectors Fair 
Fenton Community Hall
Saturday 21 September (and 30 November)
10.30am to 2.00pm

£1 admission, free parking, with refreshments available.

An opportunity for enthusiasts of new and used model railways (almost all sizes, scales and gauges are catered for) as well as die cast model cars, trucks, buses to get together and buy, sell or trade.  It depends if your children are interested in model vehicles - and many of those on sale can tend to be quite expensive, but if you or your children are interested in collecting, or like the idea of a search through the various stands and stalls, you might enjoy this.  £1 admission is comparatively cheap, and you'll probably while away an hour or so going through the various stalls (depending on your children's attention span and how many stalls they get - usually well attended), then the rest of the day (or weekend) playing with your new acquisitions!

Tel Tony Oakes for information on 01270 652773 or 07825 631323

Lunar Eclipse, 18-19 October

Lunar Eclipse visible in Stoke on Trent (and the rest of the UK)
18 October 10:53 PM start
19 October 12:50 AM maximum darkening
19 October 2:48 AM ends
All times are UK times.

This is about as far as you can get from a Day out With Daddy... a night in with Daddy instead.  There's going to be a lunar eclipse (the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow and appears darker) on 18-19 October.  You'll have to stay up (or get up) late to see the largest part of the eclipse.

It's a good opportunity to talk about eclipses (if your children are old enough to understand) or otherwise make up stories about it...

Stoke 10k Run

Stoke 10k Run
Sunday 29 September
Start and end at Hanley Park (ST1 4DX)
Start Sunday 9:00 am

You might want to watch this, alternatively you might want to avoid it as it is likely to cause traffic congestion!  The route goes in a large figure-of-eight, down to Fenton in the south, and up to the city centre in the north, before looping back to Hanley Park.  The run is likely to take the faster runners about 40 minutes, the slower runners could take double that length of time.  If you're on the route, you could always spectate and cheer!

"Odeon Kids" - every weekend at 11:00

At 11:00 every Saturday and Sunday morning, Odeon cinemas screen "ODEON Kids" films at selected cinemas (Stoke is included).

Chosen especially for the little ones, all ODEON Kids tickets are only £2.50*.  They also run ODEON Kids every day throughout most school holidays – please check your cinema listings for more information. Here's the link to the Odeon website - but please be aware, I found it very difficult to get any useful details out of it.  For more details, I'd suggest ringing them.  The Odeon Stoke (Festival Park) telephone number is (01782) 215805.

*Prices at the cinema are £2.50 except at: Weston Super Mare (£2), Dundee, Bristol and Belfast (£1.50), Worcester and Dorchester (£1), Dunfermline and Muswell Hill (£3). For tickets booked online, by phone, through the app, or on the mobile site a Remote Booking Fee of 50p applies to every ticket.

ODEON Kids line-up (subject to change)

September
7th Sep - 8th Sep - Despicable Me 2
14th Sep - 15th Sep - Despicable Me 2
21st Sep - 22nd Sep - Epic
28th Sep - 29th Sep - Monsters University

October
5th Oct - 6th Oct - Smurfs 2
12th Oct - 13th Oct - Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters
19th Oct - 20th Oct - Planes
25th Oct - 31st Oct - Despicable Me 2  (half term holiday)

November
1st Nov - 3rd Nov - Monsters University
9th Nov - 10th Nov - The Croods