Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Blue {P}
I'm off to Rochdale at some ungodly hour tommorow morning and will be travelling most of the way there on the A1 followed by the M62 and then the A627.

Just wondering if anyone knows of any Specs systems or other nasty scamera systems on this route?

I've already taken care of the other essentials, fuel, tyres all inflated to fully laden pressures, car cleaned out, and I'll be getting some Red Bulls, some Werthers and a bag of Haribo from the 24 hour Asda at about 5am this morning :-)

Advice appreciated!

Blue
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Colin M
Surely your late night posts on an internet forum won't make good evidence if the Red Bulls don't have the desired effect? Off to bed with you!

Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Blue {P}
He he, I know, I'll be off to bed as soon as I've managed to iron a shirt to take with me... :-(

Blue
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - matt35 {P}
BO,

With EU expansion we are set to get many more LHD artics on our roads.Be With EU expansion we are set to get many more LHD artics on our roads.Be very awae.very aware.
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Blue {P}
Thanks, that's something I hadn't even thought about!

Blue
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - steveb
Don't forget an umbrella - it'll be raining !!

I should know - I lived there for 21 years ...

There's a couple of fixed SCs on the dual carriageway into the town centre however.

Steve
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Nsar
I live here and my advice is....il ne faut pas le voyage
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Andrew-T
Don't know about the cameras, but there's a nice little Renault dealership and a slightly iffy Peugeot one.
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - David Horn
Hmm... there's also a nice Vauxhall dealership on the way to the cinemas, just past the exit from the A627.

Two speed cameras that I'm aware of are on the dual carriageways into the town centre... one's a 40MPH and the other's a 30MPH.
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Blue {P}
Thanks for the info, fortunately I may be able to avoid the town centre, fingers crossed!

Just as a useful point to anyone planning a long journey, (in fact I may even give this a seperate thread) is to stop at a services with a McDonalds restauraunt as these always have the same prices no matter where the outlet is IIRC. Unlike Burger King who I believe charge much more at their motorway outlets than they do elsewhere.

I checked out www.mcdonalds.co.uk and it has a route planner that maps out the route from start to end of your journey and can then be set to display locations of all McDonalds within a certain distance of your route. Thanks to this site we'll now be stopping at Leeming Bar Services where there is a Maccy D's and we will hopefully be able to get our Big Breakfasts at the same price as the high street. I know McD's isn't the cheapest food on the planet, but it's definately better value than motorway grub. :-)

Blue
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - pdc {P}
But, questionably, tastes far worse than motorway grub. who thought that would be possible.
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Dwight Van Driver
Keep your needle at the appropriate speed Blue and sing
"Wish me luck as you wave me goodbyeee" all the way.

(You yunguns Rochdale = G. Fields, oh I give up)

DVD
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - expat
There is no doubt Motorway services are overpriced and rubbish food. Years ago we used to have an Egon Ronay book which listed good places to have a light meal. "Just a Bite" I think it was called. We often used to go off the motorway quite a distance to go to a recommended place but they were invariably really good. If you pay a couple of pounds extra to get better oil or 10% extra for better petrol because your car will go better why not spend that bit extra on better food as well.
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - No Do$h
If
you pay a couple of pounds extra to get better oil
or 10% extra for better petrol because your car will go
better why not spend that bit extra on better food as
well.

>>

Because you will end up with a fine running car, an extra 30lbs on the waistline and no money.

No Dosh. Speaking from experience.
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Andrew-T
It won't help Blue getting to Rochdale, but not ALL motorway services food is terrible. For one, the Tebay services on M6 are very good (they are independent and won an award recently) and the Keele M6 used to have a good 'healthy eating' section a few years ago (haven't been there lately).
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - LongDriver {P}
Try J20 M6 "Lymm Services" for good old Maccie D's....must be the nearest "standard" price McDonalds to any motorway ???
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - PhilW
Surely the only advice on going to Rochdale is "don't" (is that what Nsar said in French?) And isn't Leeming Bar past your turnoff for M62? I must stop drinking this red wine - it turns the world upside down but makes me feel good. Anyway you've probably been and come back by now.
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Nsar
Due to red wine clogging my brain when I posted what I actually wrote was "the journey is not necessary". I should have written il ne vaut pas le voyage - the journey isn't worth it, a pun on the Michelin guide ratings.
Car mats on one thread, foreign language puns on another, what a broad church the BR is!
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Blue {P}
Well, thanks to all who replied, I'm back safe and sound, but the same can't be said of the car, can anyone who knows anything about engine oil please see my thread in technical matters please?!

The journey was uneventful enough, I'm trying to figure out if I passed Specs systems, if I did then there was a lot of them, they looked like a single CCTV camera on a very high pole to one side of the road, with a little light that seemed to flash repeatedly. I must have passed at least 8 of these things along the way there and back that I noticed and who knows how many that I didn't, however, I stuck to the limit for most of the journey so I should be ok. Were they Specs systems?

Rochdale - Ewww, there were *no* young people in the town centre, there were *no shops there either, me and my mate thought we had a glimmer of hope when we saw a branch of River Island but when we went in it was a womenswear only store. :-(

Blue
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Blue {P}
Just out of interest - how long does it normally take for an NIP for a Specs system to be received?

I know about the 14 day maximum, but I'm under the impression that most Specs tickets are received within about 5 - 7 days?

Only reason I ask is that I know there is one point where I did break a 40 mph limit that was put on those flashing advisory signs, not by much mind, maybe 10 mph, because I didn't think they were compulosry and I was the only car on an otherwise empty stretch of road. I know that I didn't pass a Gatso during this phase, but I may have passed a Specs, not sure.
Blue
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Dynamic Dave
I\'m trying to figure out if I passed Specs systems,
they looked like a single CCTV camera on
a very high pole to one side of the road, with
a little light that seemed to flash repeatedly.


From that description, it was more than likely a Trafficmaster sensor.
www.spy.org.uk/images/tmtm2l.jpg
www.spy.org.uk/images/tmmh4.jpg
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Blue {P}
They're similar, but these things definately weren't trafficmaster, and from what I can tell, there is definately a Specs system on the M62, I should have just used Google in the first place!

Anyway, can anyone advise whether the Matrix signs that flash 40 mph are a legal maximum speed limit? They seemed to be largely ignored by every other driver.

Blue
Going to Rochdale, advice please! - Wales Forester
They\'re advisory, but, if for example you had an accident and were found to have been travelling above the advised limit, then this would go against you in court - so i\'m lead to believe anyway.

The only matrix signs that show an enforceable limit are those that show a speed inside a red circle, similar to a normal road speed limit sign.

PP