Full Route Visual | First Leicester 38 - Leicester to Thurnby Lodge and back | 35188 (SK16 GVL)

Here's a smaller circular that I did in one big loop. This is the 38 that runs from Leicester to Nether Hall and Thurnby Lodge via St. George's, Spinney Hills, New Humberstone, Humberstone Park, Humberstone Village and Netherhall Road before heading back to the city via Dudley Avenue and Colchester Road, then straight back along Uppingham Road. Now I can tick off my checklist, ‘Take the 38 into Humbo Gate’ (Leicester born and bred folk will get the reference).

Upon reaching Colchester Road, it would normally turn left and join the A47 there but it was closed citybound so it had to divert via Scraptoft Lane.

The 38 is run by First Leicester at a 12-minute frequency (combining 6 with the 38A before they split) and from Thurnby Lodge to Leicester, runs the exact same route as Arriva's 53 service (which actually used to be part of the 50), also every 12 minutes. I wish I'd done that as a DB250 was on the route that day and I haven't been on one since I timelapsed the 153 (fingers crossed for the 29, eh?) Also, I would have preferred that or even just the 38A as you'd have been able to see the A47 out to the ring road junction. Oh well. Aside from the 88/88A (the former used to be part of this route) occasionally, which I refuse to do for personal reasons and the occasional 16 having changed from the 74 which I just couldn’t be bothered with because it’s all back roads, no other First Leicester routes get a double-decker.

You’ll see I mentioned cross-city examples. Here are the others:

The 12 used to continue to Blount Road in Thurmaston. It was later replaced by the 39 and is now an extension of the 21.
For 3 years, the 14 and 14A went to the General Hospital via Goodwood until it reverted back to the 54.
The 16 used to run to Braunstone on what is now the 18. More recently it went back but it’s now the 20 and re-routed to Upperton Road.
The 21 ran to Park Rise via Glenfield Road, now the 12 and 13.
The 25 used to run to South Wigston, now the 87 and cut back to Eyres Monsell.
The 26 carried onto Saffron Crossroads, now the 88A. Back then they weren’t circulars so this route only went to Beaumont Leys while the 25 only went to Mowmacre Hill.
The 51 also continued on to Thurnby Lodge with the 50.
The 53 then went over to Fosse Park. It ran a similar route to the 52 that was withdrawn in June.
The 74 used to run from Anstey to Braunstone. The southern end is now the 104 and extended to Thorpe Astley.
When it replaced the 74, the 104 ran cross-city to East Goscote, now the 5.
The 127, X3 and X7 used to be part of a long express route from Nottingham to Northampton, the X61. The section from Nottingham to Loughborough is now the Kinchbus 9.

Nowadays, B7Ls and B7RLEs with the occasional Streetlite are the norm for the 38 since there haven't been enough older double-deckers since the end of 2015 when the ALX400s were all sent away. Despite this, the odd Gemini can sometimes appear when it isn't deputising for a StreetDeck, however, a StreetDeck is what I got for this visual. The day this was recorded, 32643 and 32646 were on StreetDeck cover duty (the former on the 22, the latter on the 14/14A) with both 32644 and 32645 on the 16 and 74 (the latter I timelapsed the 74 on).

Had I done this when I did the rest, this would have had to wait until the inbounds were being doing so you have an idea of how much I enjoyed it on the list. It would go above the 14 and below the Welford Road side of the 47/48, and no, the 74 back from Anstey isn't next as I haven't reached where that falls on the list yet.

Experiences: This whole route is a completely unexplored part of town to me. The furthest I've been on the A47 (back from Peterborough) had always been the B6047 junction outside Skeffington normally but a faulty sat-nav last year trying to get from Rutland to Blaby decided to keep us on until Spencefield Lane then straight through Evington, Oadby and Wigston, rather than the route I knew following the B6047 and then a country road to Kibworth, then through Kilby and Countesthorpe.

How I felt: I was still nervous as the majority of this loop is a very dodgy side of Leicester.

Songs used:

1: Funk Your Style by @TONEZPRO (OFFICIAL)   / tonez-pro  
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2: Track: RMCM & James Roche - Diamonds (feat. Micah Martin) [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds.
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Free Download / Stream: http://ncs.io/DiamondsYO

Sorry, I went on a lot there.