Since Brandon's departure from North East Buses, Liam and I have jointly taken on the main role which he played on NEB - the managing of the Bygone Era.

The main problem we have been faced with since Brandon's departure is determining which content needs to be added, and which content has already been added.

While we admire the amount of time and effort Brandon put into the creation of the Bygone Era which is a valued part of NEB today, we do think it is time to freshen it up.
A great deal of content has been added to multiple 'operator threads' now, within the 'Bus Operators' section of the Bygone Era. Because of this, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the user to easily find a specific document which they may be searching for on the Bygone Era.

Liam and I have been working on a few ideas over the past few weeks, and we have finally come up with an idea that will work - which will also allow a lot of pressure to be taken off Liam and myself. Our proposal is given below:

We remove the Bygone Era from the forum - it is given a page of its own like our fleet lists, news and photo pages. Visually, we expect the Bygone Era to change completely.
Rather than content being listed and separated by bus operator and later categorised, we will introduce a search facility.
Every single file available for download would be added to a database, and each file would be given a title and description documenting the content of the file. A user will search for content they are looking for, and relevant files will be returned to the user.
We could also allow members to contribute too, sourcing files from external sources to add to the Bygone Era. This will increase the volume of material, and allow for the Bygone Era to branch out into other areas besides the North East which has previously been requested on the forum.

This can be achieved relatively easily, but it will take a while to complete. We could still actually offer a list of all files too, which would be grouped into sections similar to how they are at present. First, we would like to ask for your opinions - whether you agree that we should go through with this or not.
While this work is being carried out, the Bygone Era which is on the forum will still be available.

Any feedback is welcome, and I welcome you to answer a quick "Yes" or "No" poll above.

In principle I like the idea, but the set up, accessibility etc needs taking into account.

I tend to not bother with what is a very good resource, because of the number of pdf's in there.
On the ipad or laptop, it isn't an issue - but if I try looking on my phone, it means downloading docs that might not even be the file I am looking for (in the case of a timetable split over several pdf files).

(21 Dec 2013, 3:01 pm)Dan wrote Since Brandon's departure from North East Buses, Liam and I have jointly taken on the main role which he played on NEB - the managing of the Bygone Era.

The main problem we have been faced with since Brandon's departure is determining which content needs to be added, and which content has already been added.

While we admire the amount of time and effort Brandon put into the creation of the Bygone Era which is a valued part of NEB today, we do think it is time to freshen it up.
A great deal of content has been added to multiple 'operator threads' now, within the 'Bus Operators' section of the Bygone Era. Because of this, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the user to easily find a specific document which they may be searching for on the Bygone Era.

Liam and I have been working on a few ideas over the past few weeks, and we have finally come up with an idea that will work - which will also allow a lot of pressure to be taken off Liam and myself. Our proposal is given below:

We remove the Bygone Era from the forum - it is given a page of its own like our fleet lists, news and photo pages. Visually, we expect the Bygone Era to change completely.
Rather than content being listed and separated by bus operator and later categorised, we will introduce a search facility.
Every single file available for download would be added to a database, and each file would be given a title and description documenting the content of the file. A user will search for content they are looking for, and relevant files will be returned to the user.
We could also allow members to contribute too, sourcing files from external sources to add to the Bygone Era. This will increase the volume of material, and allow for the Bygone Era to branch out into other areas besides the North East which has previously been requested on the forum.

This can be achieved relatively easily, but it will take a while to complete. We could still actually offer a list of all files too, which would be grouped into sections similar to how they are at present. First, we would like to ask for your opinions - whether you agree that we should go through with this or not.
While this work is being carried out, the Bygone Era which is on the forum will still be available.

Any feedback is welcome, and I welcome you to answer a quick "Yes" or "No" poll above.

Brilliant idea!

(21 Dec 2013, 3:14 pm)andreos1 wrote In principle I like the idea, but the set up, accessibility etc needs taking into account.

I tend to not bother with what is a very good resource, because of the number of pdf's in there.
On the ipad or laptop, it isn't an issue - but if I try looking on my phone, it means downloading docs that might not even be the file I am looking for (in the case of a timetable split over several pdf files).

At present, it's quite hard to determine if the file you are downloading is the file you are looking for.

This is one of the issues we found, which is why we'd be introducing the search facility. You would search for a file, and the results would be given below it - containing the file name (as at present) but also a description of the file which would be added by us in the database.

It would be quite similar to this.
See 'Washington Service Revisions' section.
There is a title of the file and a description, containing information of what the file is.

That should cut out unnecessary download time.

I voted 'Not Sure'.

I like how the layout appears now, however, a search facility would be useful for users hunting for specific timetables. The Go North East section is pretty comprehensively listed with details of what's included in each file set, but there is much room for improvement in the DCC section where detailed listings have seemingly been abandoned even though they're still available for download. Will this be rectified under the new system? - Only if the moderators have the time or motivation to do so, just as it is now.

The PDF files do need to be significantly smaller though. I understand the quality argument, but as most of these files contain mostly text and numbers, are high quality PDF files really necessary? Smaller files sizes reduce the amount of storage space and might encourage more users to download what is there. For example, people might be deterred from downloading the 400MB 1949 Northern Timetable, however a 28.8MB (which I created from the original document) version might be more appealing to users.

(30 Dec 2013, 10:41 am)AdamY wrote I voted 'Not Sure'.

I like how the layout appears now, however, a search facility would be useful for users hunting for specific timetables. The Go North East section is pretty comprehensively listed with details of what's included in each file set, but there is much room for improvement in the DCC section where detailed listings have seemingly been abandoned even though they're still available for download. Will this be rectified under the new system? - Only if the moderators have the time or motivation to do so, just as it is now.

The PDF files do need to be significantly smaller though. I understand the quality argument, but as most of these files contain mostly text and numbers, are high quality PDF files really necessary? Smaller files sizes reduce the amount of storage space and might encourage more users to download what is there. For example, people might be deterred from downloading the 400MB 1949 Northern Timetable, however a 28.8MB (which I created from the original document) version might be more appealing to users.

Im abit unsure at present (havnt voted yet) the Northern 1949 timetable was to big when I originally downloaded the item to the server, but since then I managed to split the document into 6 separate documents listed part 1 to 6 so the download will be more simple and easier, but was in the process of downloading the item when Brandon left the group, so I think I was waiting for Brandon to delete the huge bigger files and replace them with the split files as their was quite a lot, don't know if the split northern 1949 document eventually get on the server.

I liked the layout of what Brandon originally did in the bygone era

Can any of the 'older' members on here remember the old summer services that used to operate during the 80s and 90s.

If memory serves me correct I can remember the following...but not sure on dates.

002 stanley/consett to south shields. Operated by Northern
004 south shields to washington to beamish museum. Operated byNorthen.

These 2 services used to interwork. Bringing day trippers to south shields. Then returning the bus to stanley in services as far as beamish.


22. South Shields to Sunderland via the coast. Open top service operated jointly by Sunderland Busways and Economic.

Service 332 North Shields Ferry to Whitley Bay. Open top service operated by Coastline

Service 333 North Shields Ferry to Whitley Bay open top service operated by Northumbria

Service 400 North Tyneside Tourist Bus. Operated by Northumbria using a minibus and once a month by Coastline using the old routemaster..can't remember which one

Service 555 Bedes World Jarrow to Souter Lighthouse. Operated by Northern Chester depot for some reason. While Northerns. Shields depot was just up the road.

There are probably many more that I can't remeber

(21 May 2014, 8:14 pm)ifm001 wrote Service 555 Bedes World Jarrow to Souter Lighthouse. Operated by Northern Chester depot for some reason. While Northerns. Shields depot was just up the road.

Aha! So I'm not the only one who has some recollection of this bus service.

I used to see this service on route-maps but never saw or used the actual service itself.

There is some discussion about this service somewhere else on the forum.

Yeah the 555 used to be operated by Northern from the chester le street depot. They always used one of the horrible wright handybus vehicles. Hardly ever carried any passengers whenever I saw it.

Personally I think we should bring back most of the summer services. We are a vast tourist area and the south shields shuttle is not worth it. It should go right along the coast as in the olden days .

Incidentally either united or tees used to also operate an X16 I think it was from Stokesley to MIddlesborough to South Shields also. Summer sundays I think that one was