(05 Jul 2015, 4:53 pm)Malarkey wrote Seems to be quite a mixed reaction on the Rally today, Spoke to a few people who said it wasnt worth coming out for due to the small amount Vehicles in attendance and lack of space in what is supposed be to be a Car Park, just looked like a slab of tarmac to me like, would agree with those comments after spending 4 Hours on Buses to go to Whitley Bay and back, this included a 70 Minute trip on the 1 to Gateshead from WB having missed the 308 due to taking a Photo of (H106) was going out on the Shuttle and not seeing the 309 in the distance as I boarded the 1 a few minutes later, didnt see it till I went to sit down as the 1 pulled away.

As I discussed with Aureolin last year on our way back from Seaburn Rally I think something needs to be done with the Rallies to make them more enjoyable, i.e. bringing different Vehicles as we see the same ones every year, although it was nice to see FTN 708W & 33101 at Durham the other week as it was something different to Photograph, I think perhaps merging the Smaller Rallies such as Whitley Bay, Durham & Seaburn together at a Location which is Central to where everyone is travelling from, and is easy to travel to via Public Transport, so then your not doing a Jimmi spending 6 to 7 Hours on Buses to and from the Rally, that is some dedication to the Hobby right there mind, and having the Event at a bigger site such as Herrington Country Park at Penshaw, with the adage of other Vintage Vehicles such as Cars and Trucks etc would make it more interesting, I would also like NEBPT and CDBPG to have an Enthusiast Open Day at there Respective Yards.

So you would have as an Example:

MetroCentre - May 
Tyne Tees Run - June
Shildon - July
New Merged Rally - August

Finally some praise for the amount of time and effort I dedicate to this hobby, I never normally get anything. It does actually annoy me at times as I get very little praise especially for long outings whilst others get showered for taking photos on their doorstep.

My thoughts on today was so negative as these where the shuttles when I got there:
GNE 6044
GNE 5234
The Eden PPT 446P
The Eden AFB597V

Two of those are service buses which I didn't need to go all the way to Whitley Bay to ride especially as I got the X10 from Newcastle to Peterlee home and I have spent a fair amount of time on the two Eden buses at other rallies this year and did not really want to ride them again especially so soon after Howlands.

One of my other issues was there wasn't much space and the buses ended being parked so close together that I have to put two buses in the same photograph in some cases.

If it's on again next year I'm am unsure if I will attend again but I probably still would as before I got there I was actually enjoying myself but just didn't feel totally myself when I got there and started to feel ill later on and I am still not 100% right now.

Your saying about being easy to be able to get to rallies but Shildon is pretty difficult especially on a Sunday as the only ways to get there is the train which runs about every 2 hours and the Arriva 1B and 5A which both run hourly and if you don't know Shildon it can be tricky to figure out when to get off especially on the 5A made worse by the allocation of EcoCity's on Sundays so you can't use the next stop announcements to figure out when to get off. I can't see me running into many members of NEB if I attend Shildon again this year.