(13 Aug 2016, 11:55 am)Craig Smith pid='\'177494 wroteHello.
We gave people something new this year in R855PRG. Yet she hasn't brought in the crowds as we thought she might. That said mind. We did not get her to get rally attendances up. I alone decided that I would save A Volvo B10BLE as nobody else would.

One of the reasons that we have poor attendances from outside the region I think is that the North East is stigmatized as A flat cap and grease jacket domain and we haven't got anything worth wile coming to see. Also very little or no publicity. We did the Bishop Auckland Station Event 3 weeks ago. This was publicized on Bishop FM, Facebook and our web site. So we have A good amount of people coming to ride on FTN 710W.

At Seaburn LAG188V will be coming again along with A few others. However after A long trip that last thing the owners want is to let them go on shuttles. Your average diesel fuelled car will get around 45 mpg. Taking 4855 for example she gets around 8 at best. So the cost of bringing her down and back from Tow Law (40 mile round trip) doing A shuttle run (10 miles) burns A lot of fuel. 16 gallon just for that trip. That's 112P A litre. That 75 litres of fuel costs £84. That's just A rough guide.  

So wile we get the same buses coming to these events think of those who do actually come with A bus and the cost that's involved. For Seaburn it will cost us around £250 in fuel for 4710 and 4855 as we are doing other things that day. That comes out of 4 peoples pockets.

Having said all that. If you go into bus preservation you have to be prepared to spend the money. No restorationist is A tight wad...

PS... Don't for get the road run September 4th at Consett 12.00.

Within the last 12 months there have been several new vehicles appearing at the local rallies. Like Craig points out, he has R855PRG which has just been restored. I myself have just finished FTN708W, and other buses from my group include C656LJR and AUP369W, all of which are new to the scene. Tyneside Heritage Vehicles have also displayed a couple of new purchases too. Having attended rallies for a good few years now, I think that this has been one of the better years for new displays.