YORK NRM Great Gathering

[virginking]

Any experiences of visiting this over last day or so? Are acceptable images of all 6 A4s possible without stepladders etc which one presumes the NRM safety nerds will have banned?.

 

[60163]

Your best bet is one the turntable, or behind it, as from there you can at least get a shot with all six streaks in the frame. Abandon all hope of getting clean shots with nobody in them.

I was there yesterday and found the sheer number of people fighting for space on the wooden (!) walkway steps thingie rather comical!

I wouldn't try and bring in stepladders, personally. And if you stand where City of Truro is, facing away from the loco, you may see D6700, KOYLI and 09016 lined up outside the building. Out of sight. And where Green Arrow is, you may still see D1023 sat outside.

Totally worth it, though.

 

[virginking]

Thansk fot the Info - I will try late in the afternoon. !

 

[Peter Mugridge]

I went there on Saturday; I have to wonder why the NRM did not fence off the area from the arc of the front of the A4s to the turntable in order to allow clean pictures; this was the only problem with the whole day.

 

[virginking]

I agree . I went yesterday afternoon thinking it might ease off by 1700 - WRONG!
There were still queues at each entrance at 16.30!

Using the turntable as a platform helped but it was only possible to get all locos in the shot by standing behind the turntable and including both a large array of heads and a massive Hornby banner. Still they must have kicked some money in so thats down to the NRM commercial team.

11,000 visitors yesterday and apparently 13,000 - a record - last Saturday. At least it shows people do have SOME interest in railways when the right message gets out.

Realistically go for the experience and nothing else . The group does look magnificent - particularly the BR liveried versions.

I took around 60 shots from various angles and thanks to the 'I want to touch it and love it' brigade there is a barely a human free shot but plenty of atmosphere.

Well done to Steve Davies for organising this before his recent sad departure.

 

[corin paul]

Going on Saturday. Ask my dad if he wanted to come, he said
"No thanks, I fired all but one of them.".
He lived in London in 1959-60 working at King's Cross top shed, and Hornsey.
All but one which was destroied in the air-raid at York station.

 

[junglejames]

I agree . I went yesterday afternoon thinking it might ease off by 1700 - WRONG!
There were still queues at each entrance at 16.30!

Using the turntable as a platform helped but it was only possible to get all locos in the shot by standing behind the turntable and including both a large array of heads and a massive Hornby banner. Still they must have kicked some money in so thats down to the NRM commercial team.

11,000 visitors yesterday and apparently 13,000 - a record - last Saturday. At least it shows people do have SOME interest in railways when the right message gets out.

It was very busy Wednesday. Apparently 4000 people in the first hour after opening. i got there about 1300 and the queue must have been around 2hrs long nearly. It wasnt moving very fast at all, and snaked right round to the lane, and down the lane.

Wasnt going to wait, and so came back about 2 or 3 hrs later. Thankfully by then the queue was much smaller. Only ended up waiting about 30mins.

 

[E&W Lucas]

Went late afternoon, c 1700. Straight in, but still very busy inside. If photography is your thing, you're going to have a frustrating time. The place was like an Aspergers convention.

 

[DarloRich]

I went in to the NRM about 1715 and it was still really busy! Pictures were really hard to get but the following set is the best of mine. I couldn't even think of getting them all in the same frame!


http://www.flickr.com/photos/darlo2009/sets/72157634624355626/

 

[edwin_m]

75min queues this morning in blistering heat - we went on the Wheel instead and will be back in October...

 

[Jedipickles]

75min queues this morning in blistering heat - we went on the Wheel instead and will be back in October...

I was in that queue - It was closer to 105 mins!
The heat and lack of shade or breeze made it unpleasant but I waited and once I was inside it wasn't too bad, just very very busy!

 

[edwin_m]

I was in that queue - It was closer to 105 mins!
The heat and lack of shade or breeze made it unpleasant but I waited and once I was inside it wasn't too bad, just very very busy!

In that case I'm glad we did what we did. My 8-year-old son is mad about A4s but even he didn't want to wait. We had enough of baking in shade-free conditions at the Olympics last year...

I assume the reason the "Great Gathering" has only gone on for a couple of weeks and outside the school holidays is that the working locos are, erm, working over the summer period. In which case hardly surprising that the last Saturday was packed out, but another bit of ammunition for the NRM if the suggestion of closing it comes back again.

 

[Ploughman]

You can always go when its cooler.
Its on again in October at the NRM
Then finally at Shildon in February.

 

[Trainfan344]

I have no idea why people moan that's it busy, did you honestly expect to turn up at midday and wander straight in, I turned up at 9:50 and still had 3/4 of an hour queue.

 

[corin paul]

Got there at 9:05 for 10:00 opening, about 50 people in front of me in the queue. When I got in, with in 10 mins it was to busy to get any photos, oh well. I had a walk round for about hour. and slowly went back to the main hall, and it was about 11:30 now. But it had thinned out a little which is when I got my best shots.

Great Gathering, Great Day.

Nice and cool inside.

 

[E&W Lucas]

but another bit of ammunition for the NRM if the suggestion of closing it comes back again.

It could also backfire on the management. I fail to understand why this event wasn't charged for.

 

[virginking]

It could also backfire on the management. I fail to understand why this event wasn't charged for.

Quite - but I guess it all comes down to political correctness - but then that's UK 2013!!!

 

[DarloRich]

Quite - but I guess it all comes down to political correctness - but then that's UK 2013!!!

what on earth are you talking about?

 

[wbbminerals]

The event should have been charged for, at a low fee and so it was affordable for families. The NRM do put on some great events but also seem to lack any common sense when it comes to their finances.

 

[TheEdge]

The event should have been charged for, at a low fee and so it was affordable for families. The NRM do put on some great events but also seem to lack any common sense when it comes to their finances.

I was there on Sunday and thought that. I would guess that maybe 75-100k people will visit for this July gathering, even charging just a few quid each and the NRM pockets a small fortune.

 

[ryan125hst]

It could also backfire on the management. I fail to understand why this event wasn't charged for.

That's exactly what my Mum and I agreed. We went on Saturday and when we left at about 15:00, loads of people were queuing to get in and they said the queue was about half an hour long. If they only charged £2 per adult and £1 per child, they would make quite a lot and the prices would be very good.

 

[causton]

Indeed - I am amazed they didn't charge, (not being there I don't know if this was how it actually was, but...) at the Science Museum they have an entrance desk where they invite you to pay a small donation but if you don't want to you can walk straight through. Perhaps some more generous people could pay £10 or so to offset the costs of those people who didn't want to pay and it could make even more money if they choose what they want to pay, rather than suggesting a low amount!

 

[Ploughman]

The invited donation was being tried initially but abandoned due to the amount of people visiting.

 

[scotsman]

Any idea what will remain of the gathering on view on Thursday - I could easily make a detour there on my way north, would it be worth it?

 

[TheEdge]

Seeing as it only finishes on Wednesday they might still all be there. Although I would assume Bittern, Gresley and UoSA will leave fairly rapidly so they are back earning a living.

 

[theblackwatch]

Any idea what will remain of the gathering on view on Thursday - I could easily make a detour there on my way north, would it be worth it?

I popped in this afternoon, and according to a couple of people there, Bittern is due to make its exit tomorrow evening. However, I do wonder if the postponement of its 90mph tour (which was due to run on Friday) will have an effect on this.

Incidentally, I arrived at the NRM at around 16.15 this afternoon and walked straight in - no queue at all.

 

[ModernRailways]

Went along today (16th July) and it was packed. If I had to pay I wouldn't have bothered though, and would have waited for Shildon and paid there. What I thought they should have done to help the flow would be to put a one way system in across and around the back of the turntable. Not doing so just created an almighty crush that wasn't at all pleasant. I managed to get a terrible photo, and instead opted for a video as more of a momento to say I've been. Was in and out of the place in about 10 minutes though as it was just way too hot in there.

Some better planning could have been done. Hopefully, Shildon will do it perfectly and have them all outside lined up really well. Plus it won't attract the tourists, so should be a lot quieter.

Was nice to see them, but I could only wish it had of been organised a bit better. Another plus, was that I didn't have to queue, if I had of been 10 minutes later (when I left) then it looked like a long queue!

Something else I noticed was the staff looked unable to cope. Those on the front desk, saw a huge mass of people and abandoned all hope of stopping people so they could bang on about donating.

 

[DarloRich]

It could also backfire on the management. I fail to understand why this event wasn't charged for.

or they loose a fortune like they did on Railfest :roll: cant win either way really.

 

[ryan125hst]

or they loose a fortune like they did on Railfest :roll: cant win either way really.

From what I have read online, they only lost a fortune at Railfest because they allowed so many special guests in for free or at a reduced rate. While the weather didn't help, they weren't far off their target for attendance.

I can't see how they would loose a fortune if they charged a couple of pounds per person to get in?

 

[Tiny Tim]

I visited the NRM on Wednesday 10th of June, arriving outside at about twenty minutes before doors open at 10.00am. I'd anticipated the event being popular, but I was surprised at how many people were actually there. We got in fairly immediately, but were lucky to avoid the queue being stopped when capacity was reached.
Photography was pretty much impossible. I took a couple of shots with my camera held at arm's length above my head, but gave up. The number of people desperately taking photos was a bit weird, verging on the obsessive. On my return home I downloaded some nice, clean, professionally-taken images. I'm ashamed to admit that I've been attaching these to e-mails to friends and family without acknowledging that they're not mine. Will I burn in Hell for this? I think not.