AUTUMN COACH TRIP

2023 Coach Trip

The trip took place on the 1st October to the Bo’Ness & KinneilRailway.
A couple of late cancellations meant that 30 of us made the trip.
We stopped at The Horn for a breakfast stop and we had a shower of rain. By the time we got to Bo’Ness the sun was out and we had great weather the rest of the day. We had some time to spare before the train ride at 12:30 so we had a look at the facilities of the station. The train ride was excellent going 5 miles out into the countryside. We had a trainee Engine Driver. Mike Watt our President is a friend of the driver so we were told that one of us could travel on the footplate. We had a raffle on the bus to decide who was going to be the lucky person and Mike won it himself! Well deserved! After the ride we had time to visit their Museum and Miniature Railway Exhibition then on to The Red House Hotel in Cupar Angus for High Tea.

2022 COACH TRIP

We had our bus run on the 25 th September to Glasgow Transport Museum.
As usual we started at Oldmeldrum and picked up passengers in Aberdeen and Stonehaven. We stopped at The Horn for breakfast then continued to the museum. Apart from the museum there was the opportunity to take a local bus up to Glasgow for shopping and two of our dare devil ladies went on a high speed boat trip on the Clyde! On the way home we stopped for the usual excellent High Tea at the Red House Hotel in Coupar Angus.

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2019 AUTUMN COACH TRIP

This year we decided to go North again, this time to the Moray Motor Museum in Elgin, then on to Morayvia Aerospace Centre at Kinloss. We had 29 members and guests on the coach with others meeting us in Elgin.
We arrived in Elgin and stopped for our breakfast at the restaurant in Decora, the Home DIY Centre, which is next door to the museum.
We then moved on to the museum.
We were met by owner Tom McWhirter who allowed us to visit the workshop below the exhibits.
We were all impressed with the workshop and the vehicles being worked on.
Upstairs there were marvelous exhibits and Tom, his Wife and their staff answered all of our questions.
One of the cars was of special interest to Lachlan as he had seen it many years ago when it broke down in Inverurie on it's way North. He took photos of it then and gave Tom the negatives to have prints made.

We left the museum and made our way to Morayvia which is in the old primary school in Kinloss.
It has been built up over a few years and is now one of the top attractions in Moray.
There are around 12 aircraft outside the building. Some of them are complete but the larger ones are the nose sections which contain the flight decks. Most of them are open so that visitors can get inside to see and handle the controls. There are also fire engines and other vehicles to see. There are many volunteers to show visitors around, many of them are ex aircrew who flew them. They are able to give a great insight into the workings of the aircraft.
Inside the building there are lots of exhibits to be seen.
Engines, instruments and parts of aircraft. Again guides are there to answer questions.
There is a small cafe and shop includinga children's play area.
This is an excellent and very cheap place to visit (£5 each).

We then left the museum and made our way on a magical mystery tour to the Banff Springs Hotel for our High Tea. Because of road works and road closures because of the torrential rain the day before, we had several detours. We arrived slightly late but enjoyed the excellent meal.

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2018 AUTUMN COACH TRIP

The Coach Trip this year was cancelled due to the lack of numbers.

2017 AUTUMN COACH TRIP

Our trip to Dundee looked like being a hard act to follow since last year we enjoyed lovely weather, beautiful scenery, a place of great interest and finished off at the Banff Springs hotel, where we were spoiled for choice. A really great day. 

However typical of GVRS events, we strive to match or improve each year, and the Dundee Trip was no exception. A later start of 08:30 was made from Oldmeldrum and this took us to the Dundee Transport Museum for10:30 Shirley was let off for her shopping trip in the town centre despite the continuous heavy rain. 

A first impression of the museum was that it looked very small. However it proved to be of tremendous historical interest and included some oily rag exhibits and some restorations of concourse class such as the 1933 Standard Little 9. I remember when my father had one around 1946, it was so much in need of a re-bore and lacked compression that it "couldn't pull a kipper aff a plate!" Driving down Holburn Street, in Aberdeen, a walking man passed us by, much to the embarrassment of my brother Ian and myself.  

The museum turned out to be not so small when we found there were more areas leading off from the front hall. Again more items of interest such as a replica of the aircraft flown by the Dundee inventor Preston Watson, of a plane which in 1903 probably flew a powered flight before the Wright brothers.

After lunch we left for the journey to Discovery Point, which centres around Captain Scott's RRS Discovery. Again we were to learn an awful lot and could not but admire the skill and knowledge employed in the design and building of this predominantly wooden tall ship. Power being used when there was no wind. Imagine having to plan for provisions for 47 men for 3 years and going to unknown freezing territory. They must have been really hardy folk to survive these conditions and for so long.

At 16:30 we left to collect Shirley and travel to the Red House Hotel in Cupar Angus. The weather by now had cleared making it a far more pleasant trip. After an excellent meal, (The steak pie was scrumptious!) we had the raffle then the homeward journey. The result was 21 very happy folk with thoughts of where the GVRS bus trip would take them next year.

Dundee Museum of Motoring https://www.dmoft.co.uk/

The RRS Discovery http://www.rrsdiscovery.com/

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The 2016 Coach Trip took place on Sunday October 2nd to
Fort George near Ardersier.

Fort George is one of the most outstanding fortifications in Europe.
It was built in the wake of the Battle of Culloden (1746) as an impregnable base for King George II’s army.
It took 21 years to complete, by which time the Jacobite threat had been largely extinguished.

The imposing fort was designed by General William Skinner and built by the Adam family of architects.
Today, it still serves the needs of the modern British Army.

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Photos of the visits can be seen Here