The May meeting was chaired by Roy Mellor who is well known for his 'back page' views in Bustopics. I have to say I have been impressed by his views from time to time especially when he showed his views at a slide free-for-all last year. I am as guilty as many an enthusiast for I only ever see the vehicle I am photographing until Gerald Mead appeared on the scene which made me think and I am sure every other member is the same.

When Roy started his show it was here in Sussex before we were transported up to the Tyne and Wear area and were soon to learn his interest was beyond buses with views of railways and more importantly in my view the Tyne and Wear Metro which, regretfully, I found totally uninspiring except for one of the stations which showed artistic tiling. With views closer to home in and around Eastbourne we soon came to realise his close association of ideas with Gerald Mead and close appreciation to lamp posts and the like thus a good proportion of photographs were taken on the Stone Cross to Hailsham road. For so many years we do our own thing with photographs and Roy renewed our understanding to record the bus scene as it happens. Our show would take us to Wales with views in the Stagecoach area including views in the Islwyn Borough before the Stagecoach takeover earlier this year.

The show was by way of our computer and the video projector which if nothing else shows just how we can continue a show with the longest nights of the year. With slides the early part of the evening would have found us struggling. Being an old git the subject was very new but now I have come to realise that everything we take today is instant history so a huge thanks to Roy for taking a look at the ever changing face of the bus industry, encouraging us to sit up and for compiling the show which was full, to say the very least, of up-to-date facts. Cheers Roy.

John Bishop

The March meeting welcomed back Dave and his brother Chris Warren from Hove with a slide presentation of thier car trip to Spain way back in the early seventies. I have to admit I was not sure of their subject matter but it is usually entertaining to say the very least.

In these early days of the seventies era this would be quite an adventure compared with today's jetting around the globe plus the fact that Spain was still a dictatorship with all the usual restrictions on photography.

We started off with the ferry across the English Channel to France and then it was a slow drive through the country where we would sample some home grown French buses which I have to admit where never my favourites except when they had sticks on their roofs! For me the interest started when we crossed the Spanish border with a look at light rail and of course the proliferation of trolleybuses. As it happens there was a decree by the government in or about 1973 all electric traction will go. This prompted me to go with a colleague to Spain to film the trolleybuses. We were taken through the northern reaches of Spain and into Portugal where we saw the trolleybuses of Braga, Coimbra and Porto along with the trams of Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra. All these bar Lisbon have still to be discovered by me so it was especially nice to see these cities. Braga was interesting for the fleet of buses and trolleybuses were immaculate. Quite bizarrely the whole fleet and infrastructure was purchased from Heilbronn in the then Western Germany.

Whilst I imagine this would not please every member I was glued to the screen and the presentation was over all too soon. Before any member asks I honestly did not know what was to come! Cannot help thinking that this was compiled with me in mind - never mind!

John Bishop