How it all started

[Keith]

I've just uploaded a scan of the first ever Round Britain roadbook onto the site.

Low Res 3.3mb http://club.triumph.org.uk/rbrr/roadbooks/rbr66.pdf
High Res colour 31mb http://club.triumph.org.uk/rbrr/roadbooks/rbrr66c.pdf

Thanks to John Graham for hanging onto it for all these years and to Tim B for obtaining it.
71 roadbook to follow!

Keith
;D

[Tim Bancroft]

Excellent stuff Keith!

[david langrick]

 

  Nice one Keith, it appears the first run came past my parents house in  Arnold,Nottingham , i would have been 2 months old..... 

[Keith]

Dave,
It must have had a lasting affect on you!
:P
K

[Deleted User]

Outstanding!

I love all these old roadbooks.

It makes you realise how big a challenge the 1966 event was when you consider that that there were a lot fewer motorways in existence and hardly any by-passes.

The route had to go through the middle of every large town or city.  Nottingham, Edinburgh, Perth and Bristol.

The A roads would have had less of the twisty sections removed and the road signs and road lining would have been much poorer than in today's "nannying" road network.

Yet they still managed an average time in excess of 40mph.

Outstanding!

[Keith]

Here's the '71 roadbook,

http://club.triumph.org.uk/rbrr/roadbooks/rbrr71c.pdf (15.5mb colour)
http://club.triumph.org.uk/rbrr/roadbooks/rbrr71.pdf (3.5mb b/w)

What's fascinates me here are the handwritted notes in the margins and on the inside cover.
Can you believe a petrol bill for the whole run of £17.31!!
:o :o

Keith

[david langrick]

  note the comment " rewind watches".....

[Deleted User]

I'm "lucky" enough to be of an age where I can remember the roads used in Scotland before they were straightened or by-passed by motorways.

The tortuous, twisting A90 through Glenfarg is now a quiet B road but at least it's still there and can be enjoyed even more today as it is, largely, free from traffic. 

The A82 down to Luss along the side of Loch Lomond is a very different, cruising style of A road now.  The old road used to twist and turn following the shoreline of the loch.  I used to drive Transit vans up and down this road most weekends when I roadied for bands.  There used to be loads of holes in the wall at the side of the road where some poor unfortunate had ended up in the loch.

It appears that the RBRR has evolved as these roads have disappeared in order to make the route less boring and inject a requirement of some driving skills from the crews.

Is there any chance of any more of these roadbooks appearing on the Forum as I find them fascinating being a maps man?

[Tim Bancroft]

Jim,

The two that Keith has printed are the oldest that are still around, however Tim Hunt, Keith or Dave Langrick might have some from the late 70s and early 80s.

BTW what bands did you roadie for? Trying to think of some old Scottish bands: SAHB, AWB. or what about The Skids (Crikey I feel desperately old, bought their first single on 12inch in 1978)!

[Deleted User]

Nothing so glamorous as Alex Harvey or the Average White Band.

It was just a Glasgow band called Starfighter (well it was the seventies!).

They never really got any where but the were well named - they all thought they were stars and they fought amongst themselves all the time!

The Skids, though, were from the other side of the country in Fife.  Richard Jobson, the lead singer became a TV know-it-all but I've not seen him around for a while.  Stuart Adamson and his sidekick Bruce something or other went on to form a great Scottish band, Big Country.

Shame that Stuart saw a sad end in Las Vegas.  He was sensational to watch and listen to.

[Keith]

Here's the earliest one I've got from 1988-

http://club.triumph.org.uk/members/rbrr/roadbooks/rbrr88c.pdf (colour 25mb)
http://club.triumph.org.uk/members/rbrr/roadbooks/rbr88.pdf (b/w 6mb)

It's much more look the modern route and book format, there are some notable differences though. Most memorable was driving through the centre of Edinburgh at 3am whilst all the nightclubs were throwing out and trying to dodge all the drunks in the middle of the road!

Tim, just a thought but maybe for next time as it's the 40th anniversary and the 20th run we could try and incorporate some of the loops mentioned by Jim?

Cheers,

Keith



;D

[Tim Bancroft]

Keith, Good idea, try and get together and discuss this with Derek P. See you Monday evening.

Jim, I was flat out on early 80s Scottish bands such as Orange Juice, The Associates, Josef K, Cuban Heels and Aztec Camera. Never really into Big Country- thought they were a bit obvious. But yes a shame that Adamson passed on. Umm! sorry to babble on about music.

[Deleted User]

Mid-eighties and Big Country were big in Scotland.  Something to do with their guitar style and use of the drums.  Always reminded me of a Scottish Military Tattoo band.

By this time, I was more into chasing women and had less time to spend on music, so my tastes had become a bit more mainstream.  Only the Minds kept Scottish music going through the late eighties till I settled down and became the serious minded person you see today.

Back to the RBRR.  Most of the loops such as through Glenfarg involve changing from one B class road onto another, then onto an A class road before returning to the motorway again.

This might be a problem for the less navigationally gifted amongst the crews.

Just look at the A38 south of Taunton, reduced to a mere B class road and probably hard to follow on the ground.

It's the usual problem when choosing a route.  If you try to add in some interesting roads, you increase the mileage, perhaps unnecessarily, when you really need to be crossing the country at a fair rate on a reasonably direct route with as few road changes as possible to catch out the unwary.

Although having said that, if you include the A822 and A826 from Crieff to Aberfeldy, then north over the B846 to Tummel Bridge before continuing north to Trinafour, then a series of uphill hairpin bends, one after another on the unclassified road over to the A9, you'd have no complaints from me.  As you can probably guess, this is one of my favourite runs.

Or you could always totally upset the apple cart and run the RBRR in reverse.  That would ruffle a few feathers! :o

[James]

Or the original 1966 route... don't ask me how though!

[Tim Bancroft]

I think it would be great to run the next one to the original route, however traffic densities would rule this out.

Good point you make there Jim about deviations from the route. It would be great to be able to use a lot more minor roads, however we are attempting to drive around the country in 48 hours. Just think what an impact an accident on the M25 would have made to the finish of last years event.

[Deleted User]

I think the 1966 route would be impossible to follow for a few reasons.

1.  Many of the old roads no longer exist as they have been "stopped up" now that they are not needed anymore.

2.  To get onto many of the old roads would be quite difficult as all the road signing is designed to point you in the direction of the new wider, straighter roads.

3.  The route now would be rather boring as you would stay on motorways or wide, fast A roads for much of the route.  40 hours to do the RBRR would be quite feasible, I would suspect.

4.  Several new bridges are now in place such as the Kessock Bridge at Inverness and also across the Cromarty and Dornoch Firths.  These cut loads of miles off the route.

5.  Residential development has expanded at an expotential rate lowering the speed limits along many of the old roads used.  Do you really want to drive round Britain at sub 30mph speeds.

6.  Speed (sorry Safety) Cameras infest these 30mph zones, so no fun to be had there either.

Although there are opportuntities to follow the old roads that do exist and are free from traffic, speed cameras and are in excellent condition.

The old A74 still exists south of Junction 8 near Stonehouse all the way to Gretna Green.  Once you are south of Lesmahagow, you can enjoy truly deserted fast and I mean very fast, driving on smooth well maintained carriageways.  When you enter Dumfries and Galloway, you can follow the even older A74, that was there before the old dual carriageway was built down through Beattock, Johnstonebridge, a new bit of straight road by-passing Lockerbie and back onto the old, old A74 through Ecclefechan to Gretna.

All of this is far more fun than playing spot the unmarked car or safety camera van on the overbridge on the motorway.

Every year, when we go down to do La Carrera Caledonia, we take the above route and believe me, it IS far more pleasant than bombing down south in the overtaking lane plus you feel, if you're driving in an old car, that you're driving back though some kind of motoring history of the main road link between Scotland and England.