Tractor rally!!!

Gift Horse said:
I’m pretty “live and let live” but I find dozens of big, very noisy, vehicles choking the roads a bit anti-social.
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Yes, there was one near us a few months back, though we never found out what on earth it was about. I first thought it was a protest rally of some sort. A large number of mostly fairly new tractors driving in convoy along country lanes with no prior warning - it was actually rather intimidating, which I thought might be deliberate...
 
The point I am trying to make is that roads are for everybody...horse riders can be as much of a nuisance as tractors, as are cyclists, ramblers, boy racers, etc etc...

it is a little ostentatious to suggest that every event or passerby has to notify the Op because she may be out riding...

These are a group of farmers having a rare get together driving their old tractors!
Goodwill to all....

Happy Christmas all.
 
I'm not sure you are reading the thread properly FC. These tractors weren't old, they were mostly huge modern beasts. They totally blocked half a mile of road in a moving convoy. No other road users create anywhere near that level of disruption.

And I'm only asking for something that dozens of other organised events which use the Peak Park provide.

It's called courtesy.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Yes, there was one near us a few months back, though we never found out what on earth it was about. I first thought it was a protest rally of some sort. A large number of mostly fairly new tractors driving in convoy along country lanes with no prior warning - it was actually rather intimidating, which I thought might be deliberate...
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And a lot of those fairly new tractors will be driven by young farmers in Daddy's latest tractor showing off to their mates. As they can have a tendency to try and race each other, they get put at the back behind the slower and older tractors.
I appreciate that these rallies can raise large sums for charities, but it is essential that the organisers and participants keep the goodwill of other road users and people who live along the
chosen route.
 
I really wish that organisers would put up signs before these events. Bike races are the worst. I remember driving a 9 mile stretch on the A50 at dusk in blinding rain while a bike race was on. Not one of the cyclists had to viz or lights. I crawled those 9 miles as lorries and cars slammed their brakes on or swerved to avoid them.

Also came across a triathlon whilst on a first hack with a new mare. No warning signs. Flags and bunting were everywhere, bikes were dumped as speed as the competitors changed over and marshals were very animated. Fortunately, I discovered that the horse was an absolute pro and walked through the lot completely unperturbed.
Any large event on public roads should put up earning signs that are visible in advance. It's not much to ask.
 
I use to live where we have motorcycle rallies on a Tuesday evening. ....ranges from 50 to 250......never hacked out on those days, but the difference is we knew it happened. For the OP or other road users to meet 60 tractors in a 1/2 mile run is really not acceptable, it should have been notified to the community, not doing so is a actually not showing much respect to the community and in this day it's easy to do with social media just takes a bit of forward thinking. I'm not saying it shouldn't happen but it should have been planned better, especially during covid.
 
We used to have car rallies and motor bike rallies in our area of the South Hams. The car rally organiser put a n ote through each door and gave an aproximate time for passing by. The motor bikes came down a track past my field gate and kindly came and warned me in advance of the date/time. I did once get caught on a narrow lane when they were coming past but they waited while I back tracked past them, there were apparantly at least 80 but most of them waited on the other side of the cross roads so I could change route. Little chance of 60 odd tractors backing up. You should have been notified of the route in advance so that you could have picked a different time of day to ride. You could have then stood at your gate and given them a friendly wave!!!
 
bit surprised about FC's reaction tbh. My OH takes part in a couple of tractor rallies round here, done for charity ;) but well publicised in the area and lots of people turn out in the villages they go through to watch (one is a fancy dress carnival type thing, the other is vintage tractors to accompany a local transport festival thingy that closes the main town). So i can understand the desire to defend the concept of the thing, but it's surely a good idea to make sure people are aware, not just so they can avoid the route if necessary but also to support it if they want to :p

In this area there are various motor rallies, cycle races etc throughout the year and the local FB groups are chocka with notices about them, local paper is dying out so that's the replacement round here.
 
If an event is advertised on FB, I'd never see it. I do have a Facebook account for checking in with family and horsey friends, but that's it. It wouldn't occur to me to regularly check the pages of various groups that I don't have an interest in.
The only way to alert people who need to know, is by clear road signage before and during the event.
 
milliepops said:
if that's in response to my post, what i meant was i don't get the paper so don't see the notices in it.
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Sorry MP, it wasn't just in response to your post. Didn't want to quote anyone because it might seem like a criticism which it wasn't meant to be.
I agree about the newspapers. Back in the day, I used to get regional news from the local paper and the free advertisers which covered everything going on in the county.
 
Farmer Chalk said:
it is a little ostentatious to suggest that every event or passerby has to notify the Op because she may be out riding...
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So if your daughter was, say, out hacking a valuable young horse out solo for the first time along a quiet singletrack road, and was confronted unexpectedly with 60 large oncoming tractors giving her no option but to retrace her steps for a long way closely followed by the 60 tractors? You’d be perfectly chilled about that, would you? Or would you not realise that if only she’d known, she’d never have subjected her horse to such a challenge? She’d have gone out another day.

We can all coexist, but we need to be told in advance so that we can modify plans if required. Round here it’s more usually the cycle sportives, and no matter how good the horse is you really don’t want to get mixed up in one of those.
 
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I'm with Farmer Chalk on this one. We all have a right to use the road. That's riders, walkers, and yes, tractors.

We have a group of vintage steam enthusiasts locally, and try to time our hack with their road runs for a bit of added excitement. They have tractors, steam rollers, and one one occasion a steam lorry, which caused a bit of a panic, but we managed.

If everyone starts getting entitled and bothered by being slowed down then horses will be the first banned from the roads.
On an average hack we might be 8 horses (blocking the road? inconsiderate? did we notify the council?), and pass upwards of 50 bikes, the odd vintage car rally, tractors, numerous walkers with dogs and possibly a shoot. A smile and a wave is how it's done.
 
I would suggest that the sensible solution to this problem would be that any convoy was escorted at the front and rear by stewards that had the authority to stop the procession in the event of them meeting vulnerable road users and keep them stopped until the vulnerable road users had reached a place of refuge or safety. This is what should now happen with all cycling road races after there was a serious accident involving a horse rider some years ago and the case reached the court.
 
scruffyponies said:
I'm with Farmer Chalk on this one. We all have a right to use the road. That's riders, walkers, and yes, tractors.

We have a group of vintage steam enthusiasts locally, and try to time our hack with their road runs for a bit of added excitement. They have tractors, steam rollers, and one one occasion a steam lorry, which caused a bit of a panic, but we managed.

If everyone starts getting entitled and bothered by being slowed down then horses will be the first banned from the roads.
On an average hack we might be 8 horses (blocking the road? inconsiderate? did we notify the council?), and pass upwards of 50 bikes, the odd vintage car rally, tractors, numerous walkers with dogs and possibly a shoot. A smile and a wave is how it's done.
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I think you might have missed the bit where it said that is was impossible to pass this half mile convoy in the road they were using, even on a horse?

I wasn't bothered about being slowed down, I was bothered about serious injury to myself and/or my horse.

A little courtesy goes a long way with road users. If the other rallies which pass on a regular basis can put notices on signposts and/or drop a note through the letterbox, why can't this one?
 
ycbm said:
I think you might have missed the bit where it said that is was impossible to pass this half mile convoy in the road they were using, even on a horse?
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If you couldn't pass, then they certainly couldn't pull in. It is up to you as the smaller vehicle to put into a gateway or verge and let them pass, surely?

We have lots of single track roads here. It gets a bit hairy if both of you are pulling a trailer, or one (horse) is frightened of the other (usually tractor), but all have a right to the road. It is completely unreasonable to expect a regular vehicle (and a tractor is a regular vehicle) to notify a private individual of their route and time.

I have one who is terrified of tractors, and have had to deal with some very difficult situations involving huge silage operations on tiny lanes, but it has never once occurred to me that I had more right to the road than them. Quite the opposite, in fact, since my 'vehicle' was the one which was acting up. If I met your tractor convoy on him I would be in for a very rough ride but would see it as a valuable training opportunity for both of us.
 
We get them here a couple of times year. It's normal for rural Wales, they come past my front gate I stand and wave, they often take 20 mins to pass by as so many. Usually raising money for charities, no warning and a joy to see.
A man in Wales is not measured by his Porche or Range Rover as back in Surrey where I came from, it's by his tractor !
It's accepted as a part of rural life here and nobody seems to mind.
We have rallies coming past too, awesome to hear the sound of the 80's Ford Escorts roaring up the valleys towards us.
Oz
 
Scruffy ponies, YCMB is not for one moment thinking she has a right to the road, merely that if the road is going to be impassable for any reason that she should be warned. It would be fine to use them as a "training opportunity" if you also have the opportunity to disengage with the situation, not be trapped the wrong side of home by it.
 
Having to turn away from a large group of big vehicles that are then following you is also not always going to be a suitable sort of training opportunity. If you have one that is already concerned you are essentially running away from them. Pretty much anything that is not 'normal useage' makes it helpful to let people know what is going on, then no one ends up in situations they would rather not/are not particularly safe.

The palo would have had an absolute meltdown, she'd likely stand in a gateway for the first couple but then loose her bottle. She had an accident as a 4yo, and despite having absolutely rock solid hacking buddies, and lots of practice/training since still has a limit of what she can cope with. Thankfully she is recognisable enough that the big agri contractors that use our single lane hacking know her, know that we will get her out of their way Asap at a trot :p, and that that will usually happen quicker if they give her a bit of extra space.
 
scruffyponies said:
If you couldn't pass, then they certainly couldn't pull in. It is up to you as the smaller vehicle to put into a gateway or verge and let them pass, surely?
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Have you looked at the picture I pointed to? The road is banked, there are no verges. The gates are locked. The banks are steep and dangerous. The nearest safe place is a car park a mile back down the road. And no, I cannot vouch for any horse not going absolutely crazy at the nth roaring great tractor to pass within a few feet as I try and restrain it for 20 minutes in a gateway or passing place, of which there are only a few on that road.

, but it has never once occurred to me that I had more right to the road than them. .
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It has never once occurred to me, either. What I was asking for was the same consideration given by almost every other rally which uses that road many times in a year.

I didn't want THEM not to be on the road. I wanted ME not to be on the road.

Why is that too much to ask?
 
I've been following this thread , and it's still ongoing, so I'll say my bit, I was court up in this tractor rally , on one of my horses that is good with tractors, I pulled over into a drive on a single track road, once the drivers saw me they all slowed down , some even turned their engines off , until I beckoned them to come past me. I stood for 20 minutes and enjoyed every minute of it. I'm sure if I had a youngster they would have looked after me. I live about 8 miles from the op, to put a note through every letter box is impossible, if flyers were put up not everyone sees them. They were being very considerate.
 
ycbm said:
I had been home from hacking my young and inexperienced mare for 5 minutes when the first of about sixty tractors went down the road. This road is too narrow for two cars to pass and in some places to get past a huge tractor would mean climbing up a bank. I'm furious. If I'd gone out 15 minutes earlier I would have been stuck with 60 tractors between me and home.

These weren't cherished old vehicles which you do see sometimes out for a group ride. Many of them were enormous modern things and only a few were old or small.

I don't know who they were, I'm guessing a young farmers lot as most of the drivers looked young. I'm sure it's illegal to drive anywhere in convoy like that, as well.

Would you try and find someone to complain to, if only to try to get some warning next year? Does anyone know who organised it in the Buxton/Macclesfield side of the Peak Park?
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We have a tractor run every year here and it’s to raise money for charity. Participants pay £15 each, it’s well advertised locally, and is always very well supported and popular with our local community. I’m in Cheshire btw.
 
Whenever we have a bike event here, or the Egg Run, it is signposted a few weeks in advance. It’s common courtesy if the roads are going to be blocked and allows people to change plans/alter journeys.

I think with a large group of tractors like that going out together, the decent thing for them to have done would be to let the locals know.
 
ameeyal said:
I've been following this thread , and it's still ongoing, so I'll say my bit, I was court up in this tractor rally , on one of my horses that is good with tractors, I pulled over into a drive on a single track road, once the drivers saw me they all slowed down , some even turned their engines off , until I beckoned them to come past me. I stood for 20 minutes and enjoyed every minute of it. I'm sure if I had a youngster they would have looked after me. I live about 8 miles from the op, to put a note through every letter box is impossible, if flyers were put up not everyone sees them. They were being very considerate.
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It was lucky your road had a drive on it. The road I'm talking about doesn't.
 
ameeyal said:
I've been following this thread , and it's still ongoing, so I'll say my bit, I was court up in this tractor rally , on one of my horses that is good with tractors, I pulled over into a drive on a single track road, once the drivers saw me they all slowed down , some even turned their engines off , until I beckoned them to come past me. I stood for 20 minutes and enjoyed every minute of it. I'm sure if I had a youngster they would have looked after me. I live about 8 miles from the op, to put a note through every letter box is impossible, if flyers were put up not everyone sees them. They were being very considerate.
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Nice post. I've always found tractor drivers really considerate, but it was fortunate that you were able to pop into a safe place to wait it out. Some of our hacking routes have little opportunity to pull over safely for 20 minutes. One lane with high hedges and locked gates has nowhere to stand for 2 miles. I can pull over to let one vehicle pass by, but even that gives no wriggle room, so I think it depends on the road.
OK is not asking for exclusive use of the road. Just a warning sign.
 
ycbm I can see your point of view, my lane is even worse than that but I do have gateways and verges to get out of the way on when walking my dogs if I meet tractors with slurry tankers which take up all the road. As much as I like seeing the tractor rallies, yes I must admit I wouldn't like to meet them when walking down the lane walking my dogs.
Here's my lane past my house, very narrow!
 

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Lovely place CdM

Here's a bit of the road I'm talking about, just at the bottom of a in 5 hill behind that viewpoint. There's wider piece of road around the corner before it goes back to blind bends this narrow again. It causes mayhem with single ordinary cars at holiday times because people don't have experience of backing up long distances. The tractor convoy had to stop a number of times while they waited for cars to back up out of their path.

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This is the kind of beast most of them were.

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