Was the Triang Giraffe Car Real?

[luckymucklebackit]

Have a look at the Dunn & Duffy Circus train from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, not one but two giraffes sticking their heads out of the roof of a wagon!  skip to 3.39 ...

 

 

[Steamport Southport]

Yep. You can tell that Spielberg and Lucas were model railroad enthusiasts.

 

They probably had the Lionel version. Spielberg in particular is well known to have had a Lionel train set that he used to film. The film exists somewhere online.

 

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/steven-spielbergs-train-keeps-rollin-77458/

 

 

 

Jason

[Andy Kirkham]

24 minutes ago, Joseph_Pestell said:

 

Would there be any road-over-rail bridges on Egyptian and Sudanese Railways at that time?

Good point. The lady on the TV specifically said there were six bridges en route.

[Flymo749]

On 24/07/2021 at 21:34, Flymo749 said:

 

There is an article on the transportation of giraffes by the Great Eastern Railway in issue 172 of the GERS Journal.

 

If the GERS will forgive me a slight copying of material, this suggests that the tale on the Portillo programme does have an element of truth to it...

 

"Another occasion of the movement of a giraffe by the GER was when, in 1912, the Sirdar – Sir Francis Wingate – made a gift of a young member of the Kordofan species to The Zoological Society of London. This gentleman had succeeded to the position of Sirdar of the Egyptian army and governor general of Sudan in December 1899. By all accounts,  he made a habit of donating unusual animals to the zoo. One of the Society’s agents was sent out to board the ship at a Mediterranean port and to telegraph back the height of the animal so that, if necessary, arrangements could be made to send it  to its destination via a bridgeless route. The Times noted that: ‘…when the bridges over railway lines were constructed, the possibility that giraffes might be passengers had not been taken into account. …’

 

That newspaper further reported on 16 September 1912 that:

 

‘As one of Mr. Carl Hagenbeck’s agents was bringing home a consignment of Egyptian animals, including several young giraffes, it was arranged that the Sirdar’s gift should travel with these others. The animals were brought down to Suez, partly by rail and partly by steamer, and were then shipped on one of the Hamburg-Amerika liners, which took them to Antwerp. The chief difficulty was reshipping them for England, as on account of the regulations of the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries no ruminating animals are at present permitted to come from Europe to this country. At Antwerp the giraffe was transferred without landing to one of the Great Eastern Railway Company’s vessels and brought direct to Harwich, where it was examined by a veterinary  inspector and passed as free from disease. It arrived in Regent’s Park late on Friday evening, where it was given a warm mash of milk and oatmeal gruel. … The giraffe is a sturdy young male, standing over 8ft. tall and probably about a year old. It is very tame and docile, much more so than the larger animals born in captivity …’ How the animal was transported from Harwich to Regent’s Park is not recorded, but perhaps a young 8ft animal could fit inside a van?"
 

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reginald_Wingate for a history of Wingate's career.

 

Cheers

Paul

 

 

A few months ago I wrote the above, to shed some authentic, historical light, on the subject of the transport of exotic animals on the Great Eastern Railway.

 

Whilst I acknowledged the GER Society Journal (a quality scholarly work published for members) as the source, I overlooked mentioning the author.  That was Bill King - then Chairman of the GERS, and an extensive and fastidious researcher on matters of the GER and its successor.  Bill has written a significant number of articles for the GERS on a variety of subjects, of which giraffes is perhaps just the tip of the iceberg (or the roof of the tunnel).

 

There is an archive of backnumbers of the GERS Journal, currently from issues 1 to 180, available for purchase by members of the GERS in digital format at a very reasonable price.  The scholarship included makes that a very worthwhile investment.

 

Cheers

Paul