DavidB-AU

I suspect this originated in Melbourne!

I had a quick look through the British Newspaper Archive and there are articles about Michael Bentine opening events at places such as the Great Western Society, NRM and Ruislip Lido Railway as well as the RH&DR from the late 1960s until the early 90s. I had no idea he was involved in railway preservation until this video came up as a random suggestion on YT.

Those cattle wagons are basically containers so the flats can be used at other times as needed.

There's another famous location in Victoria where the railway runs down the middle of the main street.

This is from a 1993 episode of Highway. I had no idea that Michael Bentine had been a member since the early days of the railway. And was Spike really driving???

52 minutes ago, Ben B said:

 

I've seen that vid before, it's fascinating :) You have to wonder how many of some kits just ended up never getting built, but added to piles in VisFX workshops...

 

I used to be a member of a model-making forum with a lot of Gerry Anderson fans, trying to recreate certain iconic vehicles from the various series. Certain old 50's and 60's toys are now insanely expensive and rare, just because of Anderson fans hoovering them up to build replicas. It's like the stories of how rare and pricey a certain kind of flash gun for SLR cameras is now, because they were used as a basis for Luke Skywalkers lightsabre, and fans bought them all up make their own.

 

I guess at least nowadays there's 3D printing to recreate some of those rare old parts.

Going into the kits that were used to make Star Wars ships is another kettle of fish, but the short version is there are a LOT of Saturn/Apollo and Harrier bits in them.

On 04/09/2023 at 08:59, Darlington_Shed said:

On a related note, the wonderful Adam Savage has talked about how there are parts of model kits "on every spaceship you've ever seen in the Star Wars universe". Well worth a watch here:

 

 

Edit: For those who don't know, Adam was a modelmaker at Industrial Light & Magic.

Related

The TB3 crew carrier may look familiar.

Two fascinating videos about the amount of Airfix and similar kits used in making Thunderbirds models.

From the government of Zimbabwe

1 hour ago, Ozexpatriate said:

No. 1 Squadron RAAF at Amberley taken delivery of F-35s?

It's an EF-18G operated by No. 6 Squadron.

Interesting view out of my office window today.

On 31/08/2023 at 08:06, KeithMacdonald said:

2. A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows, or of some unspeakable disease."
· "That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

It was Gladstone and Disraeli. They genuinely hated each other and traded biting barbs all the time.

Another classic Disraeli quote: "The difference between a misfortune and a calamity is this: If Gladstone fell into the Thames, it would be a misfortune. But if someone dragged him out again, that would be a calamity."

On 27/08/2023 at 08:20, PhilJ W said:

Just needs "onna stick" to make it perfect. Those who get the reference will understand.

I was told about a decade ago that modelling Chinese railways is seen as a "politically acceptable" hobby for the growing middle class.

Somewhat topical.

Quote

Amid a declining population, an increasing number of stations on Japan's local train lines are switching to unmanned operations as railway companies target the bottom line amid decreasing passenger numbers. The trend is evident even among the nation's biggest operators, with nearly 60 percent of the 4,368 stations operated by the six Japan Railways Group passenger companies now running without staff.

https://japantoday.com/category/national/feature-rise-in-japan's-unmanned-rail-stations-creating-concerns

I read endless letters in railway magazines of the 1970s and early 80s ridiculing suggestions that diesels should be preserved, because don't have the character of steam and don't belong on heritage lines. Now diesel galas are an intrinsic part of many heritage railways. Literally the same views resurface every 20 or so years when another generation of rollingstock is retired.

The job of a heritage railway is to preserve railway heritage. While the Pacers ended up doing things they were not designed to do for about twice their intended life, they are nevertheless an important part of railway history which needs to be preserved. Ergo, they belong on heritage railways.

The National Tramway Museum at Crich and the London Bus Museum at Brooklands have preserved vehicles of similar vintage to the Pacers (and even buses built this century are preserved) for a reason - they are a part of history, no matter how much some grumbled about them in regular service.

The only preserved Queensland C16 is now main line accredited.

2 hours ago, SHMD said:

Is it a film set?

It's a preserved 1943 Madrid metro train on display at Chamartín for the centenary in 2019.

On 13/08/2023 at 19:20, melmerby said:

Merry Hill shopping centre had one to get around the various bits.

IIRC It went to Queensland.

It went to Broadbeach on the Gold Coast and ran a 1.3 km loop between a hotel and a casino.

The line was mothballed in 2017 due to life expired components and a lack of spare parts (a common theme with Von Roll monorails) and the train was sold in 2022.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-01-30/broadbeach-monorail-closes-after-almost-three-decades/8224210

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-03/decommissioned-broadbeach-monorail-carriages-for-sale/101032536