Crich haul

 

For a show that I didn't really rate, I still managed to come away with some interesting "stuff". Kicking off with the Tramway museum itself. They always have a table with stuff that has been donated, and doesn't fit in with the museum, or the proper souvenier shop. 

For donations, I am the owner of a Lisbon tramway tin that used to contain sweets. I loved these trams, and this is a bit of fun. 

The George Milnes enamel sign is a replica (it says so on the back) but rather nice, as is the German sign prohibiting spitting on the tramcar. This might be real, it certainly has a bit of weight. To be honest, I picked it up out of curiosity at the end of the day. Oddly, no one else seemed to want it. 

And the poster. It's A4 sized and I would guess is at least 20 years old. I suspect this might be from a batch (there was a big pile) of duff posters, as it's been altered in Biro to add "to" between a couple of dates. 

KW Trams are good for a chat, and a couple of years ago, I picked up a Morris Minor Fire Engine kit for work. This time, I have a 7mm scale phone box (I love phone boxes), a SPUD marked as "rough", but a useful wheelbase, and for just over a tenner, and after a bit of a clean up, followed by some tinkering, it runs fine. The Birmingham tram kit is a bit of nostalgia - I'm sure I remember these being sold in the 1970s!

Finally, some books. Adelaide and Lison trams are ones I've ridden on, and I don't own books on either, until now. The Lisbon one is really superb, full of pictures showing the trams in location around the city, also covering some other parts of Portugal - it makes me want to go back!

The Postal History of the Manx Electric railway is a rare beat, an IoM transport book I didn't own! OK, it's pretty niche, covering the franking marks applied to letters and cards that have travelled by rail, which probably explains why it wasn't a massive seller. 

Oh, and I brought back some refreshments. 

 

Tram beer with a picture of LCC No.1 on the label, which was lovely. 

And a Ploughman's in a packet. Taken from one of those cards in the pub that peanuts come from, but without the sauchy photo, I just had to try it. Verdict: The sub-Dairylea cheese and crackers were nice. I'm no fan of pickled onions though.