It's a new year, so let's go back in time to 1993. September of that year saw the Max Electric Railway's centenary, and a few months earlier, the first visit of Parker's senior and junior.
The place hasn't changed that much, but some of the cars parked beside the road will now be considered classics - which makes me feel sooooo old.
I suspect that a lot of cars that were on the roads then would now qualify for "classic car" insurance policies.
ReplyDeleteWhether they'd be considered classics depends on the cars:
Ford Anglia - almost certainly.
Mini Metro - well ... .
The list could go on - but I'm sure you get the idea.
As for how this stuff makes anyone feel, I suspect you might be several years younger than me - so, perhaps, a bit less of the "sooooo old"?
Seriously though, I can understand the appeal of the trams.
They also seem to be something of a draw in other places that kept their trams - places like Blackpool, a town whose motto seems somewhat appropriate given their refusal to ditch trams in the 50s and 60s - only for other places to reintroduce them.
Anyway, I don't know if you've noticed any resemblance between (photos of) Blackpool & Fleetwood 1899 closed tramcars and somee MER "winter saloons" of similar vintage.
OK - I could imagine modellers of Blackpool trams finding this rather useful - but I suspect it might be no accident that very similar Milnes built trams appeared in both places. According to one book I read, at least one of the early Blackpool & Fleetwood bosses had previously worked for the MER.
I remember it well. It was a great event, and, perhaps surprisingly given my later life carbon guzzling it was the first time I ever flew on a commercial flight. I also didn't know then that in the next few years I would be doing a lot of work for the Manx government. And now I've realised it is a shocking twenty years since my last visit.
ReplyDeleteHuw, there is a rather nice 4mm scale Box Car tram kit available from Corporation Model Trams