We're planning our next vacation for next year, Ireland and Scotland.
Looking for suggestions on museums featuring machining, machinery,
steam, etc. We have no city by city itinerary yet, so wide open on
locations.
Jon
Sounds like a grand plan, Jon. Don't forget to check out Hogwarts
when you get to Scotland. ;)
Maybe check out some of the books on the Industrial Revolution
centering on those 2 countries to get a better idea of who did what
where, then look for history following them. Got a good library down
there?
I'd avoid London if at all humanly possible, if you're touring
England, too. (Beirut is probably safer nowadays.)
Yeah, thanks, found those readily. Should have been more specific I see.
Was hoping for personal recommendations. There's only a couple that look
to maybe have good manufacturing exhibits. That topic is on my list,
there's plenty of topics of interest to both of us. Don't want to spend
couple hours driving to a museum of interest to me and be disappointed.
For instance, the National Museum of Scotland has a rather bland
description of displays. Saw a post in a FB group that showed there's
some interesting displays of early manufacturing machinery/tooling.
Jon
Game of Thrones tour, couple other sites TBD, then Scotland, where
wife's family came from.
Got a library... It's at least a year out, plenty of time for research.
Can fly direct to Edinburgh, no desire to visit London, though there are
lots of interesting sights to see.
Jon
London is good but I only do it in small doses, you have the benefit of
the Science Museum, the V&A and the Natural history Museum and others. I
can only do about 3 or 4 galleries in the V&A before my mind is
overwhelmed by all the beautiful objects. Maybe consider posting on
uk.rec.models.engineering for more local knowledge.
I posted the catalogs because somone who visited in person may not
remember the name or location. For years I confused Schloss
Hohenzollern which I visited with Schloss Sigmaringen that I didn't.
One of my favorite London museums was the Kew Bridge Steam Museum, now
called the London Museum of Water and Steam. I used to like the
Science Museum. It had a very large model ship floor, plus a
fantastic mill engine on the main floor. Lots of other early steam,
too. It may have been "curated" since my first visit. Last time it
was closed for renovations.
The Tower was great the first time, huge collections on display. The
last visit, it had been "curated" too, most of the really interesting
stuff hidden away, and more or less a narration they wanted visitors
to follow.
The Imperial War Museum was a good one. Enigma machine on display,
captured German stuff, etc.
I also liked the Greenwich Royal Observatory with the first
chronometers. My youngest son was pissed when we looked at the prime
meridian and he finally snapped to what it meant. I used to listen to
"Station WWV, Fort Collins Colorado" to get the time, and snickered
about "Universal Coordinated Time". I began always calling it
"Intergalactic Space Cadet Time". For years, he thought that was the
real name.
Pete Keillor
I'm with you on Kew Bridge; if you are interested in aviation, Hendon
is worth a couple or more days. It has bee 13 years though so things
may have changed.
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.