| 14th-16th of August saw "The Great Garratt Gathering" at the Museum of Science & Industry in Manchester, and this collection shows a number of pictures taken during my visit on Saturday the 15th.
The event featured various Beyer, Peacock and Garratt designed locomotives, both large, small and model, and also included various presentations, and site tours of the former Beyer, Peacock Works in Gorton. Locos on display included: 1909 built K1 0-4-0, "Willian Francis", 'Ironclad' 957 from the Worth valley, Tram Engine "John Bull", ELR Diesel D7076, 7.25" Guage Class 59 locos Mount Kenya and Mount Kilimanjaro, the Museum's own replica locomotive 'Planet', and 85 other Garratt style locomotive sof various guage and size. Also on site was a vintage bus, lorry and tank, and also a Steam Traction engine and Steamroller. The event itself was enjoyable, in spite of the Manchester weather, which varied between deluge and sunshine, often within a few minutes of each other, but my one moan, and one that was shared by a number of other visitors, many who had travelled a lot further than we had (hundreds of miles further in some cases), was the way that the site tours to the Beyer, Peakcock Works was handled. This was to be the highlight of the visit for us, and with three trips planned for 11am, 1pm and 3pm, we thought that we would go for the 3pm one, since we didn't have to worry about making any long trips home afterwards. 2.30pm arrived, and we joined the growing queue for the old SELNEC bus, and were somewhat shocked to be told, after nearly a half hour of waiting, that we needed a 'ticket' to get on the tour. No mention of this was made on the museum's website or downloadable programme of events, and there were no notices or mentions about this anywhere near the bus queue or in the museum itself. On visiting the information desk to find out what was going on, we were told by a very smug and unhelpful woman that because there had been so many people wanting to go that morning they had given them the tickets, and that was that, tough luck in other words. You can imagine how we all felt about this (moreso as the bus had at least six empty seats on it when it departed), and would it really have been so difficult to have put a notice up somewhere explaining what was happening? You have to ask why was this situation not forseen beforehand so that people who really wanted to go on this tour could have pre-booked a place on it in advance (they managed to do this with the £20 a head photoshoots no problem, no doubt if there had been a charge for these trips things would have been very different)? We could only draw the conclusion that the museum and organisers knew damn well this would happen, but didn't want to publicise the fact because it would have put many people off from going there (it probably would have too!). This piss-poor organisation and total lack of consideration ruined what would otherwise have been a good, and greatly anticipated event - and someone needs a good kick up the arse over this cock up! Pleased about it I certainly was not as you may have already gathered! 
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It's wet, so we must be in Manchester! 1024x731 IMGP2344.jpg |
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now where have I seen this 'hymek' before? 1024x713 IMGP2376.jpg |
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looks like it's getting ready to take out the Beethan Tower! 1024x735 IMGP2397.jpg |
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