When I was a teenager circa 1965-66 my father took me to see a huge model layout believe based on London airport. I cannot remember where it was. It was great moving cars on the roads and the airliners could taxy and depart into the clouds. Does anybody else remember seeing this and who built it ?
By: SADSACK - 15th February 2013 at 00:07
re;
Thanks for the replies guy’s,MarkB that is the one . It was very realistic with sounds and quite busy. It may have been Skegness but I cannot remember where.
I am from Skegness, the only place it could have been would be Crofts department sore
By: Malcolm McKay - 14th February 2013 at 23:59
I recall seeing a similar action model here in Australia in that time period in a local shopping complex. The post which mentioned the Concorde and the mention of the operator wearing a captain’s uniform brings it back to me. My impression was IIRC that the models were a bit toy like, but in defence of that I was an adult when I saw it back then. That is not to say I am not an adult now – just an older one 😀
By: RedRedWine - 14th February 2013 at 23:21
Beatties, Wolverhampton as well.
The operator wore a Captain’s uniform and explained how an airport worked, including having little vans with “follow me” on the back of them.
By: AndyC_249 - 14th February 2013 at 20:19
I must be pretty sad to have registered just to post this*, but as a child in the mid/late 70s my grandfather took me to see a model that matches that description at the old Swann and Edgar department store at Piccadilly Circus.
I remember that it had a Concorde on a wire that took off and flew through some sort of backdrop.
Might be the one that GrahamSimmons saw as well?
(*I’ve lurked on here for ages, but with no background in aviation, I’ve had no reason to register before.)
By: T-21 - 13th February 2013 at 14:10
Thanks for the replies guy’s,MarkB that is the one . It was very realistic with sounds and quite busy. It may have been Skegness but I cannot remember where.
By: markb - 13th February 2013 at 13:33
I remember seeing something like that in the late ’60s at Lewis’s Department Store in Blackpool. It included a lot of tin toy aircraft, incuding big metal Lufthansa Viscounts that had engines that started sequentially. There was a runway with a scalextric-sype track, allowing aircraft to “take off” and fly behind a curtain.
It was a travelling exhibit, so probably turned up in a London department store too.
M
By: GrahamSimons - 10th February 2013 at 05:58
I want to say one of the London Department Stores – Selfridges maybe?
By: Firebird - 9th February 2013 at 16:58
When I was a teenager circa 1965-66 my father took me to see a huge model layout believe based on London airport. I cannot remember where it was. It was great moving cars on the roads and the airliners could taxy and depart into the clouds. Does anybody else remember seeing this and who built it ?
Blimey, that’s jolted the old memory cells.
I can remember my father taking me to see that, but I would have been only 4 or so then, so, I have no idea where it was located, let alone who built it. I do remember going there with an older cousin, and his father who worked at Heathrow for BEA at the time. Sadly, both my father and uncle are no longer around, and my cousin’s memory is terrible 😀
Just a shot in the dark, it wasn’t at Hamley’s in Regent St was it…..?
By: GrahamF - 9th February 2013 at 15:43
If it was a professional model built in the 1960’s it was more than likely built by Thorpes Modelmakers in Grays Inn Road London. This at the time was pretty much the only Industrial Modelmakers around then and they are to date the oldest company still trading [ over 100 years].
By: charliehunt - 9th February 2013 at 12:27
No, I wonder where that was? This is impressive for the 21st century!
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February 9, 2013 at 10:28 am