Manchester collection

We are told that Science and Industry Museum Director, Sally Macdonald, says:

“We have just completed a £5million new Special Exhibitions Gallery which over 20,000 visitors have already enjoyed, and we are investing £11.3million in our iconic Power Hall, due to reopen in 2023. We are also undertaking repairs valued at over £3m to the 1830 Station and 1830 warehouse”.

Some questions for her:

• Is she proud to have subsidised to the extent of £250 per head each visitor, so far, to the Special Exhibitions Gallery ?
• Why does everything, nowadays, have to be either ‘iconic’ or ‘unique’ or is this just evidence of poverty of language?
• Why can’t she say what the repairs to the station and warehouse cost rather than telling us the figure at which she values those? As history, in this sector, has demonstrated, often there is a significant difference between cost and value.

From a personal point of view does it make sense to split the Avro’s ?  Rather than separate anything with an Avro link why not keep them all together instead of one here and another somewhere else ?

My first thought was space. The second was cost.

Hi All,

Apologies for bring another dead thread up but an interesting article about the future of Manchester’s Science and Industry Museum exhibits dispersal. 

Courtesy :-  http://warbirdsnews.com/ – Home Page.

Article:- http://warbirdsnews.com/aviation-museum-news/manchesters-science-and-in…

From a personal point of view does it make sense to split the Avro’s ?  Rather than separate anything with an Avro link why not keep them all together instead of one here and another somewhere else ? 

Geoff.

Now, who hasn’t been to Dumfries recently then? 🙂

Quite happy to admit it’s me! It’s a bit out of the way for me to visit, but it’s good news about the expansion.

Fancy a Shack in them new hangars? :dev2:

Kind Regards,

Scotty

Dumfries has recently purchased some more land and in the process of building some hangars to house some of the aircraft.

Now, who hasn’t been to Dumfries recently then? 🙂

As for EF, Concorde was a massive ego trip , it cost a lot of money for just one aircraft. They desperately need more hangars but hell will freeze before that happens.

[QUOTE=AndyY;2296162]Comparing the location of MOSI and the Woodford museum, to me MOSI wins hands
Hi All,
Andy,
If I remember correctly the kids had to push a button to initiate the movement but it was such a great site to see at the time as much for ma as the kids…:D

As for moving her under her own steam I sure it would not take to much as I remember she looked really good and has just sat looking pretty in her retirement after all they have just got the ‘Flying Scotsman’ back on her feet yet again after another in depth restoration haven’t they ?

Meddle,
Of coarse which else ? 😀 and I would know were I would shove one concerning this whole affair….:stupid:

Paul,
I still think that a simple bridge is the way forward just because something is not in use does not mean that it cannot be utilised in the future by some means or am being to optimistic ?

Geoff.

Pause until I stop laughing. How dare you cast nasturtiums?

I am indeed. I bid on a lid that claimed to have been on the jar of marmalade that was on Mick Mannock’s breakfast table the morning he was shot down and which he used to spread on his last ever slice of toast . My subsequent research has revealed, conclusively, that he only ever had jam on his toast of a morning. The giveaway? When I took the jam jar lid out of its mahogany frame and looked at its underside, it was evident that the lid was from a jar of marmlade that had come from LIDL!

AA, you’re not suggesting there are fake jam jar lids on Ebay … are you?

The fake connection …..

sadly a lot of aeroplanes end up as jam jar lids.

See http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?137967-Fake-ebay-items!

Andy: sadly a lot of aeroplanes end up as jam jar lids.

So do I, that’s probably what was ‘wrong’ with the old Birmingham museum…………..
The problem is that those in charge of any museum will do whatever is perceived as fashionable today if it enables them to move up their career progression. They will happily move from an aircraft museum to the jam-jar lid museum if that is regarded as a step up.
Andy

I too quite like “dusty old” museums. What’s wrong with the word? I just looked at the list of the 20 “most visited” museums on Wikipedia and it seems to me that the use of the M word does not stop places having quite good attendance figures. Places like the National Air and Space Museum and the Science Museum (relating directly to aviation, although the RAFM doesn’t figure in that list), but also the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Vatican Museums, Victoria and Albert, Orsay, Louvre and I could go on. No, there’s nothing wrong with Museums, as such. It’s how they are run that is important. They don’t NEED to be theme parks, or even interactive.

The bridge on which the track passes over the river to the station is, mainly, the original built by Stephenson and is a Grade I listed structure.

Many other options were considered including what you suggested but it was considered unacceptable as it would impinge too much on the skyline and considerably reduce the speed of the trains whilst climbing the gradient and of course more expensive. Interestingly enough there are now plans to build skyscrapers just across the river from the bridge, so much for skyline then. However, I have since found out the actual connection to the main line from MOSI has only been used about 5 times in the past 10 years.

Are cross-overs no longer acceptable??

I believe that the new line is going to be just too low for an underbridge and too high for a level crossover.
At least Liverpool Road station has survived, unlike the terminus at Crown St in Liverpool which was buried under 1960s development.

Dinosaurs, perhaps the most successful creatures on the planet, around for 135 million years. Man? A mere 200 thousand so far………………
Andy

Gentlemen, I’m sending you application forms for membership of the Dinosaur Club. Honorary Secretary, AA!

Sounds good to me! Where is this museum?

My type of museum too…………!!!

Anon, you have summed the current situation up very well…………

images of rows of dusty old cabinets and glass display cases,

A

Anon.

Sounds good to me! Where is this museum?

Hi All,
Andy,

As for the debacle about the chord surely an easy fix build a bridge instead of severing the line not rocket science is it ?

Geoff.

The bridge on which the track passes over the river to the station is, mainly, the original built by Stephenson and is a Grade I listed structure.

Many other options were considered including what you suggested but it was considered unacceptable as it would impinge too much on the skyline and considerably reduce the speed of the trains whilst climbing the gradient and of course more expensive. Interestingly enough there are now plans to build skyscrapers just across the river from the bridge, so much for skyline then. However, I have since found out the actual connection to the main line from MOSI has only been used about 5 times in the past 10 years.

Are cross-overs no longer acceptable??

Yes, I agree too. There’s not enough publicity regarding the north-west’s contribution to aviation and the original museum at Deansgate went a long way to addressing that.

It’s such a pity that places like that, however well they appear to do, end up being political or financial pawns or subject to hidden agendas, have their funding cut or withdrawn and because of that, ultimately fail. Not because they failed to fulfil their original and intended purpose.

A hundred years ago, a museum was set up as a long-term/permanent institution for the betterment of society. Nowadays the whims of councils, funding bodies, backers and policy makers seem to change every ten years and what was seen as a long-term policy suddenly becomes unfashionable or subject to a “new” or “enlightened” approach and shut down.

I recall that around 12 years ago the term Museum was seen as outdated and we were forbidden to use it. Apparently, someone had said that it conjured up images of rows of dusty old cabinets and glass display cases, which were not what the “modern” public wanted to see.

Anyway, on the latter point, at least the term Museum has persisted and is now back in popular use. Let’s hope that, at the very least, Manchester’s aviation exhibits will do so too.

Anon.