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Think Tank

Froth does the City of Birmingham loco still move backwards and forwards like it did at Newhall Street? I remember going down to the railway yard to see the loco brought out on a lorry to get to Newhall street with the tender on a another lorry. Didn't have a camera with me that day mores the pity.
Mike
 
motorman-mike said:
Froth does the City of Birmingham loco still move backwards and forwards like it did at Newhall Street? I remember going down to the railway yard to see the loco brought out on a lorry to get to Newhall street with the tender on a another lorry. Didn't have a camera with me that day mores the pity.
Mike
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Hi mike. No, more the pity but there is a ramp on the one side and you can look into the cab:)
 
When living in Ladywood and on rainy days me and my brothers would walk to the science museum our favourite was to try and beat the automatic draughts machine does any one remember that,i bet that aint the stink tank:D

Mossy
 
Mossy said:
When living in Ladywood and on rainy days me and my brothers would walk to the science museum our favourite was to try and beat the automatic draughts machine does any one remember that,i bet that aint the stink tank:D

Mossy
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Everybody could beat that stupid Draughts machine:D
 
i have read this thread with great interest and now im in a bit of a whatsit as to what to do
i said i would take my 13 year old son to the think tank when he is on his six weeks hols as he is brill at science at school and its something that really interest him

but having read the thread im thinking it might be worth not bothering
i did go on there web site and was shocked at how much it cost to get in
and if the exerbitions are not up to speck then im wondering if it worth going at all
dont really wont to travel all that way only to be disapointed
 
I agree with most of what has been stated already. I do not agree however with the statement that few today know what Birmingham is/was renowned for. If that is so then it is a sad reflection on Brummies for not passing on the knowledge to their children. My Son certainly knows as do my daughters and their children will also know as I tell them as well. My eldest Daughter is a Jeweller by trade and training (in the Jewellery Qtr) but now is mainly a Mom but picking her jewellery work up again as time allows. My son works for JLR having started with Land Rover at Solihull.
 
Static exhibits, the very thing that attracted me to museums ,are now condemned by modern thinking museum curators. People have to be entertained while being educated and as it is entertainment it has to be paid for. Well thats not my way of thinking.
How I would have loved to get hands on experience of those lovely engineering models protected in glass cases but you knew they were there for future generations to admire.Unless it moves or is interactive these model are stored away out of sight to moulder away.Our past is looked upon with embarrassment in some quarters. Birmingham made firearms must have turned a lot of the world that shade of red you used to see in school atlases.But our past is what it was, no good denying what went on incase it offends some people. That way you end up with generations of people ignorant of who they are and what was done by their forebears, both good and bad.
 
Arkrite I agree totally with what you say. We went to the Guinness Museum in Dublin a few years ago. There were things to listen to hops a waterfall and to be honest I was so unimpressed and came away thinking, well I learned nothing there. The best place to visit is the Black Country Museum this is hands on and entertaining. The last time we visited there was a school party there and the screams of delight in the sweet shop we thought was lovely. They also tried to roll a hoop down the road....not easy on cobbles! The enthusiasm watching a real blacksmith at work. This is the way to grab the attention of children. We visited a similar sort of place a few years ago in the Black Forest area of Germany. I learn't and absorbed more in that day about how the people lived than I would ever have done reading about it. Oh how I wish we could have a working museum lets face it we have the exhibits in Dolman Stores!
 
I was talking to some young people in the beer garden of my local pub. Because my town is in a rural area they all thought I had been a farm worker. I told them I had spent the last thirty years as a machinist on a lathe .

Then came the question " Whats a lathe ?".

So much for Britains proud engineering heritage.( And I felt like a museum exhibit which someone had forgotten to label ).:cry:
 
Its not just us old fogies. I loved the old Science Museum when I was a kid.

I took my 12 year old Daughter to the Think Tank 4 or 5 years ago, she wasnt really impressed with it, nor was I, its more set up for school trips than for a casual browse like the old one was.

Took her to the open day at Duddeston a few months ago and she was well impressed, even with half of the stuff dismantled and lying on racks.
 
i used to visit the art gallery and science museum in the late 50s and early 60s, i must agree with the comments made the science museum was far superior to the think tank. like some of you i wasted my money visiting it. i went to the art gallery a few weeks ago saw the staffordshire hoard. had a good few hours there walking round brought back some nice memories. also went into the dinosaur exhibition, there is a charge of £5 for that. it was nice to see the old place again. formula t.
 
Motorman Mike. I agree with you - every word. Visted Selfridges 'only once' and i didn't lke it. Having see pictures on this forum of the Central Fire Station, it would be a great venue for the Science Museum. People have stupid and thoughtless ideas when they get a job with a little power, and other peoples money!!!! Miriam [ post 1850]
 
just a quick question guys
my self and the kids are going to the think tank tomorrow and ive been on their website to look at the ticket prices
now it might be me miss reading them but you can either book tickets on line or phone up
what i wont to know is can you just walk in and pay for your tickets there and then or do you have to book on line
 
hi all
ive not long come back from spending day at the think tank with the kids
and you know what we all really enjoyed it
its a great place for the kids as it very hands on with lots of thing for them to do
but for me the steam trains, trams ect was my fave
the planetarium was really good once i got over the motion sickness lol
its a great place to spend a cpl of hours
 
This is a thread made up of posts from another thread

I loved the old Science Museum, and spent hours and hours there. In particular, I liked the cars and the aircraft, but everything in that place was interesting. I haven't been to the new one and probably never will, but folks I know who have visited say it's a massive disappointment. Change for the sake of change, seems to me. Or is it that science and technology just don't rate very highly in this modern world?

Big Gee
 
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Phil and Big Gee, the Eastside museum is a real let down, no atmosphere and all the old stuff crammed into one small area, no getting on the tram to ring the bell any more :(
Not sure that science and technology don't rate, just think they are not made much of, my son loves his computer and gaming boxes, but he's also fascinated by how things work and the way things were made, just so few places now to show him that are hands on. He loved Blists Hill in Telford because a lot of the workshops were happy to show him tools and equipment and let him hold them - think we were lucky it was quiet when we went. He has been brought up with carpentry tools with dad, so can handle them well!
Sue
 
Sue, what you say just confirms what I'd heard about Eastside. But so long as there are places like Blists Hill and Ironbridge, then all is not lost.

It's also good to know that your son takes an interest in practical things, but I kind of get the impression these days that he's in a minority. A lot of people - and not just young people - don't seem to have much interest in, or care about, how things are made and how they work. I was a little ****** when I was young for taking things apart to see how they worked, including my dad's precious blow-lamp which we never did get working properly again....he never let me forget that, but at least I had a healthy curiosity (not the expression he used!)

Anyway, I don't think I'll bother visiting Eastside.

Big Gee
 
I was getting excited then, thought there was a new science museum I hadnt heard about. Never heard that area called Eastside before.

Think Tank or whatever its called isnt a patch on the old Science Museum. I attended an open day at the depot in Cato St last summer, couldnt help but recognise some of the stuff from when I was a kid and used to spend hours in the old one. are they doing any more days like that ?

I took my daughter with me, she thought it was great, all that stuff just laid out in an almost random fashion. Every bit as enjoyable as the much larger Science Museum in that london which she persuaded me to take her to, which is by the way well worth a visit.
 
Big Gee, you are right, a lot of Owens mates at school have no interest in the working of things, he took one of his spinning toys apart when the light stopped flashing, he was about 8, managed to put it back together after a fashion so that the light flashed again and with dad being a carpenter and being with him in the school holidays he loves hammering and sawing - he's better than me at putting nails in!! His dad also has a practical streak and often has his motorbike apart, so he helps with that too, guess we are lucky with that, his best mates are rugby mad too and they love being at my mom and dads in the garage with "Grandie", making things from the wood he has in there!
Sue
 
Sue, I think a lot of it has to do with people of my generation ("baby boomers") having no choice but to be practical and good with our hands. Otherwise we'd never have maintained our houses or kept our cars running, etc. I had a young man call me from an insurance company asking me what I'd do if, for example, the ball-cock in our loo needed replacing - I told him I'd replace it myself and he had no answer to that!

Having said that, I'm hopeless with computers and anything electronic - haven't a clue!

Regarding Science Museums, we once spent 5 entire days in The Smithsonian in Washington DC, firstly because it was air-condtioned, but mainly because the place was totally rivetting - magic! My big memory of that visit is leaning over a balustrade and actually touching The Spirit Of St Louis!

Big Gee
 
As I've said before, I was the archivist at the Science Museum before I left to start a family (no maternity leave in those days!), and I'm sure that Norman Bertenshaw, the director, whose 'baby' the museum was, would be spinning in his grave to see how his beloved collections have been split up. His dream was to see the Elkington building extended and updated, and the canal arm behind it incorporated to include an old narrow boat. The Science Museum was always treated as the poor relation of the Museum and Art Gallery and was always at the back of the queue for available funding.
 
As a boy I had little interest in the culture of the Art Gallery give me the Mechanics of the Science Museum any time.I,m sure most of the boys of the 40s-60s felt the same.This has to be one of the greatest losses we have had to endure in this city I would have loved to have been able to take my grandchildren there and shown them the things I grew up with. Dek
 
This has to be one of the greatest losses we have had to endure in this city
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Absolutely, the old museum was a gem; I would spend hours there, there was so much to see and do.

They would play the organ near the entrance; the gas engine was always running, along with the Amos beam engine, the uniflow engine. We would arrive promptly on the house to watch the Corless mill engine run for 5minutes each hour.

There were buttons to press all over the place. I loved the sciencesection with the Fox and hen game, the telephones….

You can understand why all of Birmingham’s museums have hada steady decline in visitor numbers over the last twenty years, with the alternativesoffered by the living museums where you still can press button and ring trambells and immerse yourself in the past.

The impression I formed with Think Tank is, just because they are not interested in our proud industrial past, it does not mean everyone else is not interested either.
 
I think you hit the nail on the head, Mortum - 'they' are just not interested in what this city was and what it stood for. Yet the Black Country Museum proves that today's people are indeed interested in what our ancestors did and how they lived.

Am I correct in thinking that the former Elkington works was originally intended to be only a temporary home for the Science Museum?

Big Gee
 
DavidGrain said:
Does anyone go to Eastside? I never have and probably never will. Have not heard anyone speak well of it.
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The Council attempted to move the New Year celebrations to Eastside a few years ago and it was a dismal failure with a very poor attendance. I think it went back to Centenary Square again the following year.
 
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