Re: Forum demographic survey
Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2014 1:39 pm
This appears to back up what I've said earlier about some of us collecting based on our childhood toys, and some of us collecting based on our childhood 1:1 memories. I'm mostly the latter, and purely for my own amusement thought I'd look at the RW range for models that connect to me personally and found that for space reasons I've had to leave out the models that made it to the Superfast range. Just for the record, I'm 40 and wasn't even aware of the RW range until about 10 years ago. My nostalgia may not be typical of my age as I do live in a corner of the UK which in the 1970s and 80s particularly was in a bit of a time warp, nothing was thrown away and the countryside was littered with vehicles kept for spare parts or being used as sheds. Unfortunately too many tourists complained to the local council and those days are goneBroughton wrote:In my opinion it is decisive, at what age you have your memorable experiences. I for me was about 7-9 years old, when the poppy SF have been released. Before that I owned some RW - nice and commonplaced but somehow dull (my impression at that time).....and now Big Banger, Soopa Coopa, Flying Bug etc. Something really new and all my friends wanted them. We collected and were proud to own them; it was a wonderfull time for us and it was the most important doing then. And this feeling slumbered despite all the years and now brakes through again, yeah!
The oldest vehicles I remember locally were 25a Bedford CA, 29b Austin and 43a Hillman Minx. I have a vague recollection of a pick up version of the 36a Austin - it looked rather like the 50a Commer. I don't mean preserved vehicles, I mean regular falling apart daily drivers, usually brush painted with yacht enamel and held together with Isopon. As my dad had a garage my brother and I spent hours playing in derelict buses and cars such as the 29b, 38b and 21a/b. Although not exactly the same most school buses here until about 1980 were obviously derived from the 21a/b. Another good play area in spite of parental warnings was the local dump which had an 18d Caterpillar Dozer.
Walking to school took us past the garage, complete with 'Shell' versions of the A1a Petrol Pumps. Then we would pass the local telephone exchange which featured many van versions of the 21c Commer. One memorable event here saw our gang of 7-8 year old boys being called across the road by a rather inebriated BT employee to help push his bent '21c' off the gate post he'd run it into attempting to get into the yard.....
The local roads contractors were quite happy to run any of their vehicles on the public highway past the school, not just the 3b Tippers but also their 6a/b/c Dump Trucks and 1d Rollers which gave much relief from boring lessons. Incidentally, the last hamlet on my home island wasn't connected by road until around 1988, much of the work being done by a machine very similar to the M4a. My first job was as in 1988 pump attendant at the family garage, working a set of A1b pumps. Amongst the pre-transitional RW models whose tanks I filled on a regular basis were 3b, 12a/b, 29b and 46a. I've also in a different job worked a 3a mixer. My interest in old cars has seen me own a 30a Ford, only because I couldn't afford a 33a.
Like I say, times have changed, and the only non-preserved RWs I see now are 72a Fordsons. Hope this hasn't sent you all to sleep
