Friday the 28th was the start of a busy weekend. With the event only a short distance from my house, I planned on taking all three vehicles to the show. Three vehicles and two drivers is especially difficult when my wife wasn't available to stay on Saturday due to my daughter's dancing rehearsal for a performance that evening. More about getting there later.
So on Friday, I took the Dodge over for about 9:45am and began to set up the display. Around sixty school children were due to visit, so I began with unloading the Dodge and setting up all the aerials, windsock etc., so there would be something to see when they came around.
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With that done, I began to rope off an area for a display table, the signal
square, the two Jeeps and the trailer. Being close to one of the entrance gates,
the display needed to taper and so some careful measuring was needed to make
sure everything would fit.
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For the rest of the day, small groups of children and their handlers, came to
look at and chat about the various displays which had been set up for their
visit. It was good weather and surprisingly tiring, just sitting talking!
After my daughter
finished school for the day, my wife collected her before making her way over to
the railway to pick me up and bring me home.
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The following morning, I took "Jessie" over to the railway, towing the
trailer and got them parked up. It took a bit of shuffling the Jeep back and
forwards through the gap in the rope to get it turned parallel to the fence.
Lynne came over in the normal car soon after and took me home. I returned a few
minutes later with the Ford, which also contained all the accessories for the
truck and photo display.
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In 2017, the railway still had a steam loco operational. That event however, was
its last use, as the boiler certificate expired that weekend. With an overhaul
bill of around £80,000 and their other steam loco with a burst steam pipe,
needing a boiler off overhaul, the railway has been left with only their vintage
diesels operational for the 2019 weekend. The trackwork is also being slowly
overhauled and upgraded, so no passenger trains could be operated during the
weekend.
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There were battles amongst the wagons in the rail yard, plus a firing
demonstration, with Russian and German forces fighting it out. Around a dozen
military vehicles were in attendance, mostly Jeeps, but a couple of Kubelwagons
were nice to see together, plus a German bike and sidecar and a classic MG.
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I used my video capture technique to catch the muzzle flashes during the firing
demonstration. Amongst the various goods yard buildings were a multitude of
dioramas of different themes, with a large selection of weapons, equipment and
artifacts from various armed forces.
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It was great to see my three vehicles all together again, the first time this
year. Since everything was marked up as RAF last year, all three vehicles wore
their normal USAAF markings for the 2019 show.
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The French resistance display had a huge selection of equipment spread over a
number of tables.
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My photo-recon and target analysis display included my Fairchild F-71
Stereoscope, Folmer Graflex Corp K-20 aerial camera and 100th Bomb Group photo
album. The stereoscope was very popular, with few people passing the table
without having a look.
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It was another enjoyable event with at least a couple of thousand people passing
through the museum on Saturday alone. The three hour tidy up, which included
returning the Jeeps home, plus the Dodge into storage, was exhausting.
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