h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

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I loved what I saw but lack the vocabulary to tell you what it was. Most had to do with hydraulics, steam, water, and all had been in use at some point. The most recently used machine worked until 1972, I think, and powered parts of Manchester. Tim may remember. I loved those exhibits were the machines were put in context - there was one showing all the machines which were powered by the pump. A bit like what I took photos of at an exhibition of model mills:

https://picasaweb.google.com/TheBelana/ModellMHlen07Juni2007#5073291410000277474

Part of the time spent at the museum, I wandered around with mini trying to hunt down the origin of warm air and metallic pounding.

Oh, and after the train ride, I had to brush off soot flakes from my hair.

The largest steam engine in the Museum is actually a narrow-gauge locomotive. The 210 ton Garrett style locomotive was built for the 3ft 6in South-African gauge. It was built at the Beyer-Peacock works in Gorton, east Manchester. This was from a time when the factories of Manchester exported locomotives and other heavy machinery around the world.

We had just been in the Power House and hubby had been telling my son about the minature machines (he used to use and repair them many years ago) as we were walking out he added 'and that smell of the steam is not entirely dissimilar to a burning body' (He used to work building and repairing cremators), so he ought to know)

The station buildings and sidings containing the museum form the world's oldest surviving rail terminus. Manchester Liverpool Road station opened in September 1830 as one end of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, itself the world's first inter-city railway. It ran a passenger service until 1844, when the line from Liverpool was extended to reach Manchester Victoria Station and thus the line from Leeds. British Rail finally closed Liverpool Road in 1975, and it was bought by the museum in 1978 for a nominal sum of £1.

sitting in the vehicle room and seeing all the airoplains then noticing a radiation warning notice next to the spitfire....

I needed some unpeople time, I think (I'm strange that way, I know) so I wandered around on my own, exploring. On the way I met several little groups, smiled nodded and went on...

Outside the ground floor entry of the Station house, I found a Gas Light gallery, with six or eight different types of gas streetlights, shining brightly. Except one. There was also a funny smell, so I told myself not to be silly, it's probably all nicely shut off, and that is just the way gas lights smell.
I went through the entrance and learned about how coal is heated to produce gas, and that the leftovers can be turned into paint and medicines. Additionally, there was a model of a gas storage ...um... thing. Big stonking thing, which inflates as you pump gas into it. I pressed button and inflated the perspex model with air.

A side door to the Gas exhibition led to Underground Manchester - a story of plumbing and waste... how water was lead in aqueducts to town, in Roman times, a bit about baths, Roman and later, but more in the focus was where the used water went... Latrines and sewers, of many types and sorts. Hollowed logs for water pipes, self flushing toilet - the water kept running into a big vat, which tipped over to empty, and thus flushed a stoneware toilet. When empty, the vat tipped back and got filled again. Various types of multiperson and single person latrines, dry and with running sewage. It showed that egg shaped sewers are most efficient for not blocking up in low flow, since the narrow part at the bottom will make the flow a little deeper and faster running than the same amount of water in a flatter pipe. At the end of the exhibit, we were lead through a model sewer, with sound effects of trickling and flushing water, and the occasional rat.

We discovered an additional exhibit of a pale blue post box on the pavement outside the aircraft hall. It had a plaque explaining that special postboxes for airmail letters used to be painted this colour to distinguish them from the standard bright red ones for ordinary mail. This separate mail system continued until the start of the second world war in 1939 after which air mail letters could be posted in any box. The blue one outside the museum is still an official Royal Mail postbox today so any postcards from your visit can be posted in a little piece of history.

MC

Contributions made so far can be seen here: A87743866 but more sentances are needed. It's looking good so far! In need of a polish here and there, and needs to be filled up a bit, but for this early stage I'm very impressed.

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Can we get rid of the bit that says tube nearby ... I make it 160 miles to Amersham tube station.


Perhaps ....

The Museum is a short walk from Deansgate-Castlefield tram stop and the adjoining Deansgate Railway station. It is served by the 33 bus betwwen Manchester and Wigan and is also on the free Metroshuttle Number 2 bus route.

I went on the toy train (that actually went choo-choo) and then wandered round the steam engines bit with titania, not sure what any of the stuff in there was, but it was nice and warm. There were various large pieces of machinery. I then found Happy Nerd and we wandered round the textile bit for a good while, we found some of the more interactive exhibits, where I could touch and play with things which was good as otherwise i had no idea what was going on. Then we went to look at the aeroplanes which was fun, although again these were all behind barriers, with no interactive exhibits.

We were turfed out before we went the whole way round the areoplanes bit, so stood in the cold and waited for everyone to appear from the main museum.

There was probably quite a lot of the museum that I didn't visit. And had we asked nicely, i'm sure someone could have shown us where the things that I could actually interact with were.

mini

The punch cards used to form the pattern of cloth woven on a Jacquard loom are the precursors to the punch cards used in early computers.

The museum offers steam train rides around the site at weekends. It currently has two working locomotives that take turns in hauling the coaches. One is a replica of the 1830s locomotive Planet. The original was a pioneering design built by Robert Stephenson and hauled passenger trains from the old Station on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. It was a precursor to most modern express locomotives. The other loco is Agecroft I, an industrial tank engine built in 1948, also by the Robert Stephenson Company (Robert Stephenson and Hawthorns). It shunted coal wagons at the Agecroft power station and colliery in Salford until the 1980s. Other recent steam locomotives to arrive at the museum include Thomas the Tank Engine and Tornado.

Walking to the museum entrance with the low sun shining right along the street towards us and the entrance shrouded in steam and smoke. A sight that would have been much more common when it was a working part of the railway.

In the basement of the station building - Looking at a large map display taken from the late 1800s showing how the victorians tamed the river Etherow in Longdendale to take fresh water from the hills to the city. In one small corner of the map the village I live in is shown.

Thank you everyone for taking part and sharing your experiences and memories - the article is progressing nicely.
Feel free to have a discussion. If someone writes something that you agree or disagree with, then please say and let us know why. I'm enjoying reading about what everyone got up to and the different perceptions about the museum.

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I walked to the museum from the main shopping district of Manchester, it was a flat walk easily accomplished. There were lots of maps along the way for tourist information and finger posts giving directions when we got a little closer to our destination.


(The rest of these contributions are looking splendid I didn't go inside because I'd visited it previously with school age children. It was well worth taking them, as there was lots for them to look at and enjoy, and probably a lot for them to learn about as well.)

I had been to MOSI before in 2007 for the Dr Who exhibition which is no longer there, it was just there for 2007 .

A modern landmark is the Beetham tower (the tallest building in England outside London and is 47 floors high) and is on the opposite side of Deansgate to the street you need for MOSI - Liverpool Street - so walking down Deansgate when you get to the Beetham tower it is time to turn off Deansgate into Liverpool St.

Oh and Just because someone is wearing an official looking name badge, do not assume they are a MOSI museum tour guide.

MOSI is on Liverpool Road, not street (the street bit is in Salford)