17 May
2010
17 May
'10
12:25 a.m.
I plan to head along, but won't be taking anything as I doubt my SBC6120 kit
will have arrived by then, and the various VAXen and PDP-11 are all missing
vital parts to bring them back to life (RD* disks in the main).
On (07:14 17/05/10), RodSmallwood wrote:
Good point!
It seems to be a bit like the aircraft preservation people. One of
everything but nothing flies. I just hate that. If something was built to
run and can run again with out damage it should.
I'm sure they hate it too, which is why they are valiantly trying to get as
much running as is humanly possible with the resources they have. Compare
this to the CHM in the US or the Science Museum, which would much rather
have machines preserved in aspic. This is the norm for museums, as they
argue that exhibits will deteriorate faster if they are put to use.
As to volunteering, it's clear that many of us
would spend as much time
traveling to BP as they would doing something useful whilst there. Not to
mention the cost.
I used to volunteer in locomotive engineering on a preserved steam railway
in West Yorkshire (where the original Railway Children was filmed), and
travelled up from London every other weekend for a few years.
Then moved to Glasgow and travelled down for around the same time (this
becoming a ~4 hour journey). Numerous folks travelled up from London & SE,
with one eventually buying a small house locally in addition to retaining a
place in the south (he was up every weekend).
I guess it's a matter of commitment and priorities etc. I say this as a
non-volunteer, as whilst I think TNMOC is amazing and would love to help,
I've made other commitments and thus for the foreseeable it cannot be a
priority for me.
I do have an idea. Why not farm out some of the stuff
in storage to those of
us who have restored a similar item in the past for themselves?
I'm sure a small card saying 'Restored to working order by Joe Bloggs' would
but reward enough.
Perhaps not a bad idea, if it can be made to work within whatever conditions
have been set out by the donors (I understand there is kit from the Science
Museum stores etc).
Regards,
Andrew
--
Andrew Back
a at smokebelch.org