Donation: In memory of Michael Gilkes

On display: the Great Central 

Today we put out a new display exhibit, a brown, cream and gold Great Central Railway clerestory-windowed Corridor Coach, made by Bing for Bassett-Lowke in gauge 1 in around ~1904.

It's an early, rare and imposing piece produced as part of a promotional arrangement between Bassett-Lowke Ltd. and the Great Central Railway, and it's displayed behind our Bing/B-L GCR 1014 Sir Alexander locomotive, which was part of the same GC-BL production deal. As a historical aside, the high "spine" of the carriage has clerestory windows painted along the sides – the early Pullman carriages used this arrangement, with the overhead space allowing in extra daylight during the day, and also housing gas lamps for lighting during darker hours. This combination of wood, gas and flame was highly dangerous in a crash, and the shape of carriage roofs changed with the later introduction of electric lighting.

The purchase of the coach was funded by Audrey Gilkes in memory of her husband Michael Gilkes (1923-2014), one of the original founding trustees of the museum, who is much missed.

Anyone For The One Show?

Owen as Compo in
Last of the Summer Wine

If you’re in Brighton on Monday 23rd March, how about coming along to Brighton Toy and Model Museum and getting your face on TV?

The BBC’s flagship primetime sofa based discussion programme The One Show will be filming a piece using our mural of a Pullman as a backdrop. Perhaps they’ll come inside for a look around? Who knows?

Bill Owen, best known for his portrayal of Compo in the BBC comedy Last of the Summer Wine will be the subject of a profile on the One Show. Owen, who died in 1999, was famous as the Nora Batty chasing scruffbag lothario alongside Peter Sallis as Clegg (also known for his voicing of Wallace in the Aardman animated movies featuring Wallace and Grommet) and Brian Wilde as Foggy who famously played Mr Barraclough in Ronnie Barker’s prison comedy Porridge.

Owen as Mack  with Daphne Anderson
and Maria Remusat at The Royal Court

Owen was born in London as William Robotham in 1914 but moved to Brighton. However, his work commitments as an actor of stage and screen meant that he was often on the Brighton Belle commuting between the City and the sea, hence The One Show’s interest in our mural. Hard as it is to imagine now, Owen was once worried that his role of Mack the Knife would typecast him as a vicious hardman. In his own words: "Down in Brighton, where I live, I even get bus conductors calling me that."

A producer from the BBC called us here at the museum to see if filming would be possible. They asked about the mural and explained the reasons why they wanted to film outside our premises, however, we don’t anticipate them filming inside the museum which is staffed but not open to the public on a Monday.

So, do come along to the Museum, walk up and down, look interested in the museum and the tourist information we provide and maybe you, yes YOU, could appear fleetingly in the final segment.