Test Equipment Anonymous

Cragside Britain's original smart home which sits at the heart of a grand fantasy garden. Morpeth, Northumberland. (It has a hydro power supply, hence the tag )
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cragside
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/visit/ ... t/cragside

I'd like to see this 1773 mechanical swan operating in The Bowes Museum Barnards Castle, County Durham. The yootoob vids probably don't do it justice.
https://thebowesmuseum.org.uk/collectio ... -duckling/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECuS6HDa-9Y

So, what other places are on your bucket list?

My bucket list?

To wake up everyday.

Seriously, these weren't "technical" but were on the list and achieved...

Visit West cost USA....specifically LA. Was not impressed.
Travel across Mojave Desert and camped out at rim of Grand Canyon. That was impressive.

Technical....

Visited Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, Florida.

To do....

USAF museum in Dayton, Ohio.

MED6753 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 09, 2025 6:16 pm Seriously, these weren't "technical" but were on the list and achieved...

That's sufficient

Visit West cost USA....specifically LA. Was not impressed.

From what I can see from the aerial shots in "Lucifer", LA == SimCity 2000

Travel across Mojave Desert and camped out at rim of Grand Canyon. That was impressive.

Once I would have thought so. I've assuaged that desire by a walk through the Dolomites, including some via ferrata.


I've been up Tridentina, and up and down 666.

While staying in Rifugio Pisciadu (supplied by helicopter) I bumbled into the only English people I saw in a fortnight - and I already knew them! Similar happened in Varkala, Kerala, and on a train in S France. Small world indeed.

Slight altitude sickness overnight at Rifugio Boè

Technical....

Visited Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, Florida.

To do....

USAF museum in Dayton, Ohio.

Smithsonian would have been of interest, but not now.

MED6753 wrote: ↑Sun Mar 09, 2025 6:16 pm My bucket list?

To wake up everyday.

Seriously, these weren't "technical" but were on the list and achieved...

Visit West cost USA....specifically LA. Was not impressed.
Travel across Mojave Desert and camped out at rim of Grand Canyon. That was impressive.

Technical....

Visited Naval Air Museum in Pensacola, Florida.

To do....

USAF museum in Dayton, Ohio.

visited the USAF museum in 1999 and was very impressed. (drove to Dayton on the Friday before jfk jr crashed the plane. had the whole afternoon to visit the museum because we were scheduled to do a firmware update on some switches early saturday morning, and then drove to Columbus to update switches there on Sunday morning.)

always planned to go back and see it again but have not taken the time. it would be well worth the drive.

Air force museums, yes. Only been to the Swedish one, which is good. This good:



(from the inside of the Sud Aviation Caravelle SIGINT aircraft that's been repopulated
with gear by old operating crews restoring it and is open for tours on rare days.
There are very obvious blanking plates in many places in the racks.
An exciting visit and not to be missed if opportunity arises.)

We've also checked a few tank museums off the list in recent years;

• Arsenalen in Sweden
• DPM in Munster
• Museé des Blindeés in Saumur

Yes, Bovington and Blåvand (DK) are missing, although we met a couple of vehicles from the Blåvand museum on the beach there. Just out for a ride, a Leo 1 and a M113 medicarrier..

Apart from that, my bucket list contains a lot of technical museums. On the yet to be done list we for example find:

• Nixdorf Museum
• Danish Computer Museum
• &c

There's lots more. Including museums I'm not going to visit for at least 4 years.

These are not on my bucket list, because I've done them.

The National Museum of Computing at Milton Keynes. They have working Bombe and Colossus machines, an early mini computer (Eliot?) an ICL mainframe, a Cray super computer, various microcomputers from the early 80s, some playing games, almost all of Clive Sinclair's naff creations, and more.

The Ironbridge Museum. Ironbridge is arguably the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

An industrial museum in Birmingham with Tangye steam engines and a strange generator powered by gas used for electroplating. At one time Birmingham did a large trade in electroplating. I also recall a huge working mercury arc rectifier.

An industrial museum in Cardiff docks. I went there on one of their steam up days. I have an idea it's been moved.

The British Vintage Wireless and Television Museum. When I was there, the curator, Gerry Wells, fired up John Paul Getty's prewar TV for us.
It was a huge strange thing with a mirror to view the screen. They had a mercury diffusion pump and other gear for making valves in a shed round the back, which had come from Marconi-Osram or one of those. Apparently, they'd done a run of R-valves with it. I thought it was too unstructured and too much like a load of old radios and TVs, which even if you are interested in vintage domestic radios and TVs, is excessive.

The Hack Green nuclear bunker. This was supposed to coordinate the response to a nuclear attack on the UK through the Cold War. There's a lot there and it's well curated. It helps if you have a particular interest in the Cold War.

A few aircraft museums up and down the country. I've been to Cosford because there used to be a radio rally held on the site. I've driven past Duxford and was treated to a B17 doing the rounds.

With all these things, you have to balance the effort to get there, against the value of seeing what's there. It helps if you are in the area for some other reason, or drop by on the way back from something.

Zenith wrote: ↑Sun Mar 09, 2025 11:10 pm These are not on my bucket list, because I've done them.

The National Museum of Computing at Milton Keynes. They have working Bombe and Colossus machines, an early mini computer (Eliot?) an ICL mainframe, a Cray super computer, various microcomputers from the early 80s, some playing games, almost all of Clive Sinclair's naff creations, and more.

Yup; ignore Bletchley Park next door. The Elliott 803B was the first computer I used; 8K*39bit words, with Tony Hoare's seminal Algol60 compiler fitting in the bottom 4K. Every time I've been (Sunday, after a hamfest) one of the people there has been more than delighted to whip out the schematics and discuss the details.

Ought to go to the Cambridge Museum of Computing sometime.

The Ironbridge Museum. Ironbridge is arguably the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.
...
An industrial museum in Cardiff docks. I went there on one of their steam up days. I have an idea it's been moved.

Ironbridge is worth seeing.

Cardiff docks has Techniquest, a variant of "We the curious" in Brizzle, which is a pale variant of Richard Gregory's The Exploratorium, and something similar in San Francisco.

The Hack Green nuclear bunker. This was supposed to coordinate the response to a nuclear attack on the UK through the Cold War. There's a lot there and it's well curated. It helps if you have a particular interest in the Cold War.

Unlike some "modern" museums, Hack Green contains a lot of technical information.

Planned to walk from a boat to the RAF Air Defence Radar Museum https://www.radarmuseum.co.uk/ but it was closed. Grrr.

A few aircraft museums up and down the country. I've been to Cosford because there used to be a radio rally held on the site. I've driven past Duxford and was treated to a B17 doing the rounds.

I went to an airshow there, arriving in a DC3

As a kid I watched Spitfires, Hurricanes and Heinkels wheeling around in the sky over Duxford, being filmed from a bright orange Liberator.

With all these things, you have to balance the effort to get there, against the value of seeing what's there. It helps if you are in the area for some other reason, or drop by on the way back from something.

Sometimes it is worth making one of those things the primary reason for visiting an area, and finding other stuff to do.

mansaxel wrote: ↑Sun Mar 09, 2025 10:42 pm Air force museums, yes. Only been to the Swedish one, which is good.

Irritiatingly my daughter lived near the Hendon museum (the other half of the Cosford museum mentioned by Zenith), but I never managed to get there.

Yes, Bovington and Blåvand (DK) are missing, although we met a couple of vehicles from the Blåvand museum on the beach there. Just out for a ride, a Leo 1 and a M113 medicarrier..

There's a picture of me on top of a tank at Bovington, aged about 9. "Lawrence of Arabia's" cottage is the other side of the road.

In the class of "don't bother", there's the Royal Signals Museum in Blandford. Too many "officer class" bravery and medals exhibits, and too few "other ranks" technical exhibits.

There's lots more. Including museums I'm not going to visit for at least 4 years.

In the class of "worth seeing but not worth going to see", there's the Nikola Tesla Technical Museum in Zagreb.