Machines and engines

I love machines and engines as well!

By this I mostly mean cars… Does that count? I guess they are kind of a machine. I like how there are so many different cars and how different each one is, and how much they have changed.

My favourite car – machine – ever was my dad’s 1992 Vauxhall Senator. It had a really unique and powerful engine, a 3.0i litre 24 valve engine which allowed it to do more than 150mph. It was a really smooth engine and was really silent when it went along, I even helped my dad restore it to its former glory in 2015 – sadly, in 2016 when going across a junction a lady ran a red light and wrote it off when she collided with it. Such a shame as it was a really nice car. Ever since I have struggled to travel in cars, I can’t get used to travelling in anything other than the Senator.

 We now own a 1992 Jaguar XJR 4.0 litre – the car in my profile picture – it’s the Senators replacement, it’s a lovely car, fast and luxurious and as we live on private land believe it or not it’s the first car I ever drove. I was so proud when I drove it, even though I only did 7mph up our driveway ha ha.
 It’s engine is very big and whistles like the wind. My own car, a Volvo 850 SE 2.5 litre engine is quite small really and isn’t nearly as loud as the Jaguar’s or quiet as the Senators… But I love it all the same.

Other machines and engines I love is the RMS Titanic! This was my favourite topic at school. I’ve read about it hundreds of times and watched the movie loads and loads, especially the parts where the ship is sinking. I find it and its mechanics so fascinating.

I loved the Senators - I had two of them - an 89 Gold one and a 94 Westminter Blue - the 24valve with the electronic suspension - brilliant cars. Standard limited slip diff meant it could drift around corners easily. I had it up to 138 on a clear road. Shame about the rear arches being prone to rusting so quickly. I like another if I cound find a nice one.

Kempton Park Steam Museum has a couple of engines as big as the Titanic's (the only difference is the Titanic had a spiit 3rd cylinder for space reasons making it a 4-cylinder triple expansion engine). They get one running on special days and you can take a climbing tour of the other.

Awh wow you’re very lucky! I love Senators as well, not a perfect car by any means, but definitely a unique car. The rust they suffered from was horrific! We always had a never ending battle with rust on the rear wheel arches and shortly before it was written off we also had a leak in the passenger foot well occurring but never had the time to find the problem.

Yeah their handling and road control was amazing! I think that’s why the British police used so many as police cars, ours was a white one, but not an ex-police. My dad got 136mph out of his on a clear road a few months before the crash.

Ooh I bet that’s amazing to see in person! So interesting and it’s really cool to see what they looked like over a hundred years ago! When I watched the movie I enjoyed seeing the bits where they’re heading for the ice berg and you get to see them slowing down and reversing the engines, I thought that was really interesting.
It’s a shame what happened to Titanic as I thought that was a really nice looking ship!

Wow that sounds very exciting for you :) I love collecting things. I must get some more models too, I'd like a Titanic one.

Ooh I like to collect Lego as well! I have a little Elvis Presley minifigure, and a lot of Series minifigures... I've got quite the collection now! I'll show you a picture of them at some point but at the moment I'm not able to upload any, I'm not sure if I have permissions.

Not a huge collection but the are all big! I have a 5' long IJN Yamato too and a few 1/72 Flower class Corvettes.

It's nothing compared to my Technical Lego models.

I found the Britannic and Olympic really interesting as well. Very unfortunate end for the Britannic.

Wow that's amazing. It's crazy how many were made, and how quickly they sell. I might try a go at making models again, I can't remember the last time I tried one.

Yours is super detailed! Love it. You must have a really big collection of models!

Thanks - what I like about these is that when a ship is built, they normally build one or two 'sister ships' - Titanic, Britannic, Olympic for example.

They built over 2700 of these! Enough to park end-to-end so you could walk across the English channel.

After the war, they were sold off for peanuts and lots were bought by the Greeks and this is where the original shipping magnates came from. They were so common in civilian use that their 10,000 ton load became the industry standard.

I'm super-detailing this model. They often ran out of volume inside before they ran out of payload capability so lots of cargo ended up on the decks - I've got a bunch of crates & half-tracks & barrels & Sherman tanks & jeeps to fill it up with all in 1/100 scale.

That looks amazing!! The detail on it is superb as well! I found WW1 and WW2 really interesting at school.

Depends a lot on the model - some I build and sell soon after sailing them, some end up hanging around because they are convenient to sling in the car & go sailing.

I don't keep many because of the size and fragility of them so the ones I sell finance the ones I build.

I'm currently building a 5' Liberty Ship from WW2

Ooh cool. I used to build models as well, but sadly I wasn’t very good at it so haven’t attempted to build one for a long time. Do you store them in cabinets or on shelves when you complete them?

They used the Kempton engine in one of the Titanic films.

I build large radio control model boats - I'm doing a 5' long Titanic out of foam board. I'm using a paper model at an exterior over a custom built hull and it's all glued together using plumbing glue.

They used the Kempton engine in one of the Titanic films.

I build large radio control model boats - I'm doing a 5' long Titanic out of foam board. I'm using a paper model at an exterior over a custom built hull and it's all glued together using plumbing glue.

Wow that sounds very exciting for you :) I love collecting things. I must get some more models too, I'd like a Titanic one.

Ooh I like to collect Lego as well! I have a little Elvis Presley minifigure, and a lot of Series minifigures... I've got quite the collection now! I'll show you a picture of them at some point but at the moment I'm not able to upload any, I'm not sure if I have permissions.

Not a huge collection but the are all big! I have a 5' long IJN Yamato too and a few 1/72 Flower class Corvettes.

It's nothing compared to my Technical Lego models.

I found the Britannic and Olympic really interesting as well. Very unfortunate end for the Britannic.

Wow that's amazing. It's crazy how many were made, and how quickly they sell. I might try a go at making models again, I can't remember the last time I tried one.

Yours is super detailed! Love it. You must have a really big collection of models!

Thanks - what I like about these is that when a ship is built, they normally build one or two 'sister ships' - Titanic, Britannic, Olympic for example.

They built over 2700 of these! Enough to park end-to-end so you could walk across the English channel.

After the war, they were sold off for peanuts and lots were bought by the Greeks and this is where the original shipping magnates came from. They were so common in civilian use that their 10,000 ton load became the industry standard.

I'm super-detailing this model. They often ran out of volume inside before they ran out of payload capability so lots of cargo ended up on the decks - I've got a bunch of crates & half-tracks & barrels & Sherman tanks & jeeps to fill it up with all in 1/100 scale.

That looks amazing!! The detail on it is superb as well! I found WW1 and WW2 really interesting at school.

Depends a lot on the model - some I build and sell soon after sailing them, some end up hanging around because they are convenient to sling in the car & go sailing.

I don't keep many because of the size and fragility of them so the ones I sell finance the ones I build.

I'm currently building a 5' Liberty Ship from WW2

Ooh cool. I used to build models as well, but sadly I wasn’t very good at it so haven’t attempted to build one for a long time. Do you store them in cabinets or on shelves when you complete them?