It's funny isn't it, the human experience, I get the impression from pieces in the media, that today, young adults hanker nostalgically for the era of the Ford Escort, Capri and Cortina, an era which to me, is only the other day, but which historically was thirty or forty years ago, as far back, indeed, as the old Jalopies and Charabancs of the 1920's and '30's were from the 1950/60's? In other words there's a reason why 'Old Fashioned Cars' were everywhere (clothes, place mats and coasters, mugs, tiles, prints, books, even movies), when I was a little kid, but are, relatively, nowhere now.
It's a complicated thing about generational groups I'm not erudite enough to explain here, but is explained in David Sheppard's book on the rocker/biker-oriented youth club he ran as a young priest, in which a generational gap was explained to him, by someone from the Salvation Army - I think?* Being, that we move through existence in tranches, each tranche being a clump of one age-group with older hangers-back and younger hangers-on.
*A book I know I've read, but can find nothing about on Google!
Which is both a complicated and vaguely deep intro' to this morning's post, which grew out of some follow-up images from Brian Berke, and a few scans I already had on the PC, along with a couple of shots I took, and which we'll meander through now, as I'm just going to load them as they are in the folder, and weave some blurb round them!
Given they never really had a scale, they go quite well with HO- or OO-gauge railways, but then, I well remember helping Simon College, of Mattingley move an Austin chassis (7 or 10?) around, and the footprint of these old cars was not much greater than a Willys Jeep's!
Four more of the Charbens originals, also from Brian and also cleaner than mine! They have had replacement steering wheels, which improves the look and lines no end, but rather crowds the cockpit!
"As you may remember I drove an old retired London Taxi,
an Austin FX3 when an art student. When I started my train layout I
wanted lots of taxi models for my 1950's London. A prewar Austin was
made by DG and I added other cars from their range as until the '10 year
MOT test' started the streets were full of prewar Austin 7's. Once they
were tested for, steering, brakes and lights they vanished off the
streets within a year.
Wizard models in Australia were made by someone who had been a British Railways signalman who emigrated. He
made an Austin FX3 that used the body die that Hornby Dublo had sent to
either Australia or NZ to make the Dublo Dinkys there. The body was one
piece and he created a new cast base."
