please empty your brain below
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Liverpool Street is on the Central Line- nice linkage :-)
NLW | 05.03.13 - 7:02 a.m. | #
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I really should go here - some of the collection used to be owned by my great uncle who had his own aircraft collection up to the late 1970's before he donated/sold them. One of my early memories is soaring high over the Cheltenham countryside in one of the collection.
Gareth | 05.03.13 - 7:13 a.m. | #
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Looks really good.
Adult Admission prices £15.90
(excluding voluntary donation)
JonF | 05.03.13 - 7:28 a.m. | #
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There used too be a regular bus service. From Cambridge service 7?. It appears to have been recently withdrawn while I wasn't looking! Agree with DG quicker to walk from Whittlesford anyway. A good day out.
Barry | 05.03.13 - 8:24 a.m. | #
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Do admit: you went with the Princess of Lichtenstein. Please tell me this allusion is not in vain...
Karen | 05.03.13 - 9:16 a.m. | #
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Ah, all is revealed in your footnote. I wondered how you reckoned it was easy to get to from London. The first time I went, there was a dedicated bus from Cambridge station, which was fine. The second time, there was a local bus, which went all round the houses and took forever. Like Barry, I'd heard that had been withdrawn. Good to know there's another, better route.
Baldassaro | 05.03.13 - 9:18 a.m. | #
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Blimey. I grew up a couple of miles from here in Hinxton. http://www.streetmap.co.uk/map.srf?X=549500&Y=245500&A=Y&Z=120
We used to get the benefit of the airshows from our back garden. Whiitlesford Station was just Whittlesford Station and not Whittlesford Parkway, trains were every two hours (as opposed to half hourly now) and never on a Sunday. Local bus services were as others suggest very poor, but we did have the delight of the 799 Greenline bus service for a few years (London to cambridge), after a villager lobbied for a stop to be placed on the main road past the village. The service was withdrawn in its entirety some years later.
Hinxton is now slightly more widely known than when I lived there now being the home of the Genome Campus. Oops soory to go off on a huge tangent, but this post brought back a few memories.
Lorenzo | 05.03.13 - 9:54 a.m. | #
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A year ago I visited with my father, who apart from one period of 12 months evacuated in Suffolk spent WWII in a hole in Dagenham (apparently...)
A great place for suddenly having your taciturn parent suddenly open up with all sorts of what instantly became family history stories.
Simon | Homepage | 05.03.13 - 9:58 a.m. | #
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Looks really interesting, thanks DG.
I was pleased to note that the chronically lazy among us can actually have a wander around the airfield and peer into the hangers using Google Streetview:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=IWM+Duxford&sll=52.094258,0.142332
So that's my day sorted.
Simon | 05.03.13 - 10:40 a.m. | #
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For what it's worth, getting there by public transport is much easier on airshow days, when free shuttle buses connect Duxford with Cambridge train station. Sure, it's busy, but Duxford is so large that I find it doesn't get uncomfortably crowded.
Colin | 05.03.13 - 1:06 p.m. | #
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How interesting that Duxford consider a 1-1/2 mile walk not to be doable by today's pampered folk.
Chris | 05.03.13 - 1:57 p.m. | #
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£17.50 entrance fee...a bit on the pricey side but there seems to be a lot on show.
Hendon RAF Museum is free and now includes the Grahame-White Factory and Watch Office. Well worth a visit.
The Dirty Dozen scene filmed at the entrance to Hendon Aerodrome. This is now the roundabout at the top of Colindale Avenue where it meets Aerodrome Road. A few hundred yards down from the museum entrance.
Enjoy..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJJHSsLhE24
Bernie | 05.03.13 - 2:25 p.m. | #
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As I can see, the decent footpath involves a big motorway junction roundabout, and they might not want to expose their visitors to this...
http://goo.gl/maps/y4ZUl
Greg S. | 05.03.13 - 5:28 p.m. | #
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An excellent report DG and to all who’ve never been, it’s an excellent day out whether you’re male, female, young or senior (I even took some German visitor friends along who thoroughly enjoyed the exhibits, including the second world war tanks). I remember years ago too watching the giant B-52 Stratofortress land at Duxford whilst it flew low over the temporary closed M11 - how long ago was that? Apparently due to the short length of the runway, they only had one chance to land it and it would never be able to take-off again. Can you imagine the M11 or any motorway being closed to allow such antics today? There is a video on YouTube if you wish to see more: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSIGd6COFb8
Happy Harry (in the UK) | 05.03.13 - 5:40 p.m. | #
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The M11 chopped off part of the runway, hence it's now too short for the larger planes to take off.
An excellent collection, the land warfare collection is excellent too
From memory, at weekends one of the civil airliners (VC10, Trident etc) is opened for public access.
Mikey C | 05.03.13 - 6:48 p.m. | #
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When we went a couple of years ago, there was one of those simulator things sitting on the tarmac. For a fee, a small group can climb some steps and squeeze into the box which lurches around as you watch (in our case) a film of the Battle of Britain from the POV of a Spitfire. It's not terribly enlightening, is all over in a couple of minutes, and is overpriced. Duxford is well worth the trip, but if the simulator's still there, I suggest you give it a miss.
Richard M | 05.03.13 - 7:27 p.m. | #
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We went there a couple of years ago on a Triumph (as in car) marque day. Got in for about 2/3rds of the price, presumably because they could guarantee lots of people turning up.
And then the next year Marussia F1 driver Maria de Villota had a terrible crash there. So easy to get to if you go in a classic car. (Sorry that's not an option for you)
allotmentqueen | Homepage | 05.03.13 - 9:52 p.m. | #
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I grew up a couple of miles away, in Sawston, used to visit several times a year as a child and my brother works there.
I love the place.
Re the B52 story - they had to get Concorde in before the M11 was built - they were running out of time at one point, as it would have never landed had the runway been its current length. Even still it was virtually stripped of what little was in it prior to landing in order to make it!
Kirk | 05.03.13 - 10:08 p.m. | #
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Can't the runway be lenghtened on the other end?
Greg S. | 06.03.13 - 10:15 a.m. | #
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Greg S
They could, but it would be hardly worth it! If Duxford had needed a permanent long runway, presumably they would have put the M11 in a tunnel.
Mikey C | 06.03.13 - 9:15 p.m. | #
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Intrigued by your comments on walking from the railway station I dropped an email to Duxford IWM suggesting they include this on their website. Their Visitor Services Manager replied speedily, saying
"Thank you for your email. The comments you have made will be included in our feedback log that is discussed and viewed by the management team here at Duxford.
At this stage we won't be suggesting that families walk to our site along a busy A road and across a motorway intersection. The museum itself is a mile long and therefore combined with walking to and from would mean as a minimum at least 5 miles of walking, fine for those that are able but not something that the majority would want to do."
Charlie Holland | Homepage | 12.03.13 - 9:32 p.m. | #
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Cheers Charlie.
And that's fair enough - the walk's not ideal for families, or the elderly. But for the rest of us, it would at least be nice if Duxford offered us the possibility.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 12.03.13 - 9:36 p.m. | #
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