Tin Crossing Gate, Who Dunnit.

http://collectionsearch.nma.gov.au/object/168470

Munro toy train automatic level crossing in a box
Mechanical level crossing, made from sheet metal and wood by Bill Munro and company, Sydney, in about 1948.

Thanks, all the way from down under.

Steve

How did that get there ... Thieving bloody Yanks

Steve never knows what he'll find when he does his annual SPring Cleaning!

Yankee thieves, eh? If I remember correctly, wasn't Australia originally settled as a PENAL colony?  😉

FATMAN: SORRY, mate! Just could not resist!  ☺

Well there is that I guess

Not our fault we had bigger pe... ( looks to check dictionary ... oops Penal, Adj. ~ relating to punishment... never mind carry on )

And yep lol my 6th great grandfather was sent here aboard a convict vessel for "horse theivery" by the English ... the confirmed story is that he was a Scots Highlander teenager, the older of two sons ,who was "offered" ( read taken from his family near Glencoe for owed payment of English "taxes") a position with an English landlord ( read Land Thief..) as a Horse Groom. He worked his way up to Head Groom at the age of 17 in the service of the same man but had been sent to the Manor House in England (Penrith) where he was contacted with the news his father was at deaths door , whereupon he asked the Master for leave & passage home to Scotland and the loan of a horse to take him, which he was refused .. this is after 5 years as a virtual slave with little to no wages from the English lord ... So he "borrowed " a horse to make the journey ( gotta love unbroken spirit)

Sadly he was shot and arrested in Scotland before he made it to his fathers bedside, who passed the next day ... So Edmund never saw his father since the day he was placed in servitude and would not see him again.. He was tried and convicted of Horse Theft and sentenced for the term of his natural life to the colonies  ( aussie)

So pretty much every Australian with my surname ( a different spelling to what is usally found) is a direct relative of mine and came from that fine Scottish stock

As a complete aside his younger brother found his way to America after his fathers death, by signing on as a ships boy, then jumping ship in Portland and then settled in Canada... where his son went on to become an inventor and was the man who sold his patents to Union Carbide where his method for creating Calcium Carbide literally formed the cornerstone of the industry... Making him a very wealthy man ... so but for a twist of fate and genetics I could have been born into a much different family and been stinking rich LOL!!!  And again pretty much any person in North America with my surname came from him , so two brothers begat a strong legacy in two countries out of very humble beginnings and desperate circumstance

All because the foolish damp dark freezing English decided to send people half a world away to a warm sunny paradise as punishment ...

FATMAN : Historically, those Brits certainly did treat the Scots and the Irish quite horridly! They are about to get their comeuppance with their ill-advised "Brexit"! Wisely, both the Scots and the Irish Republic are opposed to this folly.

Steve "Papa" Eastman posted:

Anyone recognize this. Pretty heavy metal. Each gate has a tension adjuster. 

Steve

I sure hope it works better than the Revell HO one from the fifties. What a disappointment that was for a child.

Fatman posted:

Well there is that I guess

Not our fault we had bigger pe... ( looks to check dictionary ... oops Penal, Adj. ~ relating to punishment... never mind carry on )

 

As a complete aside his younger brother found his way to America after his fathers death, by signing on as a ships boy, then jumping ship in Portland and then settled in Canada... where his son went on to become an inventor and was the man who sold his patents to Union Carbide where his method for creating Calcium Carbide literally formed the cornerstone of the industry... Making him a very wealthy man ... so but for a twist of fate and genetics I could have been born into a much different family and been stinking rich LOL!!!  And again pretty much any person in North America with my surname came from him , so two brothers begat a strong legacy in two countries out of very humble beginnings and desperate circumstance

All because the foolish damp dark freezing English decided to send people half a world away to a warm sunny paradise as punishment ...

Well that certainly escalated! I'll keep my Scottishness in check for the moment  and sort out my confusion: so Fatman's ancestors are or aren't responsible for the crossing gate getting to Amerriky?