Coplaw, Kelvin and Clyde (part 2)

 WARNING 

Blogging from Morar see below) is very difficult

with erratic and unreliable WiFi.

fbb will keep trying BUT ...

William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 1824 to 17 December 1907) was a Scots-Irish mathematical physicist and engineer who was born in Belfast in 1824. At the University of Glasgow he did important work in the mathematical analysis of electricity and formulation of the first and second laws of thermodynamics, and did much to unify the emerging discipline of physics in its modern form.

He took his ennobling name (in full Lord Kelvin of Largs) from the River Kelvin which runs close to Glasgow University, his academic home. The fbb's plus young family spent a very happy holiday in His Lordship's former gaff at Largs, Netherhall, by then an hotel.

One endearing memory is of a heater stove in the main hallway with a chimney that reached high into the roof via the stairwell. 

The marvellous residence has, sadly, been demolished and is now an impersonal block of flats.

In 1911 (?) a new exhibition hall was built on the outer end of Argyle Street and opposite the magnificent Glasgow Art Gallery and Museum.

This became the first Kelvin Hall ...

... but it was destroyed by fire in 1925.

Its replacement (from 1927) was a wonder of the Glaswegian age!

Over the years, it held exhibitions and indoor sporting events ...

... pop concerts ...

... and, memorably, the six week Billy Graham Crusade in 1955.

When the future Mrs fbb was a young gell, a family new year treat was a visit to the circus at the Kelvin Hall.

Her Aunt Jean did not totally enjoy these visits, due to a terrible fear that the elephants might stamped and crush her and the rest of the family. They never did!

In 1987, the Transport Museum moved for the old tram depot in Albert Drive to part of the Kelvin Hall ...

... using a side entrance, not the main portico. There was more room for the displays of public ...

... and private transport. One of the best bits was a re-creation of a Glasgow street with vintage shops ...

... and a splendid facsimile of a Glasgow Underground Station (a k a "The Subway").

And, of course, Edie McCredie's minibus from the TV series Balamory.

Whats the story in Balamory? Where would you like to go?

Shall we have fun as we cycle with Plum?** Is that where we should go?

Balamory!

Or taking it easy with Edie McCredie? Wouldn't you like to know?

So - Whats the story in Balamory? Wouldn't you like to know?

Whats the story in Balamory? Where would you like to go?

Balamory!

Balamory!

So it was that on Sunday last, having spent a comfortable night in their Travelodge and before meeting up with the Rail Discoveries Holiday "gang" at about 1800, the fbbs set off for the NEW Transport Museum removed from the Kelvin Hall and re-opened in 2011.

Would it be better than its previous two manifestations?

Where was it exactly; and how would they get there?

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Rail Discoveries Discovery blogs will follow later; but safely arrived yesterday evening at Morar near Mallaig. Views from bedroom window!

Today the fbb's will be going on a train ride.

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**Plum - P C Plum, seen here with the astoundingly irritating Miss Hoolie (the village schoolteacher); stories set in a fictionalised Tobermory, Isle of Mull. Always one of fbb's favourite TV programmes!

 Next Coplaw, Kelvin and Clyde blog : Wednesday 26th September