Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/01/11/locomotive_flight/
Nipper's toy train enjoys journey to edge of SPAAAAACE
Brit-built locomotive smiles its way heavenwards
Posted in SPB, 11th January 2013 08:57 GMT
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Video Toy train stories are like number 13 buses - you wait ages for one and then two turn up at once. Following our report earlier this week [1] on wooden train outfit Bigjigs' audacious bid to run the West Coast Mainline franchise, we received news of a US dad who dispatched his young son's model locomotive to the stratosphere.
It seems world+dog is sending stuff heavenwards these days, but we're surprised Ron Fugelseth's flight last year slipped under our radar, because the resulting vid [2] is an absolute gem.
Ron explains: "On Aug 24th 2012 we sent my son's favorite train 'Stanley' to space in a weather balloon with a HD camera and an old cell phone for GPS. He was recovered 27 miles away in a corn field. This video documents the journey from liftoff to landing."
Lovely, and it's good to see that British locomotive engineering* still has the Right Stuff. Thanks very much to reader Samuel Jackendoff for the heads-up. ®
Bootnote
*A quick bit of very trainspotterish research reveals Stanley is a hybrid design based on tank engines produced by Leeds manufacturers Hudswell Clarke, and Kitson.
The former firm also had a hand in another, slightly less agreeable airborne enterprise, when it built the airframes for the first operational British nuke - Blue Danube - and then the Red Beard tactical nuclear bombs.