This is an event that anyone interested in mechanical music or steam
powered devices ought to make it to once (or more) in their lives! I've
posted a few of the pictures I took on my web site at:

    http://people.ne.mediaone.net/rwiegand/GDSF/GDSF_top.htm

The pages are rather large if you are on a slow connection, so be
warned it may take a couple of minutes to fully load. Sadly I got a
defective video tape cassette so I had only half a picture and no sound
on the video I collected.

Last time I went was in the late 70's--the fair is about 10x bigger
now. It takes the better part of two days to walk around and just
glance at everything once-- if you want to get into detail it can take
any amount of time! Lots and lots of wonderful people, it was
particularly nice to get to chat with John Smith of busker organ fame
and hear his latest creation. I was a little surprised that every big
organ I saw (and there were more than 100) was operated from cardboard
book music, with some MIDI interfaces in addition--not a paper roll to
be seen, nor any American organs. I was in Gavioli heaven without a
doubt!

The Great Western Railroad museum at Swindon and the steam/organ
museum at Thursford were also well worth visiting. The best thing at
the GWR museum was being able to walk underneath a steam locomotive to
see all the moving parts normally hidden from view. The Thursford
museum featured a great collection of showman's engines, organs and a
great Gondola Switchback ride, as well as a nice Wurlitzer theater
organ on which corny shows are played. The Thursford collection was
started by a George Cushing who grew up with steam engines and couldn't
bear to see them go to the scrap yard during the '40's. What a legacy
he's left us! Not too far away, also in Norfolk, was the Burrill
museum in Thetford, at the site of the Burrill factory where many of
these steam engines were manufactured. My thanks to the curators who
gave me a look around despite the museum being closed for the day.

Cheers!
Roger

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