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[personal profile] shewhomust
We've reached the last few days during which Soyuz TMA-19M, otherwise known as Tim Peake's landing capsule, is on show at the Locomotion railway museum at Shildon, so [personal profile] durham_rambler and I took the morning off and went to have a look. There's am optional Virtual Reality experience, and [personal profile] valydiarosada enjoyed it, and thought it worth the extra charge (the museum itself is free), but neither of us was tempted. We just wanted to see the thing: an actual Soyuz space capsule, which has been in actual space, and hurtled down through the atmosphere in actual flames (just look at that corrosion):

Soyuz capsule


I hadn't expected the Rapunzel's silky braid that tethered the capsule to its parachute, and had to keep reminding myself no, the parachute doesn't open until after the hurtling in flames is over.

Here's a closer view of that braid:

Instructions


and you can see the notice in the window, with instructions for what to do if you find this metal object in your field / duckpond. Here's where you'll find the key, insert it in keyhole (here) and extract cosmonauts...

Most of the conveyances at the museum are very much older: Shildon was the cradle of the railways, and has in its collection both a replica and Timothy Hackworth's actual Sans Pareil. This one's the original:

Timothy Hackworth


We had planned to visit J, and to give her a bookcase rendered surplus by the grand shelving of the spare bedroom, which [personal profile] durham_rambler has taken to calling the library. But it was too big to fit in the car, so we couldn't - she gave us lunch anyway, which was very generous of her!

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