Milsurp After Hours

In place of GOTM this month as promised some photos from the Museum at Lithgow SAF.
Fisrtly the display of various timbers as furniture on the SMLE









The board out the front

The Rising Sun. Kudos to the bloke who thought this idea up. I think it is absolutely brilliant. Pity about that one gap though.


Some of the stamps. Only time I've ever seen them in the flesh, so to speak.



The side wall. Unfortunately rotating them in Photobucket didn't carry over whwn I copied them here. You'll all just have to turn your computers on their sides.










The rear wall. First up is the rifles Lithgow produced as commercial ventures rather tha military items. Followed by various foreign rifles and SMG's.







There was also a display in an area adjacent to the entrance on Gallipoli from the Turkish point of view. Mainly photos showing the various Turkish scenes with a glass case showing some Australian, New Zealand and Turkish items.









There is also a display upstairs of a (mostly) handgun donated by a bloke called Ron Hayes. Eleven hundred in all, yes that's 1,100. Unfortunately most of these have disappeared somehow between camera and computer.


Hope that was entertaining.

That was very entertaining and very mouthwatering too Graeme!

Are they all live weapons in the SAF?

Joe

Pretty exotic wood. I'd heard of Queensland Maple, and Birch......but Blackbean, Carabeen, and Red Myrtle?

Pretty large collection of guns on exibit. Bet it was fun to look around. Thanks for sharing.

Are they all live weapons in the SAF?

Almost all. There is a rack with an SMLE, L1A1 and Steyr (current service arm) that can be picked up and handled that are deactivated. The Vickers gun on display, that you can sit behind and pretend, is also deactivated. As far as I'm aware everything else is live.

Security is commensurate with this. You can't just walk in. The front door only accesses the front desk area, once you pay they then electronically open the door into the actual museum. All firearms are wired onto the display boards with one continuous wire per wall. Even the display rifles are wired to the rack and then the rack is wired to the wall. Wire used is rated to withstand everything short of an oxyacetalene torch.

I know of a few women's tongs that might cut it then

Woftam, To go along with your pics of the sunburst display:
http://www.nrvoutdoors.com/LITHGOW%20SM ... 20HOME.htm

Brad

Great story Brad, thanks for posting the link.
If I ever ran across a 1937 Lithgow (yes they are still missing one) I would be inclined to the same for much the same reasons.