The Straw Locomotive

It's 25 years since a straw locomotive hung from the Finnieston Crane. It was on the fourth of May, 1987 that it arrived there and it hung, suspended for just a few weeks until it was taken to Springburn on June twenty-second and burned there in a Viking ceremony, marking the loss of the locomotive industry which had once flourished there.

Seven short weeks suspended from the crane but somehow suspended in time. Most people who saw it, remember it.

That Straw Locomotive was 78ft. This one is two, maybe three, but it brings back memories. The not-so-big straw locomotive, also by George Wyllie, has just arrived at the Mitchell.

The education initiative is actually one of three aspects of The Whysman Festival and on Saturdays we catch up with what else is happening. The last two Saturdays that has meant visits to and blips from the Big Clyde Question Marks appearing in the Clyde and suspended from that same Finnieston Crane.

This Saturday, it was a quick visit to see the preparation being made for In Pursuit of the Question Mark, a major retrospective exhibition which will open at the Mitchell on 3rd November, and the third side of the Whysman triangle.

300 of George Wyllie's artworks, many of them now arriving there, will be on display. This not-so-big straw locomotive is one of them, and there are so many more. There will certainly be future blips from the exhibition, especially when school parties come to check it out.

In Pursuit of the Question Mark