# A roadside attraction



## R988 (May 23, 2006)

http://1000aircraftphotos.com/MilitaryProp/CurtissP40-3.htm



> 6/20/2003. Remarks by Trevor McTavish: "After the war, my grandfather's uncle, a Mr. Eggbert, purchased an Avro Lancaster from war surplus and towed it to his gas station outside of Red Deer Alberta. This wasn't the only Lancaster bought by a local after the war (the CWH’s Lancaster used a center section salvaged from a Lancaster turned shed). But for a quarter, you could climb up inside the bomber and take a look around. It was something that my dad remembers quite well, since he and his brother would play in the Lanc every time the family drove through the area.
> 
> At one point a group of Americans came to town and bought the Lancaster, rumor was to make a fire bomber. Rather than disassembling the airframe by removing the wings and engines and towing everything back to the Red Deer airport the new owners figured they could just fly it out of the wheat field next door. As they started doing engine runs in preparation for flight an engine caught fire and the Lanc burnt to nothing right in the middle of the field. From what I've gathered over the years, the carburetor for the Merlin engine was notorious for leaking, and it was probably draining fuel that caught fire.
> 
> The reason I’ve mentioned this Lancaster is because the P-40 was apparently what the Americans traded for the Lanc. I guess Mr. Eggbert didn’t care what kind of roadside attraction his gas station had, as long as he had one."



How cool would it have been to buy a Lanc or something as a backyard toy, the best I ever got was an old VW Beetle 

Pity it burnt to the ground though


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## lesofprimus (May 23, 2006)

Interesting story...


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## Nonskimmer (May 23, 2006)

A lot of Lancs ended up that way after the war. Hmmm, need a new chicken coop? Buy a surplus Lancaster. Cheap.  

Ah well.


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## pbfoot (May 23, 2006)

That very large bombay would make an excellent roost far better then either the 24 or 17


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## cheddar cheese (May 24, 2006)

But a B-24 or B-17 would be better defended from foxes...

Reactions: Funny Funny:
1 | Like List reactions


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## Soundbreaker Welch? (May 24, 2006)

Yeah, I would like a plane in my backyard or even at the local diner.


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## Gnomey (May 24, 2006)

I would like one in my back garden! Would rather have a B-29 though CC has good protection and a large bomb bay...


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## the lancaster kicks ass (May 25, 2006)

interesting story, any more info on mark/serial? i might look into it, there were a LOT of spare lancs back then, a lot of farmers bought them for about £100 because of all that sheet metal and the wiring


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## cheddar cheese (May 25, 2006)

Id love a Fiat CR.42 in my garden


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## lancasterman (Jul 2, 2006)

All the canadian Lancs were scrapped in the 60s with the last fusleage of Lancaster KB994 going to CFB Comox and then onto the uk for rebuid.Sadly the hangar roof fell onto it and the best sections were solf to Kermit Weeks in florida for his Lancaster rebuild of KB976


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## R988 (Jul 20, 2006)

Found another story along the same lines
Google Earth: the black helicopters have landed | The Register









> We've edited down David's epic explanation of how this aircraft came to be sitting in this unlikely location, but it's still worth quoting at length:
> 
> Milwaukie, Oregon - only in America can you beat a B-17 into a gas station.
> 
> ...


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## Soundbreaker Welch? (Jul 20, 2006)

Did they leave the wings on?


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