[TiredOldHack2]

The cleaning lady came into my hotel room here in Santiago, and was fascinated by the old clockwork travelling alarm clock I had placed on the bedside table.

Well, it doesn’t require electricity, it’s very reliable, it does the job and I like it.

In a similar vein, I have a very old BOAC travel bag I found at an autojumble a few years ago and snapped up for just £15. That always gets comments from cabin crew, sometimes with a nostalgic sigh.

Oh, and my ancient Samsonite suitcase: it’s locks way pre-date the TSA requirements. It’s indestructible. Thew family calls it the Clockwork Orange (colour chosen to stand out on a luggage belt).

And my fountain pen…

Does anybody else here travel with retro and/or old tech stuff as a matter of course?

[capetonianm]

Yes. Filofax and fountain pen.
I also like those old radios with rotary buttons for tuning and volume.

My son always takes the mickey out of me for travelling by boat and train whenever I can, the old-fashioned way.
“But you could have done it for £40 in 2 hours.”
True, but I enjoyed taking three trains and a boat and stopping somewhere in a nice hotel, and it took me 48 hours and the £400 was money well spent. Being in charge of my own travel plans and budget gives me that luxury.

[Marc_ACB]

A fountain pen – don’t they leak when flying?

I have one of them too – was given it as a gift from the OH to celebrate my first day working in the City. I duly took it along to my very first signing and caused chaos as we had to wait AGES for my 20 odd signature pages to dry.

It now has a pride of place on my desk, next to my iPad charger.

[FDOS_UK]

I don’t have any retro tech kit, as it’s all broken over the years and been replaced, but I do have a couple of Omega Seamasters (one is 1964, the other is probably a couple of years older, but I’m unsure), the automatic winding still works well enough (though not as precise as a $15 Casio quartz watch) and they have a distinct retro appearance, which I like. I also have a couple of 1970s Mont Blanc ballpens (lever action series 280), which are lovely period pieces.

A tenuous link, as it is not business travel, but my favourite (sort of) retro travelling thing is a 2007 Volvo C30, which I’ve had restored to very good condition (if nowhere near concours) and which is mainly original (though I had to change the rear bumper due to a crack in it and some mechanical stuff needed replacing). I’ve never had such an old car before, but as I don’t use it to visit clients it is really fun to drive something that you like. I bought it when I returned from Malta, intending it as an inexpensive temporary solution for a few months (bought unseen from the web and positioned at MAN so it was waiting for us, when we made the journey home), but then changed my mind and decided it was a keeper. It is not ‘cheap motoring, though’, if such a thing exists!

[TiredOldHack2]

[quote quote=870344]don’t they leak when flying?[/quote]

None of mine ever has.

[capetonianm]

My old fashioned pen with a plunger type reservoir that you had to fill from a bottle used to leak. My newer one with cartridges doesn’t. I have no idea why that would be.

[TiredOldHack2]

That would have been in the days of DC3s, would it? 😉

Both mine are plunger types. They don’t leak. Strange, but there it is.

[MartynSinclair]

My late father always used to empty his Parker 61 (closed nib) before flying. He was convinced the pressurisation would make his pen leak…

[Marc_ACB]

I’ve seen someone if F signing a landing card with a fountain pen and it was like a scene from a black & white horror movie. The ink was EVERYWHERE! and the more he panicked to blot it/wipe it up, the more he spread it around.

I’ve never been brave enough to take my own (which is a cartridge type)

[stevescoots]

[quote quote=870406]My late father always used to empty his Parker 61 (closed nib) before flying. He was convinced the pressurisation would make his pen leak…[/quote]

I used to carry a cartridge type and it leaked, I recently started to move away from cigarettes to an E-Cig and have to empty that as it leaks otherwise.

[FDOS_UK]

FWIW, here’s a short article on fountain pens leaking (or not) ….

https://www.nibs.com/content/precautions-when-traveling-airplane

As a ball pen user, I have no experiences, either way, to add to the data points.

[Alan]

I travel 75K-100K miles annually, most between Santiago and the US. My lifetime miles are over 4 million on 140 different airlines. I don’t even own a smart phone, have PSA baggage ID tags on my carry ons (take that, American), and never travel with a computer of any type. Also use a cheap battery powered alarm clock. I do have more modern checked bags, since the old ones wear out and go to charity. And guess what, as you seem to, I get along quite nicely and never have a bag go to secondary security check. Not to mention, relaxing on the flights.

[Inquisitive]

With all the smart gadgets now I have plus I indulged myself a few years ago with two high end watch, I should have discarded my old battery operated alarm clock and a very old mechanical automatic Titoni watch, but somehow I keep these two in my laptop bag everywhere I travel. Call it sentiment or good luck charm, those will stay with me, no matter how many times I change my iPhone (that I already changed 4 times).

[LuganoPirate]

I also have a wind up clock which my sister gave me for Christmas some 45 years ago, with the words, “May you travel far with this clock, and stay there!”
I go everywhere with my old Waterman fountain pen and a rigid plastic “Grenadier” cigar box bought in Miami in the 70’s which keep my pencils, pen and pentel’s safe and soud.

[canucklad]

I know it was covered ages ago, under a different topic but I hey ho its worth a mention here as well , since we’re taking about retro gear…..

Searching for some old golf gear in my spare cupboard a few weeks ago I came across a few flight bags in an old case…… I was tempted to resurrect this humble piece of hand luggage, but chickened out at the last moment because I didn’t want people to get the wrong idea…..
I’m not sure what that “idea” is, but I’ve stuck to my trusted small north face rucksack as I fly about .

My question to my fellow BT contributors would be……

Would you be brave enough to drape an old CP Air /TCA/ BOAC or 70’s BA flight bag over your shoulder as you traipse through the airport ?

What I did come across and will definitely use is an old KLM document holder ….. perfect for passport, printed boarding passes and printed hotel confirmations

[Author]

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