Two film superfans have teamed to build the world’s first full-size replica of a steam train used in the Back to the Future franchise.
And it’s seriously impressive.
Mike Hutchinson – who left a career in the finance industry to begin work in the events sector at the start of last year – joined forces with fellow Yorkshireman Ian Robinson, who works as a props maker at Harrogate Theatre and has sadly seen his day job curtailed by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, on the big build project, which has seen the pair recreate the Time Travel Train from the third instalment of the cult-classic film franchise starring Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd.
Despite the fact it only features on screen for a few short minutes, those familiar with the iconic films will recognise that the steam train was made famous by Lloyd’s character, Doc Brown, in the final film of the sci-fi trilogy released in 1990.
The replica also features the character’s initials, ELB, on the side of the cabin.
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The train took the two pals around four months to build, with Ian more or less working on it full time, and Mike lending a hand a couple of days each week.
The incredible attention to detail of the replica has already got people talking on social media.
“Where we were building it was an empty building, apart from me and Ian. It took quite a long time to build it, [around] a good three or four months [and] we only went out of our homes to build it when we were allowed to do so by the government COVID-19 restrictions.
“A lot of the train project was taken up in the research into it on the internet.
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“We had to look at some pictures of the train over and over again, as it only has about three minutes of screen time in the film.
“We have done the rails for the train as well.
“It can all be broken down. It’s like a large prop jigsaw puzzle. It’s takes about 90 minutes to two hours to rebuild it once it is broken down.
“It is quite an achievement to build a steam train replica.”
Mike Hutchinson
As the owner of Back to the 1980s Events & Prop Hire, Mike is “frustrated” that his plans to exhibit the train at conventions or private events have unfortunately been delayed by England’s third national lockdown, but he is looking forward to showing it off when he can in the future.
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And this isn’t the first time Mike has tried his hands at creating iconic replicas either.
“I built Delboy’s front room from Only Fools and Horses [too] and hoped to make my millions, but that never happened.” Mike told us.
In 2015, he also spent about two years and £20,000 turning his car into a replica of the DeLorean used by Marty McFly in the 1985 cult classic, with the conversion work including castings from the original car, which is in Universal Studios in Hollywood.
Mike continued: “As Doc Brown once said, ‘If you’re gonna build a time machine, why not build it with style?’, [and after all], where we’re going, we don’t need roads (or a train track for that matter)”.
He has plans to build a replica of the Kitt car from 1980s TV favourite Knightrider too.
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The Time Travel Train is available to hire for any occasion – including future corporate and comic con events, and education and train enthusiast events – when government COVID-19 guidelines allow.
Manchester ranked among the worst UK cities for throwing away food at Christmas
Emily Sergeant
A new survey has ranked Manchester among the worst cities in the UK when it comes to throwing away leftover food at Christmas.
If there’s one thing we know for certain, it’s that a lot of food gets consumed during Christmas time, but unfortunately, what then comes along with that, is a lot of food getting thrown away too – with a new study revealing that British families are expected to bin nearly £300 million worth of festive food this year alone.
And sadly, Manchester has been named one of the top festive food waste hotspots.
Ahead of the festive season, leading electricals retailer, AO.com, is on a mission to help Brits cut back on their food waste, as 54% of Mancs have admitted to chucking out leftovers.
The survey found that, on average, a British family spends £136 on their Christmas food shopping, but 11% of that goes to waste.
This equates to a whopping £292,822,360 in Christmas food waste in total this year.
With almost 78% of survey respondents saying they would prefer to have their meals at home during the Christmas period, rather than dining out, the research uncovered that a quarter of Brits often throw away their Brussels sprouts, while one in 10 even admitted to binning everyone’s festive favourite, pigs in blankets.
Manchester has ranked among the worst UK cities for throwing away food at Christmas / Credit: Freepik | Flickr
Other northern cities ranking alongside Manchester in the not-so-coveted list of highest festive food waste offenders include Newcastle and Sheffield.
The capitals of London, Edinburgh, and Belfast also feature.
The news that Manchester has been named a festive food waste capital comes after a shocking study, also by AO, revealed back in August that Mancs throw away more than £1,000 of ‘freezable’ food every year too.
Featured Image – gpointstudio (via Freepik)
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Tyson Fury says he hasn’t spoken to his wife in ‘three months’ whilst preparing for Usyk rematch
Danny Jones
Tyson Fury says hasn’t spoken to his wife Paris for three whole months while preparing for the much-anticipated Oleksandr Usyk rematch.
The Manc fighter is set to face the Ukrainian counterpart in the ‘Undisputed’ sequel, simply dubbed Fury vs Usyk 2, which will result in one unified heavyweight champion of the world.
Usyk’s victory over the Wythenshawe-born boxer back in May saw him take that title for the first time since 1999 (the only man to have done so in the four-belt era) but with the rematch nearly upon us, Fury could be set to steal that title away from him.
With that in mind, the pressure has clearly been on ever since he lost the first bout and, according to Tyson himself, he hasn’t spoken to his wife Paris Fury for virtually a quarter of a year as part of his immensely strict training camp.
Speaking to TNT Sports ahead of the match this weekend, he claimed: “I haven’t spoke to Paris in three months – not a word. [I’ve] not spoke to anyone, I haven’t been on my phone.”
Explaining that he simply removed all distractions to get his head in the right space ahead of the title decider, ‘The Gypsy King’ has been known to isolate himself from the rest of the world before a big fight in the past, but cutting contact with your spouse of 10 years and partner for nearly two decades is wild.
The 36-year-old went on to detail that in order to give himself the best shot at winning, he couldn’t keep switching between “beast mode to dad mode to wife mode” and so on.
In separate interviews with other outlets ahead of the highly-awaited rematch, Fury has made various other big claims about what boxing fans can expect from his own performance, including an admission that he needs to be “more focused this time and not do as much showboating” in the ring.
Nevertheless, he also assured the media that he isn’t a quitter and has promised he will not just “f*** up” his 37-year-old opponent but “retire” him. Usyk, on the other hand, has warned he will be a different challenge than the last time the two faced each other, predicting a knockout victory too.
Having downed Tyson more than once the last time around, he’s understandably confident of his chances.
Bold words from the pair of them, indeed, but this is all just part and parcel of the usual pre-fight build-up; all we really know is that Usyk won the previous face-off and Fury is the one with the point to prove.
While younger brother Tommy Fury recently had to pull out of his scheduled fight against Darren Till, during which tensions seriously boiled over during the first press conference, it looks as though there is no risk of more cancellations and any more ‘will they won’t they?’ antics between these two at least.
The rematch, or ‘Fury vs Usyk 2: Undisputed’ to give use its full title (the latest in Saudi Arabia’s growing fight scene and live sports programming as part of Riyadh Season) takes place this Saturday, 21 December, with the two set to clash once again from 10:25 GMT.
Who do you think will emerge victorious from this one and, more importantly, when do you think we’ll see the third and ‘final’ fight when they inevitably demand a trilogy?…
Emily Sergeant -
21st January 2021 
