In which Sid and Doris visit the Rahmi Koc collection of almost everything
Rahmi Koc is the main shareholder of Koc Holdings which is the largest company in Turkey. They own Tofas (see Posts passim), they build Ford trucks, they build the Army’s tanks, they own the biggest electrical goods business.
Rahmi is a collector with means, which means he has a very big collection of ships, boats, submarines, Riva launches, railway engines, rolling stock, trams, stationary engines, dolly houses, broughams, motor bikes, cars and an entire steam driven olive oil factory. Rooms of models. A collection of ladies hats. A section given over to lathes and saw-mills. And for our aviation fans Rahmi also has planes on sticks, plus much of a B24 Liberator PIC (Hadley’s Harem, you can look up the story) pulled out of the sea.
On the bus down to the docks Doris asked if perhaps hopes were a bit too high. Not as it turned out; you could spend a week in there. Well, maybe not you, but certainly some of our readers could. Now Sid and Doris like a mosque as much as the next man but this was heavenly.
The gate guard is a Starfighter. Probably the safest thing to do with it is plant it on a stick. Those little wings, the high speed landing approach required and narrow landing gear meant 61 German F104Gs crashed by 1966 with 35 pilots dead. So, the tag ‘The Widow Maker’.
Setting expectations high on the shipping side, a huge set of dockyard sheer-legs with crane holding a large rudder. Probably had a longer working life than the Lockheed, and not so scary to operate.
We went in the car section first. The PICS include family favourites: my father had a Jaguar 3.8S. Doris loves the Isetta. Rahmi has a wide range of American cars. PIC The Moskwich is outside at the moment.
Over the Gifte Shoppe they fly a C47 converted back to DC3.
On the dock side you can see an M48 Patton tank. They have got the V12 engine out, but I believe that was not unusual in the early models. Buzzing that in a playful way is a Dornier Sky Servant (not usually the plane of choice among the aerobatic fraternity?).
The railway section puts us in mind of the Hungarian Urban Transport Museum. And yet here you have the feeling that if Rahmi wanted the trams to run they could. Skoda Plzn built 2-8-0 loco and tender? Ready when you are, Mr de Mille.
There is a little film of Rahmi piloting Maid Of Honour, PIC Admiral’s tender for HMS Hood (RIP), Rodney and Nelson (which you can see on the Thames), and among many reconstructed workshops, a complete shipwrights’.
To keep the watery theme Doris devised a way home using the ferry which we used for a cheap sightseeing trip to the Golden Horn before a hot walk back up the hill through Karakoy.
This afternoon we went our separate ways to get our hair cut and do some chores. Sid’s bank card had been stopped so nearly two hours spent with call centres getting that lifted.
Doris spent a happy time doing some #virtualsouvenir hunting, with some fine coasters (everyone’s house can always use a few more coasters, especially Sid’s house as he really doesn’t like cups being put down on wooden surfaces), a set of DIY cloud/house landscapes from a shop called Pitane, a charming set of tubby Turkish men watching an animated hula dancer from another shop lower down Bogazkesen Cadessi [I do try to attribute any artistic things I post] and finally a bit of a challenge for the #virtualsouvenir suitcase, some artistic statuary. Our local area has a lot of architectural reclamation shops, Sid wanted an old plough but we compromised on the lions. They are actually for Sid’s brother Tom, who has always secretly dreamed of having a pair of lions on (or in his case instead of) his gateposts.
Doris has been plotting a route to Sivota in Greece. Tomorrow we get the bikes back from ProBike ready to set out on Sunday. Such a wily route via Gallipoli and Troy you are sure to be amazed.