Thunderbirds Guest Vehicles - 3. The Roadlayer
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- Опубліковано 5 лют 2025
- A roadlayer owned and operated by the Gray and Houseman Construction Co. is blasting through a mountain to complete a new highway before the contract deadline. Unfortunately, a monsoon halts its progress...
No infringements of any kind intended. Posted as a tribute to the late Gerry Anderson. - Розваги
![The Mole: Century 21 Tech Talk [3.1] | Hosted by Jeff Tracy [Thunderbirds]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Acs2x8N5VXk/mqdefault.jpg)
Whoever built the road layer certainly knew how to make a model look so incredibly real. The production team can take a bow as this video is absolutely magnificent.
what a bloody amazing man!
he gave hours of endless pleasure to thousand of kids like myself - he will never be forgotten by the likes of me!
Stephen Skinner Congrats Im your 25th like have a nice day
I grew up with Gerry’s creations. One of the most unique, talented and imaginative film producers the world ever had. Many of todays directors mention him as inspiration for films made today. The special effects guy Derek Medding, went on to do the Bond franchise!
Thank Gerry and all the Century 21 team
Seriously, this has to be the coolest tv show ever made.
Name another production with the amount of dedication as the Thunderbirds.
I'm 56 and it's still my favourite TV show ever.
@@apemoon1731 I'm 18 but have also grew up with this, even if it is visually getting old, this show is intergenerationnal .
Anderson’s optimism that cool engineering and innovation will make the world a better place is infectious.
as a child this was so completely believable even though you knew they where puppets and could even see the wires ! it was special . very special .
Puppets? Wires?
Fair share of credit must go to Barry Gray also because his grand-scale theme scores were an essential part of the overall larger-than-life effect.
Derek Medding’s was such a lovely special effect’s man!I alway’s liked what he did in the special effect’s 🌎 world!
Much as I loved this as a kid, I now know how simplified this was. Blasting a cutting with a mortar is all very well, but it doesn't remove the rock, just shatters it. And while an all in one road laying machine is cool, a road is more than just the surface layer of asphalt. You need an underlay of gravel several feet deep to provide seating for it, and the ground underneath it needs to be compressed and flattened to provide a stable support.
A more 'realistic' design would show earth spilling out of side ports near the front as it digs a furrow for the road layers, and have big vertical steaming tanks at the back, showing where the hot bitumen is stored, and hoppers that would be filled by those neat hoverjets with grabs underneath. They would go ahead to scoop up the rubble from where the blasting machine had smashed the mountain and bring it back to fill the hoppers, where it would be fed into the road layer, graded by size and mixed with bitumen or cement to produce the various layers that get laid and compacted into the furrow.
Obviously, that was beyond the capabilities or rather budget of the episode.
I remember seeing this machine one early Saturday morning. You had to be up for a 6 AM Thunderbirds episode on Channel 9 in Australia. It was late 70s or early 80s, my brother and I would get up early to watch The Thunderbirds and this machine was a classic. Chewing through everything and producing a multi lane road complete with line markings. We pissed ourselves laughing. As if such a machine was possible. Still it never hurt our love for The Thunderbirds and the same with so many other guys.
The closest I saw to anything like that was a system developed by Associated Asphalt for repaving motorways. It ground off the top of a lane and mixed the recycled material with some new stone and bitumen which was layed as a new road surface. That was in the UK in the late 1980s.
I love the way the road is laid with all the lane marking in place.
Yes :D
It even puts in the road markings ....brilliant !
And the fresh asphalt is steaming as well!
Jaw- dropping video; masterly music, a mighty machine, amazing backdrop modelling accompanied by.... an eerie silence which makes it even more impressive! (60-yr old kid)
Gerry Anderson created so many vehicles in his series that it was an inspirational platform for future engineers to think outside the box. The world today has so many amazing inventions that work, and people solving complex problems. Yet no-one ever gives these shows credit, because it opened up the imagination of the children of what could be possible.
Thank you Gerry.
Lovely weathering on these models. They look nice and used...and that's actually a hard effect to get right without using too little or too much.
"Sir, there's a fallen tree in our way"
"BLAST...IT...OFF!"
Barry Gray's incidental music absolutely makes Thunderbirds and demands the audience take what's going on seriously. Try watching it on mute - it's just models in ridiculous situations. Without doubt the best TV show for children ever made.
Just rewatching some iconic scenes and just wanna thank my parents for making me grew up with this, this show is just amazing and i really think Barry Gray deserve the same recognition as people like John Williams.
No CGI can match this level of details.
Yes
Thanks for putting these videos up Century 22. The machines were what made Thunderbirds such great tv. The Roadlayer was always my personal favourite guest and TB2 my favourite overall. I remember watching Thunderbirds on BBC2 in the late 90's/early 00's. Such great tv. Kids grow up with such crap now - if they watch tv at all these days.
Yeah :)
MI PSH Lol at your comment. It wasn't all that long ago that parents were chastising their children for watching too much TV. Hell, I remember when the parental groups were up in arms, worrying about children getting hurt because they were imitating the cartoon characters they saw on TV, and pressuring the networks to sanitize the cartoons they showed.
This type of machine would have been a lifesaver if they would have had this and my cousin woyld not have gotten injured and beacame disbled when he was younger,makes the road with the lines too,neat idea!!!!!!
Growing up, I loved THUNDERBIRDS, even when I was maybe 6 or 7, I was going to the hospital theatre for a major operation, I took my Scott Tracy puppet into theatre with me.
The golden age of miniatures. Amazing.
The forced perspective shots in the beginning, of the mortar truck blasting into the mountain, are miniature masterpieces. The time lag betwen firings and explosions sells the "great distance" magnificently.
Now that I'm thinking of it...the mortar truck doesn't get enough love. I'm not a big truck guy necessarily, but i love the front end on this! 2:46
Gotta love a civil contractor that not only uses but also owns mortars and artillery pieces, because you know, normal.
one of my favourite episodes when I was a kid
The turret cannon is a nice touch.
it looks like the Roadlayer's tracks and chassis were taken from the TIGER JOE rc tank models.
I know a few local councils that could use this machine 24/7
Wouldn't be hilarious if there was a "Green Space Maker", it comes in and strips the roadway up and pretty colorful flowers and stuff comes out behind it. Followed by hippies with tie dye shirts and peace symbols. Just thinking out loud here, hmmmm.
0:15 Based on the method of construction I would say Grey and Houseman Construction Co must be owned by Jeremy Clarkson.
Or the Chinese government
Stephen Keeler yeah but Jeremy Clarkson's funnier
no hes a twat
C L A R K S O N
Hahaha nice!
Got to love construction vehicles with big cannons and mortars!
I can see where the IRA got the inspiration for their Barrack Busters.
Sept. 6, 2018----Awesome, man; just awesome. Used to watch the series when I could when I was a kid (I'm 65) and if the rabbit ears brought the station in clear enough. Really loved this show and wonder what happened to all the props used in the series.
So imaginative!
Such an optimistic future
😃01:20 i remembered this scene on my tv (📺 black & white screen). I was 5. I've never forgotten. I thought this huge vehicule existe in real life and could construct motorway🌴⛰🛣⛰🌴.
I love the Thunderbirds movies and i have the movies in video tape ( old stuff i know ) .
Definitely am out of job if this machine comes to life one day ! 😁
Just what every road laying machine needs is a cannon, mortar truck and built-in lazy Susan epic 👌
Tunnel through it? Nah, let's just blow it up...
Yes! (Lol)
Now I know, when I saw the Missile Crawler Transporter at Cape Canaveral, for some reason I thought of Thunderbirds.
"Father, there's a giant roadbuilding machine massacring the mountain peasants of Peru with carpet mortar bombing!"
"Sorry Scott, we can't intervene in the march of Progress."
Members of the Green party obviously thumbed this down.
Even the white line!!
Good
I think it's known as the grey & houseman highway pathfinder
The Roadlayer is made from two Topper Toys Mighty Joe Tanks. I used to own one!
Oh God..... if only we had techniques like that today. Traffic jams would've been a bad dream in a few years, and solved. Maybe the Brexit will let UK do what they want again. I REALLY HOPE!!!
But there's always going to be a Green Khmer that tries to stop progress and send us to the dark ages.
Thunderbirds will NEVER get old, even though the trucks have that typical '60s design.
Absolutely magnificent machine, but I suppose I shouldnt' be asking where they keep their asphalt?
I wonder where all those models are today. Hopefully not destroyed.
I remember issue 6 of the Redan Thunderbirds comic had a cross section of this machine. They called it a "Highway Pathfinder", which is what I always refer to this as. We also saw the pathfinder, repainted yellow, in "Atlantic Inferno".
The effects for 1964 were movie quality and this was a TV show
the show was notorious for taking enormous budgets, and they filmed in 120 fps... let that sink in, it's the 60ies and a tv show films in 120 fps!
As a kid, every episode felt like a blockbuster movie. The highlight of the week!
Best episode ever!
Got it! Gray+ horsemen of the apocalypse.
I Loved thunderbird, still do. I remember this machine very well, but now thinking about the fact we pretty much do this all the time destroying animals and their habitats it's hard to see it in the same light. Amazing models though, I wanted to get a job with him doing special effects.
Yes
Now THIS is how I wanna build a road!!!!! 😅 😂 🤣
Amazing details
懐かしいです！！
当時こういったメカにめちゃめちゃ興奮しました=3
秀樹感激Goodです=3
How did they transport that machine to and from site and does it dig the foundations for the roads that it lays?
Sidewinder next please 😌
Obviously the machine cannot travel back along the road it has created. It is building a road for cars and trucks, not for something like itself. There is no going back.
It just builds a Ring Road
Roadlayer never looks back
@@markfryer9880 haha :]
Oh, if only civil engineering were that much fun. None of that measuring water content or determining the appropriate grade of aggregate crap. It must've been loads of fun to build the models for this.
That may well be the most American thing I've seen since "America World Police".
Thunderbird vehicles are often sooty & grimy! Guess they didn't wash them much, unlike todays Fire Trucks
I am forwarding this vid to CalTrans. :))
Got it! Grey horsemen of the apocalypse
A genius invention !
Ngl the music at 0:00 is just fantastic
You created this? Fucking incredible. Only thing missing is the grainy texture of videotape compression on a CRT
What every road construction team needs is a cannon attached to the front of their vehicle.
Would be nice to state which episode these vehicles come from!
Looks like they re-purposed the Crablogger for this role. Or maybe the other way round
Shave the planet...
How would you transport a machine like that to the work site?
Fantastic.
Never a thought for conservation or wildlife, indigenous species or peoples.
If it's in the way, just
"Blow it to pieces!"
a-SkepticalMan and that tiny little barrow in the square in San Martino in the way of the crablogger in Path of Destruction. Always felt sorry for that little barrow... 😭
yeah......-yooo, with your 'Photon Torpedoes'........[sigh]
The major problem they had here was designing the road layer to lay crash barriers and cats eyes.
Which is why it's so charmingly archaic. It was a product of a time when the the idea of superiority of human engineering over nature was a norm. There were even serious considerations to use nukes for civilian excavation through America's Project Plowshare and the Soviet's Program #7 when Thunderbirds originally aired. They were that optimistic.
We need thát machine TODAY!
Que maquina!!! A man and his machines!!!
We need these models on the shelves.LEGO,where are you!?
Too busy with Marvel, Harry Potter etc.
Da werden Erinnerungen wach.
modern road construction crews WISHED they had a bloody cannon
Heh, i remember this episode, wouldn’t pass muster in todays society for ‘enforcing cultural stereotypes’... the operators went for a Mexican chillie that wasn’t served in the most hygienic conditions and the drivers passed out.. cue Thunderbirds to action... miss these models..
Could really do with this to deal with all our potholes
Number 7 "transmitter truck" looks like Gray and Houseman Construction "The Roadlayer" vehicle.
More like Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman construction co.
i dare elon musk to build something like that
JORGE GUERRERO Watch what you wish for - he’ll actually do it! Our Elon likes a true technological challenge, he does. He probably watched Thunderbirds as a kid too! 😊👍
Just had to go and do it . Didn't you. Sheesh.
He just Tweeted that he is, and he has Full Funding Secured!
@@datathunderstorm HAHAHA no, because Elon is a dumbass eco-fascist, who makes ugly cars, he would have hated TRUE PROGRESS like in Thunderbirds, with their machines on fossil fuels and nuclear reactors everywhere.
Great models
The modelmaking and ideas were amazing for a children's program, but why is almost every machine in the show a total ecological disaster in it's operation!
Current thinking: we must minimise negative human impact on the environment.
Thinking in the much more optimistic 60's: we must minimise negative impacts of the environment on humanity.
Then some ex nazi (I'm not kidding) founded the West German Green Party, hippies came along and Nixon scrapped the space program.
HALL9000ish The greens, now there's a useless and destructive bunch. The only thing I've seen come from the green movement has been more damage to the environment as well as hyped marketing of a wasteful culture of no longer buying durable goods, simply replacing things as they break or wear. The only thing green in this movement is money, and their desire for power through politically correct coercion. I grew up during the actual "hippie" movement, the back to earth, reduce,reuse,recycle and save energy times. But those policies are bad because they encourage savings rather than spending money which generates taxes and capital for investors..
In those days it was thought of as Man taming and controlling Nature -- something we humans have been doing ever since we discovered fire.
***** To which is the destruction of our dear planet. I'm so over govt.,religion,banks and now cops. I heard 85% of human beings suck and for the last 30 years I'm believing it. I will miss the good parts but I'm ready to go.
thatgood58 No, don't go, don't think that way! You can instead work to put a thumb in the eye of these people by refusing to go along with the crap they do. Oddly you can also live much better from the barely used castoffs of trash culture too! Start by not buying new, try to find used cars (I have a car that cost over $65K new, it's almost perfect and I can work on it Myself. Got it for less than a used Toyota, luxury cars in the used market are worthless and actually get decent fuel economy), electronics, etc and learn to fix stuff Yourself. Anything new you need, look for the cheapest deals, especially loss leaders and get the most energy efficient You can, saving money for yourself also cuts their profits. As far as housing, if You have the space, have a friend move in, cut living expenses while maximizing use of space. Be more tolerant, the media is endlessly trying to destroy personal contact, pushing intolerance and fear in order to keep control of us, we don't have to play along! Learn how they all work, the left especially, but the right,too. You can use their tactics against them, you can spread the truth and have fun doing it.
And that's the real truth they don't want, You, all of us, having fun! They hate that, it means that we can laugh at them as well. Break the fear habit all You can, try to follow Your instincts with situations and be friendly and courteous with people You don't know, it works. That crap about kindness is really something, it works and will further break the spread of fear and anger.
But don't ever give up, at least with the one thing You have, life. Remember, You deserve the good life You can make for Yourself and others.
Are these models still out there somewhere?
No
Nostalgia!
Wouldn't it be nice to have a machine which shoots everything in it's path and then create a four lane road just like this?
wonder how it grades the roadbed and clears all of those stumps where does all that demo waste go ?? what about culverts and drains too ?
Excellent questions.
Gray & Houseman didn't have much regard for health and safety.
They're in an episode of Thunderbirds. What did you expect?
There was no such thing then.
At least they get SHIT DONE!!! They have a work ethic, (especially Eddie😆) and their machines could save a lot of time.
Which episode is this? I have the whole series on dvd don't remember ever seeing this episode
This video has been getting a lot of attention recently. Has it been shared in a prominent place?
今見るととんでもない環境破壊ですね😾💦
別の見方だと
トンネルを掘らずに道路を作れる
画期的な発明だと思いますね
Where is the Environmental Impact Statement? Maybe they should use this machine to complete the oil pipeline from Alberta to Burnaby, BC?
I wouldn't be surprised to see a traffic jam building up behind!
Send it to resurface Silverstone FAB
wish making a real road could be that easy :3
Dhimas Afihandarin it can
Yeah right, sure it can be done that easily. Rolls eyes and shakes head in disbelief
@@markfryer9880 Not laying a new road but resurfacing an old road is almost as quick. You use a series of machines, the first is a heater to melt the surface, followed by a milling machine to grind up the road surface. That ground up road is then mixed with hot bitumen to make fresh asphalt that is laid and rolled flat.
Нам бы в Украину такую технику дороги сделать.
Michael Bay and Jeremy Clarkson construction company.
So it's a tarmacer mixed with a tank