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Wednesday, January 28, 2015

vessels in Bangor, Ireland, poster, 1900s

The reference to "Ireland's premier watering place" is intriguing - did it have the country's highest concentration of pubs?

'Silver Meteors' in Florida postcard, 1939

The engines were E4's. The landscape is quite flat and the views tend to consist of trees. This still runs as an Amtrak service. More here

Junkers 52 promo art, 1934

See earlier posts.

'Victoria' on Auckland's Waitemata Harbour, circa 1900

Operated by the Devonport Steam Ferry Company between the north shore and Auckland as a passenger and mail boat, the paddle steamer Victoria was built by Charles Bailey Senior for the company and was launched in November 1881. She lasted until 1912 when her survey certificate expired and she was taken to "Rotten Row" behind Brown's Island and sunk. For more, see earlier posts and our books.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Dubai is officially the world's busiest airport

Dubai International airport dealt with about 71 million international passengers in 2014, according to chief executive Paul Griffiths, surpassing the 68.1 million that passed through Heathrow.

The 2015 projections for traffic at Dubai International forecast 79 million passengers.

Today marks 70 years since the Soviet Red Army reached the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland which was the largest and best known established by the Nazis during WW2, and probably the best documented as most of both Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz 2 (Birkenau) remains. There was also a third camp called Monowitz which was part of the IG Farben chemical works.

Most of those who arrived at Birkenau did so in a cattle car like that shown. Boxcars were often used by the Germans for their own troops too, but the difference was the soldiers weren't packed in like sardines and did not have to remain in them for sometimes days as the railway lines were very crowded during the war - and often the target of Allied bombing.

The Nazis blew up the gas chambers before they left, but for the mini-series War and Remembrance from the late 1980s, the producers rebuilt one from the original plans; they demolished it again after filming.