a place to watch bands and trains, Timaru, 1920s


At obviously 2:10 pm a passenger train headed by what looks like an A class 4-6-2 steams north out of Timaru.  On the cliff top is the Hydro Grand Hotel.

For more, see earlier posts, and of course, our books.

NZR J class 4-8-2 with a Main Trunk Express near Frankton Junction


This will be a 1940s pic as the 'bullet nose' streamlining didn't last into the 1950s.  For more, see our books.

Saturday, April 28, 2018

mid-1960s Toyota bus, Guatemala


With the Toyota sign on the windshield, this could have been a publicity pic.

vehicles at the Cape Foulwind Cement Works, NZ West Coast, 1968


Via the NZ car related street scenes 1950s-1980s FB page.

legs too short - so no driver's license


Only 1.48 metres tall (4'10") she can't reach normal height gas, clutch and brake pedals.

1927 Dennis 30 CWT bus with a 20-seat body



This was used as the basis for illustrations in a new Folio Society book entitled Hide My Eyes by Margery Allingham.

Story and more pics

Friday, April 27, 2018

British Railway Train Leaving a Station art, 1987


A gift from the artist Richard Hollis to the Royal Free Hospital.

Schwinn Bicycle Company ad for Krates, 1970


According to the U.S. Inflation Calculator, $95 in 1970 is the equivalent of $611 now.

narrow gauge steam in Guatemala, 1980


A 2-8-2 cape gauge (3'6") built by Krupp in 1938 makes its way along Lago de Amatitlan in 1980 making an impressive amount of smoke, with a goods train.  There are now no operating railways in Guatemala apart from museum operations  -- some info

Galgate Station at Night art, England


By Trevor R. Owens (b.c.1940), Lancaster City Museums.

This painting of Galgate Station by night, showing the platform and a train approaching from the left. It was painted to celebrate the 150th anniversary of local railways in Lancaster. Galgate was one of six stations on the original line from Preston to Lancaster and opened in 1840, but closed due to failing demand in 1939. The station buildings were later demolished. (Source)

cars in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, circa 1960





Just across the border from El Paso, Texas, see earlier posts.

Canadian National C44-9W


Known in railroad parlance as a 'Dash 9'  This one was built in 2004.   Info

Canada gets the rough end of multiculturalism again -- 10 dead, 15 injured in a van attack in Toronto


Unfortunately, like the consequences of 9/11, everyone suffers as big cities increasingly install ugly bollards on main pedestrian areas to prevent this sort of thing.

Story

Monday, April 23, 2018

Kicking Horse Pass spiral tunnels view, Canada


This pass in the Canadian Rockies at the Alberta–British Columbia border and the Banff–Yoho national parks boundary is the highest point on the Canadian Pacific Railway, at an elevation of 5,338 feet [1,627 metres]. The approach from the east is by way of the Bow Valley; from the west end, two circular tunnels were cut into the valley sides (completed in 1911) to reduce the gradient of the railway. It was explored in 1858 by James Hector of Captain John Palliser’s expedition. Hector was kicked by his horse while crossing the pass—hence its name.

The Trans-Canada Highway came through the pass in the 1960s.The tunnel under Cathedral mountain is 3,255 feet [992 metres] long with a turn of 291 degrees, and the one under Mount Ogden turns through 217 degrees over 2,992 feet [912 metres]. The ruling grade is 2.2%. The tunnels were completed in August 1909, and replaced the route up the "Big Hill", which had a 4.5% grade. There is/was a lookout just off the Trans-Canada Highway from which you could observe both portals of the tunnel. Passengers can ride this route, at least in the summer, on Great Canadian Railtours' Rocky Mountaineer train from Calgary to Vancouver.

When the tunnels had been bored, they were off on one tunnel by 18 inches when the two ends connected, and 6 inches on the other. (via Britannica Online)

Sunday, April 22, 2018

South Australian narrow gauge T class locomotive


A 4-8-0 type for cape gauge (3 ft 6 inch) of which 78 were produced between 1903 and 1917.  This one was seen at Broken Hill in NSW.

More info

traffic in St. Vincent Street, Port Adelaide, Australia, circa 1917


As in many other places, trams disappeared decades ago but they seem set for a return here, according to this article.

1984 Leyland Titan bus

Seen in Paekakariki, NZ, ex-London Transport.  This was originally licensed to carry 70 passengers -- 44 downstairs and 26 upstairs -- but is now only licensed to carry 2 as it is being converted into an RV.


The Gardner diesel engine.

1967 Chrysler Imperial Crown


"Would you like to join me in here? More room than in the back seat."

Friday, April 20, 2018

respected Independent reporter Robert Fisk says there was no chemical weapons attack in Syria

For UK Prime Minister Theresa May it's clearly an obsession on her part to "blame and punish the Russians at every opportunity, regardless of the truth".  The rebel-aligned "White Helmets" who made the claim are known to be a highly dubious bunch.
______________________________________________________

"Robert Fisk’s bombshell first-hand account for the UK Independent runs contrary to nearly every claim circulating in major international press concerning what happened just over week ago on April 7th in an embattled suburb outside Damascus: not only has the veteran British journalist found no evidence of a mass chemical attack, but he’s encountered multiple local eyewitnesses who experienced the chaos of that night, but who say the gas attack never happened.
"Fisk is the first Western journalist to reach and report from the site of the alleged chemical weapons attack widely blamed on Assad’s forces. Writing from Douma in eastern Ghouta, Fisk has interviewed a Syrian doctor who works at the hospital shown in one of the well-known videos which purports to depict victims of a chemical attack."

Full article


Tuesday, April 17, 2018

GMC SW1200RS switcher


A total 769 units of the SW1200 Bo-Bo type switcher were built by EMD, and 287 were produced by the associate of EMD in Canada, General Motors Canada, between 1954 and 1966. The RS denoted large front and rear (on some units) numberboard housings, EMD Flexicoil B-B trucks, and larger fuel tanks for road-switcher service. Of the 297, the majority, 208, went to Canadian National.

The prime mover was a V12 567C diesel engine with a 1200 hp output.

car for Tijuana Tours, circa 1910


From the look of it, originating from the U.S. side of the border. Someone may know what it is.

Monday, April 16, 2018

1955 Mercury Montclair


With a 1958 Chevrolet on the left.

Canadian National SD70M-2


Seen near Coteau, Quebec.

"The SD70M-2 is the SD70ACe's DC-traction counter-part. Like the SD70ACe, the locomotive was rated at 4,300 hp. NS ordered all of their SD70M-2's at 4,000 hp. Norfolk Southern (NS), Florida East Coast (FEC), and Canadian National (CN) were the only customers to purchase this locomotive new.

"CN has the most SD70M-2's of any railroad, at 190 units."

More

NZR De with a passenger train north of Porirua in 1958


It's not recorded what this train was, but the cars weren't for Main Trunk expresses, nor why a De diesel rather than an Ew or Ed electric was hauling it as far as the then end of the wires in Paekakariki.

The alignment and the single track were later replaced with straight double track along the shore of the Porirua Harbour, and several years later the same was done with the road.

For more see our books. (Derek Cross pic)

Sunday, April 15, 2018

Canadian Pacific 10-wheelers in 1959


2 x D10h class 4-6-0 from 1913. Location not stated.