DDR narrow gauge railway stamps

Quite a few of these former DR (state railway) narrow gauge steam railways - variously 750 mm, 900-mm and metre-gauge - survived to the end of communism; probably one of the few benefits of that regime, as they all are major tourist attractions now.  In the west they would probably have been given Steven Joyce style treatment decades ago.

curved Pont de l'Arc railway bridge Aix-en-Provence, France

Still there; it now crosses the A8 Autoroute, among other things.


View Larger Map

tram tracks in old Essen, Germany

the station - a French postcard

 

 

the station at right

 

factories like this Krupp works were a prime target for bombers in WW2

the Stadt-Saalbau (concert house?) in Huyssen Allee

Gussstahlfabrik (cast steel factory) artwork circa 1900

the Handelshof Hotel (misspelled here) survived the bombing - the damage was repaired although the turrets were reduced

One of Germany's major cities with a present day population of just under 600,000, Essen was hit hard by Allied bombing during WW2 and about 90% of the centre was destroyed, so today its appearance is quite modern.

The city still has trams and light rail, including underground sections - a post about them soon.

Agip full service, Italy, circa 1962

"Checking water and oil 
inspection of tires
cleaning crystals
and full of Supercortemaggiore [Agip petrol brand]"

Can you imagine even one let alone three attendants doing any of that now?

Chiavenna town and station, Italy

A 1950s view

a 1990s view

Chiavenna is the end of a 26.2 km branch line from Colico - which in that distance rises from 211 metres altitude to 330 metres - opened on 9 September 1886.  As mentioned in an earlier post, the lines in the Valtellina were notable for their pioneering use of 3-phase AC electric locomotives. On 15 October 1902 the electrification of the Colico-Lecco-Chiavenna and Colico-Sondrio lines was inaugurated with overhead at 3,600 Volts and nominal frequency of 16.7 Hz, powered by a hydroelectric plant at Campovico.

one of the 3-phase AC electric locos built by Ganz of Hungary

ferry and connecting train, Borkum, Germany, 1975

The car ferry Ostfriesland at the harbour of the North Sea island of Borkum.  The 900-mm gauge Borkum Kleinbahn ("small railway") in 1938 had around 45 km of tracks, some built for military use. The loco fleet then consisted of 6 locomotives and 70 wagons, plus numerous naval vehicles.

In the 1970s the railway experienced "economic turbulence". However, its tourist importance steadily increased and new acquisitions strengthened the fleet. The surviving line from the harbour to the town today consists of two tracks with a length of about 7.5 km. website (German)

truckie evasion of NZ road user charges jumps

An item from Radio NZ news today is below. Given that a certain Steven Joyce has been the Minister of Transport from late 2008 to late 2011, should we be surprised at the huge drop in annual investigations into evasions from 256 to 79?


The trucking fleet is believed to be dodging more than $50 million in road user charges.
Documents obtained by Radio New Zealand also show the number of investigations into such cases has dropped dramatically.

The Transport Ministry estimates truckies failed to pay almost $51 million in road user charges in the 2010/2011 financial year, a rise of more than $10 million on the year before. The unpaid amount is equivalent to nearly 5% of the more than $1 billion the levy generates.

The Transport Agency says while it can not be sure of the exact reason for the estimated increase this is an area where its performance needs to improve.

The charge helps pay for the maintenance and building of roads and the Automobile Association says all road users lose out when people don't pay their fair share.

Both the Association and the Road Transport Forum which represents the trucking industry say evasion could be eliminated if the road user charge system was dumped in favour of a diesel tax which they say would be impossible to avoid and cheaper to run.

Figures also show the agency is conducting fewer investigations into evasion. In the 2008-9 financial year the Transport Agency carried out 256 investigations, collecting some $4 million in unpaid charges. That number fell to 79 investigations in the 2010/2011 financial year which resulted in $2.2 million being recovered. But in that year, the average settlement was much higher than normal at almost $28,000, and every individual or company investigated was found to have evaded paying road user charges. In the past three years it has cost between $14 million and $17 million a year to administer RUC collection, investigation and enforcement.

The Transport Agency says a simplified road user charges system coming into force in August will reduce the opportunities to evade paying road user charges.

a risky fully laden Russian IL 76 short take-off

Filmed in Australia from a control tower, a fully laden Russian IL-76 cargo plane with a payload of about 455 tonnes uses the full length of this runway to get airborne.

The commentary from controllers in the tower could only be Aussie: "The Vodka Burner" just makes it. The comment "it's not over yet" refers to the mountains which have to be cleared (not shown).

Belgian locomotive book cover

A bande dessinéee (comic book) released in France 2 weeks ago.  This features a Belgian class 12, a class of six 4-4-2 type streamlined steam locomotives introduced in 1939 for express services.  The pics below are from dieselpunks.org where there are more, plus info.

And the storyline of the book? The description by the publisher:-

À cinquante ans passés, Léon Van Bel, machiniste-mécanicien proche de la retraite, s’accroche passionnément à son métier de cheminot, et à la machine qui l’incarne: la 12.004, somptueuse loco à vapeur de plus de vingt mètres de long, avec laquelle il a déjà fait quatre fois le tour de la terre et qu’il surnomme affectueusement « la Douce ». Mais au fond, il ne se fait guère d’illusions.
Dans ce monde qui pourrait être le nôtre, les transports ferroviaires traditionnels seront très bientôt détrônés par le téléphérique, et Van Bel irrémédiablement mis au rancart, sacrifié comme sa machine aux exigences de la modernité. Pour protéger la loco du dépeçage, le vieux cheminot révolté tente, en vain, de voler la Douce. Persuadé néanmoins qu’elle a pu échapper aux ferrailleurs, et qu’il saura la retrouver, il embarque clandestinement à bord du téléphérique, en compagnie d’une jeune femme mutique dont il a déjà brièvement croisé la route, dans des circonstances dramatiques…

[At 50 years old, Leon Van Bel, locomotive engineer close to retirement, clings passionately to his job as a railroader, and the machine that embodies it: the 12004, a sumptuous steam locomotive over 20 metres long, with which he has already gone four times around the land and he affectionately called "la Douce." But deep down, there is no illusion. In this world that could be ours, traditional rail transport will be very soon dethroned by the cable car and van Bel will be irretrievably discarded, sacrificed like his machine, by the requirements of modernity. To protect the locomotive from butchering, the old railroader rebelliously attempts, unsuccessfully, to steal the Douce. Believing however that she has escaped the scrapper, and he will find her, he secretly embarks on board the cable car in the company of a mute young woman whom he has already crossed paths briefly, in dramatic circumstances ...]

light rail studies for Wellington underway

This oil painting was commissioned of Wallace Trickett by Brent Efford of Trans-action group to show what the concept could look like using tram units as in Melbourne - modified to 3'6'' gauge so they can run on the heavy rail system also. The proposal was to look at running light rail on the main railways to the Hutt and Kapiti Coast so passengers could travel to the Airport without changing.

As mentioned in our book Wellington Transport Memories, either elevated tracks over or tunnels under  central city streets will be needed - the above scene is unlikely - and that doesn't come cheap.

Fortunately the present Mayor of Wellington is pro-rail and the concept is being given serious study - more here