transpress nz

Thursday, July 30, 2026

Cab Ride Ventimiglia - Cuneo (Tenda Railway) Italy, France

This is one of the more impressive mountain lines in Europe which crosses the Italy-France border twice. See earlier posts.

FS ETR 220, 1960

The ETR 220 (for Elettro Treno Rapido 220) was a further development of the ETR 200 introduced in 1936 and withdrawn from revenue service in 1997. They are considered the first high-speed trains by some railway historians.

The first example was built by Società Italiana Ernesto Breda, (now AnsaldoBreda), in 1936, an articulated and traction-distributed train with three cars on four bogies, two of which were Jacobs bogies, had a single T 62-R-100 motor, while the others—at the front and rear—were provided with two similar motors each.

They were equipped with air conditioning and had only first-class seats.

On 20 July 1939 unit 212 obtained the railway speed record, between Bologna and Milan, running (on the average speed for the whole run) between Florence and Milan at 165 km/h (103 mph), and also improving the absolute top speed record up to 203 km/h (126 mph) in the stretch from Pontenure to Piacenza.

A total of 18 3-car sets were built and 2 had to be scrapped due to wartime damage, In the early 1960s, the remaining sixteen units were converted to ETR 220/230/240 by adding a fourth car and making other improvements. They remained in service until the early 1980s, and were later used for charter trains until the 1990s.

1992 Cadillac Sedan deVille

More pics

a Rock Island RS-3 Alco with passenger cars exits Chicago's La Salle Street station in 1958

A total of 1,418 Alco RS-3 diesel-electrics were produced between May 1950 and August 1956 by Alco and its Canadian subsidiary, the Montreal Locomotive Works (MLW). Of these 35 were delivered to the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad between 1950 and 1951.

Rock Island operated from 1852 to 1980.

An HO scale model by Atlas.

Tuesday, July 28, 2026

'I love to feel a good real book in my hands'

cars in the 600 number block of Beverly Drive, L.A., 1950s

This is where they filmed the opening scene from The Beverly Hillbillies TV show of the 1960s. The car looks like a 1955 Chrysler New Yorker or Windsor. (Vintage Los Angeles FB)

cars on Rue Soufflot, Paris, 1950s

With the Panthéon at the end. Vehicles include a Citroën Type H Van which is the gray corrugated steel commercial van driving in the foreground on the right; a Simca Aronde which is the light green/mint-colored sedan driving in the middle of the street. a Peugeot 203 which is the red and black two-tone sedan parked/driving on the far left side, a Citroën Traction Avant and a Renault 4CV. The original pic had a lot of coal grime on the buildings which we have cleaned off digitally.

The scene today