Friday, February 28, 2014

weird Chinese traffic sign


China is known for mangled English signage, but as a pictogram this still defies interpretation...

steam train on bridge art, Bratislava, Slovakia, 1900s


Pressburg is the German name for Bratislava and Pozsony is the Hungarian name.

early 1940s trolley bus, Seattle, Washington


Seen in 1970 is an early 1940s Twin Coach trolley bus in service in Seattle, a city that bought 177 of them between 1940 and 1943. The Twin Coach company lasted from 1927 to 1955, based in Kent, Ohio. In 1955 the bus manufacturing operations were sold to Flxible which was also based in Ohio. For a while Flxible used the Twin Coach name along with its own and some buses carried front name plates that gave both names and combined the companies' two logos into one. By 1963 the use of the Twin Coach name on buses had been discontinued.

rolled cars

 

Presumably they met the same type of accident on an icy road and this isn't some sort of artistic statement - from a viral e-mail.

Lolland Railway parcels stamps, Denmark


The Lolland Railway (Lollandsbanen) operates the 50 km (31 mile) Nykøbing Falster to Nakskov line, mostly on the island of Lolland. Established in 1954, it is based on the remains of Det Lolland-Falsterske Jernbane-Selskab (LFJS). The company is owned mostly by Storstrøm County (since 2007 part of Region Sjælland) plus municipalities located along the line.
This features a Frichs built diesel loco from the early 1930s

A locomotive built by Frichs in 1952 of the Lollandsbanen, road number 31.

boats in Stockholm harbor, Sweden, 1930s


'I wonder if he'll get me a transpress nz book'



Christchurch tram in the Cashmere Hills, 1920s


For more, see our books.

1936 Champion road grader

On a Canadian 5c stamp.

Odessa port poster, Ukraine

 
Obviously during the Soviet era and judging by the steam locos, probably 1950s.

high speed train in Milano Centrale, Italy


With a bit of High-dynamic-range imaging or HDR. Available as a print from the photographer, Ken Kaminesky website. See the earlier post on this station.

more Stockholm Tunnelbana scenes, Sweden

The stamp is from 1975 and the pic from about 1970. See earlier posts.

anti-skid electronic stability control to be compulsory for all new cars in NZ from July


Pioneered In 1987 by Mercedes-Benz and BMW, electronic stability control helps reduce skids when the vehicle is not going where the driver is steering and thus makes cars safer.  Most new cars already have it. The government says that all imported second hand cars will be required to have it by 2020.  It can not be retro-fitted, however, so we assume that exemptions will be made for classic cars.

traditional sailboat in Porto, Portugal


Thursday, February 27, 2014

early steam train on Petrufiguen rail bridge, Chile


On what looks a newly built bridge is a 4-4-0 with perhaps a caboose, a woman in a long dress is at the open side door.

steamer 'Christoph' on Lake Constance, Germany


Or the Bodensee as it is in German, returning to Friedrichshafen.

'this transpress nz book has really good pictures'


to Chile by SAS, 1950s


Possibly depicting a Saab 90A-2 Scandia.

TransCanada highway snow shelter on Rogers Pass


With what looks like a 1966 Ford Fairlane.

St Valery en Caux lighthouse and yachts, France

 
Not forgetting the tennis and casino (pronounced in French as 'cazino')...  This lighthouse was built in 1872, modified in 1914.

Canadian coal mine rail yard, circa 1910


You might think that it would have been helpful to say which - maybe it was a case of "hi folks, you see a lot of these in Western Canada".  Clearly the mine burned a reasonable amount of the coal itself to power machinery.

4-axle extension-ladder fire truck outside Wellington's Central Fire Station


An art deco building from 1937.  The times shown on the clock tower faces obviously weren't exactly aligned. A couple of Geoff Churchman photos considered for but not used in the book Wellington: a Capital century.

and if the the Hot Rod Girl wasn't enough, now it's the Gang

 

No subtlety about the girl's assets... A movie from 1958.

London double deck bus humor, 1950s

 Obviously a visitor.

'Hot Rod Girl' movie poster, 1956

 

If the subject wasn't enough in itself, sensationalism was clearly the way to attract movie goers, and to reinforce the delinquency theme, American International Pictures released it on a double bill with Girls in Prison.

former West German railbuses in Croatia

A train from Metlika to Karlovac at Ozalj. In their red colors these were a standard feature of lightly trafficked lines in West Germany from the 1950s through the 1970s, see earlier posts.

1950 MCI Courier 50 Skyview motor coach



As featured on this Canadian stamp, repacked for philatelic exhibitions in the 1990s.

'I like to spend spare time reading a book'


Wednesday, February 26, 2014

go to Senegal

 
...by the fast paquebots of the Compagnie de Naviation Paquet; then on a slow punt.  Age uncertain.

EMD F40PH-2 locomotive on the new Canadian $10 note

 


The back of the new $10 plastic banknote released last November features a portrait of a VIA Rail rebuilt EMD F40PH-2, delivered in November 1986, hauling The Canadian trans-Canada passenger train.  The $C is normally close in value to the $U.S., although it experiences periodic dives.

Monaco 1930 poster


Fly TWA to Los Angeles poster, 1950s

 
On a Lockheed 'Connie' - see earlier posts.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Czech trains, 1900 and 2000, stamp art


strange car and truck crash results









from a viral e-mail

Greyhound bus advert, 1949


Telecom NZ to rename itself SPARK


This was announced by the company's top boss last Friday, although not the exact date when it will occur.  It's almost an acknowledgement of its extremely bad behaviour since it was split from the Post Office in 1987 and then sold by the Government.  But people aren't so easily fooled: "same thing with a different name" - simply more of the same autocratic attitudes and fleecing customers for as much as it can get away with to pay to its bosses and shareholders while delivering as little as it can get away with.  As a TV commentator pointed out, spelt backwards it reads KRAPS. At least in mobile it no longer has the lion's share of the market and only ranks as number two - its constant attempts to stifle the competition didn't succeed. And the Government eventually saw the need to dismember the Goliath into separate entities in 2011 just as the Reagan administration in the U.S. saw the need to split up AT&T in 1984.