China is known for mangled English signage, but as a pictogram this still defies interpretation...
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.
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| This features a Frichs built diesel loco from the early 1930s |
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| A locomotive built by Frichs in 1952 of the Lollandsbanen, road number 31. |
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
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.
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.
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.
'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
1950 MCI Courier 50 Skyview motor coach
As featured on this Canadian stamp, repacked for philatelic exhibitions in the 1990s.
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.
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
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.