1950 Jaguar Mark V

 

More pics and info

cars at an Aral filling station in Germany, 1958

 

cars on Santa Monica pier, circa 1965

These days it is for pedestrians only.

landing a plane in the jungle

 

Mobil map cover from the era when a service station was exactly that

Not only would uniformed attendants pump your gas for you, but clean the windshield and check the water and oil too.  Circa 1960.

Central Vermont Railway 2-10-4

Class leader 700. (Bud Laws photo)

Unit 707 seen in the 1950s.  

Designated class T-3-a and numbered 700-709, 10 were built in 1928 by Alco at Schenectady.  Info

sailing ship 'Pandora' model

This Royal Navy ship was launched on 3 July 1779 at Deptford Dockyard and lasted 12 years. In 1790 she was used to search for the crew of the Bounty, but was wrecked on 28 August 1791 in the Torres Strait. "HMS Pandora is considered to be one of the most significant shipwrecks in the Southern Hemisphere."

Detailed info

Pacific Electric car to Venice, Echo Park Ave, L.A., circa 1950

 

Thames Trader bus art

A Thames Trader of Wally Cowls Carterton Transport Ltd with driver Percy Lee taking Carterton School children home on the afternoon run down Park Road . It was number 6 in this small fleet, but in 1981 became part of Blue Bus Services and was renumbered to 35.Withdrawn around 1985, it was eventually scrapped after living out at Castlepoint golf course for many years. Oil on canvas panel by Wallace W. Trickett, 2020

trains for Argentina that instead went to the Soviet Union

A Ganz "Catamarca" type set in Isidro Casanova on the Belgrano Sur line in 1958. They were the design basis of the "Rosario".

A "Rosario" type set in Riga, Latvia.

In the 1930s, Ferrocarriles del Estado made several purchases of motorised trainsets from the Hungarian firm of Ganz. The last batch ordered in 1939 did not reach Argentina due to the outbreak of WW2: following the Allied victory in 1945, the trains were handed over to the Soviet Union as war reparations.

Full article

Japan 4-wheel electric quarry tram model

In HO scale.

1953 Ford Comète, France

"Good grief, honey, who produced this useless map?"

 This model was made between 1951 and 1954 when Ford SAF was sold to Simca.

1962 Ford Falcon (USA)

 

Wanganui tram on the Dublin Street Bridge, 1920s

See earlier posts and of course, our books.

Google Earth reference

Manning Wardle 0-6-0ST, NSW

Locomotive Windsor, built 1864 and scrapped 1923. 

According to www.hawkesburyhistory.net.au/railways/manning.html :

The Blacktown--Richmond line started with 3 Manning Wardle 0-6-0 box-saddle tank engines with builders numbers 88, 89 and 109. Named  Windsor, Sydney & Richmond they were built in March 1864, August 1864 and August 1864.

The original concept for the Blacktown--Richmond line was to have horse drawn trains but these locos were ordered instead. They worked the Blacktown--Richmond line until 1879 when it had been upgraded to take bigger power.

Originally Windsor was numbered 15, which was changed to 29 in 1865. Richmond was numbered 16, this was changed very soon to 14 (second). In 1865 it was renumbered again, this time to 31. Sydney was numbered 16 (second), which was changed to 30 in 1865.

After service on the Blacktown-Richmond line 29, Windsor (ex 15) was hired to T. Saywell for his "Rockdale--Lady Robinsons Beach" (Brighton-le-sands) Tramway in 1885. It was returned in 1886 and, in 1891, sold to Mr Saywells "Toronto Tramway". It passed to the Public Works Department in 1900 and was scrapped in 1923. 30 & 31 were used at the opening of the Kogarah-Sans Souci tramway in September-November 1887. 31 was then sold to R. G. Watkins, then to the PWD, then scrapped with No. 29 at Goninans in May 1923.

#29 was sold on 9/1/1891 after running 466,503 km.

#30 was scrapped in 9/1892 after running 547,638 km.

#31 was sold on 28/11/1890 after running 536,716 km.

'you should really try a real book and give the smartphone a rest'

cars in Japan, 1969

 

1920 Rauch and Lang electric car

An exhibit in the Durham Museum, Omaha, Nebraska.

1972 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray

PLM coaches poster, France, circa 1930

 

1937 Cord 810 Phaeton

Marsha Hunt with director/producer Cecil B. DeMille.

1972 Fiat 132 1800 Special

 

Christmas car card

 

Bluebell Railway, England, 'steam lights' trips

January operating dates now listed -- Info

Bremen station, Germany, at night

From a wallpaper website.

Christmas greeting to our customers and readers

This past year has been a bizarre one with many people in most countries having been compulsorily required to spend some of it in the 'great indoors' because of the advent of a new coronavirus.  

It didn't make a whole lot of difference to us as working on publications for people is something we easily do at home.  However, it has certainly had a big effect on some retail businesses that depend on casual shoppers and on transport operators, particularly the airlines and cruise ship industry.

Hopefully, the (rushed) vaccine arrivals will mean relative normality in 2021, although some countries such as France are proposing that people must have vaccination certificates to use public transport and some airlines such as Qantas are also threatening that. We hope it doesn't happen, as it is unnecessary and will be a major political issue if it does.

That aside, we wish customers and readers a good holiday break and year 2021.

1988 Holden Calais

 

Convair CV-440 Metropolitan model

A 1:50 model in Swissair livery.

The prototype was built in 1956. It had 2 Pratt & Whitney R-2800 Double Wasp engines, seats for 54. It was written off in 1980(?)

poster of the first airplane crossing (East-West) of the North Atlantic, September 1930

"It's to France that the world owes its wings."

Wikipedia notes: Dieudonné Costes (14 November 1892 - 18 May 1973) was a French aviator, known of long distance and record breaking flights, a fighter ace of World War I. Over 1-2 September 1930, Costes with Maurice Bellonte, flew their Breguet 19 Super Bidon from Paris to New York, as the first aircraft in the more difficult westbound direction, between North American and European mainlands. They covered 6,200 km in 37 hours 18 minutes (some sources claim 5,850 km).

The first solo, nonstop trans-Atlantic flight took place on 21 May 1927 by Charles A. Lindbergh flying his Spirit of St. Louis from Long Island, New York, to Paris, France.

Stockholm tram plus two trailers circa 1910

Kungl. Djurgarden = Royal Zoo.

'a real book is much better than silly messages on a smart phone'

Cardiff trolleybuses, Wales, 1960s

In Cardiff more than six million journeys were taken in the first 12 months of the trolleybus system opening on St David's Day in 1942. But they finally succumbed to car ownership and fossil fuel on 11 January 1970.

Now the city intends to fund 36 electric buses.

Story and more pics

1954 Ford Thames light truck

Info and lots of pics

1955 Mercury M100 pickup

1955 Aston Martin DB 2/4 MKII Vantage

More pics 

Iberia Airlines poster, 1948

Featuring a DC-4 Skyliner.

traffic in Palmerston North square, late 1950s

A coupled pair of Fiat railcars can be seen on the railway line.  The Milson deviation saw the removal of the railway tracks circa 1964 and road traffic now is largely confined to the perimeter.

For lots more, see the book New Zealand 1950s Steam in Colour

The Oceanbird: Swedish firm develops large wind-driven cargo ship

"Two centuries after the first coal-powered steamships crossed the Atlantic Ocean, a Swedish company is designing a futuristic throwback: a huge, wind-driven 200-metre cargo ship that could help end the fossil fuel era and limit climate change."

Unsurprisingly it will also have an engine as back-up.

Article

1953 Dodge trucks promo item

 

1954 Kaiser Manhattan

 An advert for French speaking Canada.

alligators in the desert

75 of these Co-Co types were built by Alco in the 1956-1960 period of which 50 went to Santa Fe. Prime mover was a 251B V16 four-stroke diesel engine rated at 2,400 hp.

Christmas train for 2020

 

Airbus A320 poster, 1993

Info on the A320 and variants

Canadian Pacific 2-10-0

One of the R3a/R3b/R3c/R3d subclasses of which 35 were built from 1917. 

"These oil-burning Decapods came out of the Angus shops in four subclasses. They reflected the CP's study of the R2 conversions and were very similar in size and power.

"R3a (2 units in May and June 1917), R3b (1 in August, 3 in September, 1 in January 1918), and R3c (18 units in January to June 1918) all had the same boiler dimensions. The 10 R3d (1 in June, 3 in July, 2 August, and 2 each in January-February 1919) had slightly more firebox area (230 sq ft vs 221).

"The big difference among the sub-classes seems to have been the size of the journal bearings on the driving axle (the 3rd of 5)."

More

Rudolf Pilat bicycles and motorbikes, 1925

 

1927 Stutz

Info and lots of pics

above Wellington wharves, 1959

With the substantial demise of coastal shipping and the advent of containerisation in the 1970s, many of these wharves are no longer used by vessels of any significant size, if at all.

For lots more, see our books.