'It's good that you like real books you can touch'

Egypt to receive last batch of General Electric train engines this March

CAIRO – 28 February 2021: Sources at the Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA) told Egypt Today that the last batch of the General Electric train engines consisting of 10 units will arrive in a few days.

Egypt has received 100 out of 110 train engines in the $602.05-million deal. The contract also consists of the rehabilitation of 81 others of the current fleet at Tebin Workshop in Cairo, and the supply of spare parts and maintenance of 181 engines over 15 years at a cost of $575 million. That is in addition to offering technical support embodied in training 30 engineers and 245 technicians.

The Ministry of Transportation revealed there is more to those engines as they are remote control locomotives that can be operated from towers designed for that purpose.

Deputy Chairman of the Egyptian Railway Authority (ERA) Sami Abdel Tawab told Al Watan newspaper in August that the new engines are mainly operated by the drivers and that the control tower serves to intervene in emergencies.

(Source)

(Original announcement from 2017 on the GE website)

OBB (Austrian Federal Railways) poster, 1960s

Possibly depicting the Tauernbahn, but there are several possibilities.

1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme

 

trams in Theatre Boulevard, Riga, Latvia, early 20h century

Trams in the capital of Latvia have run since 1882, electrically powered since 1901. The present day system extends 153 km in the Soviet 5ft (1524 mm) gauge. See earlier posts.

more L.A. cars and other street vehicles, 1960s

 

traffic on South Broadway, L.A., 1963

With the Roxie Theatre a bit further along on the right -- this lasted from 1931 to 1989 although the building is still there.  More pics

Present day reference

a sea trip to England including a diesel multiple unit, Netherlands, 1939

Roermond is actually a fair way inland, presumably where the the train began/ended.   The departure point for the ship would have been Hoek van Holland.

A year later, doing this would become quite difficult.

1926 Panhard Levassor 8 cylinder

'Very soft and without reaction.'
 

ship 'Sumbawa' (1954)

Built: Nakskov Skibsværft, Nakskov, Denmark (completed March 1954) 

Tonnage: 10550 dwt., 5230 nt., 8830 grt Length: 149.67 m (491'0")

Beam: 19.35 m (63'7")

Draught: 11.66 m (27'4")

Engine: Diesel 8200 hp, 

Service speed: 16.8 knots

Renamed & reflagged 1972 (Zuider Sea, Somali Republic), reflagged 1976 (Panama). Broken up 1983.

More at shipspotting.com here

1973 Holden Premier

 

1948 Aston Martin DB1

"The Aston Martin 2-Litre Sports was a sports car sold by Aston Martin from 1948 to 1950. It was the first product of the company under new owner, David Brown, and is retrospectively known as the DB1. The car debuted at the 1948 London Motor Show and was based on the Aston Martin Atom prototype. Just 15 were sold." (wikipedia)

entrance to the Summit tunnel on the Rimutaka Incline, NZ, circa 1900

The boy up the signal looks too young to have been there for any official reason, perhaps he was the son the photographer. See earlier posts.

1952 Triumph Mayflower

 

A 1960 Auston A99 next to it.

'I like to sunbathe with a real book, not a smartphone'

trains on the old Memel (Klaipeda) Dange river bridge near Janischken, Lithuania

 

"The railway bridge over Dangė river was built in 1874, during the construction of Klaipėda-Tilsit railway. The bridge was built by workers from Joniškis. Built of stones with five semi-circular arches, it looked rather stern and magnificent. Eventually the trains between Klaipėda and Tilsit became regular.

"The highest arch of the bridge was 13.25 metres wide and 8.5 m high above water. The bridge supports had ledges, which used to protect it against damage during the ice-drift. However, the bridge was inconvenient for ship traffic: ships had to lower their masts to pass through. Therefore, it was equipped with a special mechanism to raise the masts. The primary bridge was destroyed in 1944–1945, as the Red Army took over the city. The current metal bridge was reconstructed after the war. A fragment of the stonework of the old bridge can still be visible near the foundation of the new one." Source

See earlier posts on Memel.

traffic on 5th Avenue, NYC, circa 1922

With a traffic control tower before the age of traffic lights. 

More info

Present day reference

wharf cranes and railway freight cars, Antwerp, Belgium, 1920s

radiator anti-freeze poster, France

A frozen over path seems to be the association. Age uncertain.

Short S-25 Sandringham Mk 4 Tasman Class

Seen in Ansett Australian use, this was also used in NZ -- info and lots more pics

150 years of the Laroche--Migennes railway, France, 1999

Electric locomotives in the dépôt de Laroche, with one of the BB 26000 class Bo-Bo type Sybics in the centre left.  More

Boeing recommends grounding more than 120 of its 777 jets worldwide following a catastrophic engine failure on a United Airlines plane in Denver, CO

The company said on Sunday night that airlines using the same type of engine that scattered debris across Denver before making an emergency landing should suspend operations until inspections could be carried out

Flight 328 was flying from Denver International Airport to Honolulu with 231 passengers and 10 crew on board on Saturday when one engine failed shortly after take-off. Police in Broomfield, Colorado posted photos of pieces of debris from the plane near houses and other buildings. There were no reports of any injuries on the ground or among the passengers.

United Airlines said it was temporarily grounding all 24 of its Boeing 777s on active duty, and Japan’s aviation regulator swiftly followed suit, ordering Japan Airlines (JAL) and All Nippon Airways (ANA) to cease flying 777s that use the Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines while it considered whether to take additional measures. Japan said ANA operated 19 of that kind and JAL operated 13.

The planes are also used by carriers in South Korea. A spokeswoman for South Korea’s transport ministry, speaking before Boeing’s statement, said it was monitoring the situation but had not yet taken any action. Korean Air Lines said it had 12 of the planes, half of them stored, and it would consult with the manufacturer and regulators and stop flying them to Japan for now.

Read the rest

Salzburg to Munich by electric train, 1932

Issued by the Reichsbahn in Munich. It's not obvious whether that's meant to be a locomotive or Elektro-Triebwagen.

beach buggy art

Advertising the Ile de Ré which is an island offshore from La Rochelle, France.  Since 1988 it has been connected to the mainland by a 2.9 km bridge. This poster is available commercially as a print.

Binetta moped poster, 1960

"3 gear. Two tone enameling. Racy and Beautiful."  

"Binetta were Rabeneick mopeds sold in the UK from 1956 to 1961. They were powered by by Sachs engines of 47cc and 98cc. In Germany, they were advertised as Rabeneick Binetta. Some sources make mention of an association with Horex."

taxi rank in Pigeon Park, Wellington, circa 1930

Looking north.  Today this street is one-way in the opposite direction. A 1926 Chevrolet is in the centre with a Hudson behind it, probably also 1926

1958 Dyna Panhard

 See earlier posts.

Soviet 2-8-4 IS20 class

"The Soviet locomotive class IS (Russian: ИС) was a Soviet passenger steam locomotive type named after Joseph Stalin (Russian: Иосиф Сталин). The contract design was prepared in 1929 at V.V. Kuybyshev Locomotive Factory in Kolomna. The IS series locomotives were manufactured between 1932 and 1942."

Although 649 were built, used to 1972, only 1 seems to have been preserved. 

More

Stettin harbor graphic stamp, Germany, 1920

"The gateway of the Baltic Sea."  This looks to have been a promotional stamp that could be added to a letter or packet as well as the postage stamp.  

Since 1945 Stettin, respelled, has been in Poland.

1962 Porsche 356

 

late 1960s Bedford VAL bus

 Info

Pacific Electric steeple cab freight locomotive

A 820-hp unit built in 1925 for the Interurban railway's 600 Volt DC system, withdrawn in 1958.  More info

"Give me a real book any time, not a smart phone"

 

Los Angeles 1940s in Color, Driving Downtown at Night

poster with a ship/harbor graphic 1930

 

1972 Chrysler Imperial LeBaron

 

vintage Norton motorbike and sidecar ad

Probably late 1920s.

"Reach for the Start: 'Mischief', 1881"

 "Captain Nathaniel Clock helms Mischief, with her unusual vertical wheel, down New York Harbor toward the start of the first race of the 1881 America’s Cup defense. The tug Edward Luckenback, serving as the New York Yacht Club committee boat, follows close astern, while the steamer Cygnus and Canadian challenger Atalanta fall behind."  

By American painter Russ Kramer.  More

the old Mangaroa Tunnel, NZ, now on a mini rail trail

The two of us in Wellington made a trip last week to the Tunnel Gully Recreational Area north of Upper Hutt. It is named after this former 221-metre-long tunnel on the old railway alignment between Maymorn and Cross Creek which included the famous Rimutaka Incline.  This line was opened to traffic in 1878 and ended when it was replaced with the Rimutaka Tunnel deviation in 1955.  There are a few km of the old alignment that can be walked or cycled over in the park.

Note that the long time spelling of Rimutaka was changed to Remutaka in 2017, a change which remains controversial.

14 February -- Valentine's Day

1937 Studebaker Woody Wagon model

A 1:18-scale 1937 Studebaker Woody Wagon sculpture with official logos of the Indian Motorcycle Company.

More pics and info

Southern Pacific SD45T-2s at Caliente, California

Caliente is Spanish for hot which it is during the day, not so much in the evenings.

1972 Morris Minor van

Used to advertise an ice cream parlor and cafe in Sanson, NZ. For lots more, see the book The New Zealand Morris Minor Story

1964 Oldsmobile Vista-Cruiser wagon

 

Swiss travel agency poster with transport graphics, 1947