In those days Baghdad and Karachi weren't destinations you would think twice about, although the means of conveyance shown might not inspire much confidence.
Sunday, January 30, 2022
vehicles in Warsaw, Poland, 1939, colorized
Trams, cars and carts. Obviously this was just before WW2 began. Some of these scenes were soon consigned to history because of the amount of destruction during 1939-1944.
Illinois Central electric multiple unit
Kovrov Station, Russia, a century ago
This is about 150 km east of Moscow on the Moscow–Nizhny Novgorod railway line which was opened in 1862. A new building was completed in 2003.
Saturday, January 29, 2022
Friday, January 28, 2022
Grotta lighthouse near Reykjavik, Iceland
"There has been a lighthouse at Grótta since 1897, and the one currently standing dates back to 1947. It was connected to the electric grid in 1956 and has remained more or less unchanged since." (Google Earth)
Thursday, January 27, 2022
Wellington 'Fiducia' type tram trundles up Pirie Street, 1961
With the tram tunnel to Hataitai in the background, subsequently used by buses. For lots more, see the book Wellington Transport Memories. (David Galt pic)
Curtiss C-46F Commando
Wednesday, January 26, 2022
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Monday, January 24, 2022
Pacific Electric trolleys at the North Hollywood station, greater L.A., August 1952
Pacific Electric streetcars no. 5150 and 5132 stopped at North Hollywood Station, at 11275 Chandler Boulevard, on the Van Nuys line in the San Fernando Valley. People are seen walking near the station, which says "Southern Pacific - Pacific Electric Station" across the top. The signs on the front of the streetcars say "Los Angeles."
cars in Burbank, greater L.A., early 1950s
A used-car lot and an oldtimer Oldsmobile approaching the camera.
Saturday, January 22, 2022
unrepeatable Chessie system scene
With a GP40-2 on the point. The Chessie system was succeeded by today's CSX. (Scanned from an old calendar, original credited to Scott Hartley.)
Thursday, January 20, 2022
restored NAC DC-3 Skyliner in Paraparaumu, NZ
This now belongs to Air Chathams. For lots of info on these aircraft and much more, see the book The Aircraft of Air New Zealand and affiliates since 1940 by Paul Sheehan. (Tim Gorman pics)
a pair of Dx's with a freight train depart Paekakariki, NZ
Heading north one evening in the 1990s. (Photo by the late Christine Johnstone)
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
Restoration of NSW locomotive 4916 complete
"4916 was originally built by Clyde Engineering and entered service with the NSW railways in 1964. The 49 class were originally introduced to haul trains on branch lines in the far western regions of NSW, including the long section of railway to Broken Hill.
"Delivered in several batches, 4916 represents the last group of the class to enter service. 4916 will help support THNSW’s future heritage train operations.
"Congratulations to our workshop team on a brilliant job!" (THNSW pic)
thieving from containers moved by rail in L.A. has become a huge problem
A section of the Union Pacific train tracks in downtown Los Angeles has been littered with thousands of shredded boxes and packages stolen from cargo containers that stop in the area to unload.
On Saturday, railroad tracks in Lincoln Heights were trashed with a blizzard of torn plastic wrappers, cardboard boxes and paper packaging attesting to a wave of rail car thievery that officials say has been rising in recent months. The images have generated national attention and revealed tension among rail operators, government officials and authorities over what can be done to reduce the thefts.
L.A. Times story
Sunday, January 16, 2022
Saturday, January 15, 2022
PCC car in Mexico City
No other info. Most of these in Mexico were second hand from American cities.
painting of the 1902 Paris – Vienna car race on the Arlberg Pass
By Peter Helck (17 June 1893 -- 22 April 1988), an American illustrator who specialized in depicting racing cars.
Road racing appears to have been born in France where the first important contests were run from Paris to other cities and were called Les Grandes Epreuves (The Big Trials).The first one was from Paris to Berlin and was a grueling 687-mile dash. This race held during 1901 was won by Henri Fournier in his 60-h.p. Mors, a French car in which he was also victorious within the previous Paris-Bordeaux Race. This second event, the Paris to Vienna race held in 1902, was perhaps one the toughest of all early races and has become a legendary event because of this stage over the mountain pass.
This painting depicts Baron Pierre de Caters descending from the Arlberg Pass portion of the event, which started with a hard 6000-foot climb up a wagon road crossed by car-smashing drainage ditches. On the trip up and down the other side, racers had to avoid the vertical rock slabs which were used to keep out of control wagons from plunging over the steep sides. There were more than a dozen accidents on the descent caused by burned-out brakes, leaving the racers no other means of slowing down other than crashing into the inner wall of the pass.
De Caters later in the race ended up breaking a wheel in a shunt with Louis Renault, whose brother Marcel went on to win the event. De Caters and his Mors did manage to come in some four hours later after dealing with the wheel, finishing in the eighteen positions.
The car has survived and is in The Collier Collection in Florida. Other outstanding Helck art is featured on The Old Motor courtesy of the Helck family.
