Happy Holidays to our readers

As we approach the end of the 15th year of our blog, the question that often occurs now is -- why are we doing this?  

In the first 6-7 years it complemented our retail division which sold transport-subject books and DVDs, but sales of them have steadily reduced to the point where that division has become almost defunct as ever more people have switched to using the web to research their subjects of interest.

This blog has been a labor of love for some years, but as economic conditions have become tough with soaring costs, particularly in Los Angeles, and Wellington is little better, we need to devote more time to the things that bring in dinero. 

We'll put a tip jar up shortly, the response to which will provide incentive to carry on or not as the case may be.

Russian class RA1 railbus

173 of this diesel-hydraulic type have been built since 1997. 

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'I'm so pleased I discovered real books I can touch'

Russian compound 2-8-0 from 1898

20 of these were built for the Moscow-Vinau-Rybinsk railway by Burnham, Williams and Co.

More info 

1974 Ford Ranchero

cars at Brighton Beach & Coney Island Aves, NYC, 1970s

Present day view: https://maps.app.goo.gl/22orcRdyFhrWsdPS8

wagon train in Nevada, 1860s

A wagon train following the California Trail through Nevada during the 1860s. The Bartleson-Bidwell Party was the first wagon train to travel the California Trail through Nevada in 1841. By 1869, about 450,000 people had traveled in a covered wagon along the California Trail in Nevada. The 40 mile wilderness between Lovelock and Fernley was the worst part of the trail because there was no water. In Fallon, during the 1930s, it was still possible to find many wrecks of the wagons that crossed that stretch of desert. (Archeology and Ancient World FB)

an NZR Dj/Dg combination with a southbound freight train north of Kaikoura, early 1970s

A frequently used photo location, see the book South Island Main Trunk for more. Why did the original red of the Dj class fade to pink? Probably because of the paint they got in Japan.

'Cornish Riviera Express' of the Great Western Railway postcard art

Effectively it's a train that has run since 1904 with gaps in the war years.. 

It looks look a GWR 4000 class 4-6-0 is depicted -- see here

preserved Baldwin 2-8-0

It's a Class H-4 of the Southern Railway built in 1907. weighing 120 tons in full working order. Now in the Whippany Railway Museum of New Jersey.

More info and pics.

1937 Vauxhall DX Drophead Coupe

Le Revard station in Aix-les-Bains, France, circa 1910

The Chemin de fer du Mont-Revard was a former single track meter-gauge line from Aix-les-Bains to the top of Mont-Revard. It employed an Abt type rack and pinion third rail.  It was 9.35 km long, had a maximum gradient of 21% and a change in altitude of 1,232 meters. 

Opening was on 15 August 1892. Passenger traffic ceased on 25 October 1935, replaced by an aerial cableway, but bagage transport continued to 1937.  The cableway ceased in 1969.

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'I like a good real book, not a little device'

from London Kings Cross to Scotland on the LNER

This may have been an answer to the LMS's Mid-day Scot which began in 1927?

1978 Toyota Corolla KE35

A Sydney tram turns into Campbell Parade, Bondi Beach, late 1950s

The building in the immediate background is still there, now named 'Bondi Beach Bums' and we're fairly sure the standpoint is in the link below, although the street layout has changed a bit since then.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/bFWSrmHy482yeNjp7

SNCF 'Picasso' autorails in the Ardennes, 1973

The Ardennes forest covers parts of Belgium, France and Luxembourg.

1967 BMW 2000

2002 Mazda 323

Polish railway worker safety poster, mid 20th century

 "Don't tranverse between and under wagons"

1984 Plymouth Turismo Duster

1982 Maserati Quattroporto

Quattroporto means 4 doors.

More info and pics.

'I much prefer a good real book to an illuminated tiny screen'

not a Jeremy Clarkson creation

Some readers will remember in BBC days Jeremy Clarkson on the Top Gear motoring show loved to demonstrate his contempt for the car+trailer holiday home (caravan) combinations being driven on roads, and on occasion dropped them from heights to destroy them.  

But this 'artistic' creation from the 2000s wasn't one of his, seen outside the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art.

The UK's highest and most remote railway station

Corrour on the West Highland Line between Crianlarich and Fort William, although it's only a modest 408 metres above sea level. It's approximately a 17-18 km mountain path hike from the nearest public road: a view from the platform facing north toward Loch Treig and beyond.

'honey I shrunk the Veedub microbus'

For lots more, see the book 50 Years of Volkswagens in New Zealand.

Eight truck and bus oldtimers from Mercedes-Benz and Setra on an alpine tour

Details with more pics

Delaware and Hudson 4-8-4

Locomotive number 313, one of 15 'elephant ear' smoke deflector equipped 'Northern' type of the D&H, seen in the yard at Whitehall, New York on 2 September 1950.

These were built by Alco at Schenectady in 1943. "The class was eventually retired between 1952 and 1953, and like all steam locomotives on the D&H, none were preserved."

More here

and here

steam trains crossing above and below art

An encounter that would be improbable in reality, unfortunately  Presumably the Delaware and Hudson is the railroad depicted in the foreground.

Pennsylvania Railroad E-7s, summer 1956

Westbound train 25, the Metropolitan freight with E-7's in an A-B-A combination pass through Cresson, Pennsylvania. There are still three mainline tracks here but the switch tower is history. (via Steven Allen)

NZR Midland line steam

Those who have the book New Zealand 1950s Steam in Colour compiled from the Derek Cross collection have the details.

cars in San Bernadino, California, 1950s

This is about 60 miles (100 km) east of Los Angeles, but has become run down in recent years with a significant gang presence and elevated crime.

'how do you think I can afford all these good real books?'

1963 Setra S6 bus model by Schuco 1:18 scale in diecast alloy

1937 Bugatti 57C

1961 Alvis TD21 Saloon

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early indigenous canoes, Australia

"[The] archaeological record now shows as far back as 3000 years ago or more people from mainland Australia were building ocean-going double outrigger canoes up to 20 metres long and loading them up with crew and valuable goods and sailing thousands of kilometres to trade in distant lands.

"Walmbaar Aboriginal Corporation director Kenneth McLean, a Dingaal Traditional Owner of Jiigurru, or Lizard Island, 33 kilometres off the Queensland coast says the discovery of artefacts that demonstrate the far-flung trade links of people from Cape York may enable his people to share a story they already knew with world.

“Our elders passed knowledge down through generations for us, teaching us how the old people were living back in the day, way before Captain Cook ever came,” McLean says.

Full article on the SMH

Buffalo station of the New York Central, then and now

More

St Pancras station. London, then and now

St Pancras Railway Station in London is a masterpiece of Victorian engineering and Gothic Revival architecture.

When opened in the 1860s, it had the world's largest single-span roof, stretching 243 feet wide.

(GB then and now Facebook)

railway Viaduc du Viaur, France, poster circa 1910

 
It was completed in 1902, is 116 meters high and 460 meters long. The single track viaduct is situated between the 450.9 km et 451.4 km points of the line from Castelnaudary to Rodez.

More info.

steam on the Neath and Brecon Railway, South Wales, art

With the village of Cilfrew in the background, by Richard Picton, available commercially in different forms. 

The Neath and Brecon was a coal haulage railway which closed in stages during the 1960s

Info:

1971 Chevrolet Vega, 1961 Chevrolet Impala, 1970 Dodge Coronet

A still from the movie Born to Win (1971)

'a real book is much better than a little device'