1976 Buick Electra 225 Regal

'modern electric train' concept art, 1950

This was a little closer to reality than some of the concept art of the time, although not a lot.

bus advertising for Copenhagen zoo

Earlier this year Copenhagen Zoo released a bus ad onto the streets of Copenhagen, featuring the unique panther chameleon. The bus is adorned with a chameleon on either end, flanking boarding and disembarking passengers from both sides. The design creates the illusion that the chameleon’s use their tongues to hunt and eat and at the same time open the doors for the passengers on the bus.

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

1959 International AA110 van

1983 Oldsmobile Regency

by overnight train from Novosibirsk to Lake Baikal, Russia

 

1948 DeSoto Custom Convertible

1955 Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire

1985 Ferrari 308 GTS “Quattrovalvole”

 

More pic and info

a half-hour retrospective look at Le Capitole high speed train of France on the conventional route

 
Blurb:

The Capitole was put into service in 1967. A first-class express train that connected Paris to Toulouse, it marked the beginning of the commercial use of high-speed rail transport in France.  The heyday of SNCF's "legendary express trains." The Capitole. For thirty years, elegant and comfortable, "the fastest train in France" covered the 713 km from Paris to Toulouse in six hours, with top speeds of 200 km/h. 

In the early 1960s, the image of the railway was deteriorating: the highways built at the gates of Paris extended across the entire territory, and the Caravelles, launched by Air Inter, brought even the most distant cities closer together. A minister, Edgard Pisani, became aware of this problem. He knew that trains could also send odometers into overdrive. 

Since the 1930s, Germans and Americans had established themselves in this field. Commissioned on November 15, 1960, the Capitole has had three different periods. First as a 1st class express train with supplement, numbered 1009/1010 and composed of A9 DEV stainless steel cars, type 1956, equipped with high-power brakes, necessarily hauled by a BB 9200 locomotive equipped with rheostatic braking.

But it was 28 May 1967 that was the big day. The Capitole, through the Sologne forests, between Fleury-les-Aubrais and Vierzon, was the first express train to run at 200 km/h. Gone were the carriage  green and stainless steel gray. The Capitole inaugurated its new clothes, making way for the "Grande Vitesse" cars clad in red, designed by Paul Arzens. 

Its locomotives, the swift BB 9200s, also arrived in bright red livery, with a dolphin-gray band at the waistband, and displayed their service status prominently on an enamel plaque: "CAPITOLE." It is said that the choice of exterior paintwork had an influence on the clientele. 

When the same train was made up of red and green cars, it was not uncommon to see passengers scamper from a green one to a red one... Since 1955, the French have also entered the race for high-speed rail. On 29 March, on the Landes line, a BB 9004 locomotive reached 331 km/h. But the track and the overhead lines did not emerge unscathed from this ordeal. However, tests and studies conducted between Paris and Vierzon show that it is possible to operate a high-speed train on the Paris-Toulouse line. This was the era when the SNCF asserted that speed was not a luxury but a necessity. 

The Capitole was about to take off. It would be the first to provide a regular 200 km/h rail service in France. From its first days of operation, this train was a success. In Limoges, the train's arrival was an event. Departures and arrivals each time moved curious onlookers who, armed with a camera or even an easel, attempted to immortalize the elegant red convoy. In fact, the engine's colors blended perfectly with the green of the Limoges-Bénédictins bell tower. And the dining car was popular with gourmets, who were served as in a luxury Parisian brasserie, by stylish waiters. 

Its success was such that new cars were added every Friday. Regular passengers are trying to forget the terrible shock caused a few months earlier by the terrorist Carlos, who, on 29 March 1982, planted a bomb on the train, which exploded between Ambazac and La Jonchère (5 dead and 29 injured). In the mid-1980s, the TGV took its first turns, and the gradual arrival of the TGV Atlantique type sounded the death knell for this exceptional train, which made its last trips in September 1991. The Capitole star faded before going out, but no matter, it had already joined the select circle of legendary trains.

1971 Buick Electra 225 and 1976 Cadillac Fleetwood

A still from the movie Special Delivery (1976).

1942 Packard 160 Convertible

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'I like to study with real books, not little devices'

steam train on a bridge in Sandsend, England, 1950s

An Ivatt Class 4MT 2-6-0 rolls into Sandsend station in the late 1950s with a Scarborough to Whitby and Middlesbrough train in the summer months not long before the railway was closed. A b/w photo by J.W. Armstrong colorized by Ayd Instone.

More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitby,_Redcar_and_Middlesbrough_Union_Railway

1930 double deck GM Yellow Coach Model Z-BH-602

Obviously preserved, used as a excursion bus.

1960s Soviet 'loaf' minivan

See earlier post.

circa 1930 Baltimore and Ohio Railroad brochure featuring a Yellow Coach model 7

 Below is another Yellow Coach of the B&O in the station inside the Chanin Building of NYC.  The bus station closed in 1958.

two gas station graphic artworks with a common element

Which is the boy with a toy car, although they aren't done by the same artist. The first looks like it depicts a mid-1950s Peugeot 403 while the second shows American muscle cars of the 1970s.

ferry and a lighthouse art

No details available but we think it's based on a scene on the Firth of Clyde in Scotland which has been used in the past.  Credited to Stephen Millership

1937 Yellow Coach Series 743 bus

Obviously as used by Greyhound which bought 1,256 of them which were used into the 1960s. This must be a preserved example as the road number is 1937 and the destination is shown as 'America'.

an NZR 4-8-2 with a race train between Greenlane and Ellerslie in 1965

Wellington's race trains to Trentham in that era were hauled by electric locomotives but in Auckland it was by steam.  Ja 1278 was captured on 15 May 1965 by the late Jack Creber. For lots more, see our books.

a different way of advertising a sand and gravel business

Seen in Michigan, a still from this video. The plane is a 1946 Luscombe 8a.

'I love looking for classic real books'

1957 BMW 503 hardtop

1967 Ford Falcon Sports Coupe (USA)

cars in Sturgis, South Dakota, early 1950s

 Present day view : 

https://maps.app.goo.gl/FP95VRVgpkKrAwHU6

Air France poster from 1934 featuring a Dewoitine D.338

 See this earlier post from 2012

Bedford J6 LZI bus

 A still from the movie Operation Finale which is set in the early 1960s.

traffic in San Francisco, 1940s

 Colorized with added sound. It includes some steam train scenes.

1957 Standard 8 saloon

 

1939 American Bantam Roadster

More pics and info

some of the dumbest drivers out there

They are probably not the dumbest drivers ever (a typical YouTube click bait heading) but some of them are bad.

'I like shopping for real books'

1948 Austin Sheerline

 

Good for going hunting and fishing in -- these days it would be a SUV and probably without the red hunting jackets and white britches.

Soviet steam railway art

A train leaves the Yaroslavl-Glavny station, info about the station is here

a tram from Newtown to Thorndon in Wellington NZ is seen in Riddiford St, 1963

This was the year before trams ended in Wellington.  The black smoke looks like it is from a Wellington Hospital furnace -- what was being burned?

For lots more, see the books Wellington: a Capital century and Wellington Transport Memories.

freight trains around Sheffield, England, 1966

It includes several scenes of road vehicles of the era. Steel is still made in Sheffield although the focus has changed to quality rather than quantity.

railway art set north of Birmingham on the Western Region line to Wolverhampton, 1950s(?)

We are big admirers of the talent of Britain's railway artists -- this is by John Austin.

Melborne swingdoor car electric multiple unit seen in 1972

A special train to Hurstbridge at a photostop between Eltham and Diamond Creek. For lots more, see the book Railway Electrification in Australia and New Zealand.

Soviet steam loco poster, 1920

Get ready for winter?

SNCB recruitment poster, Belgium

"You are 18 and you want a 6000 hp car"  The pic shows an AM80 class electric muilple unit from the early 1980s.

'Take the train' SNCF poster, circa 1970

 With a BB 9200 upfront. Of coursem it's a train "marchandises" but you get the idea.

'I definitely prefer good real books, not little devices'