Bratislava tram postcard circa 1910

At the time the city was called Pressburg in German and Pozsony as it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now the capital of Slovakia. See earlier posts.

Max Schiemann electric road train circa 1903

The train operated in the Biela valley near Dresden, Germany, and utilized a then unique current collection system developed by Schiemann, employing two horizontally parallel overhead wires, later used universally for trolleybuses. These vehicles could pull 3 to 4 wagons and travel at speeds of 6 to 30 km/h depending on load and terrain.

More info

early Toronto Transit Commission experimental trolley bus

A painting titled "Trolley on Mt Pleasant Toronto c. 1922" by artist Ken Kirsch which depicts an experimental trolley bus which operated between 1922 and 1925.

Operating on the Mount Pleasant route, the 1.9-km line served as a cost-effective alternative to laying streetcar tracks in lower-density neighborhoods. The experiment was so successful that ridership outgrew the small buses, leading the TTC to replace them with streetcars in 1925. 

There were 4 buses numbered 20 through 23 which had J.G. Brill bodies on Packard Motor Car Company frames, and Westinghouse electric motors. Tires were solid rubber (not pneumatic). They had seats for 29 passengers.

(via transittoronto.ca)

'would you like to read a good real book with me?'

Soviet electric railway poster 1931

Soviet propaganda poster showing a steeple cab electric loco as a centerpiece and a similar loco hauling a freight train on a bridge above. It states '3690 kilometers' and seems to promote a new train line for the Ukraine for completion over 1932-1933.

Yugoslavia railway poster, 1949

This advertised the 2nd Congress of the Union of Railway Workers and Employees of Yugoslavia in Zagreb from 13-15 March 1949.  It obviously features communist imagery, including an industrial background and a red star on one of the locomotives.

British Railways holiday train poster, 1950s

 Featuring a Class 40 diesel locomotive. The Lincoln green livery was quite an attractive one.

NZR 4-8-4 KA 933 pulling southbound freight at Taihape circa 1959

For lots more, get the book New Zealand 1950s Steam in Colour. (pic by the late great Jack Creber)

1979 Pontiac TransAm 5.5 liter

a Deutsche Reichsbahn Kriegslok in Czech clothes

A former Class 52 of the DR, a 2-10-0 became CSD 555.129 and is preserved operational, seen here on a fantrip.

pretty on the footplate

Of what we don't know, maybe a pic from a fashion shoot at a British railway museum.

Leyland commercial vehicles advertisement, 1962

(Thanks to Wallace)

cars outside a North East U.S. train station, early 1950s

Which isn't stated.  A still from an Encyclopedia Britannica film.

'I like to read a good real book for pleasure'

Tokyo's grand central station

Info at the time these pics were taken: "Tokyo Station, the main gateway to Greater Tokyo. Over 100,000 people use it daily. A Renaissance-style building completed in 1914 (Taisho 3), it remarkably withstood the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 (Taisho 12). The central entrance is reserved for the Imperial family. Cars and trains weave through the crowds in front of the station."

Info

Sri Lanka diesel multiple unit seen in 2003

It looks like a English Electric pre-WW2 driving trailer car, denoted as S1 series. The colors kind of match the environment.

moving cane and bamboo by small barges in Java, Indonesia, art

Probably for school use. Indonesia is the world's largest producer and supplier of rattan cane, accounting for approximately 70% to 80% of the global commercial rattan supply. Sugar cane is also widely grown in Indonesia.

NZR B306 at Reefton with a works train on the West Coast, 1950s

The B class was a 4-8-0 type of which 10 were built between 1899 and 1903. It looks like the engine crew are engaged in cleaning out the tubes, which involves this process:

* The crew opens the firebox door to access the boiler tubes.
* The fireman turns on the draft blower to create strong suction through the boiler.
* Sand, compressed air, or specialized lances are introduced into the firebox.
* The draft pulls the cleaner violently through the tubes, knocking off hard carbon.
* The loosened debris is safely blown out of the smokestack.

For lots more get the book New Zealand Railways 1950s steam in colour

tram and trailer in Danzig (Gdansk), Poland, late 1970s

Even by communist standards the apparantly pre-WW2 buildings clearly suffered from advanced neglect.

This looks to be the scene now

On one of the buildings of the row is this facade with German lettering from before 1945:

Fisherman's Walk Cliff Lift, Bournemouth, England

 

The world's shortest funicular railway was opened in 1935 and transports beachgoers a huge 128 feet (39 meters) with a vertical height change of 91 feet (28 meters) from clifftop to shore.

More pics and info

trams, buses and cars on Most Poniatowskiego, Warsaw, Poland in 1966

A pic that seems to have been taken from one of the ornamental towers of the bridge.

Location on Google streetview

trams and other traffic in Aleje Niepodległości, Warsaw, Poland 1978

From a magazine cover of the time.

an SNCF 231 type steamer with a passenger train between Paris-Nord and Calais-Maritime in 1957

A type 231 is a 4-6-2 Pacific type in English classification.

the New York 3rd Avenue El at Chatham Square, 1955

The stumps of the lower level City Hall spur—which started at Park Row and connected to Chatham Square—can be seen. This was permanently closed to passenger service at the end of 1953 and demolished in 1955, obviously before the time of this pic. The dismantling and removal project to fully clear the 3rd Avenue El from Manhattan's cityscape was completed in February 1956.

'when I get home I like to relax with a good real book'

a Wellington trolley bus from 1958

Built by British United Traction RETB/1 (chassis) and Metro Cammell Weymann (body).  For lots more get the books Wellington: a Capital century and Wellington Transport Memories.

The first diesel multiple units of the Ceylon Government Railways CGR (S1 Series)

Class S1 was a fleet of Diesel Multiple Units (DMU) built by English Electric for the Ceylon Government Railways (CGR), imported to Sri Lanka in 1937-8. Initially designated as D1, D2 and D3 they were later classified as Class S1 under the re-classification of loco rolling stock in 1938. Three sets were numbered 501, 502, 503 and they were named as:

1. Silver Foam (#501),
2. Silver Spray (#502) and
3. Silver Mist (#503)

They were the first diesel units imported for passenger haulage with the first run done on 25 February 1938. Commercial runs from Colombo Fort to Galle commenced on 14 March 1938 with a journey time of 2 hrs and 13 minutes which is the same time as today.

These sets had two engines of 180hp (135 kWh) each in the front and back. The normal make-up of the train units comprised a power car at each end in a push-pull configuration with two unpowered trailer cars in between.

Reports are that it went on a trial up to Kandy by removing one of the two trailer cars in between (thus two power cars and one trailer car).

The S1 series trains were in service until the early 1950s before being withdrawn in the 1954-56 era and scrapped subsequently.

1973 Toyota Corona Mk II Wagon

'Gas station' art by Edward Hopper, 1940

He painted quite a few transport themes and he painted this gas station from a two different angles, one with and one without any cars. The first one has Mobilgas pumps, today just Mobil, and the second with Fire Chief which was a brand of Texaco.  These and others are available commercially as prints.

shipping on the River Mersey, Liverpool, interwar years

Probably a school poster.

Queen Louise bridge, Tilset, Germany, 1908

The bridge, named after the wife of Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III, was built in 1907 to mark the centenary of the Peace of Tilsit with Napoleon. The bridge portal, which looks similar to the triumphal arch, was decorated with a bas-relief of Queen Louise (1776--1810). After World War I, it became a border bridge. Customs and a checkpoint were functioning until 1939, when the Memel region -- previously belonging to Lithuania -- became a part of Germany. In October 1944, German troops blew the bridge up during their retreat. In 1947, it was restored but a bas-relief of Queen Louise was taken down. In 1964, symbols of the Soviet state took its place and were not removed until 1995. Today, the bridge is a border bridge once again. Customs and truck parking occupy almost the entire square in front of it.

The Tilset (Sovetsk) bridge still incorporates the ornate bridge portal and it is still called Queen Louise Bridge (Мост Королевы Луизы).

Moscow's historical parade of trams

 

Reading Railroad retro poster

Copies are available commercially. The locomotive depicted, #2124, was built in December 1924 by Baldwin Locomotive Works as an I-10sa class 2-8-0 "Consolidation" type locomotive. The Reading Company completely rebuilt it into a T-1 class 4-8-4 "Mountain" in January 1947. It was initially designed and used to haul heavy trains of anthracite coal across the Reading Railroad network. from 1959 to 1961, the 2124 was brought out of freight retirement to lead the famous passenger "Iron Horse Rambles" excursions.

More info

Zeppelin travel humorous postcard: Friedrichshafen - Chemnitz - Memel

Memel is now Klaipeda in Lithuania. This postcard looks pre-WWI, but such flights did happen in the early 1930s: AI comment: "Historic "Chemnitz-Friedrichshafen" and "Chemnitz-Memel" refers to famous airship flight routes and postal drops serviced by the historic Graf Zeppelin in the early 1930s. Commemorative postcards from these specific 1930s mail delivery drops are actively traded as sought-after philatelic items"

'This looks a great real book to take time to read'

Renfe livestock boxcar model

 
An obvious very short wheelbase. HO scale by Electrotren.

1919 Pierce Arrow long distance bus

 This business, based in Buffalo, New York, lasted from 1901 to 1938

Soviet electric hauled passenger train in landscape art

Maybe a Soviet ЧC4T class electric is depicted.

1958 Rolls Royce Silver Wraith art

Soviet Soviet DR1 diesel muliple unit built in 1963, art

Info and also see earlier posts.

vessels in the Elbing river port, Germany, early 20th century

 Since 1945 it has been the Polish city of Elblag and today has a population of about 130,000.  See earlier posts.