Wednesday, September 30, 2026

1999 Toyota Yaris

This was the first year of the model.  More pics and info

bathtub transport in Bangkok

There was a bit of a deluge from the sky recently.

cars in Vine St, Hollywood, L.A., July 1948


This is looking north along the west side of Vine Street between Sunset & Hollywood Blvd, with Tom Breneman’s at 1539 N. Vine.

"Tom Breneman’s Hollywood Restaurant, a restaurant and live radio broadcast venue on Vine Street. Radio personality Tom Breneman became enormously popular as the host of Breakfast in Hollywood, an audience-participation morning radio program. By the mid-1940s, the show reportedly reached about 10 million listeners.
"After Breneman’s era, the building at 1539 N. Vine Street served as ABC’s West Coast studios from 1949 to 1956. Merv Griffin later acquired the Streamline Moderne complex in the 1970s, and it became the TAV (Trans American Video) Celebrity Theatre, where The Merv Griffin Show was taped."

(Pic from the Huntington Library photo archive via Vintage Los Angeles)


Monday, September 28, 2026

NZR Ja 1267 with an overnight passenger train at Timaru, 1950s


Ja 1267, a 4-8-2 type, was built in 1950 and is now preserved by Mainline Steam.  For lots more get the book New Zealand 1950s Steam in Colour.

viking longboat display in Vyborg, Russia

Vyborg is close to Finland and once belonged to Finland.

a scene on Mexico's famous Copper Canyon Railway

 More pics with info. Chihuahua is Cartel territory but this probably isn't something they care about.

Sunday, September 27, 2026

visiting Machu Picchu, Peru, in a car adapted for rail, 1959


In America these had names like Galloping Goose, Toonerville, Skunk and Putt Putt.  The Machu Picchu line is 3 ft gauge and still operates for the many visitors to this famous attraction in the mountains.

The approximately 110 km (68 mile) line runs from Cusco and stations like Poroy and Ollantaytambo down the Sacred Valley to Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Pueblo).

the Ravenglass & Eskdale Railway - Britain's most appealing miniature railway

A 7-mile (11.2 km) line on 3-ft gauge through Lake District scenery using steam engines, now in its 151st year.

https://ravenglass-railway.co.uk/

Saturday, September 26, 2026

a Baldwin-built 2-6-0 from 1908 in Tacna, Peru

This was being restored at the Peruvian National Railway Museum (Museo Nacional Ferroviario) there a few years ago.

a DB Uerdinger Schienenbus (railbus) in Uruguay


The State Railways Administration of Uruguay (AFE) bought a complete fleet of these two-axle passenger vehicles from the Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) consisting of 56 total vehicles: 28 powered units (16 from the single-engine VT 795 series and 12 from the dual-engine VT 798 series) as well as 28 trailer cars (including both standard trailers and a trailer cab). They became iconic fixtures of Uruguayan passenger rail, serving regional and commuter routes fanning out from Montevideo's Central Station. 

They had an exceptionally long second life in Uruguay, staying in regular passenger service for over 30 years before being phased out, the last one in 2012.

About the only obvious external changes were the diagonal stripes over the added yellow patch on the front, and altered windshields.

Wednesday, September 23, 2026

Monday, September 21, 2026

Sunday, September 20, 2026

cars in Surfers Paradise south of Brisbane, Australia, 1963

A great array of colors! We think the red and off-white car in the foreground is a 1953 Holden FJ Special Sedan. (National Archives of Australia collection)

Saturday, September 19, 2026

Friday, September 18, 2026

a 3-car tram at La Corniche in Marseille, France, circa 1910


The prominent building on the cliff was originally the Palace Hotel (later Restaurant La Réserve). Below are a power car and 2 trailers. See earlier posts (colorized)  

L.A. news helicopter crash kills 3 -- 2 news crew and 1 on the ground

 

Those who live in L.A. know what a fundamental role these news helicopters play in collecting TV news stories around the region and NBC LA / Telemundo staff are understandably devastated by this crash that happened while they were doing their job, in this case reporting on a fatal crash between a bus and a SUV.

Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Automobile Club of Argentina poster, 1927


Automóvil Club Argentino
First National Tourism Conference
to be held in

Alta Gracia

sponsored by the Government of the Province of Córdoba and the municipalities of Córdoba and Alta Gracia

Tourism Week in the Córdoba mountain region
Information: Florida 640, Buenos Aires, or General Paz 71, Córdoba
(The poster commissioned by the Automóvil Club Argentino to promote tourism in Córdoba) (*)

(*) This is the text of the advertisement published in the newspaper *El País* in its edition of Friday, 25 November 1927.
City of Córdoba, Argentine Republic.

Irish CIE 2600 Class diesel multiple unit 1965


Córas Iompair Éireann or CIÉ's first batch of 2600 Class railcars (DMUs) were built in 1950 by AEC, as was recommended in the Milne report, another batch of them was built in 1952 for the Great Northern Railway of Ireland along with a final batch being built in 1956. The DMUs consisted of two 120 h.p power cars at each end with CIÉ's standard park royal coaches as intermediates. Later in life the power cars were converted to driving trailers and were operated on suburban push pull services in the Dublin area, this ceased however with the renting of an NIR 80 Class unit for the Bray-Greystones shuttle train in 1987.

The conversion of the sets to push-pull operation was performed by removing the main engines from all power cars and leaving the train lighting generator and steam heating boiler in 50% of the power cars. The 50% of power cars that had the generator and boiler retained had its cab converted into a vestibule and its windscreen blanked out. All but one of the power cars were scrapped in Mullingar and Dundalk in the 1980s, the final remaining power car has been rescued after 30 years of dereliction by the Downpatrick & Co. Down Railway where it will eventually be restored as a push pull control car.