London to South Africa by BOAC and SAA

BOAC = British Overseas Airways Corporation (merged with BEA into British Airways in 1974), SAA = South African Airways. Although the aircraft is only small in this poster from 1950 it possibly relates to BOAC's recently arrived fleet of 22 DC-4M-4 aircraft which they named as their "Argonaut class", each aircraft having a classical name prefixed with "A". The Argonauts were delivered between March and November 1949; they flew to South America, Africa and the Far East from London Airport (later Heathrow) until 1960.

Dunkerque, France

Spelt in English as Dunkirk, meaning 'dune church', this French port located only 10 km from Belgium is best known for the mass evacuation of some 338,000 Allied soldiers following the collapse of the French defense against Hitler, which took place between 27 May and 3 June 1940.

One notes the reference to Folkstone on the poster featuring the 63 metre tall lighthouse or phare from 1842.  Folkstone is the subject of an earlier post.

The poster from 1927 advertising cargo to North Africa seems a little strange; one would have thought sending it by rail to Marseille and by sea from there would have been shorter and quicker.

The Storstrøm bridge, Denmark

Connecting the islands of Falster and Masnedø in Denmark, the 3.2 km long, 9 metre wide Storstrøm bridge, opened in September 1937, was at the time the longest bridge in Europe. It has one rail line and two road lanes, and until the Farøbroerne or Farø road bridges were opened in 1985 was part of the main road between the islands of Falster and Sjælland (Zealand).

A 7½ minute compilation of filmclips, silent but shot on colour Agfa film, of the opening ceremonies (on the Danish King's birthday) is on this webpage and a 6½ minute arty type film from 1950, which includes aerial flyovers and a few ships and trains is on this webpage.

in the wilds of Norway

A scene on Norway's Dovrebanen (Dovre railway, the main line between Oslo and Trondheim) where the line is at its most spectacular in a canyon between Otta and Dovre. Here the railway line winds here along one side and the road along the other. The narrow pass is the connection between the lower and upper Gudbrandsdalen or Gudbrand valley. Snow flurries in this view from 3 October 2009 add to the drama. (from www.breutel.de)

the Urnersee, Switzerland

At first sight this could be the steamer Earnslaw on Lake Wakatipu, but it is actually the Urnersee or Urn Lake, part of the Vierwaldstättersee in Switzerland, and the name of the vessel is not recorded. 

Well, having mentioned it, let's include a photo of the Earnslaw from 1912 on Lake Wakatipu too; next year will be its centenary.

Uncle Joe's airshow, 1935

 
Six-engine aircraft with fixed landing gear flying askew?  Imaginative licence on the part of Gustav Klutsis (1895-1938) who created this poster in 1935 to show his adulation for Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin (who in 1938 ordered his execution).  The planes that fly over Red Square in Moscow are named "Vladimir Lenin", "Joseph Stalin", "Maxim Gorki", "Mikhail Kalinin", "Vyacheslav Molotov" etc. and the formation on the far right draws the letters of "Stalin." The message at the bottom proclaims, "Long live our happy socialist motherland! Long live our beloved, the great Stalin!"

Uncle Joe first used his warplanes, with Hitler's connivance, in September 1939 to invade the eastern half of Poland, followed a couple of months later by Finland and then the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia (Klutsis's homeland) and Lithuania in 1940.

Göschenen then and now

 Views from the 1890s of Göschenen in Switzerland and a recent photo by FP Finnes.  This is the station in front of the north portal of the 15 km Gotthard rail tunnel underneath the Gotthard Pass opened in 1882.  The Gotthardbahn, electrified in 1920, is the most spectacular and famous railway in Switzerland, and arguably in Europe, and sees a lot of freight traffic over it between Germany and Italy.

The station is also terminus for a metre-gauge line connecting with the Furka Oberalp railway which crosses the top of the alps in an east-west direction, this line can be seen on the far left of the recent photo.

The township is at 1111 metres altitude and has a population of a bit under 500.  At present a second deeper and longer tunnel through the Gotthard is being built, due for opening in 5 years from now.

The German 'Bierbike'

Here's how to work those beer calories off, at the same time as you drink!  The above example was seen in Berlin's Potsdamer Platz on the afternoon of the Germany-Argentina World Cup match last year (which Germany won).

Translated blurb from the www.bierbike.de site:

"Our beer bike is equipped with everything you need for an unforgettable experience:

     * depending on the bierbike model, seating for up to 16 people
     * round wood table
     * Sound system with CD player (or input for MP3 etc) for your favorite music
     * dispensing system, including carbon dioxide supply
     * Large canopy with sufficient vehicle storage option
     * Lighting system
     * unbreakable plastic glasses and beerbike mugs
     * ashtrays and trash buckets

"The large bierbike has room for up to 16 people. In Cologne, Freiburg, Leipzig, Frankfurt am Main, Mannheim and Belgrade small beer bikes are also available that allow 10 people to travel."

Presumably the person steering consumes low alcohol beer only.

1957 Fiat 500

Publicity photos for the 1957 Fiat 500, manufactured from 1957 to 1975 in 2 door sedan and 3 door estate car variants.  The engine size (2 cylinder) was 479 cc, hence the 500 name, and its shape and popularity made it probably Italy's most iconic small car, although a being so small (only 3 metres long) it is a little hard to compare it exactly to the Morris Minor and the Citroen 2CV.  It was known in New Zealand as the Fiat Bambina.

CN locomotive throws a piston - a reasonable distance

This is Canadian National locomotive number 2699, a 212 ton machine powered by a 183 liter, 4,400 hp V16 4 stroke diesel engine.

Shortly before this picture was taken, while working under load, 2699 experienced what is known in the trade as a "catastrophic uncontained engine failure". The train was passing the town of Independence, LA, at the time.

The first picture below shows that the engine exploded and one of the 16 cylinder-packs that form the engine was ejected through the engine bay body side and thrown clear of the locomotive.
In addition to this the piston from that cylinder was thrown free by the force of the failure. It was ejected so violently that it traveled through the air and crashed through the roof of a nearby home where it imbedded itself in an interior wall.

Thanks to Peter for sending this in.