a Southern Pacific track bicycle?

From a viral e-mail. "Safety First" was the official motto of the Southern Pacific Railroad but also of the Southern Railway.

picturesquely situated railway bridge, Besancon, France

This bridge near the Porte Rivotte (visible) is near the beginning of the line which leads from Besancon in France to La Chaux de Fonds in Switzerland. The non-electrified line runs 74 km to the French-Swiss border town of Locle-Col-des-Roches and the SNCF railcars run further to the (rather industrial) town of La Chaux de Fonds in Switzerland. The whole line, with gradients up to 3%, is quite picturesque.

Porsche on a wall

No cause for joy about this Porsche's undercarriage, seen on an auto workshop wall in Austria.  It demonstrates the effect that the copious salt spread on European roads in winter has on cars.  It doesn't do the roots of roadside trees much good either.

BMW hood ornament

Nice when parked, but a miniature would be more practical when driving on the road :-)

rural station scene at Owaka, 1958

A Vulcan railcar is seen at Owaka on 15 March 1958, running an NZRLS Dunedin Group trip. The railway, station and the Vulcans are now history although some of the Vulcans have been preserved in museums, including this one, Rm 50.  For more, see our books.

A working replica of Noah's Ark opened in Schagen, the Netherlands

 

 

 

 

 

 

This replica of the biblical Noah's Ark was built by Dutch Creationist Johan Huibers as a testament to his faith in the literal truth of the Bible.

The ark is 150 cubits (68.58 metres) long, 30 cubits (13.72 metres) high and 20 cubits wide. That's two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house.

A contractor by trade, Huibers built the ark of cedar and pine. Biblical scholars debate exactly what the wood used by Noah would have been.

Huibers did the work mostly with his own hands, using modern tools and with occasional help from his son Roy. Construction began in May 2005. On the uncovered top deck - not quite ready in time for the opening - will come a petting zoo, with baby lambs and chickens, and goats, and one camel.

There is enough space near the keel for a 50-seat film theater where kids can watch a video that tells the story of Noah and his ark. Huibers, a Christian man, said he hopes the project will renew interest in Christianity in the Netherlands, where church going has fallen dramatically in the past 50 years.

The massive central door in the side of Noah's Ark was opened the first crowd of curious townsfolk to behold the wonder.

Life-sized models of giraffes, elephants, lions, crocodiles, zebras, bison and other animals greet visitors as they arrive in the main hold.

(thanks to Bert for sending this in)

150 years since the Norwegian sailing ship 'Sleipner' entered Chicago

The first European ship with a specific destination of Chicago which entered the (future) city on 2 August 1862.

HMS Erebus stamp

A stamp issued in NZ in 1957, featuring a ship that features a little in early NZ history, but more in Canadian history. Launched in 1826 this sailing warship was constructed by the Royal Navy in Pembroke dockyard, Wales. The vessel was named after the dark region in Hades of Greek mythology called Erebus. The 372-ton ship was armed with two mortars - one 13 in (330 mm) and one 10 in (250 mm) - and 10 guns.

The stamp marks NZ's Ross Dependency in Antartica as in early 1841 she departed from Tasmania for Antarctica in company with HMS Terror. In January 1841, the crew of both ships landed on Victoria Land, and proceeded to name areas of the landscape after British politicians, scientists, and acquaintances. Mount Erebus, on Ross Island, was named for the ship itself (see the earlier post about the Air NZ crash on Mt Erebus in November 1979). They then discovered the Ross Ice Shelf, which they were unable to penetrate, and followed it eastward until the lateness of the season compelled them to return to Tasmania. The following season, 1842, Ross continued to survey the "Great Ice Barrier", as it was called, continuing to follow it eastward.

The ship is best known as one involved in what is known as "Franklin's Lost Expedidtion". The expedition was ordered to gather magnetic data in the Canadian Arctic and to complete a crossing of the Northwest Passage, which had already been charted from both the east and west but had never been entirely navigated. The ships were last seen entering Baffin Bay in August 1845. The disappearance of the Franklin expedition set off a massive search effort in the Arctic.

intermodal transport in Brenner, Italy

The week in the European alps was a real mixed bag of weather: stormy, rain and mist and clear and sunny.  On one of the latter days, Director Eva is seen posing next to an Italian E464 class electric locomotive at Brenner en route to exploration of the Dolomites at Bolzano, more on that later..

A train of truck bodies can be seen slowly rolling up the track on the left; the European equivalent of American intermodal.

Brenner is a town that should be twinned with Paekakariki (see earlier post).  The station is split between an island station visible further along the platform and a building next to the street on the left out of sight.  However, there is also a shed which is visible beyond the empty well wagon, reminiscent of the old rail-air shed in Paekakariki.  The mountains are rather more substantial of course.  Since 1918 Brenner/Brennero has been a border town between Italy and Austria.

more Germans move to the East than from it for the first time since the Berlin Wall fell

German media reported last week that the "Drang nach Westen" has become a "Drang nach Osten" for the first time in many years as more people moved to the former East Germany than from it.

There is no doubt that the East needs more people judging by the number of abandoned buildings you see there, which don't give the image of prosperity that you get in the west, particularly in the southern states of Baden Wurttemberg and Bayern (Bavaria).