private consortium to buy the Napier to Gisborne railway proposed

It seems that the suggestion for a private enterprise shortline in our earlier post on this subject has been taken up for serious discussion by Hawke’s Bay Chamber of Commerce CEO Murray Douglas.

According to the Gisborne Herald website:


Mr Douglas, who was head of Dunedin City Holdings which had a half-share in the Taieri Gorge Railway, said the numbers to keep the Napier-Gisborne line open worked well, The Hawke’s Bay Today reported.

“We know we have an extraordinarily efficient port in Napier and we know we have huge production coming out of the hills. So if KiwiRail won’t do it, then why don’t we buy it? It requires courage, it requires vision, it requires focus but we can do it.

“Fixing the slips is the easy part of the decision. The hard part is the capital requirements of the total line for the next 10 years — given that some of the sleepers are a bit old and some of the bridges might need strengthening.

“It is inconceivable to have a massively productive part of New Zealand, as it is in the Hawke’s Bay, without rail. To not have that option is short-sighted.”

"Curiosity" is now operating on Mars

The world's most expensive remote controlled vehicle is now on another world, Mars. Considering that Mars is an average 225 million km away (the actual distance varies from 55 to 401 million km), that's an impressively long range! For info on the vehicle, it's best to go to the NASA webpage.

barges though the river locks at Heidelberg, Germany

An eastbound upriver barge laden with gravel approaches the locks.

The barge enters the lock.

Now joined by a pleasure craft heading in the same direction, the gates are closed behind them and the upstream gates opened.

Another barge with unknown cargo heading westbound downstream enters the lock in the other direction.

The water level having fallen to that of the downstream entrance, the gates are opened and the barge motors out. The eastbound barge has already left

Staying with Heidelberg, here is a sequence taken of barges passing through the Schleusen (locks), one in each direction, on the Neckar River, by the city. (Geoff Churchman)

Heidelberg main station, Germany

A postcard of the old station showing trams of the city's metre-gauge system which still operates.

Postcard views of the present station, opened on 5 May 1955, and the former station it replaced.  Heidelberg didn't suffer much in WW2 but the inadequacy of the old station had been recognised in the 1930s.
  
The new station building was designed by Deutsche Bundesbahn Director Helmuth Conradi (1903-1973), who had studied architecture in the 1920s with Paul Schmitthenner and Paul Bonatz and was influenced by the Stuttgart School.  The ticket hall with glazed longitudinal walls, as in Hans Freese designs from the Nazi era, provided an angle of 50 degrees with respect to the tracks. On the south wall of the 53 metre long, 16 metre wide and 12 metre high hall, is a graffito by Charles Joseph Huber on the theme of physical movement ("Helios mit Sonnenwagen/Helios with Sun Chariot"). A second,  parallel to the tracks section of the building is on the ground floor, which contained the luggage and express goods preparation, waiting rooms and the railway station and restaurant and on the on the upper floors, DB services.  

In the angle between two parts of the building is located, as a "joint", a circular staircase. Adjacent to the building a hall 91 metres long and 20 metres wide spans the platforms. The roof of the fully glazed hall was produced in curved shapes of prestressed concrete.

Vesper'd at the level crossing

"Hang on, we're through".  A humorous postcard from circa the 1940s.  Of course, trying to beat trains at level crossings is a dangerous practice regularly indulged in by not only motorcyclists, but also cars and trucks.  In NZ and the US buses are required to stop first at all level (grade) crossings.

innovations in coping with the floods in Thailand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(thanks to Bert for sending these in)

Long Beach ships, California

Across the bay in this view is the former ocean liner Queen Mary which has been there since 1967 and now a museum (see earlier posts), and just beyond in the Pacific are merchant ships headed for the substantial Long Beach port area, the second biggest in the US.

A good way to get to Long Beach from downtown LA is on the LA Metro (a trip that takes about 50 minutes), which will take you through the gangland based around Compton, the antithesis of Beverly Hills, and a worthwhile educational experience!

Deutsche Bahn Setra bus

A DB (German Railway) bus seen at the bus station in Oberammergau, close to the railway station.

all they need to do is get to Britain and utter that magic word "Asylum"

If you've wondered why all those Muslim Migrants want to go to Britain as their number one preferred country, this little video should explain it.

Air New Zealand Airbus A320-232

Obviously a quite recent addition to the Air NZ fleet; the first Airbus arrived in 2003.  For full details of the historic fleet with lots of colour photos and other facts and information, see the book The Aircraft of Air NZ and affiliates since 1940.