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CFCLA VL361 hired to CBH group on a 12 month contract and CBH120 open up throttle through Halzemere on 7s57
Taken: 29/6/19
The 6E70 BR Railfreight Distribution Contract Services train comprising empty chemicals tanks being returned to Teeside from the West Midlands was recorded passing Milford South. RfD Class 47/3 47349 had charge of the 11:35 Bescot Yard to ICI Haverton Hill Exchange Sidings.
All images on this site are exclusive property and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without expressed written permission of the photographer. All rights reserved – Copyright Don Gatehouse
So, let me start by making posting the story of Valiant:
Valiant, an Ascendant Lord, built like a castle, with high defense, and average mobility,
It is feared by it’s massive strength and usually, 1 hit from him is all that is needed to win.
Its pilot usually goes around with his son, who he is training to be the next pilot of Valiant. The Son, born blind, can only see when attached to the valiant, which makes this story even darker...
Valiant was seen as a threat, so Joker was contracted to eliminate it...which he did, but left the son alive, he does not kill if it is not on contract.
-- Build comment --
So, I got some new pieces, and I wanted to rebuild Valiant, but I got this idea of making a dynamic plot series, and this gave me the chance.
BTW, I did update the Joker’s design, Let me know if you want new photos of it.
Hope you like it.
Poynters 22 (N22 POY) a Dennis Trident/East Lancs Lolyne, photographed along Royal Oak Way, Daventry with an afternoon school contract on the 25th September 2023.
Barrington Court is a Tudor manor house begun c. 1538 and completed in the late 1550s, with a vernacular seventeenth-century stable court (1675), situated in Barrington, near Ilminster, Somerset, England. It was the first house acquired by the National Trust, in 1907, on the recommendation of the antiquarian Canon Hardwicke Rawnsley.
Barrington Court, once dated 1514 and considered an early example of a symmetrical front, was completed in the late 1550s for William Clifton, a London merchant who had been assembling a Somerset estate. Its central entry porch leads into a screens passage with the Hall on the left and, an innovation, a service passage leading to the kitchen wing that occupies the right wing. A symmetrically sited gatehouse (rebuilt) was set far forward of the house, to permit a full view of its symmetrical facade.
The interior of the house suffered from its demotion to a tenant farm, and from a fire in the early nineteenth century; after being almost derelict it was repaired under the supervision of Alfred Hoare Powell. Barrington Court was acquired by the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty in 1907 and was leased to Col. Lyle of Tate & Lyle in the 1920s. He and his wife turned the house around and refurbished the court house and renovated Strode House (built by William Strode in the 1600s) which was originally a stable and coach block. It was at this time that the Lyles contracted Gertrude Jekyll to design the three formal gardens on the property that are kept in beautiful condition by the head gardener.
Texture by pareeerica:
Grunge Chocolate:
www.flickr.com/photos/8078381@N03/3173423766/
Explored 23.07.09 - #177
Lothian Country's 1048 (LXZ 5436), a ZF Ecolife Volvo B9TL Wright Eclipse Gemini 2, drifting through Uphall on the service X18 to Edinburgh.
1048 was new to First Centrewest in October 2010 as their "VN37890" and was registered as "BF60 UUA". 1048 predominantly operated the service 18. The 18 operated, and continues to operate, between Sudbury and Euston.
UUA was later sold to Metroline in *2013, due to the demise of First Capital. VN37890 then was acquainted the new fleet number of "VW1842".
In 2017, Metroline lost the contract for the service 18 to RATP London United, RATP being a multinational operator also operating in Paris France. RATP stands for "Régie Autonome des Transports Parisiens", which essentially means it's a state owned operator of Paris, very similar to what is seen with Lothian here in Edinburgh.
RATP used, and still continues to use, Volvo B5LH Wright Eclipse Gemini 3s since their takeover of the 18.
As a result of losing the service 18, numerous Gemini 2s were withdrawn. This, in turn, saw Lothian purchase 48 of them, in the same batch as 1049, and 2 from Go Ahead London.
After their purchase, the 48 of them that were in the Metroline batch were sent to WrightBus in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, to receive an extensive refurbishment to high-quality Lothian specifications.
The other two from Go Ahead, now 1001 and 1002, were refurbished at Thorntons in Ashington, England.
Once refurbished, all 50 of them received private registrations, which appear as "LXZ 53××" or "LXZ 54××".
25 were sent to Lothian Buses Central Depot, and all started working in Edinburgh between June and September 2018. The other 25 were sent to Lothian Country, which started working West Lothian local routes in August 2018 from the Longstone depot. This was until the purchase of the Livingston depot in March 2019. I'll discuss more later on.
The Gemini 2s from London were mostly bought of Metroline, which were previously owned by First Centrewest. Two of them from the first batch, 1001 & 1002, were previously owned by Go-Ahead London. These were purchased to upgrade their fleet as well as to provide Lothian Country with buses to operate their new, at the time, West Lothian services; X27, X28 and 275, which commenced operations on Sunday, 19th August 2018.
The first batch was 1001 - 1050. They began entering service in July 2018. The following two months saw the rest of the ex Londoners entered service. Lothian Country's ones were the last ones that were required to enter service. They started entering service in August 2018 and were all in service by late September 2018.
These buses are rather unique to Lothian Buses for a couple of reasons. They have a shorter body than the usual double deck vehicles found in Lothian's native fleet. In Lothian's double deck fleet, their vehichles usually range from the lengths 11.3 - 11.5 meters, whereas the ex London B9TL's are only 10.8 meters long. Additionally, they have a ZF transmission instead of a Voith, which all Lothian's Volvo B9TL Chassis had.
Out of the 50 buses:
The 25 that found themselves at Lothian Buses Central Depot were 1001 - 1002, 1005 - 1012, 1014 - 1027, and 1050. The remaining 25 found themselves at Lothian Country. These were 1003, 1004, 1013 and 1028 - 1049.
The next batch of ex London B9TL's entered service in May 2019 (1000 and 1141 - 1153), these are different than the previous batch as these have an exit middle door, minus 1000. These have so far remained their entire Lothian Buses life the the Marine depot in Seafield apart from 1000 which was sent to Central in 2019 then transferred to Longstone in 2020 then subsequently back to Central in 2021.
One thing to note, in 2021 we saw 1031 be off the road for many months to have its gearbox replaced.
Notes:
1029 was withdrawn in July 2019 following a collision with a low hanging bridge in Fauldhouse. 1029 was subsequently scrapped. 1029 was housed in Livingston prior to this.
This photo was taken at Uphall's East Main Street on Monday, 12th of December 2022.
As of the date this was uploaded (12/12/2022) 1048 1048 has returned for repaint into the new Lothian Country livery, shared with East Coast Buses. Currently 1037, 1043, 1045, and 1048 have all returned from repaint and are back to operating services around West Lothian. Sent away and yet to return from paint are 1036, 1039, 1047 and 1049. The rest are yet to be sent away. 1035 has now moved to Marine to be moved to Seafield for repaint preparation.
Thank you for reading. Have a wonderful week, and stay safe! 😊
This is one of my original lawn contracts. I've been maintaining this lawn since the mid 90's. We just power raked and top seeded this lawn three weeks ago so it will be a few more weeks until it's in it's best condition. I'll be fertilizing these lawns next week too. No photo editing on these photos either. I'm just really happy with how they are taking shape. 😃
I hope everyone has a great weekend as well.
I had no intentions in going to New Jersey this weekend. With autumn leaves at peak in the north country I had intended to head back to New Hampshire or upstate New York. But on Wednesday night I got word from a friend that Saturday was shaping up to be the big hospital train move off the long defunct New York and Greenwood Lake Railway in Passaic. These moves would constitute one of the very last on the line as it had been condemned and was going to be entirely removed.
What makes the old NYGL special is that they were the operators of the former Conrail (originally Erie) railroad Dundee Spur that included one of the longest stretches of street running left in the east for 3/10ths of a mile down Monroe Street. Much has been written about this line over the years and I'd known about it for decades thanks to seeing photos and reading about it in Railpace magazine. This street running while popular with railfans has long been a sore spot with the city of Garfield that has tried for decades to restrict or remove railroad operations. In fact their efforts even made a story in the New York Times decades ago: www.nytimes.com/1978/07/08/archives/new-jersey-pages-judg...
Conrail operated the route until 1996 when much to the delight of the city they petitioned for abandonment. But the line's one remaining shipper objected and it was sold and became the shortline NYGL. For a while they were able to grow business and seemed successful giving the line a new lease on life and delighting fans with a roster of vintage motive power wearing a pseudo Erie Railroad scheme.
But the lines major shipper closed for good in 2009, and the railroad ceased all operations in 2012. Having sat in limbo for half a decade with its connection to the outside world severed (where the line met NJT's ex Erie Bergen County Line) its future was uncertain. Seized due to unpaid taxes the railroad finally relinquished all rights in 2019 and allowed it to be cleared abandoned. The new owner of the property swapped land with the city of Passaic so that the location of Island Yard could be revitalized from a homeless camp into a waterfront park.
In February of this year the collection of former NYGL equipment was moved up the line from their one time shop and trans load facility at Dundee Yard up to Island Yard so that track removal and site clearing could begin on the lower portion. There it sat until this past Saturday when a special move contracted to the Morristown and Erie Railroad took place. The M&E used their SW1500 to shuttle the hospital train out to the NJT main where they made the short trip north to deliver it to the NYSW's yard. The equipment has been donated to Operation Toy Train and would be headed to Honesdale, PA for safe keeping via an NYSW special on Sunday to Lackawaxen and the connection with the Stourbridge Line.
After delivering the derelict equipment the SW1500 would return to Garfield and make a second trip light engine down the street to pick up five loaded flats and gons of salvaged rail and hardware before making a third trip shoving north (railroad west) this time back to the NJT main before taking that back to their shop at at Morristown via their trackage rights over NJT.
I never made it to see the Dundee Spur in CR or NYGL days and the line died before I moved back east. So when the opportunity arose on my day off to get one truly last chance at photographing this iconic piece of east coast Street trackage I knew I had to go. Considering I'd recently traveled all over the midwest seeking out street trackage, to have this chance come up relatively close to home was truly a gift and to not attempt it would be just wrong, So,despite the throngs of easily 200 fans out chasing it was a day for the ages with good friends absolutely worth the effort!
There will probably be only one more set of runs down and back up the street with the last of the rail, but I won't be able to make it whenever that happens. So, let's take a look at nearly the last gasp of the old Erie Railroad line down Monroe Street and over halfmoon trestle into Passaic. I have dozens of photos to share but here is one to start.
Making the first move of the day on the line, ME SW1500 (EMD blt. Oct. 1966 as RFP 91) leads a long hospital train of derelict former NYGL equipment up Monroe Street headed to the NJT Bergen County Line connection. They are being walked up the street with a railroad and police escort as they approach the intersection of Cambridge street with the Albanian American Islamic Center mosque providing an interesting backdrop.
Garfield, New Jersey
Saturday October 4, 2020
Big Lemon Volvo B10M coach V9 VSN seen in Hove awaiting passengers. Every Monday - Friday V9 heads to London and a Mercedes is used locally on a shuttle service for the same customer.
Featuring 250- an 09 Vision contracted by James Johnson Bus, which may or may not have been either bought used or transferred from another one of the contractor's locations; 258- a 2016 Vision Contracted by Handy's Bus Co; 208- a 2014 Vision also from Handy's; 252- a 2011 Vision from James Johnson which was bought used; 253, an 08 bought from Washington County Schools like 256, and was their 423; and 279, a CE. Note that this district has a bunch of District owned stuff as well as a bunch of contractor owned stuff. I also don't know of all the stuff they might have in other yards.
1973 Leyland National 1151/1R/2501 B51F
New to Midland Red, no. 145
Route 250 had been operated by London Transport since 1979, but on May 24 1986 it became the responsibility of Essex County Council so the LT roundel was no longer displayed and presumably Travelcards were no longer accepted.
Sampson's started their contracts in a businesslike manner with shiny clean, if elderly, vehicles that sported impressive whip antennas implying an intention to maintain contact between drivers and supervision.
1975 Leyland Atlantean AN68/1R Alexander H45/31F
New to Strathclyde PTE LA880, to LCBS 4/86. To LCSE 9/86, sold by Kentish Bus 2/89.
The Jack model, build from the destroyed Valiant ReFrame, It is piloted by the Valiant´s Pilot son, Named Jack, Born blind, he was only able to see using the Valiant´s sensors. After Joker completed the contract of ending Valiant, He spared the kid, Joker even took him under his wing, training the unknowing son of the man he killed. As a gift, he recovered the remaining of the Valiant ReFrame, and rebuilt it for Jack, that way he could be able to see again.
The new Valiant Jack Mr-Frame was built with speed in mind, equipped with a pair of HF machetes that can be fused into a double-sided weapon. Joker became paranoid for his student, and designed a cockpit with a vehicle for access and escape, and created the defense bot BL-1, Nicknamed “Belias” as a body guard, there is a special configuration that comes from fusing Belias with Valiant, This “Belias” mode is considerably strong, but is considered weaker than the other Members of the Flush.
Jack fighting style is like a weaker version of Joker, but he was also trained by the other members, making him a “Jack of all trades, master of none”, and If he is borrowed the power from the flush, he becomes temporally the stronger member.
-Build notes –
So, I wanted to create a build inspired on Valiant, and I set the story myself some time ago without knowing, and this set up is awesome, also, I wanted to try a fusion build, and it looks really cool if you ask me, it is inspired on Belias from Final Fantasy XII, hence the demonic look and the 4 arms. I love that It has so different looks, and it all fuses together without having to remove or add any parts, and the fac that It can hold the other weapons make it look even cooler.
The cockpit was also an interesting idea, having a vehicle that adds and removes the pilot is a fun concept and I like how it works.
So, what do you think, do you like it_ let me know in the comments.
A big success by any standard both in and out of competition, the Lancia Stratos was developed as a homologation Special for European rallying. After production ceased it became a cult car and is now highly priced as the ‘modern classis' it is. Conceived strictly for rallying, the Lancia Stratos however makes an exciting road car, though it is very far from GT standards in both luxury and refinement.
The concept vehicle responsible for providing the inspiration for the Lancia Stratos Rally car is the Lancia (Bertone) Stratos. The Stratos featured a 1584 cc V4 DOHC with 115 bhp horsepower at 200 rpm. Designed by Marcello Gandini, the same designer responsible for the Lamborghini Countach and Lamborghini Miura, the Stratos concept was a development of the Bertone designed Alfa Romeo Carabo concept from 1968. The Carabo concept was also a Gandini creation.
First revealed at the Turin Motor Show in October of 1970, the Lancia Stratos HF prototype was a styling exercise for Bertone. A futuristic design, the Stratos featured a wedge shaped profile that stood just 33 inches from the ground. Since the vehicle was so low, conventional doors could not be used and instead one accessed the interior of the Stratos by a hinged windscreen. Drivers had to flip up the windscreen and walk into the vehicle. Once inside, visibility was quite restricted since the front windscreen was narrow. The cockpit of the Lancia Stratos was designed specifically for fast forest flying.
The body design was predictably minimal to hold down weight and bulk with its most distinctive features being semi-concealed A-pillars and a door beltline that sharply upswept to the top of the daylight opening. The shape of the resulting unbroken expanse of glass gave the tunnelback roof the appearance of a futuristic crash helmet.
The main body structure was steel, like the chassis, and weight-saving fiberglass was used for tilt-up nose and tail sections. A small box above and behind the powertrain was where cargo space was held. Bins were also molded into the interior door panels for storing helmets.
The same engine utilized on the Lancia 1600 HF Fulvia was used on the Bertone designed Lancia Stratos Zero prototype. A triangular shaped panel hinged upwards to allow access to the mid-mounted engine. Developed for rallying purposes, the legendary Lancia Stratos was unveiled in 1974. The production vehicle Stratos was powered by a 2.4 liter mid-mounted V6 from the Ferrari Dino.
Like no other Lancia before or after, the Lancia Stratos was a shock that left enthusiasts and rally fans breathless. For almost a decade the Stratos streaked across the rally landscape much like a brilliant comet, while discarding past principles, it also fearlessly represented something undeniably new. A phenomenal rally car, the Lancia Stratos set an example to every other car manufacturer in the world. The first viable purpose-built rally car ever built, the Stratos was probably the last purpose-built rally car.
Created by the Bertone coachbuilding company, the Stratos was both radical, yet fully functional. Fiorio realized that for Lancia to continue to compete in the World Rally Championship, the Fulvia HF would need a much more powerful replacement. A the time, four-wheel drive was not an option, so a mid-engined configuration seemed ideal. To reinforce Fiori's convictions, the Bertone show car was featured soon after with a mid-engine Fulvia V4.
The introduction of the Ford mid-engine purpose-built GT70 rally car at the 1971Brussels Motor Show was what truly inspired the impetus behind the Stratos proect. It was after this appearance that Lancia's general manager, Pierugo Gobbato contacted Nuccio Bertone. Though the GT70 was actually never put in production by Ford, it was this that sparked the inspiration of the Lancia Stratos.
As always, there was a minimum production requirement, 500 units for the Lancia Stratos. This was an awkward figure that would necessitate funds for at least semi-permanent tooling as well as design and development. This was a job well suited to the Italian industry. Fiorio masterminded the project, and he envisioned a short, wide coupe with transverse midships drivetrain. Bertone was immediately contracted to style the vehicle and built its unit body/chassis structure.
43 months passed in between the time of conception to the actual birth of the Lancia Stratos. The vehicle was developed to take over and make Lancia the outright world rally champ. The Stratos was both short and wide, with a wheelbase of only 7 feet 1.8 inches, the width of the vehicle was only 5 feet 8.9 inches. Weighing only 1958 lbs, the Stratos was only 3 feet 7.9 inches high. Able to easily exceed 140 mph, the Stratos featured 190 horsepower in roadgoing trim.
Having studied every possible powerteam in the Fiat/Lancia group, Fiorio secured 2.4 liter V-6s and 5-speed transaxles from Ferrari, which was an ideal chouse as they'd be installed exactly as the Dino 246. All-independent suspension, rack-and-pinion steering and four-wheel disc brakes were all specifically designed for the Lancia Stratos.
After 1978 the Stratos was officially retired and no longer was officially entered by the Lancia factory, the vehicle was still going strong. The Lancia team was headed by by Sandro Munari who won its first event as a homologated entry in October of 1974. Mun ari entered alone 40 events with the Lancia Stratos and won 14. The Stratos also won the World Rally Championship in 1974, 1975, and 1976 and remained competitive for another four years. The final major win came in 1979 when a Lancia Stratos entered by the Monaco importer won the famed Monte Carlo Rally. Finally the factory retired the Stratos.
By Jessica Donaldson
[Text from ConceptCarz.com]
www.conceptcarz.com/z21737/Lancia-Stratos-HF.aspx
This Lego miniland-scale Lancia Stratos Rally Racer has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 100th Build Challenge - our Centenary, titled 'One Hundred Ways to Win!'. In this challenge, a list of 100 challenges is available, kept by the admins. Individuals wishing to enter, request a number from 1-100 (so long as it has not already been requested) - and the admins assign the individual build challenge associated with that number.
In the case of admins entering models - they request that a general LUGNuts member assigns a number - and the admin must build to that challenge number.
In this case, the number 78 was chosen for me, corresponding to the challenge: '78.Any vehicle from the year you were born'. I was born in 1972, the year that the first Stratos rally cars were built, entering in the Rally Championship as Group 5 (un-homologated) entries.
The road cars required to homologate for Group 4 were built through 1973 to 1978.
As can be seen in some of the images here, not only does the car open and close (a real challenge when you look at the chassis), but it also uses the Lego Group RC Rollerskate - so it can zoom around under its own power.
SMK73IF, RML2731, original routemaster, funny to see this in a shed as it has been to loads of events, I think it's only in as a refurbishing contract but nonetheless nice to see.
Whitney quickly found Elizabeth and Adele in the coffeeshop. Whitney read through the provisions in the renter's agreement, taking her time to scroll through the agreement on Adele's notepad.
Adele: "As you'll see, this is a standard renter's agreement for six months. Elizabeth as the landlord reserves the right to inspect the property, and --"
Whitney: "I don't see anything about adding a wall so cars don't drive through my living room or a railing so I don't fall out of my bed. Either I wait to sign the agreement until these items are addressed, or the rent is too expensive."
Elizabeth was visibly getting irritated: "I said Bobby and his crew will inspect the property and repair any safety hazards for you."
Whitney: "Including adding a wall so Don Buzzle doesn't mow us down with his car in our own living room?"
Elizabeth: [sternly] "Of course."
Whitney: "Great! Just notify me when the lease is ready to be signed. I'm now going to go tell my cousin the good news. We're moving!"
Whitney left.....
Elizabeth: "This is going to be a nightmare, isn't it?"
Adele: "Being a landlord isn't for everyone. Are you sure you wouldn't rather just sell her the property?"
Elizabeth:"No, that's not an option. That's my home."
Adele excuses herself to begin amending the lease, remarking to herself, great -- stubborn client, stubborn renter.
With a hint of overnight dew and the rising sun just piercing the morning mist, DB Schenker 66111 rumbles through Cummersdale on the outskirts of Carlisle on 23 May 2015 heading the 6C33 05:22 Carlisle Yard to Dalston loaded bogie fuel tankers as some of the Blackwell Hall pedigree herd remain unperturbed by the train (but one with interest in the photographer behind a hedge I might add!). I was unaware at the time that this long-running BP contract with EWS/DBS would soon pass over to Colas Rail Freight.
© Gordon Edgar - All rights reserved. Please do not use my images without my explicit permission
Instalare profile dilatatie la Mall Bneasa Shopping City. Lucrare executata in anul 2015 de catre compania Hidroplasto. Aceste profile speciale, sunt utilizate pentru tratarea rosturilor de dilatatie de pana la 120 mm. Sarcinile suportate de profilele impermeabile de pardoseala tip Deflex 500/Nb-100 sunt egale cu 100kN, la o suprafata de contact de 20/60cm, fiind rezistente la trafic auto greu, autocamioane, autospeciale pentru stingerea incendiilor.
Ben cut his hand badly and needed surgery to reattach the tendon in his finger. While there he contracted a bad infection and has to be on IV antibiotics for 8 weeks
"Berwick Bridge, also known as the Old Bridge, spans the River Tweed in Berwick-upon-Tweed, Northumberland, England. The current structure is a Grade I listed stone bridge built between 1611 and 1624.
Prior to the construction of the stone bridge, the crossing was served by a series of wooden bridges. which were variously destroyed by flooding and military action. James Burrell became Surveyor of Works of the town in 1604, making him responsible for maintenance of the bridge. He was previously also occupied on the fortifications around Berwick before James VI and I ascended the throne of England, rendering them redundant.
In 1608, ten piers of the wooden bridge were destroyed by ice, and Burrell wrote to Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury, then Secretary of State, to recommend the construction of a stone bridge. Arrangements were made in May 1608 to collect funds, but only £3,300 had been collected by 1611, but the Captain of Berwick Sir William Bowyer was unsatisfied with this progress, and a proposal was made for a bridge with seven stone arches over the deepest part of the river and the rest built of wood. After further collapse of the old wooden bridge, a modified proposal, for an entirely stone bridge with 13 arches, and estimated to cost a further £8,462, was put to the Privy Council, and on 16 May 1611 the King ordered £8,000 to be put towards the bridge. Work started on the bridge on 19 June that year, and by September 170 men were employed on its construction. At some point it was decided to build it with 15 arches instead.
In 1618, a further £4,000 grant was given, but this money had been used by 1620 and the Privy Council placed the bridge project under the supervision of the Bishop of Durham Richard Neile before any more money was given. Neile contracted Burrell and the leading mason Lancelot Bramston to finish the bridge at a cost of £1,750, and installed John Johnson of Newcastle as supervisor. The bridge was completed by September 1621 except for the parapets and paving, but a flood in October 1621 swept away some masonry and the wooden centring. In light of the accident, a grant of £3,000 was made and work restarted the following March, and the bridge was opened to traffic in 1624, although minor work continued for the next decade.
The bridge became less important for road traffic as the main route moved westwards, first to the concrete Royal Tweed Bridge built in the 1920s, and then in the 1980s a bypass took the A1 road out of Berwick altogether.
It is a Grade I listed building and a scheduled monument.
Berwick-upon-Tweed (/ˌbɛrɪk-/; Scots: Sooth Berwick, Scottish Gaelic: Bearaig a Deas) is a town in the county of Northumberland. It is the northernmost town in England, at the mouth of the River Tweed on the east coast, 2 1⁄2 miles (4 kilometres) south of the Scottish border (the hamlet of Marshall Meadows is the actual northernmost settlement). Berwick is approximately 56 mi (90 km) east-south east of Edinburgh, 65 mi (105 km) north of Newcastle upon Tyne and 345 mi (555 km) north of London.
The 2011 United Kingdom census recorded Berwick's population as 12,043. A civil parish and town council were created in 2008 comprising the communities of Berwick, Spittal and Tweedmouth.
Berwick was founded as an Anglo-Saxon settlement during the time of the Kingdom of Northumbria, which was annexed by England in the 10th century. The area was for more than 400 years central to historic border wars between the Kingdoms of England and Scotland, and several times possession of Berwick changed hands between the two kingdoms. The last time it changed hands was when Richard of Gloucester retook it for England in 1482. To this day many Berwickers feel a close affinity to Scotland.
Berwick remains a traditional market town and also has some notable architectural features, in particular its medieval town walls, its Georgian Town Hall, its Elizabethan ramparts, and Britain's earliest barracks buildings, which Nicholas Hawksmoor built (1717–21) for the Board of Ordnance." - info from Wikipedia.
Summer 2019 I did a solo cycling tour across Europe through 12 countries over the course of 3 months. I began my adventure in Edinburgh, Scotland and finished in Florence, Italy cycling 8,816 km. During my trip I took 47,000 photos.
Now on Instagram.
Become a patron to my photography on Patreon.
Hanging Rock (formally known as Mount Diogenes), in central Victoria, Australia, is a distinctive geological formation, 718m above sea level (105m above plain level) on the plain between the two small townships of Newham and Hesket, approximately 70 km north-west of Melbourne and a few kilometres north of Mount Macedon, a former volcano. Best known as the site where a party of schoolgirls disappeared in February 1900 in the fictional story Picnic at Hanging Rock, Hanging Rock is located within the Wurundjeri nation's territory.
Hanging Rock is a mamelon, created 6.25 million years ago by stiff magma pouring from a vent and congealing in place. Often thought to be a volcanic plug, it is not. Two other mamelons exist nearby, created in the same period: Camels Hump, to the south on Mount Macedon and, to the east, Crozier's Rocks.[citation needed] All three mamelons are made of solvsbergite, a form of trachyte only found in two or three other places in the world. As Hanging Rock's magma cooled and contracted it split into rough columns. These weathered over time into the many pinnacles that can be seen today.
Hanging Rock contains numerous distinctive rock formations, including the "Hanging Rock" itself (a boulder suspended between other boulders, under which is the main entrance path), the Colonnade, the Eagle and the UFO. The highest point on Hanging Rock is 718 metres above sea level and 105 metres above the plain below. Hanging Rock is located within the Wurundjeri nation's territory but they exercised a custodial responsibility on behalf of the surrounding tribes in the Kulin nation. It was a site of male initiation and as such entry was forbidden except those young males being taken there for ceremonial initiation. After colonial settlement the Aboriginal people of the area were quickly dispossessed and forced out of the area by 1844. However one last initiation ceremony was held there in approximately November 1851 by a Wurundjeri Elder from the Templestowe area in the Yarra Valley. This ceremony was also attended by two young settlers' children, Willie Chivers, 11, and his younger brother Tom, 7, who were being cared for on a daily basis by the tribe after their mother had died. Their father went missing after looking for their mother. (Wikepedia excerpt)
Gwyn Williams based at Lower Tumble in Dyfed acquired this pair of former Oxford Bus Company Leyland Titans in August 1997. Used exclusively on school contract work Leyland bodied KYV 452X and OHV 783Y were found at the operators depot in Cwm Gwendraeth on October 20th 1999.
This is one of my original lawn contracts. I've been maintaining this lawn since the mid 90's. We just power raked and top seeded this lawn three weeks ago so it will be a few more weeks until it's in it's best condition. I'll be fertilizing these lawns next week too. No photo editing on these photos either. I'm just really happy with how they are taking shape. 😃
I hope everyone has a great weekend as well.
Postmarked July 1954.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Baltimore Steam Packet Company, nicknamed the Old Bay Line, was an American steamship line from 1840 to 1962 that provided overnight steamboat service on the Chesapeake Bay, primarily between Baltimore, Maryland, and Norfolk, Virginia. Called a "packet" for the mail packets carried on government mail contracts, the term in the 19th century came to mean a steamer line operating on a regular, fixed daily schedule between two or more cities. When it closed in 1962 after 122 years of existence, it was the last surviving overnight steamship passenger service in the United States.[1][2]
In addition to regularly calling on Baltimore and Norfolk, the Baltimore Steam Packet Company at various times provided freight, passenger and vehicle transport to Washington, D.C., Old Point Comfort, and Richmond, Virginia. The Old Bay Line, as it came to be known by the 1860s, was acclaimed for its genteel service and fine dining, serving Chesapeake Bay specialties. Walter Lord, famed author of A Night to Remember (and whose grandfather had been the packet line's president from 1893 to 1899), mused that its reputation for excellent service was attributable to "some magical blending of the best in the North and the South, made possible by the Company's unique role in 'bridging' the two sections ... the North contributed its tradition of mechanical proficiency, making the ships so reliable; while the South contributed its gracious ease".[2]
One of the Old Bay Line's steamers, the former President Warfield, later became famous as the Exodus ship of book and movie fame, when Jewish refugees from war-torn Europe sailed aboard her in 1947 in an unsuccessful attempt to emigrate to Palestine.
Old Bay Line 1950s timetable
History
Just seven years after Robert Fulton proved the commercial viability of steam-powered ships with his North River Steamboat (more commonly known today as Clermont) in 1807, small wood-burning steamers began to ply the Chesapeake Bay. Before the arrival of railroads and river steamboats in the early 19th century, overland travel was exceedingly slow and tedious.[2] Rivers were the main means of transportation and most cities were founded on them. This was especially so in North America, where journeys over vast distances of hundreds or even thousands of miles required months of hazardous, uncomfortable travel by stagecoach or wagon on rutted, unpaved trails. In the 1830s, railroads were being built, but the technology was crude and average passenger train speed was only 12 miles per hour (19 km/h).[3] Perhaps more importantly, most early railroads did not connect. It would be many years before the various lines were knitted together to make intercity rail travel in the U.S. a reality. Not until 1863, for example, was it possible to travel between New York City and Washington, D. C., without changing trains en route.[4]
In this period, steamships on rivers such as the Ohio and Mississippi or large inland bodies of water such as the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay offered a comfortable and relatively fast mode of transportation. The first steamboat to serve Baltimore was the locally built Chesapeake, constructed in 1813 to link Baltimore with Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Operated by the Union Line, the boat connected with a stagecoach for the overland portion of the journey.[5] Two years later, the Briscoe-Partridge Line's Eagle was the first steamboat to sail the length of Chesapeake Bay.[3]
The direct ancestor of the Baltimore Steam Packet Company was the Maryland & Virginia Steam Boat Company formed in 1828 to link Baltimore, Richmond, and Norfolk, traversing the Chesapeake Bay and the James River. By 1839, the Maryland & Virginia was heavily in debt from the purchase of two new, large ships the year before: the 210-foot (64 m) long Alabama and the 173-foot (53 m) Jewess. The Alabama was expensive to operate and proved impractical for Chesapeake Bay operations, causing the bankruptcy of the Maryland & Virginia later that year.[5]
1840s–1850s
When the Maryland & Virginia collapsed in late 1839, the Maryland legislature convened to grant a charter to the Baltimore Steam Packet Company, organized in Baltimore to provide overnight steamship service on the Chesapeake Bay. The company's incorporators were Benjamin Bush, Andrew F. Henderson (who became the line's first president), John B. Howell, Thomas Kelso (who would become a director of the line), John S. McKim, Samuel McDonald, Gen. William McDonald, Robert A. Taylor, and Joel Vickers, all of Baltimore.[6]
The company was granted a 20-year charter on March 18, 1840, by the Maryland legislature and then acquired three of the former Maryland & Virginia's steamboats: Pocahontas, Georgia, and Jewess.[5][Note 1] The company began overnight paddlewheel steamship passenger and freight service daily except Sundays between Baltimore and Norfolk. By 1848, the company's steamship Herald was making the trip in less than 12 hours, a time which the line would maintain until the end in 1962.[8] An affiliate, the Powhatan Line, started service between Norfolk and Richmond in 1845, interchanging freight and passengers with the Old Bay Line.[8]
By the 1850s, competition was keen as steamships grew in size and efficiency to serve the fast-growing nation. The Old Bay Line, in particular, served as a link between the antebellum South and northern markets, hauling large quantities of cotton north and manufactured goods south, along with a thriving passenger business between Baltimore and Norfolk. Railroads also began acquiring steamship lines in the 1850s, and the Seaboard & Roanoke Railroad, a predecessor of the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad (RF&P), acquired a controlling interest in the Baltimore Steam Packet Company in 1851.[8] As competitors entered the field, each line vied to outdo its competitors in the luxurious appointments of their ships' staterooms and dining service. The company acquired newer and larger ships in the 1850s, such as the North Carolina in 1852 and the Louisiana in 1854, the latter at 266 feet (81 m) in length being the largest wooden vessel the company would own.[8] A passenger on the Baltimore Steam Packet Company's Georgia, carried away by delight over his travel experience in 1853, was effusive in his description of an overnight trip:
I know of no more delightful trip from Baltimore down the Chesapeake ... upon the broad blue waters with an exquisite breeze, which came up with invigorating freshness from the silver waves. Night came on, and her azure curtain gemmed with myriad stars was drawn over the expanse above.
— W.S. Forrest, Historical Sketches of Norfolk, 1853[9]
The North Carolina similarly impressed a Baltimore Patriot reporter in 1852, who described the ship's dining saloon as "having imported Belgian carpets, velvet chairs with marble-topped tables, and white panelling with gilded mouldings".[8]
On February 20, 1858, the northbound steamer Louisiana collided with a sailing vessel, the William K. Perrin, causing the sailboat to founder near the mouth of the Rappahannock River.[10] In a case that reached all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, Haney et al. v Baltimore Steam Packet Company, the Louisiana was found to be at fault. The high court considered the rules of the sea pertaining to steamers and sailing ships approaching one another and concluded (with Chief Justice Roger B. Taney dissenting) that "entire disregard of these rules of navigation by the steamer" caused the collision, reversing a Circuit Court ruling.[10]
The North Carolina burned on January 29, 1859, when a fire started in a passenger stateroom. She sank the following day with the loss of two lives.[11] The following month, the line acquired the Adelaide to replace the lost steamer.[12]
1860s–1910s
The outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861 immediately affected the Baltimore Steam Packet Company. On April 19, two days after Virginia's secession, a violently pro-Southern mob in Baltimore attacked Union soldiers en route to Washington, D.C. as the troops marched through the city's streets between railroad stations. Thereafter known as the Baltimore riot of 1861, the resulting loss of life and local unrest also threatened the USS Allegheny, a U.S. Navy ship in Baltimore at the time. Later that same day, the Baltimore Steam Packet Company declined to transport Union forces from Baltimore to the beleaguered Union naval yard facility at Portsmouth, Virginia.[13]
Two weeks later, on May 7, the Adelaide was chartered by the U.S. Navy and attached to the Atlantic Blockading Squadron. In that role, she was used to transport Federal troops in support of operations in North Carolina's Outer Banks, directed against the Confederate-held forts guarding Hatteras Inlet.[12] Later that year, the Adelaide was returned to the Baltimore Steam Packet Company.
As a steamship line connecting northern cities and the south, the Old Bay Line hauled a considerable volume of freight between the two regions and their ships' cargo holds were filled with bales of cotton, produce, and other goods. When hostilities commenced, Southern ports were blockaded by the Federal Navy and the Old Bay Line was unable to serve Norfolk for the duration of the war, going no further south than Old Point Comfort. Passenger traffic as well as cargo shipping declined significantly. The Powhatan Line discontinued operations altogether between Norfolk and Richmond until the war's end.[14]
The Old Bay Line's Eolus in 1869
As soon as the war ended in 1865, the Leary Line of New York briefly challenged the Baltimore Steam Packet Company on the Chesapeake, starting its own Baltimore-Norfolk steamship service. A fare war ensued, with one-way prices reduced to $3.00 (equivalent to $24.34 in 2019). Emphasizing the longevity of its service compared to their upstart rival, the Baltimore Steam Packet Company began referring to itself as the "Old Established Bay Line" in advertising, a moniker that would soon become simply the Old Bay Line for the next century.[14]
The Leary Line withdrew in January 1867, selling its George Leary to the Old Bay Line. Two years later, the Norfolk Journal of August 2, 1869, described the vessel as having a "gorgeous style of furniture and elegant fittings ... magnificently furnished with upholstered sofas and lounges of rich red velvet ...".[15] Another competitor, the Chesapeake Steamship Company, began directly competing on the Baltimore-Norfolk route in 1874. Controlled by the Southern Railway, a rival of the RF&P, it would be a formidable competitor until 1941, when the two steamship lines merged. Cargo traffic was also booming in the 1870s as the South recovered from the Civil War, resulting in the Old Bay Line's freight revenue surpassing passenger revenue by the end of the decade.
By the time of John Moncure Robinson's retirement as president of the company in 1893, the Old Bay Line had upgraded its fleet with propeller-driven, steel-hulled steamers equipped with modern conveniences such as electric lighting and staterooms with private baths. The Georgia introduced in 1887 was the first Old Bay Line boat to have a modern screw propeller instead of old-fashioned side paddlewheels and the Alabama launched in 1893 was the company's first steel-hulled vessel. Robinson served the Old Bay Line as president for 26 years (1867–1893), longer than any other person in the company's history.[16]
The halcyon days of the 1890s were the company's heyday, under president Richard Curzon Hoffman (the grandfather of noted author Walter Lord), when the prosperous line's gleaming steamships were heavily patronized by passengers enjoying the well-appointed staterooms and Chesapeake Bay culinary delights while dining to the accompaniment of live music. The nightly menu on board included oyster fritters, diamondback terrapin, duck, and turkey.[16]
The company built a new terminal and headquarters in Baltimore on Light Street in 1898 to accommodate the increasing traffic. Rebuilt after the Great Baltimore Fire of 1904, the building with its four-sided clocktower would be a landmark for decades on Baltimore's Inner Harbor waterfront.[16] (The location of the now-demolished terminal is between the present Harborplace and Maryland Science Center.)
The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad, which had first acquired a controlling interest in the Baltimore Steam Packet Company in 1851, gained total control of the company's stock on September 5, 1901. The Old Bay Line continued to be managed separately from the RF&P, however.[16]
World War I and aftermath
The Old Bay Line's Baltimore terminal (1898–1950)
In contrast to the Civil War, when hostilities sharply curtailed business on the Old Bay Line, World War I doubled freight and passenger business on the line to the busy ports of Norfolk and the Hampton Roads area, with 107,664 passengers using the line in 1917. As a result of congestion on the nation's railroads and ports when the U.S. entered the war in April 1917, the Federal government established the wartime U.S. Railroad Administration (USRA) to take charge of railroads and steamship companies, including the Baltimore Steam Packet Company. The USRA directed the operations of the Old Bay Line and the rival Chesapeake line for the duration of the war and more than a year thereafter, until March 1, 1920.[17]
Baltimore-native John Roberts Sherwood, who had joined the Old Bay Line as a 22-year-old engineer in 1868 and became president in 1907, retired in October 1918 after 49 years with the company. The Baltimore Sun extolled Sherwood's distinguished half-century of service to the steamer line when he retired, noting approvingly that his oft-expressed philosophy was, "Stand up for your home city wherever you may go."[18] (His son, John W. Sherwood, founded Baltimore's celebrated Sherwood Gardens in the mid-1920s.) Sherwood was succeeded by S. Davies Warfield as president (1918–1927).
Catastrophe struck the Old Bay Line on May 24, 1919, when the Virginia II caught fire shortly after midnight in the middle of Chesapeake Bay with 156 passengers and a crew of 82 on board. The ship burned completely as many passengers jumped overboard and a lifeboat capsized. The Chesapeake Line's City of Norfolk and other vessels came to the rescue and pulled people from the water to safety. The Virginia's captain, Walter Lane, remained with his ship to the end and suffered burns.[19]
1920s–1930s
The corporate ownership of the Baltimore Steam Packet Company changed again in 1922, when the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) formed the Seaboard–Bay Line Company, which owned all of the outstanding shares of the Baltimore Steam Packet Company, making the steamship company a wholly owned subsidiary of the SAL on February 6, 1922. In addition to the infusion of capital from the SAL, the Old Bay Line also obtained a $4.4 million federal loan (equivalent to $67.2 million in 2019) to build two new steamers for the Old Bay Line: the State of Maryland and the State of Virginia.[17] The Old Bay Line's president, S. Davies Warfield, was named president of SAL railroad as well as the Old Bay Line in 1922.
A late 1920s advertisement of an Old Bay Line ship's interior
In 1928, the Baltimore Steam Packet Company took delivery of two more new ships – the President Warfield and the Yorktown. The President Warfield, built by Pusey and Jones Corp. in Wilmington, Delaware, was named for the Old Bay Line's president of the time, S. Davies Warfield. She would be the last new ship built for the Old Bay Line.[20]
As the new-fangled Ford Model Ts and other early automobiles increasingly took to the roads in the 1920s, inland steamship lines in the U.S. initially resisted carrying automobiles on their boats.[2] By the Depression-ravaged 1930s, however, the Old Bay Line became one of the first inland steamship companies to promote the carriage of automobiles as a means of filling its ships' empty cargo holds. The Depression and loss of business to improved highways took an increasing toll of many U.S. steamship lines in the 1930s, as historic companies such as the Fall River Line ceased operation in 1937, preceded by the Lake Champlain company, which was the oldest steamboat line in the U.S. at its demise in 1932.
Fortunately for the Old Bay Line, its freight and passenger traffic remained relatively strong in the 1930s and the company embarked on a modernization program for its main boats of the line. The President Warfield and State of Maryland were converted from coal to oil burning in 1933 and had sprinkler systems installed in 1938. In 1939, the State of Virginia was converted to oil burning and all three ships were equipped with radio direction finders and ship-to-shore telephones.[20]
1940s
As the Old Bay Line celebrated its centennial in 1940 with parades and other events in Baltimore, the company's future seemed bright. Business was steady and the company's facilities were in sound condition. Commemorative dinner plates in blue and pink decorated with a map of the Chesapeake Bay were introduced.
On June 14, 1941, the Baltimore Steam Packet Company's owner, the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, entered into an agreement with a consortium of railroads and steamship companies to merge the Chesapeake Steamship Company into the Old Bay Line. The railroad group, consisting of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, Southern Railway, and the SAL, together controlled the Baltimore Steam Packet Company and the Chesapeake Steamship Company. As a result, the Old Bay Line took over the Chesapeake Line's business and assets and became the sole operator of passenger and freight steamship transportation between the important ports of Baltimore and Norfolk. As part of this agreement, half of the outstanding shares of the Baltimore Steam Packet Company were assigned to Chesapeake Steamship Company, which was one-third owned by Southern Railway and two-thirds owned by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad.[20] With the amalgamation, two of the Chesapeake Line's steamboats, the City of Norfolk and City of Richmond, were transferred to the Old Bay Line. As it turned out, these would be the last two vessels operated by the Old Bay Line when it went out of business in 1962.[21] Robert E. Dunn was named president of the Old Bay Line in 1941, remaining at the helm of the company to the end of service in 1962.[1][20]
World War II
After the United States entered World War II on December 7, 1941, the Federal government set up the War Shipping Administration to manage the vitally important maritime shipping and Naval support needs of the U.S. and its Allies, including the power to expropriate civilian-owned boats. On April 1, 1942, the government acquired the Old Bay Line's State of Virginia and State of Maryland. On July 13, the President Warfield and Yorktown were also taken over. Thus, by mid-1942, four of the Old Bay Line's six ships had become government property, leaving the company only the two oldest and smallest ships in its fleet for the duration of the war, the City of Norfolk and City of Richmond.[20]
Postwar and the Exodus
After World War II, the line promoted its automobile service to Florida-bound motorists, advertising the elimination of 230 miles (370 km) of driving by taking the family car on an overnight cruise down the Chesapeake to Virginia, while enjoying a sumptuous dinner and relaxing stateroom aboard an Old Bay Line steamer instead of a roadside motel. In March 1946, the Old Bay Line installed radar on the City of Richmond and City of Norfolk, the first commercial passenger ships to be equipped with radar.[21]
After the President Warfield was expropriated in 1942 by the War Shipping Administration for national defense as a transport during World War II, it was transferred to the United Kingdom on September 21, 1942. Later in the war, it was returned to the U.S. Navy and commissioned as the USS President Warfield (IX-169) on May 21, 1944. Following the end of World War II, the President Warfield was decommissioned and returned to the War Shipping Administration for disposal as surplus.[22] After inspecting the President Warfield, Old Bay Line officials decided that the expense for reconditioning the badly deteriorated ship was excessive, and accepted a cash settlement from the War Shipping Administration instead of taking back the war surplus vessel.[20]
The old President Warfield was eventually acquired in early 1947 by Mossad Le'aliyah Bet, a Jewish organization helping Holocaust survivors illegally reach Palestine, then under British mandate. The former Baltimore Steam Packet and U.S. Navy steamship was renamed Exodus when she embarked from France for Palestine on July 11, 1947, carrying 4,515 passengers. Two Royal Navy destroyers rammed the Exodus as she entered Palestinian waters near Haifa on July 18. British forces boarded the damaged ship and eventually deported the passengers. The Exodus remained in Haifa harbor until 1952, when the derelict caught fire and burned completely.[23] The 1960 film Exodus depicted the refugees' odyssey aboard the former President Warfield.
1950s and demise
The Bay Line's Light Street terminal and headquarters building in Baltimore, where it had been located since 1898, were sold to the city in October 1950 for the widening of Light Street and later development as the acclaimed Inner Harbor waterfront festival marketplace. The company relocated to a pier on Pratt Street at the foot of Gay Street, where it remained until it went out of business in 1962.[23]
City of Richmond
Various travel writers in the 1950s extolled the pleasures of the nightly cruises and meals on the Old Bay Line's antique steamers. By the mid-1950s, however, improved highways and the increase in air travel meant that the Old Bay Line's 12-hour transit time between Baltimore and Norfolk was a comparatively slow means of transportation. Old Bay Line officials hoped that the steamship line's unique service might continue to appeal to travellers seeking the pleasures of a cruise on the scenic Chesapeake with fine dining en route and a well-furnished, private stateroom. The Sunday travel section of The New York Times in 1954 featured the "long established, more leisurely water route across Chesapeake Bay", as the writer described the Old Bay Line, recommending "the boat trip can be made comfortably and comparatively inexpensively every night between Baltimore, Old Point Comfort and Norfolk, and on alternate nights between Washington, D. C., and the Virginia communities".[24]
In the end too few people opted for this leisurely form of travel and passenger volume steadily declined. As deficits rose during the 1950s, the Old Bay Line began cutting back. On September 30, 1957, it abandoned service to Washington, D.C., discontinuing its Washington–Norfolk overnight service on the Potomac River. By 1960, the Old Bay Line reduced operation of its mainstay Baltimore–Norfolk route to freight service only during the lightly travelled winter months of October–April, eliminating all passenger service on the Chesapeake Bay during those months. In October 1961, the company announced that its passenger service was "temporarily suspended until further notice", indicating that resumption of passenger service was expected the following summer season beginning in April 1962.[25] Finally, on April 14, 1962, the venerable Old Bay Line discontinued all operations entirely, ending one of the very last remaining overnight steamship passenger services in the United States (The Georgian Bay Line still operated out of Georgian Bay along with Canadian Pacific and Canada Steamship Lines but those companies engaged in purely cruising and all were out of service by 1967).[1] The following month, the stockholders of the Baltimore Steam Packet Company formally voted on May 25, 1962 to liquidate the 122-year-old corporation, ending forever the melodious whistles of Old Bay Line steamboats on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.[7]
The company owned 54 ships during its 122 years of existence, many being small cargo vessels. Originally, all of the line's steamboats were of wooden construction with side paddlewheels and used wood logs for fuel. The first boat with an iron hull acquired by the Old Bay Line was the Georgeanna, in 1860. By the late 1870s, the company had acquired its last paddlewheel steamers: Florida, Carolina, and Virginia. Later, ships would use coal for fuel until the 1930s, when oil began to be used. Beginning with the Georgia built in 1887, their ships used the more modern propeller or "screw" design. The Georgia also was the first Old Bay Line vessel to be equipped with electric lighting and steam heating. Passenger ships of the line provided large, lavishly furnished staterooms to accommodate passengers on the overnight trip. The Alabama built in 1892 represented the inception of modern shipbuilding and design for the Old Bay Line: the first vessel to have a steel hull instead of iron or wood and propelled by a four-cylinder triple-expansion reciprocating engine, the same type engine that all of the line's later steamers would have. Notable Old Bay Line passenger vessels used in scheduled overnight service, with dates acquired and gross tonnages, were:
At the time of the Old Bay Line's dissolution in April 1962, three ships remained docked at the Pratt Street pier: the District of Columbia, which had been kept as a spare since the Washington–Norfolk service ended in 1957, was scrapped soon afterwards. The City of Richmond was sold for use as a floating restaurant in the Virgin Islands, but sank in the Atlantic Ocean off Georgetown, South Carolina, while under tow to her new home.[26] The City of Norfolk was idled in Norfolk until 1966, when it was towed to Fieldsboro, New Jersey on the Delaware River and scrapped.[21]
German postcard by Ross Verlag, no. 4132/2, 1929-1930. Photo: Metro Goldwyn Mayer. Greta Garbo in The Mysterious Lady (Fred Niblo, 1928).
Swedish Greta Garbo (1905-1990) was one of the greatest and most glamorous film stars ever produced by the Hollywood studio system. She was part of the Golden Age of the silent cinema of the 1920s and was one of the few actors who made a glorious transition to the talkies. She started her career in European cinema and would always stay more popular in Europe than in the USA.
She was born as Greta Lovisa Gustafsson in Stockholm. When she was 14 her father died, leaving the family destitute. Greta was forced to leave school and work as a clerk in the department store PUB, where she also would model for newspaper ads. She photographed beautifully. Her first film aspirations came when she appeared in two short film advertisements, Herr och fru Stockholm (Ragnar Ring, 1920) and Konsum Stockholm Promo (Ragnar Ring, 1921). They were seen by director Erik Arthur Petschler who gave her a small part as a bathing beauty in his comedy Luffar-Petter (Erik A. Petschler, 1922). From 1922 to 1924, she studied at Dramaten, the prestigious Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm. She met Mauritz Stiller, who was Sweden's foremost filmmaker in the early 1920s. He trained the 18-year-old in cinema acting techniques and gave her the stage name Greta Garbo. Stiller cast her in a major role opposite Lars Hanson in Gösta Berlings Saga (Mauritz Stiller, 1924). This dramatisation of a novel by Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf was internationally successful and made Greta a minor star. On the strength of Gösta Berling, she was cast in the German prostitution and depression melodrama Die Freudlose Gasse (G.W. Pabst, 1925), in which she co-starred with the legendary Danish star Asta Nielsen.
And then Hollywood called. Louis B. Mayer invited Stiller to work for MGM when Gösta Berlings Saga caught his attention. On viewing the film, Mayer admired Stiller's direction but was unimpressed with Garbo's acting and screen presence. Stiller insisted on bringing his protégé to Hollywood, thus, Mayer contracted her as well. Garbo’s relationship with Mauritz Stiller came to an end as her fame in Hollywood grew and he struggled in the studio system. In 1928 Stiller was fired by MGM and returned to Sweden, where he died soon after. Garbo retired in 1949 after making some screentests for a never realised film project. She abandoned Hollywood and moved to New York City. She would jet-set with such personalities as Aristotle Onassis and Cecil Beaton, and spent the rest of her time gardening flowers and vegetables. In 1954, she was given a special Oscar ‘for her unforgettable performances, and in 1999 the American Film Institute ranked her as the fifth greatest female star of all time.
Sources: AllMovie, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.