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BA operates a dozen Airbus A380 aircraft with eighteen A350 on order. However, this photo features all three of the airline's current long-haul Boeing aircraft.
Taken from inside Heathrow's T5 on a murky afternoon, an unidentified B777 stands in the foreground. Parked alongside is B787-8 Dreamliner G-ZBJI due to depart later for Durban, South Africa. In the distance B747 Jumbo G-CIVO, sporting a One World livery, is seen at the moment of rotation en route to Phoenix, Arizona. The fourth visible BA aircraft is an unidentified short-haul flight taxiing out for take-off.
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back to the era of Roman Britain. When the Romans developed Bath's already existing warm water spring area into a fully-fledged bath complex, there was so much water flowing that they had to build an overflow and also a culvert to channel the excess water into the nearby river. It still exists and still flows to this very day.
Remaining derricks on the Isle of Portland, Dorset, haven't loaded Portland stone onto small vessels waiting alongside the cliff for many decades, probably a century. Nevertheless, they remain a fascinating reminder of Portland's industrial heritage as a modern-day cargo vessel heads into Portland Harbour.
John Constable is best known for his landscape paintings around Dedham Vale, Suffolk. Less well known are a series of paintings from October and November 1816 when he and his bride took a 6 week honeymoon in Osmington, Dorset. Several of those paintings will feature here in the coming weeks, with comparison photos taken 200 years later.
First up is Constable's painting of Weymouth Bay, looking from the shore of Osmington Mills some 15-20 minutes walk from where he was staying. Note that the view today is essentially the same although the small fishing boats no longer use the tiny harbour.
Going underground through the Wheal Mexico tin mine, part of the Geevor Mine Museum complex. It is thought this section dates from the 18th or early 19th century and as such was dug mostly by hand apart from one harder section of rock where explosives have been used. "Wheal" means "place of work" in Cornish but no-one knows why the word "Mexico" was used.
The tunnel is quite low. I gave my helmet a good whack at least four times!
...with a remarkable zero comments...
jukebox # 522
With the long-term decline in traditional AM radio stations continuing, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find radio towers. They are disappearing just like gas holders in the UK! This tower in Bellville was originally used by KACO, a country station. Numerous owners and station idents came and went culminating in KULF. That finally closed down in 2022. The tower is now used by an amateur radio club.
Joe Ely's track is one of my favourites, so evocative of place and time. So permit me a memory.
It was back in the 1960s when most European stations closed down at midnight. At that time it was quite possible to pick up American AM stations that 'skipped' the Atlantic at night. One that regularly drifted in was clear-channel 50,000 watt WOWO out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. On my first ever US visit using the Greyhound to travel around, imagine my delight when the bus unexpectedly rolled past WOWO's massive tower situated on a hill outside of town!
Many towns across America are now by-passed by an Interstate road. That is the case in Columbus, TX, although it still has the signs of the motel strip that existed along what is now the Old 90 route.
As far as I can make out, the Baker Motel managed to survive until quite recently, possibly closing in 2016? Nowadays, all the accommodation is about a mile away where there is a junction on the I-10.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features a $1 coin found a few weeks ago in the washetaria / laundrette. Apparently they are not uncommon but I am pretty damn sure I've never seen one before.
This one is known as a Susan B. Anthony one dollar coin, minted from 1979-81 and again in 1999. You can read the Wiki here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony_dollar
As can seen from the photo below it dates from 1979. This coin has had quite a lot of use so the mint stamp is hard to read but is probably a 'P' for Philadelphia.
Today it looks like a low-key, benign island scene off the west coast of Scotland. However, the back story is very dark and different.
Gruinard Island, just over a mile in length and half a mile wide, is situated between Gairloch and Ullapool. In 1942, Porton Down, one of Britain's most secretive military research facilities, requisitioned the island to test the idea of using anthrax as a biological weapon against German cities in WW2. Sheep were taken to the island and anthrax bombs detonated. It is no surprise that the sheep began dying within days. The experiment was deemed so 'successful' that the weapon was never used. This was not because of the expected death toll but because the level of contamination was such that the cities would be uninhabitable for the foreseeable future.
After the war, it took decades and direct action to get the clean-up started and the island returned to the original owners. That in itself didn't go well because the run-off from the formaldehyde solution used created significant marine pollution.
You can read the full horror story here en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruinard_Island
One for the aircraft fans that frequent my stream. You know who you are! As you know I'm not a fan of planes on poles, much preferring them either in the air or undercover in a hangar museum so they are not rusting away. However, this was an unexpected "discovery" at Texas City. So this week's Saturday Timewatch goes back a century.
The historical claim by Texas City, though open to different interpretations, has some validity. Previously the U.S. Signal Corps possessed a small number of balloons and a dirigible. They also tested an airplane at Fort Myer, Va. in Aug 1908. Within a month, Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge, flying with Orville Wright, was killed when the plane crashed thus becoming the first military aviation casualty. After more testing with an improved Wright Flyer, the U.S. Army Signal Corps formally accepted this airplane, identified as "Airplane No. 1," on Aug. 2, 1909. By October 1912 they had 9 active aircraft.
This is where the story moves to Texas City. The 2nd Division of the United States Army deployed from Augusta, Georgia to Texas City in 1913 to guard the Gulf Coast from incursions during the Mexican Revolution. Nearly half of the nation's land military personnel set up camp! This was due to the perceived double threat that the Mexican Revolution might spill over across the border or that the neighboring country might become a German ally in the incipient World War. It was from within their ranks that the 1st Aero Division was formed, the Wright brothers trained over a dozen soldiers as military pilots. It is this official formation of an airborne unit upon which Texas City claims its place as "the birthplace of the U.S. Air Force".
However, it wasn't until 1947 that the U.S Air Force became a separate military service.
New title courtesy of Mark!!
Another totally unexpected 'discovery'. Born in Dinant, Belgium, where this photo was taken, Adolphe Sax invented the saxophone which he patented in 1846. Bought for £5 in a junk shop some 50 years ago, a saxophone is the only instrument I have ever owned. Frankly, cats howling made a more tuneful sound than I could manage and my enthusiasm quickly faded.
However, this is a perfect opportunity to add a 1954 tune to the jukebox by my favourite sax player of all time.
BITHBOX # 102
Coleman Hawkins "Time on my Hands"
The sound of NYC, after dark, plumes of steam rising from the city streets in a black and white film..........
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back approximately 75 years to the short-lived steam era on Norway's Flam Railway. The line only opened in 1940 but by 1944 electric traction was already being introduced. So this is probably one of the few steam photographs taken in that era.
My photo is that of an old photo shown on the tv screen of the modern day service. The tv programme features interpretative material about the railway.
Given the circumstances, the photographic quality of this post cannot be good. However, what is particularly fascinating is that purely by chance, the location is almost identical to my previously posted photo taken just a few weeks ago....see below!
A rare find! I can find little information about this old school garage. However, it is still clearly open for business doing vehicle repairs. I don't know if that pump is still in use, possibly selling red (agricultural) diesel?
This week's Saturday Timewatch is another that is surely worthy of the phrase "If you go down to the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise".
Situated adjacent to the Old Curling Pond, Logieriat, nothing else remains apart from a rather large chimney. I suspect it was the fireplace for some sort of 'club room' and perhaps equipment store. After all, whenever curling matches would have taken place on the nearby frozen lake it is bound to have been extremely cold outside and the contestants would have needed somewhere to warm up.
I have found a FB post where a lady thinks she remembers the curling pond being in use during the late 1940s.
This week's Saturday Timewatch travels just a few miles up the road from Hell Lane, Dorset. This is where we found another classic phonebox put to new use but now in further need of attention (see below). It is interesting how these iconic boxes from the last century have found new lives.
Another Saturday Flashback to the age of steam. This week's photo shows 31806, originally built in 1926, "changing ends" at Norden on the Swanage Railway to then pull a passenger service south to Swanage. 31806 was withdrawn from British Railways service in 1964 but was thankfully preserved to still delight thousands today.
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back to WW2. There are still quite a few buildings from that era that stand in and around Ringstead. Two, including this one, have recently been converted into very unusual holiday homes. In this instance, The Bunker was part of RAF Ringstead, a component of the Chain Home radar. That was a coastal early warning system that stretched from Cornwall in the west to Norfolk in the east.
You can see photographs of the modern inside here, courtesy of Sykes Cottages
www.sykescottages.co.uk/cottage/DorsetSomerset-Spring-Bot...
This week's Saturday Timewatch history slot is filled with a short-lived aviation oddity that I had never heard of until visiting the 1940 Air Terminal Museum at Hobby Airport, Houston.
At first I thought that maybe Braniff had Concorde on order but at some stage had pulled out of the deal. No! Braniff did actually fly Concorde, as can be seen from the timetable shown below. However the story is a strange one and I have to admit does change a bit depending which source you read. However the bare bones are consistent. British Airways and Air France crews flew across the Atlantic to Washington Dulles DC. From there Braniff crews took over for subsonic flights to and from Dallas Fort Worth, TX.....no supersonic flights were allowed over North American land.
Details are less certain but the following seem likely to have been true.
I read somewhere, but can't find it again now, that lawyers literally transferred ownership to Braniff for each flight and then back again. What seems more likely is that a legal lease existed and quite definitely all-American documentation was placed in the cockpit for the DFW flights whilst the European papers got stored on board (the forward loo is mentioned!) and vice versa.
40 years ago, in order to operate a domestic US segment, planes had to be temporarily registered in the US. Photographs confirm that upon landing from Europe the aircraft's G or F was covered over with tape, and an “N” followed by either “-81” or “—94” replaced the first two letters of the European registration. The last two registration letters were left in place. As a result, G-BOAC would become N-81AC, while F-BVFD would become N-94FD. A total of nine Concordes eventually wound up in the interchange program running for Braniff. However, none were repainted in Braniff colours as illustrated in the model above.
Initially fares for the Braniff leg were $15 higher than their usual first-class fares on their B727. However, sales were poor and they dropped to parity. Sales remained sparse and the service only lasted just over one year, January 1979 - May 1980.
There are around 600 ancient burial mounds aka 'tumuli' aka 'barrows' along the 17 mile / 27 km South Dorset Ridgeway. They mostly date from the Bronze Age, especially the early Bronze Age some 5000 years ago. This one also has a nicely preserved ring ditch around the main burial site.
Can you see three more? Look carefully and they are to the middle right of the photo. There is also a linear earthwork running diagonally across the photo from the bottom left corner. I'm not sure but it could be a much more recent grubbed-out hedgerow.
This week's Saturday Timewatch visits Grey Mare and her Colts, a long barrow megalithic tomb in deepest Dorset dating from between 3400-2400 BC i.e. a rather long time ago.
A replay for this track which is about the ancient site.
Dating from over 150 million years ago, these fossil seashells, mostly bivalves, are fairly easy to find on one part of Ringstead beach. They are all firmly embedded in a mostly horizontal rock pavement that can be seen as the tide goes out.
A nice find today was this chunk of ammonite. The Charmouth ammonites are usually dated to around 190 - 200 million years old.
Saturday Timewatch features an old photo of the railway station and Front St, Palestine, Texas. I don't know the exact date of this and am tempted to say around the turn of the 19th to 20th century. However, on the far side of the street, directly above the nearest point of the rail carriages, are those two cars parked up?? If so, the date moves forward to around a century ago.
Regular viewers might remember that on the Isle of Portland, "ope" refers to an opening down to the sea. One of the lesser known examples is Longstone Ope. Long since abandoned, the site of the old Longstone Quarry still has a derrick that used to load stone blocks down onto a waiting vessel for onward transport.
A derrick can be seen at a distance in the old photo below.
The blocks of stone will be originals that were never shipped. However, I am not sure whether my more recent photo below (2015) shows the same derrick that has somehow survived or a more modern replica.
(Note : I have added the photos to the flickr map but for some reason they are not currently showing)
Regulars will know that I'm more of a wine than beer drinker. However, this one not only tickled my taste buds but also curiosity as to the origin of the name and label. I quote from the Brewery Roman website :
"The noose-wearers :
Gentse Strop owes its name to the proud people of Ghent who are nicknamed “stroppendragers” or noose-wearers. In 1540, the people of Ghent refused to pay an additional war tax, with the result that Emperor Charles V had the ringleaders parade through Ghent with a noose around their necks, as a sign that they deserved to go to the gallows. Still today, the noose continues to symbolise proud resistance against any form of tyranny and misplaced authority."
As a nipper in the mid 20th century, unlike quite a few around this neck of the flickr woods, I never did go bunking engine sheds or locomotive works. Perversely, living just about as far as you can get from the sea in England, I was simply far more interested in ships!
For those out of Britain, 'shed bashing' was undertaken by rail enthusiasts who either officially or unofficially visited the numerous engine sheds to see what was in there. Happy days!
This is the scene inside one of the Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway sheds. There was no interpretation board or anyone around to ask so I don't know the identity of the steam locomotive being rebuilt in this photo.
Look what has found the light of day from the vaults! It is my first ever passport dating from July 1967.
Rather than a full passport lasting 10 years, this was known as a British Visitors Passport, was printed on lightweight card and was valid for just one year. Inside it gives my full name, date of birth, place of birth, height, colour of eyes, distinguishing marks and home address. There is my photo and my signature.
For foreign exchange purposes, it shows the National Provincial Bank issued me with £45. If I remember correctly, that was £5 less than the maximum £50 set by the government for an individual travelling abroad.
There is just a single stamp in the passport, dated 5th August 1967, at the port of Ostend, Belgium.
(Note : Even though it is more than 50 years later, for security reasons I have blanked out certain details, just to be on the safe side)
I might have this completely wrong. However, I reckon this old, disused shed might have started life elsewhere during World War 2 as an air raid shelter. Apart from a nearby airstrip, Portland Harbour and Dockyard are only about one hour away by road. There must surely have been many such shelters in the surrounding urban areas of Portland and Weymouth.
To narrow this down I think it may have been an Anderson Shelter, with a modified entrance door when it became an agricultural or forestry store shed.
Any thoughts on the subject are welcome!
Today's "Saturday Timewatch" returns to Castletown, Portland, Dorset. The terraced dockyard street still has several boozers. However in the late 19th and early 20th century there were 7 pubs plus hotels, almost next door to each other. Rowdy behaviour, drunkeness and fighting, mostly from sailors on shore leave, gained such a reputation that the locals coined the name Drunkard's Row, still commemorated by a modern sign.
Below is a old photo (date unknown) taken off an interpretation board in the area.
With emphasis on the huge size of the building, Mrs Kim gives scale to the Tithe Barn in Bradford-on-Avon. Dating from around 1340, it stored the 'tithes' i.e. agricultural grain etc which was a tax in kind to the landlord which in this case was originally the church. I believe that, remarkably, the roof trusses are the originals.
Inspired by Chris Firth's recent mention of Barmouth swing bridge, a delve into the vaults found this photo taken on my first ever digital camera. It has been somewhat reworked from a previous post. As can be seen from the photo below it features 76079 running one of the regular Cambrian Coast summer steam specials that the West Coast Railway Company operated between 2006-2009. The photos were taken on a foul morning from Tonfanau Station, part way up the bank from Tywyn towards Friog cliffs from where the line then drops down to the Mawddach Estuary and the Barmouth swing bridge.
Built in 1957, this 2-6-0 mostly worked freight duties, including some North Wales coal trains along the Chester to Holyhead line. However, as far as I know it was never seen on the Cambrian Coast line. The locomotive remains operational at the North Yorkshire Moors Railway where she is certified for mainline working to Whitby.
United's A320 N475UA "Friend Ship" retro livery dates from the airline's 85th anniversary in 2011. A contender for Rob's netflicks album, Kim managed a phone photo arriving at Houston George Bush Intercontinental. My Lumix simply wouldn't catch focus through some sort of terminal security glass.
Meanwhile, back at London Heathrow, I've now seen British Airways A319 G-EUPJ on several occasions and still only have a photo of the front end of the aircraft that features as a BEA (British European Airways) retro livery. The photo was taken whilst taxiing out from Terminal 2. It was a choice between a nose-on shot or this angle with the aircraft partly obscured by another BA plane on hold whilst waiting ATC permission to proceed.
(Thanks again to Kim for the diptych. I've geotagged as LHR)
Following on from yesterday's puzzle flic.kr/p/2pSUazX this set shows the LLCR in operation. Opening in 1890, it is the highest and the steepest totally water powered railway in the world. The top station is 500' above the lower sea level station.
In this photo, the two cars have just set off from their respective stations.
This is the company's website that has lots of information and also a video www.cliffrailwaylynton.co.uk/
The history is here www.cliffrailwaylynton.co.uk/about-the-railway/history/
This week's Saturday Timewatch goes back to the age of the dinosaurs and shows the tracks of at least one plant-eatring Sauropod exposed by operations at Keates Quarry, Purbeck in 1997. There are around 100 prints, dating back c145 million years. The closest modern analogy is that of a herd of elephants gathering to drink at a water hole.
(...translates as Public Holiday for those who live offshore)
Today, the tradition of a wet Bank Holiday Monday continued. It has chucked it down all day. So here is a celebration of one of the very few interesting shops in Weymouth "Rude Not To".
Who remembers Mods and Rockers and their traditional Bank Holiday Monday punch-ups at the seaside resorts? For those who live abroad, the rockers (motorcycles) and mods (scooters) created the moral panic of the day in the red-top press. As always the youth sub-cultures of the day were demonised and most teens were supposed to belong to one or the other. That was rubbish.
Personally, I was never a 'rocker' even though I bought a motorcycle to be able to drive 30 miles to/from an early job. Likewise, even though I was heavily into soul and Jamaican sounds, I was never a mod! It was all great fun though. So it is a delight to have such a retro clothes shop in town. I never go in. However, I do like to loiter outside listening to the music emanating from within.
Representing the rockers, Gene Vincent has featured here before flic.kr/p/9mnLvc
So here is a classic tune representing the mods and yes, I do have the Island Records 45rpm : )
bithbox # 218
This historic photo shows a 1942 photo taken by Dorothea Lange on the corner of 8th and Franklin, Oakland, CA. It was part of an exhibition about the Minidoka War Relocation Center, Idaho, one of 10 similar internment camps. (Note : Although her photo exhibit was in Idaho, I have geotagged it as Oakland)
After Pearl Harbor, all Japanese Americans were interned, almost 10,000 being sent to Minidoka. This was not a "concentration camp" such as those in Germany. However, it certainly destroyed existing lives. It is not clear whether the Masuda family, who before internment owned the Wanto Company store, were sent to Minidoka or another camp. However, what is clear is that many did not return to their previous lives after the war ended and that many lost everything as a result.
This week's Saturday Timewatch features the first of what will be several posts concerning the history of Castletown, Portland, Dorset. The small town is immediately adjacent to Portland Harbour. Remarkably still intact, this is the Public Bar window of The Jolly Sailor. According to the Encyclopaedia of Portland History, the original pub was established on this site in 1775 with the existing, now derelict building dating to the mid to late 19th century. It closed earlier this century and has remained unwanted and uinloved ever since.
Regular readers will know that I'm not a great fan of the diesel railbus, having commuted on them for far too many years. However, I'll readily admit that it was interesting to come across this German Class 798 unit now operating on the Dutch heritage line ZLSM, close to the German border. Apparently they were affectionately known in Germany as "Nebenbahnretter" which translates as "branch line saviours". Built more than half a century ago they were relatively cheap to manufacture and operate, hence rail lines were retained that might not otherwise have been profitable. They lasted in German scheduled service well into the 1990's.
I'm not entirely sure but think this is 798-09. If not, it is 798-04. In this photo it is leaving Simpleveld Junction towards Vetschau.
The first airplane built and flown in Texas, 1912. This is the original that has been preserved and restored, now displayed at Midland Airport, Texas.
www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/pliska-john-valentine
Tonight's red-eye flight back to Britain will be on something a little larger, a United Boeing 777.
I'll be absent from flickr for a couple of days. Cheers!
John Constable is best known for his landscape paintings around Dedham Vale, Suffolk. Less well known are a series of paintings from October and November 1816 when he and his bride took a 6 week honeymoon in Osmington, Dorset. Several of those paintings are featuring here during November, with comparison photos taken 200 years later.
This was rather more difficult than last week's Constable painting to compare with the modern day. The agriculture has changed in the foreground. Likewise, a large Pontin's holiday camp was built after World War 2 and is now the private land of PGL, a children's activity holiday centre that is just visible in the post below to the right of the photo. The comparison isn't helped by totally different cloudscapes.
Nevertheless, John Constable clearly did his painting somewhere quite close to the spot where I took the recent photo shown below of Weymouth Bay and the Isle of Portland.
The unexpected is what American road trips are all about. This required a u-turn.
At a height of 19 1/2 feet and weighing 500 lbs, Howard Huge was made sometime in the 1960s by International Fibreglass of Lawndale, CA. Although Roadside Giants were a common sight along US highways 50 years ago, all the original molds were destroyed so only approximately 185 remain.
Howard was stored in Maine for over 30 years. The Fat Ass Ranch and Brewery, near Fredericksburg, won a nationwide auction in 2017 and Howard arrived on site in December 2018.
We are now into our fourth year following the route of the defunct Somerset and Dorset (S&D) railway line. In 2022, we started at the old Bournemouth West station which was the S&D's southern terminus. The aim is to shortly reach the Dorset / Somerset county line, a total distance of c40 miles / 64 kms.
This photo shows the remains of Bridge 171 just west of Sturminster Newton. Going over the R. Stour, it is one of several that crossed the river along this stretch of the Stour valley. I wonder what the passengers were thinking in the photo below as they headed back north to report for work after their brief holiday on the south coast?
Built at Doncaster in1888. Saw both GNR and LNER passenger service.
BR departmental No ‘DE940281E’.
Withdrawn 1966 and preserved by the Vintage Carriage Trust.
Seen in the workshop area of the VCT operated Museum of Rail Travel.
Ingrow Station, Keighley & Worth Valley Railway
06-08-2015
The following details are from the VCT website:-
This coach was built in Doncaster by the Great Northern Railway. Its interior would have been quite comfortable, compared with other Third Class carriages of the same period. The four compartments had buttoned, upholstered seats (not yet restored), lit by gas, and the Guard's compartment had "ducketts" by which means he could view down the length of the train.
The London & North Eastern Railway, which absorbed both the GNR and the NER in 1923, kept old carriages like this in service for most of their existence, with this vehicle becoming a Civil Engineer's Department Stores Van at some time before 1942. Having suffered damage to one of the Guard's doors, it was sent to York in 1966 for repair, but was then condemned. Members of the Vintage Carriages Trust then purchased the coach and it was delivered to Keighley on 25 May 1966, having travelled from York to Bradford as part of a parcels train on the previous day.
The Trust has brought it back to its original external condition as far as research presently allows, but what is immediately striking is the varnished teak exterior panelling, for which products of the Doncaster Works were famous. Further detailed investigation has revealed the original running number, 589. This appears on the back of a number of components - including on the back of the door ventilator cover
The acquisition of GNR 2856 has provided accurate information regarding the colour of the Guard's Brake compartment roof lining and the size and spacing of the timber slats on the floor of the brake compartment. These have now been modified accordingly. Full restoration (including of the interior) is planned for this carriage, with research and costing now in hand.
Filming credits for this carriage:
Testament of Youth (2014 version); North and South; He Knew He Was Right; Sons and Lovers; The Way We Live Now; Possession; Timewatch; The Woman In White; Jude; The Secret Agent (1995 cinema version); Tomorrow's World; The Feast of July; The Secret Agent (1992 BBCTV version); I've Been here Before; Trains from the Arc; The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - The Final Problem ; A Testament of Youth; Raffles: The First Step; Country Matters - The Black Dog ; The Railway Children (1970 EMI version); The Railway Children (1968 BBCTV version).
Kitty and Rebecca, aka Two Crooked Ladies, made these traditional rural Corn Dollies for an exhibition in the window of Sherborne Museum. A very ancient craft, the dolly symbolically carried the Corn Spirit through winter after which it was committed back to the earth at the first ploughing of spring.