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Just like astronauts themselves, each and every part to be used in a spacecraft goes through exhaustive testing, guided by ESA-backed standards - just ask Circuit the Component...
Credit: ESA – Ed Grace
Nationaal Archief/Spaarnestad Photo/Derksen
Nederlands: Vrouw zoekt singletjes (grammofoonplaten) uit in platenwinkel / platenzaak Smits in Den Haag, Nederland, 1962.
English: Woman in record shop Smits. The Netherlands, The Hague, 1962.
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Please help us gain more knowledge on the content of our collection by simply adding a comment with information. If you do not wish to log in, you can write an e-mail to: info@nationaalarchief.nl
Meer foto’s van Spaarnestad Photo zijn te vinden op onze beeldbank: www.spaarnestadphoto.nl/
The green toenail of the statue, the names in gold, the Belgian blue stone and the liberation photo: the pieces of a puzzle of historic reality, now long gone.
The Royal Society of Natural Philosophy has established a school house for the Eslandolan settlement of Weelond on bequest of the settlement's Mayor.
A freebuild for Brethren of the Brick Seas. Heavily based on this excellent MOC here.
Needed to get the roll of film out of the camera because it should be finished but advanced it and there was one more shot worth of film, took a picture, advanced it and hit the end, popped the lever to wind the exposed film back into magazine to drop it off at Long's Drugs on Shaw and First in Fresno, California.
This is the type of light weight substrate building I will be teaching this summer on Orcas Island WA. Working out the details now for 3- mid-week 3 day classes in July.
Tempered glass, sheet glass, mirror, ball chain, upholstery tacks, and electronic components.
Size: 8 ¼” x 8 ¼” x 2” wall hung.
Space Cruiser Alterra (@1260)
Progression and build (may omit certain components)
This is made entirely of 9-ball Triangle sub-units. The main single layer sub-unit consists of (2x(4x9)). The core is made up of a 4x4 subunit cube. Base feet (2x9) were added to stabilize the structure along the outer edges. The middle layer consists of a sub-unit surrounded by (2x9) extenders which stack diagonally across the top of the cube mount points. Horizontal/Vertical (2x9) arches are added to create solar panels along the length/width of the structure. The top layer is a sub-unit with triangle accent stacks.
(@108) - Top (((2x(4x9)center)+(4x9 stackers)
(@144) - Middle (4x(2x9)mount pts)+((2x(4x9)center)
(@288) - Arches 4x(4x(2x9)vert+horz)
(@576) - Base 2x(4x((2x(4x9)))stack 4x4 cube)
(@144) - Base Feet (8x(2x9))
Lightning: RGB multi-color flashlight
Base: Taps Plastic rotational platform
Componente del Grupo "Avant Garde Dance", que con el espectáculo de variedades "The Silver Tree" nos cautivaron en el Festival Internacional de Teatro y Artes de Calle de Valladolid (2010).
iss062e103679 (March 20, 2020) --- NASA astronaut and Expedition 62 Flight Engineer Andrew Morgan works on U.S. spacesuit components inside the Quest airlock aboard the International Space Station.
In this photo I have the units broken into groups, Armoured, Artillery, Engineers, Transport, SF, Historical and RAEME
iss067e099373 (June 1, 2022) --- NASA astronaut and Expedition 67 Flight Engineer Jessica Watkins services life support components inside the Tranquility module's Water Recovery System rack abaord the International Space Station.
These are the patterns I made with the skinner blend roll to use in making my purple kaleidoscope cane.
Nationaal Archief/Spaarnestad Photo/Het Leven
Nederlands: Foto van het eerste luchtbombardement ooit : Een Duitse Zeppelin bombardeerde de stad Antwerpen in België in de nacht van 24 op 25 augustus 1914, aan het begin van de Eerste Wereldoorlog. Op de voorgrond de grote sigaarvorm van de gewraakte zeppelin, op de achtergrond de brandende stad.
English: Photo of the first air raid ever: a German Zeppelin bombarded the city of Antwerp [Belgium] in the night of 24 to 25 August 1914, at the beginning of the First World War. In the foreground the large cigar form of the challenged Zeppelin, in the background the burning city.
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Norwich is a fine city. Or so the signs say on every road into it. But, and there can be no denying it, it is a jewel in the Norfolk countryside.
For me it is “just” Norwich Where used to go for our important shopping, for football and later for concerts. We, and I, would take for granted its cobbled streets, Norman cathedral and medieval churches by the dozen. Also it’s a pub for every day, the ramshackle market, and the Norman castle keep looking down on the city sprawled around.
Just Norwich.
Later, it also became where I bought new records from Backs in Swan Lane, and searched for punk classics in the Record and Tape Exchange.
Norwich is lucky that the industrial revolution passed by the city leaving few changes, the character and history intact. World War II did damage, some churches were abandoned, some rebuilt, but many survived.
And Norwich is a friendly city. It sees warm and colourful, and on a hot summer’s day when the locals were in shorts and t-shirts, much white flesh was on display. I also take the football club for granted. I have supported it from nearly 49 years, and being away from the city means I get my news and views largely second hand, but I also forget how central the club is to the people.
Other cities would have children dressed in any one of a dozen Premier League club’s replica shirts. In Norwich yellow and green was the dominant colour, even after a chastening season that saw us finish rock bottom of the league. The local sports “superstore” has a Norwich Fan’s fanzone, and a third of the window is given to the home city club.
I knew the city like the back of my hand, so knew the route I wanted to take to provide me with views that would refresh those in my mind. I didn’t dally, pressed on to my two targets, the Anglican Cathedral and St Peter Mancroft.
This wasn’t the original plan; that was to meet two friends I used to go to the football with, Ian and Ali, but they both caught a bug in Manchester watching the women’s Euros, so couldn’t meet with me. But I had an alternative plan, maybe with a pub stop or two.
The trip happened as I got a mail offering a tempting 20% off the trip that had been selling poorly, I checked with Ian and Alison, they said they were free, but had yet to fall ill. So seats were booked, as Jools liked the sound of an afternoon in Norwich and meeting my friends.
Up at quarter to five so we could catch the first High Speed service out of Dover, so to be in London in time to catch the railtour to Norwich.
Sun had yet to light up Dover Priory when we arrived, but a few people milling around, including two still at the end of their night out.
Folkestone was light by the warm light of the rising sun, and well worth a shot as we passed over Foord Viaduct.
Later, I was hoping the calm morning meant the Medway would be a mirror, but a breeze disturbed the surface ruining the reflections I had hoped for.
Finally, emerging into Essex, the line climbs as the go over the Dartford Crossing, just enough time to grab a shot.
It was already hot in London, so we stayed in the shade of the undercroft at St Pancras, had a coffee and a pasty from Greggs before walking over to Kings Cross to see if our tour was already at the buffers.
We walked across the road to King's Cross, and find the station packed with milling passengers, all eyes trained on the departure boards waiting for platform confirmations.
Ours was due to be platform 3, and the rake of carriages was indeed there, top and tailed by class 66 freight locomotives.
We get on the train and find we had been allocated a pair of seats nearest the vestibule. This meant that they were a few inches less wide than others, meaning Jools and I were jammed in.
Almost straight away, Jools's back and Achilles began to ache, and the thought of four hours of this in the morning and another four in the evening was too much, and so she decided to get off at the first stop at Potters Bar.
In the end, a wise choice I think.
The guy in the seat opposite to us talked the whole journey. I mean filling any silence with anything: how much he paid for the components of his lunch, his cameras and then his job. In great detail. He also collected train numbers. I didn't know that was really a thin in the days of EMUs, but I helped out from time to time telling him units he had missed.
We had a twenty minute break at Peterborough because of pathing issues, so we all got out to stretch our legs and do some extra trainspotting.
An Azuma left from the next platform, and another came in on the fast line. I snapped them both.
From Peterborough, the train reversed, and after the 20 minute wait, we went out of the station southwards, taking the line towards Ely.
Now that we had done our last stop, the train could open up and we cruised across the Fens at 70mph, the flat landscape botted with wind turbines and church towers slipped by.
Instead of going into Ely station, we took the rarely used (for passenger trains) freight avoiding line, now a single track. Emerging crossing the main line, taking the line eastwards towards Thetford.
Again, the regulator was opened, and we rattled along. Even so, the journey was entering its fourth hour, and with my travelling colleague and without Jools, time was dragging.
We were now back in Norfolk, passing the STANTA training area, all warning signs on the fences telling the trainee soldiers that that was where the area ended. I saw no soldiers or tanks. My only thought was of the rare flowers that would be growing there, unseen.
And so for the final run into Norwich, familiar countryside now.
Under the southern bypass and the main line from London, slowing down where the two lines merged at Trowse before crossing the River Wensum, before the final bend into Norwich Thorpe.
At last I could get off the train and stretch my legs.
Many others were also getting off to board coaches to take them to Wroxham for a cruise on the Broads, or a ride on the Bure Valley Railway, while the rest would head to Yarmouth for four hours at the seaside.
I got off the train and walked through the station, out into the forecourt and over the main road, so I could walk down Riverside Road to the Bishop’s Bridge, then from there into the Cathedral Close.
The hustle and bustle of the station and roadworks were soon left behind, as the only noise was from a family messing about in a rowing boat in front of Pulls Ferry and a swan chasing an Egyptian Goose, so the occasional splash of water.
I reached the bridge and passed by the first pub, with already many folks sitting out in the beer garden, sipping wines and/or summer beers. I was already hot and would loved to have joined them, but I was on a mission.
In the meantime, Jools had texted me and said if I fancied getting a regular service back home, then I should. And a seed grew in my brain. Because, on the way back, departing at just gone five, the tour had to have a 50 minute layover in a goods siding at Peterborough, and would not get back to Kings Cross until half nine, and then I had to get back to Dover.
I could go to the cathedral the church, walk back to the station. Or get a taxi, and get a train back to London at four and still be home by eight.
Yes.
I walked past the Great Hospital, then into the Close via the swing gate, round to the entrance where there was no charge for entry and now no charge for photography. But I would make a donation, I said. And I did, a tenner.
I have been to the cathedral a few times, but not as a churchcrawler. So, I made my way round, taking shots, drinking in the details. But the walk up had got me hot and bothered, I always run with a hot engine, but in summer it can be pretty damp. I struggled to keep my glasses on my nose, and as I went round I knew I was in no mood to go round again with the wide angle, that could wait for another visit.
The church is pretty much as built by the Normans, roof excepted which has been replaced at least twice, but is poetry in stone. And for a cathedral, not many people around also enjoying the building and its history.
At one, bells chimed, and I think The Lord’s Prayer was read out, we were asked to be quiet. I always am when snapping.
In half an hour I was done, so walked out through the west door, through the gate and into Tombland. I was heading for the Market and St Peter which site on the opposite side to the Guildhall.
I powered on, ignoring how warm I felt, in fact not that warm at all. The heat and sweats would come when I stopped, I found out.
I walk up the side of the market and into the church, and into the middle of an organ recital.
Should I turn round and do something else, or should I stop and listen. I stopped and listened.
Everyone should hear an organ recital in a large church. There is nothing quite like it. The organ can make the most beautiful sounds, but at the same time, the bass pipes making noises so deep you can only feel it in your bones.
Tony Pinel knew his way round the organ, and via a video link we could see his hands and feet making the noises we could hear. It was wonderful, but quite how someone can play one tune with their feet and another with their hands, and pulling and pushing knobs and stoppers, is beyond me. But glad some people can.
It finished at quarter to two, and I photograph the font canopy and the 15th century glass in the south chapel. Font canopies are rare, there is only four in England, and one of the others is in Trunch 20 miles to the north. Much is a restoration, but it is an impressive sight when paired with the seven-sacrament font under it.
The glass is no-less spectacular, panels three feet by two, five wide and stretching to the vaulted roof. I can’t photograph them all, but I do over 50%.
I go to the market for a lunch of chips, for old times sake. I mean that was the treat whenever we went either to Norwich or Yarmouth; chips on the market. I was told they no longer did battered sausage, so had an un-battered one, and a can of pop. I stood and ate in the alleyway between stalls, people passing by and people buying chips and mushy peas of their own.
Once done, I had thought of getting a taxi back to the station, but the rank that has always been rammed with black cabs was empty, and two couples were shouting at each other as to who should have the one that was there. So I walked to the station, across Gentleman’s Walk, along to Back of the Inns, then up London Street to the top of Prince of Wales Road and then an easy time to the station across the bridge.
I got my ticket and saw a train to Liverpool Street was due to depart at 14:32. In three minutes.
I went through the barrier and got on the train, it was almost empty in the new, swish electric inter-city unit. I was sweating buckets, and needed a drink, but there appeared to be no buffet, instead just electric efficiency and silence as the train slid out of the station and went round past the football ground to the river, then taking the main line south.
In front of me, two oriental ladies talked for the whole journey. I listened to them, no idea what they talked about to fill 105 minutes.
I thought it would be nearly five when the train got in, but helped by only stopping at Diss, Ipswich, Manningtree and Colchester we got in, on time, at quarter past four.
I walked to the main concourse and down into the Circle Line platforms, getting a train in a couple of minutes the four stops to St Pancras. I knew there was a train soon leaving, and after checking the board and my watch I saw I had five minutes to get along the length of the station and up to the Southeastern platforms.
I tried. I did, but I reached the steps up to the platforms and I saw I had 45 seconds, no time to go up as they would have locked the doors. So, instead I went to the nearby pub and had a large, ice-cold bottle of Weiss beer.
That was better.
I was all hot and bothered again, but would have an hour to cool down, and the beer helped.
At ten past five, I went up and found the Dover train already in, I went through the barriers and took a seat in a carriage I thought would stop near the exit at Dover Priory. I called Jools to let her know I would be back at quarter to seven, and she confirmed she would pick me up.
She was there, people got off all out on a night on the town, dressed in shiny random pieces of fabric covering boobs and bottoms. I was young once, I thought.
Jools was there, she started the car and drove us home via Jubilee Way. Across the Channel France was a clear as anything, and four ferries were plying between the two shores. Take us home.
Once home, Jools had prepared Caprese. I sliced some bread and poured wine. On the wireless, Craig spun funk and soul. We ate.
Tired.
It was going to be a hot night, but I was tired enough to sleep through it. Or so I thought.
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Norwich has everything. Thus, the normally dry and undemonstrative Nikolaus Pevsner began his survey of the capital of Norfolk in his 1962 volume Buildings of England: Norwich and north-east Norfolk. And there is no doubt that this is one of the best cities of its size in northern Europe. Living in Ipswich as I do, I hear plenty of grumbles about Norwich; but really, although the two places have roughly the same population, Ipswich cannot even begin to compare with regard to its townscape. The only features which the capital of Suffolk can claim to hold above its beautiful northern neighbour are a large central park (Norwich's Chapelfield gardens is not a patch on Ipswich's Christchurch Park) and a large body of water in the heart of the town, perhaps Ipswich's most endearing feature and greatest saving grace.
But Norwich has everything else - to continue Pevsner's eulogy, a cathedral, a castle on a mound right in the middle, walls and towers, a medieval centre with winding streets and alleys, thirty-five medieval parish churches and a river with steamships. It even has hills...
I think it would be possible to visit Norwich and not even know this cathedral was there. The centre of the city is dominated by the castle, and the most familiar feature to visitors is the great market square widened by the clearances of the 1930s, and the fine City Hall built at that time which towers above it. In comparison, Norwich Cathedral sits down in a dip beside the river, walled in by its close, and is visible best from outside the city walls, especially from the east on the riverside, and to the north from Mousehold Heath. If you arrive by road from the south or west, you may not even catch a glimpse of it. The great spire is hidden by those winding streets and alleys, and many of the city's churches are more visible, especially St Giles, St Peter Mancroft in the Market Place, and the vast Catholic Cathedral of St John the Baptist, on Grapes Hill. It is said that the nave floor of St John the Baptist is at the same height above sea level as the top of the crossing of the Anglican cathedral.
With the possible exception of Lincoln Cathedral, I think that Norwich Cathedral is my favourite cathedral in all England. Call this East of England chauvinism if you like, But Norwich Cathedral has everything you could possible want from a great medieval building. But there is more to it than that. It is also one of the most welcoming cathedrals in England. There is no charge for admission, and they positively encourage you to wander around through the daily business of the cathedral, in the continental manner. No boards saying Silence Please - Service in Progress here. Because of this, the Cathedral becomes an act of witness in itself, and you step into what feels like it probably really is the house of God on Earth. They even used to say the Lord's Prayer over the PA system once an hour, and invite you to stop and join in - I wish they'd go back to doing that. The three pounds you pay for a photography permit must be one of the bargains of the century so far.
Norwich Cathedral is unusual, in that this is the original building. It has been augmented over the centuries of course, but this is still essentially the very first cathedral on this site. This is because the see was only moved to Norwich after the Norman invasion. The Normans saw the wisdom of drawing together ecclesiastical and civil power, and one way in which this might be achieved was by siting the cathedrals in the hearts of important towns. At the time of the conquest, Bishop Herfast had his seat at Thetford, and it was decided to move the see to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. It had moved several times during the previous four centuries, from Walton in Suffolk to North Elmham in Norfolk before Thetford, where the first proper but simple stone building had been raised. But as well as an eye for efficient administration, the Normans brought the idea that Cathedrals should be glorified; already, vast edifices were being raised in Durham, London and Ely. and Bury St Edmunds, with its famous Abbey, was the obvious place for the Diocese of East Anglia to sit.
However, such a move would have removed the Abbey's independent direct line with Rome, and placed it under the jurisdiction of the Province of Canterbury. The Abbey community was determined that this would not happen, and Abbot Baldwin sent representations to the Pope that ensured the survival of St Edmundsbury Abbey's independence. Bishop Herfast would not be allowed to glorify his position in East Anglia in the way his colleagues were doing elsewhere. But his successor, Herbert de Losinga, was more determined - and, perhaps, steeled by his conscience. A Norman, he had bought the Bishopric from the King in 1091, an act of simony that required penance. Building a great cathedral could be seen as that act of penance. But where? Bury was a lost cause; instead, he chose to move the see to a thriving market town in the north-east of his Diocese; a smaller, more remote place than Bury, to be sure, but proximity to the Abbey of St Edmund was perhaps not such a good thing anyway. It tended to cast a rather heavy shadow. And so it was that the great medieval cathedral of the East Anglian bishops came to be built, instead, at Norwich.
Work began in 1094, and seems to have been complete by 1145. It is one of the great Romanesque buildings of northern Europe, its special character a result of responses to fires and collapses over the course of the next few centuries. At the Reformation in the sixteenth century, it became a protestant cathedral of the new Church of England, losing its role as a setting for ancient sacraments and devotions, but being maintained as the administrative seat of a Diocese which covered all of Norfolk and Suffolk, and the ceremonial church of its great city. In the 19th Century, the western part of the Norwich Diocese was transferred into that of Ely, and at the start of the 20th Century the southern parishes became part of the new Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. Today, the Diocese of Norwich consists of north, south and east Norfolk, and the north-eastern tip of Suffolk.
The absence of this great church from the Norfolk Churches site has long been the elephant in the room, so to speak. And having it here at last is, I feel, a mark of how things have changed. When I first started the Norfolk and Suffolk sites back in 1999, I did not have a decent camera, and the earliest entries did not have any photographs at all. How the wheel has turned. Now, the photographs have become the sites, and with no apologies I don't intend to make this a wordy entry.
The perfection of Norwich is of distant views, the cloisters, and the interior. The exterior is hemmed in, and the most familiar part of the building, the west front, is a poor thing, the victim of barbarous restorations in the 18th and 19th centuries. It is almost a surprise to step through its mundanity into the soaring glory of the nave. Above, the famous vaulting is home to one of the largest collections of medieval bosses in the world. There are more in the beautiful cloisters.
The view to the east is of the great organ, looking very 17th Century but actually the work of Stephen Dykes Bower in the 1950s. Beyond is the intimacy of the quire and ambulatory with its radial chapels, the best of which is St Luke's chapel, containing the Despenser retable. Bishop Despenser is one of history's villains, putting down the Peasants Revolt in East Anglia with some enthusiasm. It is likely that this retable was made for the cathedral's high altar, possibly even to give thanks for the end of the Revolt. It was discovered upside down in use as a table in the 1840s. This chapel is, unusually, also a parish church; the parish of St Mary in the Marsh, the church of which was demolished at the Reformation, moved into the cathedral. They brought their seven sacrament font with them, and here it remains.
In the ambulatory there are many traces of medieval paint, almost certainly from the original building of the Cathedral. Two curiosities: at the back of the apse is the original Bishop's chair, and rising across the north side of the ambulatory like a bridge is a relic screen.
There is a good range of glass dating from the 14th to the 21st centuries. Highlights include the medieval panels in the north side of the ambulatory, Edward Burne-Jones's bold figures in the north transept, Moira Forsyth's spectacular Benedictine window of 1964 in a south chapel, and the millennium glass high in the north transept, which I think will in time become one of the defining features of the Cathedral. The figure of the Blessed Virgin with the Christ Child seated on her lap is the work of Norfolk-based artist John Hayward, who died recently, but the glass above is Hayward's reworking of Keith New's 1960s glass for St Stephen Walbrook in London, removed from there in the 1980s, and now reset here. Towards the west end of the nave are two sets of Stuart royal arms in glass, a rare survival.
I grew up in a city some sixty miles away from Norwich, but I didn't come here until I was in my mid-teens. I remember wandering around this building and being blown away by it, and I still get that feeling today. There is always something new to find here. My favourite time here is first thing in the morning on a winter Saturday. Often, I can be the only visitor, which only increases the awe. Another time I like to be here in winter is on a Saturday afternoon for choral evensong. Perhaps best of all, though, is to wander and wonder in the cloisters on a bright sunny day, gazing at fabulous bosses almost within arm's reach.
Several English cathedrals have good closes, but Norwich's is the only one in a major city, I think. It creates the sense of an ecclesiastical village at the heart of the city; and then, beyond, the lanes and alleys spread out, still hanging on despite German bombing and asinine redevelopment. And now I think perhaps it is part of the beauty of this building that it is tucked away by the river, a place to seek out and explore. Norwich has everything, says Pevsner. But really, I think this is the very best thing of all.
www.norfolkchurches.co.uk/norwichcathedral/norwichcathedr...
The Imperial Hotel, a striking two storey brick hotel in the main Street of Ravenswood, is one of a handful of buildings which survive from this once important mining town. Constructed in 1901 for James Delaney and run by members of this family for most of the twentieth century, it is evidence of Ravenswood's prosperity during its boom period.
The discovery of several important goldfields in Queensland in the nineteenth century formed a major component in the development of the North.. The need to access and exploit gold finds determined the path of railways, the establishment of related industries and commerce and the location of settlements. Some of these were short lived 'rushes', where tent and shanty townships disappeared almost as quickly as they rose. Other settlements based on goldfields became established towns with government and civic buildings, shops and family homes and survived as such. A few became important centres, only to fade away as gold yields fell. Ravenswood was one of these.
The area was first settled by Europeans following the establishment of Bowen in 1861. Pastoral runs were soon set up in the hinterland, including the area on which the Ravenswood field was to develop. Gold had been found in north Queensland at Star River in 1865 and this triggered further exploration. Gold was found at Merri Merriwa, the run on which the town of Ravenswood stands, in 1867, although it was reported as being on the adjoining property of Ravenswood, the name by which the field was always known. The first claim made was the 'Perseverance', later to be known as the 'Donnybrook' mine. This has a connection with the Imperial since the success of the mine is said to have provided James Delaney with the capital with which to build the hotel.
Much of the gold initially found was in a triangle in and around three dry creeks which soon formed the focus for a tent and shanty settlement. Ravenswood gold was in reefs and a small battery was first set up in 1869, followed by the Lady Marian Mill in 1870. The settlement was also surveyed at this time, but by then the goldfield itself and the buildings and streets already established had shaped the town and the survey merely formalised what was already in place. This can still be seen clearly in the irregularity of the major streets. Ravenswood was gazetted as a town in 1871 and at this time it had 30 hotels and a population of about 1000.
It was also beginning to have problems as gold at deeper levels proved to be finely distributed in ore containing other minerals and was difficult to separate either by mechanical or chemical means. This required greater capital to fund various technologies for extraction. Many miners left for other fields, such as Charters Towers, discovered in 1871 and which quickly overtook Ravenswood as a gold producer and as the most important inland North Queensland town. Despite this, Ravenswood continued to prosper due to a steady, though reduced, production of gold, the discovery of silver at nearby Totley in 1878 and as a commercial centre. Shanties were replaced by sawn timber buildings and as single miners left, more families moved in. The stability of the town was assisted by linking of Ravenswood to the Townsville/Charters Towers railway line in 1884. In this year the Ravenswood Gold Company was formed and experimented with better means to process local ore. In 1899 the New Ravenswood Company was formed by A.L. Wilson who raised overseas capital, reopened old mines and used modern methods to rework tailings more efficiently. The shareholders recouped their investment in the first two years and this drew world-wide interest. It was the beginning of Ravenswood's most prosperous period.
In 1900 James Delaney applied for a licence for a new 18 bedroom hotel. He had been the licensee of the Commercial Hotel since 1896 when he married Anne Browne, possibly a connection of the owner of the town's most prominent hostelry, Browne's Ravenswood Hotel. The site purchased by Delaney was separated from Browne's by only 2 shops and he opened his splendid two storey Imperial Hotel in early 1901. On the night of the 18 April, 1901, the Imperial burned to the ground taking with it the whole block of buildings, with the exception of Browne's hotel, which had been protected by a brick wall. The damage was estimated at £20,000. The wall had possibly been erected as a firewall as both the Ravenswood Hotel and the shops Browne owned alongside it were timber, as were virtually all of the buildings in Ravenswood. Closely built timber structures and the lack of an adequate water supply for fire fighting made it possible for fires to race along a block until reaching a gap which acted as a fire break, a fact underlined by a similar fire on the opposite side of the street only three months later. The owners agreed to use the same architect, Eaton, Bates and Polin, to redesign the whole block and tenders were called in early May 1901. The shops between the Ravenswood and the Imperial were replaced by 'Browne's Buildings', Trehearn built a new shop for his former tenant, James Tait & Co. and the bakery and Commercial Hotel, both owned by the Estate of Michael Franzman, were replaced by 3 shops.
Ravenswood had produced bricks since its early years and a team of bricklayers is thought to have already been on the field, brought in by A.L. Wilson to rebuild mining structures such as chimneys. It is said that bricks were brought in from Townsville, but these may have been the cream face bricks applied in bands as a feature of the new buildings and seen to striking effect on the Imperial, which became the centrepiece of two rows of handsome shops.
Delaney died in July 1902 but had already made the hotel over the his wife in 1901. The Delaney's had four daughters, Mary Ellen (1896), Kathleen (1898), Teresa (1899) and Johanna (1901) who at the time of his death were aged between six years and eleven months. In the early years Mrs Delaney appears to have employed a manager, but in 1906 took over the management herself, pending a proposed transfer of the license. In the event, she continued to run the hotel, assisted by her daughters as they grew up.
The population of Ravenswood peaked in 1903 at 4700 but after 1908 the town began to decline. As time went by the cost of extraction grew as returns lessened and Wilson lost money searching for 'mother' lodes at deep levels and began to lay off miners. A strike in 1912 dragged out for eight months causing hardship and although judgement eventually favoured the miners, Wilson could no longer afford to employ many of them. The decline of the Ravenswood mines continued with the outbreak of war in 1914 increasing costs and disruptions to the labour supply. Buildings began to be sold for removal and in 1916 rail services were cut. In 1917 the New Ravenswood Company closed.
In the 1920s most of the buildings in Ravenswood were moved away, but the Imperial, being a brick building, could not be moved and continued to trade. Ravenswood Shire ceased to exist in 1929 and was absorbed into Dalrymple Shire. In 1930 Ravenswood became the first Queensland town to lose its railway connection. A small revival occurred during the 1930s and a shaft was sunk next to the hotel, but most gold was gained by applying more modern extraction processes to known sites. This did not make much difference to the life of the town and by the 1960s it had reached its lowest ebb with a population of about 70. At this point, tourists began to take an interest in the town, studies were made of the buildings and work began to conserve them. In the 1980s the whole town was listed by the Australian Heritage Commission and the National Trust of Queensland. In 1987 Carpentaria Gold Ltd opened a new open cut mine using modern heap leaching processes.
Throughout the difficult times in Ravenswood, the hotel continued to trade. Anne Delaney died in 1968 and the hotel was then run by Teresa (Tessa) who died in 1980 and Jo who died in 1989. The hotel then passed to Mary (Maisie), the only married daughter, and her three daughters, Kathleen having died early. In 1994 it was sold to local owners and still operates as a hotel. Ravenswood's two hotels have helped to maintain an economic life in the town and continue to offer accommodation and recreational facilities.
The buildings which flanked the hotel have been demolished, the last bay of Browne's Buildings within recent years, so the hotel now stands alone. The new owners have redecorated some of the bedrooms on the first floor and have removed some of the dining room furniture into storage to create a pool room at the front of the hotel.
Source: Queensland Heritage Register.
The July 2018 Wrightbus Streetlite WF with Factory Built bodywork snapped in the Coastlands carpark in Paraparaumu on Tuesday, 24 July 2018.
Operator - Uzabus
Depot - Kapiti
Fleet Number - 9010
Registration – LMQ674 (first NZ rego 10 July 2018)
Chassis Type - Wrightbus Streetlite WF
Chassis No. - SA9DSRXXN18141010
Body Manufacturer - Wrightbus
Body Date - 2018
Seating Codes - B29DW
Livery - Metlink
A REVIEW OF WRIGHTBUS FROM AUSTRALASIAN BUS AND COACH
By Paul Aldridge
Wrightbus may not be a brand on everybody’s lips in Australasia just yet, but with its innovative and tidy-looking StreetLite midibus packing a big micro-hybrid punch it soon just might be. We took one for quick spin and came away well impressed. Visually the Streetlite is distinctive from front to back.
It takes a few moments to fathom what great exports Northern Ireland has produced, but once the penny drops it’s a quality list of who’s who. There’s F1 ace Eddie ‘Irv the Swerve’ Irvine; pro golfer Rory McIlroy – who once formed a sporting power couple with tennis star Caroline Wozniacki; and who could forget the legendary Manchester United footballing icon George Best – who famously quipped, "I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars – the rest I just squandered."
With reputations for doing things that stand out like that, it’s no doubt Northern Ireland’s Wrightbus has high expectations to meet. And it does so with oodles of class and style.
In terms of buses, Wrightbus is best known for that updated version of the London Routemaster double-deck – or so-called ‘Boris Bus’ – but with units like its micro-hybrid Streetlite midibus on the market here now it’s well placed to make its equally indelible mark.
Recently, we were handed the keys to test drive a Streetlite WF 8.8m (Wheel Forward) and good impressions were instant. Visually the Streetlite is distinctive. The large, round-based front window goes extremely low. This definitely is a positive for driver visibility and gives the bus a modern, open appearance that makes this bus easily recognisable as a Wrightbus.
The internals echo the front round window shape with a curved roofline and rear window.
Overall internally, the curved roofline gives the appearance of more headroom and tall occupants should feel right at home here.
The Streetlite 8.8m as tested had a seating capacity of 33 and a maximum standing capacity of 39 passengers and is a wheel-forward model. What’s that, you may ask?
This allows for a flatter floor area that offers more flexibility with seating options. This option is great particularly in the smaller buses, as passenger capacity and comfort can be maximised.
One safety feature that we hadn’t seen before was the emergency exit door placed halfway back on the driver’s side. This could be used for front or side collisions if they impacted on the normal exits, or if quick evacuation of passengers was needed. It’s a feature you’d hope to never use, but would certainly be welcomed in emergency situations.
A comfort feature that was impressive is the padded backrest that is placed for use by wheelchair users. The area has a safety bar that can be placed in securely by the driver for extra protection and passenger stability. This padded backrest would be both a good comfort feature, as the back of the chair is placed against it. It would give passengers somewhere to rest their head and this would give extra protection in case of collision or harsh braking. Often wheelchair provisions are adequate and safe, but comfort isn’t a consideration.
LOOKS TO THRILL
Externally, the placement of the headlamps outside the impact zone, the one-piece bumper and top-mount wipers are all design features part of the Wrightbus ethos to achieve low lifetime operational costs. Nice one!
Driver daily checks are made simpler with the addition of service accessibility doors while the fuel tank access is height improved with a raised, simple-to-reach access point. Drivers that fuel up will understand why this feature is beneficial for what can often be an uncomfortable job. The driver’s area is what you would expect from a route bus – basic but comfortable and spacious enough for long legs.
We got the chance to have a substantial drive through suburban areas, just as this bus would be expected to do on routes.
The Daimler OM906LA Euro 6 engine is quite powerful for a four-cylinder at 208hp. Although unloaded, uphill there was plenty of torque and it was quiet zippy, so you could feel that the capacity was certainly there to have plenty of power when fully loaded. The Voith gearbox changes were seamless and smooth, no complaints here. Suburban Melbourne has many narrow laneways and so maneuvering was easy, the Streetlite certainly passing the suburban driving test with aplomb.
Overall, the Streetlite was definitely as expected and does not disappoint.
LOCAL INPUT?
While we do like to see Australian-made components or features on a bus or coach and local knowledge and craftsmanship utilised, this British-built bus certainly is impressive by what it brings to our industry. When you drive some buses or coaches it is what you see that is impressive, but with the Streetlite the small details behind the economy of this vehicle show that Wrightbus thinks way beyond just the visual. Yes, it is an every-day route bus, it’s not built to be luxurious and impressive, but the impact of features to lifetime running costs and economy would certainly help operators looking at a vehicle in this class make a smart financial long-term choice.
WHO BRINGS IT IN?
Patico Automotive was founded in 2006. Originally named Irizar Oceania, it was founded with the distribution rights for its very first imported product, the luxury Spanish coach brand made in Brazil called Irizar.
Managing director of Patico Automotive Tony Fairweather said: "We introduced the first of these coaches in 2008 and from that initial product we have grown the business into a range of other luxury and niche-type bus products. When we started to take on other brands we had the name change to Patico."
Part of Patico’s philosophy is to represent high-quality, proven products that can be aimed at a mid-market price point. Fairweather said, "Our intention is to be able to introduce products to the Australian market that bring advanced safety features, total cost of ownership-type models. We like to bring styling and options not available on other Australian buses to the market; we are a niche importer and distributer – we like to offer a point of difference to operators."
GETTING IT WRIGHT
Wrightbus, explains Fairweather, is primarily a UK company founded in Northern Ireland by Robert Wright in 1946. It’s a 100 per cent family-owned business with a very unique culture for a business of its size. Initially locally produced, it now has major manufacturing facilities in south-east Asia, so it is building lots of double-deckers for Hong Kong and Singapore.
Eventually it will supply product out of its Malaysian facility to Australia and New Zealand, though it still has a big plant in Ireland.
"As well as their product being progressive and market leading, they are a very ethical and moral company. They invest a lot back into the local communities; uniquely they have a church on site, which is their church and one of the Wrights is the minister of the church – a very unique business for modern times and they aren’t just in business to make money. They want to make a difference to the world through their products and profits.
"We focus on the specific criteria of safety features and total cost of ownership. For the Wrightbus products, they are world leaders in this category.
"The UK manufacturers in both route bus and city bus arguably are, too – they all make integrated CBU products that focus on lowering costs of manufacturing and have low operational costs for the life of vehicle. So the total cost of ownership, life of products, cost for the UK models are – arguably on a per passenger transfer basis – significantly cheaper than the standard models used in Australia," Fairweather explained.
"What these products offer operators is size flexibility. The CBU products (Completely Built Up) mean you can build at eight-, nine-, or 10-metre and … can adapt your fleet to suit your route requirements opposed to a ‘one product fits all’.
"To use an analogy, you don’t see Qantas running 747s between Sydney to Melbourne, they have smaller, more-economical planes to do these routes. Arguably, operators globally need that flexibility in terms of fleet, and UK manufacturers offer that flexibility," he continued.
TECHNOLOGY VERSUS COSTS
Fairweather explains why Wrightbus fills the price gap for operators while current technologies are developing.
"In particular they have a proprietary driveline technology that is extremely unique. They have recognised that electrics and hydrogen, of which they do produce technologies, are still currently expensive and when you look at the total cost of ownership model they have developed micro-hybrid technology, which is still using the highly efficient diesel engine (Euro 6 Daimler).
"They have taken it to a form of electrification, which is not a battery-style electrification; it is an ancillary electrification, which means that by fitting extra alternators the electricity is being generated by the diesel engine."
He continued: "They have also electrified key components that are typically operated off the diesel engine – to me one of the most impressive examples is the power-steering pump. In a rear-engines bus, like we are driving today, you fundamentally have the power steering being powered from down the back by the diesel engine and the hydraulics having to run all that distance and back again.
"On a typical diesel engine it’s using diesel fuel to run the engine to be able to run the hydraulics, where as in the case of an electrification process the power steering is actually electrified and operated [from] the alternator and only being used when power steering is needed when you turn a corner.
"Subsequently, it’s using a lot less energy – in this case of the diesel engine, diesel fuel for operation."
"Wrightbus are getting with their proprietary micro-hybrid technology an extra 18 per cent fuel efficiency over the standard diesel engine," Fairweather said.
"Another benefit is it’s not substantially more expensive to fit this technology in comparison to a full hybrid.
"In terms of total cost of ownership of a bus, at the moment the micro hybrid is world class. It’s cheaper than electric. We do have electric trucks and I believe that electric is the future in buses, but it is still a few years away for the economics of it to stack up. That’s why we have chosen Wrightbus," said Fairweather.
This makes understandable financial sense, as with all new technologies they often are not initially cost effective, but time and volume of sales usually change that.
GREEN MACHINE
When he was asked about the green technologies being used by Wrightbus, Fairweather explained: "Of all the manufacturers in green technologies, they [Wrightbus] have options in everything, and I mean everything. They have two different types of hybrid – parallel and series, they have electric and hydrogen options – alternative fuels are their thing! But they and the operators keep coming back to the micro hybrid at the moment for lifetime costs of ownership, it’s what stacks up. They are developing all these other technologies and as they transition – and it will, 100 per cent electric will become viable – they have it ready, proven and tested.
"They have a big order going into Scotland at the moment for electrics, but they are fully government subsidised so financially they stack up."
This interim technology is adopted because the Streetlite model we are test driving would currently be close to double the purchase cost if fully electric.
PREMISES AND SUPPORT
"For smaller volume orders they are fully built in Northern Ireland, but for larger orders they will be fulfilled by the Malaysian facilities.
"All Australian orders are currently from Ireland. Malaysia is their other primary manufacturing facility and in future this will have the added cost savings of duty-free arrangements we have here with Malaysia," Fairweather explained.
"Ordering time is four-five months from initial order – that can be from one to 30, even up to 50 units all have the same order time".
Asked whether the Streetlite had any Australian made componentry or features he said, "It comes fundamentally ready to roll, just small components like CCTV cameras can be added, but Wrightbus do offer many variations and optional extras so they come ready to operate.
"The intention with Wrightbus is to deploy in volume. Where we deploy volume we will have mobile technicians established. We have this same commitment in New Zealand; there currently are 14 going into Wellington and we will have a mobile technician there. We have one in Auckland as well," said Fairweather.
Specs:
DISTRIBUTOR: Patico Automotive
MAKE: Wrightbus
MODEL: Streetlite WF 8.8m
ENGINE: Daimler four-cylinder OM934 Euro 6
POWER: 208hp/155kW
TRANSMISSION: Voith 824.6 four-speed fully automatic
I'd bet most American flight attendants - trapped in their drab, serviceable navy-blue sack dresses - would cry at the sight of that little green dress. Granted you'd need the right figure to carry that line of piping at the bust - but it's such a stunning colour and, well, just PRETTY.
The man on the right seems awfully young to have four stripes on his cuff....
Sequoia National Park is an American national park in the southern Sierra Nevada east of Visalia, California. The park was established on September 25, 1890, to protect 404,064 acres (631 sq mi; 163,519 ha; 1,635 km2) of forested mountainous terrain. Encompassing a vertical relief of nearly 13,000 feet (4,000 m), the park contains the highest point in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet (4,421 m) above sea level. The park is south of, and contiguous with, Kings Canyon National Park; both parks are administered by the National Park Service together as the Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. UNESCO designated the areas as Sequoia-Kings Canyon Biosphere Reserve in 1976.
The park is notable for its giant sequoia trees, including the General Sherman tree, the largest tree on Earth by volume. The General Sherman tree grows in the Giant Forest, which contains five of the ten largest trees in the world. The Giant Forest is connected by the Generals Highway to Kings Canyon National Park's General Grant Grove, home of the General Grant tree among other giant sequoias. The park's giant sequoia forests are part of 202,430 acres (316 sq mi; 81,921 ha; 819 km2) of old-growth forests shared by Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The parks preserve a landscape that was first cultivated by the Monachee tribe, the southern Sierra Nevada before Euro-American settlement.
The national park was partially closed in September 2020 due to the Sequoia Complex wildfire, and again from mid-September through mid-December 2021 due to the KNP Complex Fire.
Many park visitors enter Sequoia National Park through its southern entrance near the town of Three Rivers at Ash Mountain at 1,700 ft (520 m) elevation. The lower elevations around Ash Mountain contain the only National Park Service-protected California Foothills ecosystem, consisting of blue oak woodlands, foothills chaparral, grasslands, yucca plants, and steep, mild river valleys. Seasonal weather results in a changing landscape throughout the foothills with hot summer yielding an arid landscape while spring and winter rains result in blossoming wildflowers and lush greens. The region is also home to abundant wildlife: bobcats, foxes, ground squirrels, rattlesnakes, and mule deer are commonly seen in this area, and more rarely, reclusive mountain lions and the Pacific fisher are seen as well. The last California grizzly was killed in this park in 1922 (at Horse Corral Meadow). The California Black Oak is a key transition species between the chaparral and higher elevation conifer forest.
At higher elevations in the front country, between 5,500 and 9,000 feet (1,700 and 2,700 m) in elevation, the landscape becomes montane forest-dominated coniferous belt. Found here are Ponderosa, Jeffrey, sugar, and lodgepole pine trees, as well as abundant white and red fir. Found here too are the giant sequoia trees, the most massive living single-stem trees on earth. Between the trees, spring and summer snowmelts sometimes fan out to form lush, though delicate, meadows. In this region, visitors often see mule deer, Douglas squirrels, and American black bears, which sometimes break into unattended cars to eat food left by careless visitors. There are plans to reintroduce the bighorn sheep to this park.
The vast majority of the park is roadless wilderness; no road crosses the Sierra Nevada within the park's boundaries. 84 percent of Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks is designated wilderness and is accessible only by foot or by horseback. The majority was designated Sequoia-Kings Canyon Wilderness in 1984 and the southwest portion was protected as John Krebs Wilderness in 2009.
Sequoia's backcountry offers a vast expanse of high-alpine wonders. Covering the highest-elevation region of the High Sierra, the backcountry includes Mount Whitney on the eastern border of the park, accessible from the Giant Forest via the High Sierra Trail. On a traveler's path along this 35-mile (56 km) backcountry trail, one passes through about 10 miles (16 km) of montane forest before reaching the backcountry resort of Bearpaw Meadow, just short of the Great Western Divide.
Continuing along the High Sierra Trail over the Great Western Divide via Kaweah Gap, one passes from the Kaweah River Drainage, with its characteristic V-shaped river valleys, and into the Kern River drainage, where an ancient fault line has aided glaciers in the last ice age to create a U-shaped canyon that is almost perfectly straight for nearly 20 miles (32 km). On the floor of this canyon, at least two days hike from the nearest road, is the Kern Canyon hot spring, a popular resting point for weary backpackers. From the floor of Kern Canyon, the trail ascends again over 8,000 ft (2,400 m) to the summit of Mount Whitney. At Mount Whitney, the High Sierra Trail meets with the John Muir Trail and the Pacific Crest Trail, which continue northward along the Sierra crest and into the backcountry of Kings Canyon National Park.
The area which now is Sequoia National Park shows evidence of Native American settlement as early as 1000 A.D.[ The area was first home to "Monachee" (Western Mono) Native Americans, who resided mainly in the Kaweah River drainage in the Foothills region of what is now the park, though evidence of seasonal habitation exists as high as the Giant Forest. Members of this tribe were permanent residents of the park, with a population estimate of around 2,000. In the summertime the Tubatulabal Native Americans used the eastern part of the area (the Kern River drainage) as their summer hunting grounds. During this time, the Western Mono tribe would travel over the high mountain passes to trade with tribes to the East. To this day, pictographs can be found at several sites within the park, notably at Hospital Rock and Potwisha, as well as bedrock mortars used to process acorns, a staple food for the Monachee people.
The first European settler to homestead in the area was Hale Tharp, who famously built a home out of a hollowed-out fallen giant sequoia log in the Giant Forest next to Log Meadow. Tharp arrived in 1858 to the region and encountered several groups of Native Americans, the largest being around 600 with several other smaller groups found at higher elevations. After becoming friendly with the Western Mono tribe, Tharp was shown the Giant Forest Sequoia Grove. After his settlement, more settlers came around 1860. Shortly thereafter - between 1860 and 1863, epidemics of smallpox, measles, and scarlet fever killed the majority of the Native Americans living in the area. After this, the rest of the Native Americans left with the largest campsite (Hospital Rock) abandoned by 1865. During their time in the area, the Monachee used periodic fire burning to aid in hunting and agriculture. This technique played an important role in the ecology of the region and allowed for a "natural" vegetation cover development. After they left, Tharp and other settlers allowed sheep and cattle to graze the meadow, while at the same time maintaining a respect for the grandeur of the forest and led early battles against logging in the area. From time to time, Tharp received visits from John Muir, who would stay at Tharp's log cabin. Tharp's Log can still be visited today in its original location in the Giant Forest.
However, Tharp's attempts to conserve the giant sequoias were at first met with only limited success. In the 1880s, white settlers seeking to create a utopian society founded the Kaweah Colony, which sought economic success in trading Sequoia timber. However, Giant Sequoia trees, unlike their coast redwood relatives, were later discovered to splinter easily and therefore were ill-suited to timber harvesting, though thousands of trees were felled before logging operations finally ceased. The National Park Service incorporated the Giant Forest into Sequoia National Park in 1890, the year of its founding, promptly ceasing all logging operations in the Giant Forest.
Another consequence of the Giant Forest becoming Sequoia National Park was the shift in park employment. Prior to the incorporation by the National Park Service, the park was managed by US army troops of the 24th Regiment of Infantry and the 9th Regiment of Cavalry, better known as the Buffalo Soldiers. These segregated troops, founded in 1866, were African-American men from the South, an invaluable demographic to the military with the lowest rates of desertion. The Buffalo Soldiers completed park infrastructure projects as well as park management duties, helping to shape the role of the modern-day park ranger. The Buffalo Soldiers rose to this position due to a lack of funding for the park which led to an inability to hire civilians. The third African American West Point graduate, Captain Charles Young led the cavalries of Buffalo Soldiers in the Sequoia and General Grant Parks. Young landed this post as a result of the segregation rampant throughout the Army: as a black man, he was not permitted to head any combat units. He did, however, demonstrate his leadership capability through his initiatives in the National Park delegating park infrastructure projects, hosting tourists and politicians, and setting a standard of a strong work ethic into his men. Young was also a prominent figure regarding the early conservation of Sequoia National Park. He greenlighted the dedication of trees in honor of prominent figures as a means of promoting their preservation. One such example is the Redwood dedicated to the escaped slave and activist, Booker T Washington. Young also argued to the Secretary of the Interior that the lack of enforcement of forest protection laws allowed the detrimental practices of logging and the popular tourist hobby of carving names into the redwoods to continue. To combat this, Young increased patrolling of troops around heavily trafficked areas and initiated a proposal to buy out private landowners surrounding Sequoia to further buffer the protected area.
The land buyouts Young initiated were just the beginning of increasing the area of Sequoia National Park. The park has expanded several times over the decades to its present size; one of the most significant expansions took place in 1926 and was advocated for by Susan Thew Parks. One of the most recent expansions occurred in 1978, when grassroots efforts, spearheaded by the Sierra Club, fought off attempts by the Walt Disney Corporation to purchase a high-alpine former mining site south of the park for use as a ski resort. This site known as Mineral King was annexed to the park. Its name dates back to early 1873 when the miners in the area formed the Mineral King Mining District. Mineral King is the highest-elevation developed site within the park and a popular destination for backpackers.
Sequoia National Park contains a significant portion of the Sierra Nevada. The park's mountainous landscape includes the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States, Mount Whitney, which rises to 14,505 feet (4,421 m) above sea level. The Great Western Divide parallels the Sierran crest and is visible at various places in the park, for example, Mineral King, Moro Rock, and the Giant Forest. Peaks in the Great Western Divide rise to more than 12,000 feet (3,700 m). Deep canyons lie between the mountains, including Tokopah Valley above Lodgepole, Deep Canyon on the Marble Fork of the Kaweah River, and Kern Canyon in the park's backcountry, which is more than 5,000 feet (1,500 m) deep for 30 miles (48 km).
Most of the mountains and canyons in the Sierra Nevada are composed of granitic rocks. These rocks, such as granite, diorite and monzonite, formed when molten rock cooled far beneath the surface of the earth. The molten rock was the result of a geologic process known as subduction. Powerful forces in the earth forced the landmass under the waters of the Pacific Ocean beneath and below an advancing North American Continent. Super-hot water driven from the subducting ocean floor migrated upward and melted rock as it proceeded. This process took place during the Cretaceous Period, 100 million years ago. Granitic rocks have a speckled salt-and-pepper appearance because they contain various minerals including quartz, feldspars and micas. Valhalla, or the Angel Wings, are prominent granitic cliffs that rise above the headwaters of the Middle Fork of the Kaweah River.
The Sierra Nevada is a young mountain range, probably not more than 10 million years old. Forces in the earth, probably associated with the development of the Great Basin, forced the mountains to rise. During the last 10 million years, at least four ice ages have coated the mountains in a thick mantle of ice. Glaciers form and develop during long periods of cool and wet weather. Glaciers move very slowly through the mountains, carving deep valleys and craggy peaks. The extensive history of glaciation within the range and the erosion resistant nature of the granitic rocks that make up most of the Sierra Nevada have together created a landscape of hanging valleys, waterfalls, craggy peaks, alpine lakes (such as Tulainyo Lake) and glacial canyons.
Park caves, like most caves in the Sierra Nevada of California, are mostly solutional caves dissolved from marble. Marble rock is essentially limestone that was metamorphosed by the heat and pressure of the formation and uplift of the Sierra Nevada Batholith. The batholith's rapid uplift over the past 10 million years led to a rapid erosion of the metamorphic rocks in the higher elevations, exposing the granite beneath; therefore, most Sierra Nevada caves are found in the middle and lower elevations (below 7,000 ft or 2,100 m), though some caves are found in the park at elevations as high as 10,000 ft (3,000 m) such as the White Chief cave and Cirque Cave in Mineral King. These caves are carved out of the rock by the abundant seasonal streams in the park. Most of the larger park caves have, or have had, sinking streams running through them.
The park contains more than 270 known caves, including Lilburn Cave which is California's longest cave with nearly 17 miles (27 km) of surveyed passages. The only commercial cave open to park visitors is Crystal Cave, the park's second-longest cave at over 3.4 miles (5.5 km). Crystal Cave was discovered on April 28, 1918, by Alex Medley and Cassius Webster. The cave is a constant 48 °F (9 °C), and is only accessible by guided tour.
Caves are discovered every year in the park with the most recently discovered major cave being Ursa Minor in August 2006.
According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. Potential natural vegetation Types, Sequoia National Park encompasses five classifications listed here from highest to lowest elevation; Alpine tundra & barren vegetation type with an Alpine tundra vegetation form...Pinus contorta/ Subalpine zone vegetation type with a California Conifer Forest vegetation form...Abies magnifica vegetation type with a California Conifer Forest vegetation form...Mixed conifer vegetation type with a California Conifer Forest vegetation form...and Chaparral vegetation type with a California chaparral and woodlands vegetation form.
Animals that inhabit this park are coyote, badger, black bear, bighorn sheep, deer, fox, cougar, eleven species of woodpecker, various species of turtle, three species of owl, opossum, various species of snake, wolverine, beaver, various species of frog, and muskrat.
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2 million residents across a total area of approximately 163,696 square miles (423,970 km2), it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the most populated subnational entity in North America and the 34th most populous in the world. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second and fifth most populous urban regions respectively, with the former having more than 18.7 million residents and the latter having over 9.6 million. Sacramento is the state's capital, while Los Angeles is the most populous city in the state and the second most populous city in the country. San Francisco is the second most densely populated major city in the country. Los Angeles County is the country's most populous, while San Bernardino County is the largest county by area in the country. California borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, the Mexican state of Baja California to the south; and has a coastline along the Pacific Ocean to the west.
The economy of the state of California is the largest in the United States, with a $3.4 trillion gross state product (GSP) as of 2022. It is the largest sub-national economy in the world. If California were a sovereign nation, it would rank as the world's fifth-largest economy as of 2022, behind Germany and ahead of India, as well as the 37th most populous. The Greater Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nation's second- and third-largest urban economies ($1.0 trillion and $0.5 trillion respectively as of 2020). The San Francisco Bay Area Combined Statistical Area had the nation's highest gross domestic product per capita ($106,757) among large primary statistical areas in 2018, and is home to five of the world's ten largest companies by market capitalization and four of the world's ten richest people.
Prior to European colonization, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America and contained the highest Native American population density north of what is now Mexico. European exploration in the 16th and 17th centuries led to the colonization of California by the Spanish Empire. In 1804, it was included in Alta California province within the Viceroyalty of New Spain. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821, following its successful war for independence, but was ceded to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican–American War. The California Gold Rush started in 1848 and led to dramatic social and demographic changes, including large-scale immigration into California, a worldwide economic boom, and the California genocide of indigenous people. The western portion of Alta California was then organized and admitted as the 31st state on September 9, 1850, following the Compromise of 1850.
Notable contributions to popular culture, for example in entertainment and sports, have their origins in California. The state also has made noteworthy contributions in the fields of communication, information, innovation, environmentalism, economics, and politics. It is the home of Hollywood, the oldest and one of the largest film industries in the world, which has had a profound influence upon global entertainment. It is considered the origin of the hippie counterculture, beach and car culture, and the personal computer, among other innovations. The San Francisco Bay Area and the Greater Los Angeles Area are widely seen as the centers of the global technology and film industries, respectively. California's economy is very diverse: 58% of it is based on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific, and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5% of the state's economy, California's agriculture industry has the highest output of any U.S. state. California's ports and harbors handle about a third of all U.S. imports, most originating in Pacific Rim international trade.
The state's extremely diverse geography ranges from the Pacific Coast and metropolitan areas in the west to the Sierra Nevada mountains in the east, and from the redwood and Douglas fir forests in the northwest to the Mojave Desert in the southeast. The Central Valley, a major agricultural area, dominates the state's center. California is well known for its warm Mediterranean climate and monsoon seasonal weather. The large size of the state results in climates that vary from moist temperate rainforest in the north to arid desert in the interior, as well as snowy alpine in the mountains.
Settled by successive waves of arrivals during at least the last 13,000 years, California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. Various estimates of the native population have ranged from 100,000 to 300,000. The indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct ethnic groups, inhabiting environments from mountains and deserts to islands and redwood forests. These groups were also diverse in their political organization, with bands, tribes, villages, and on the resource-rich coasts, large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered social and economic relationships between many groups.
The first Europeans to explore the coast of California were the members of a Spanish maritime expedition led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo in 1542. Cabrillo was commissioned by Antonio de Mendoza, the Viceroy of New Spain, to lead an expedition up the Pacific coast in search of trade opportunities; they entered San Diego Bay on September 28, 1542, and reached at least as far north as San Miguel Island. Privateer and explorer Francis Drake explored and claimed an undefined portion of the California coast in 1579, landing north of the future city of San Francisco. Sebastián Vizcaíno explored and mapped the coast of California in 1602 for New Spain, putting ashore in Monterey. Despite the on-the-ground explorations of California in the 16th century, Rodríguez's idea of California as an island persisted. Such depictions appeared on many European maps well into the 18th century.
The Portolá expedition of 1769-70 was a pivotal event in the Spanish colonization of California, resulting in the establishment of numerous missions, presidios, and pueblos. The military and civil contingent of the expedition was led by Gaspar de Portolá, who traveled over land from Sonora into California, while the religious component was headed by Junípero Serra, who came by sea from Baja California. In 1769, Portolá and Serra established Mission San Diego de Alcalá and the Presidio of San Diego, the first religious and military settlements founded by the Spanish in California. By the end of the expedition in 1770, they would establish the Presidio of Monterey and Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo on Monterey Bay.
After the Portolà expedition, Spanish missionaries led by Father-President Serra set out to establish 21 Spanish missions of California along El Camino Real ("The Royal Road") and along the Californian coast, 16 sites of which having been chosen during the Portolá expedition. Numerous major cities in California grew out of missions, including San Francisco (Mission San Francisco de Asís), San Diego (Mission San Diego de Alcalá), Ventura (Mission San Buenaventura), or Santa Barbara (Mission Santa Barbara), among others.
Juan Bautista de Anza led a similarly important expedition throughout California in 1775–76, which would extend deeper into the interior and north of California. The Anza expedition selected numerous sites for missions, presidios, and pueblos, which subsequently would be established by settlers. Gabriel Moraga, a member of the expedition, would also christen many of California's prominent rivers with their names in 1775–1776, such as the Sacramento River and the San Joaquin River. After the expedition, Gabriel's son, José Joaquín Moraga, would found the pueblo of San Jose in 1777, making it the first civilian-established city in California.
The Spanish founded Mission San Juan Capistrano in 1776, the third to be established of the Californian missions.
During this same period, sailors from the Russian Empire explored along the northern coast of California. In 1812, the Russian-American Company established a trading post and small fortification at Fort Ross on the North Coast. Fort Ross was primarily used to supply Russia's Alaskan colonies with food supplies. The settlement did not meet much success, failing to attract settlers or establish long term trade viability, and was abandoned by 1841.
During the War of Mexican Independence, Alta California was largely unaffected and uninvolved in the revolution, though many Californios supported independence from Spain, which many believed had neglected California and limited its development. Spain's trade monopoly on California had limited the trade prospects of Californians. Following Mexican independence, Californian ports were freely able to trade with foreign merchants. Governor Pablo Vicente de Solá presided over the transition from Spanish colonial rule to independent.
In 1821, the Mexican War of Independence gave the Mexican Empire (which included California) independence from Spain. For the next 25 years, Alta California remained a remote, sparsely populated, northwestern administrative district of the newly independent country of Mexico, which shortly after independence became a republic. The missions, which controlled most of the best land in the state, were secularized by 1834 and became the property of the Mexican government. The governor granted many square leagues of land to others with political influence. These huge ranchos or cattle ranches emerged as the dominant institutions of Mexican California. The ranchos developed under ownership by Californios (Hispanics native of California) who traded cowhides and tallow with Boston merchants. Beef did not become a commodity until the 1849 California Gold Rush.
From the 1820s, trappers and settlers from the United States and Canada began to arrive in Northern California. These new arrivals used the Siskiyou Trail, California Trail, Oregon Trail and Old Spanish Trail to cross the rugged mountains and harsh deserts in and surrounding California. The early government of the newly independent Mexico was highly unstable, and in a reflection of this, from 1831 onwards, California also experienced a series of armed disputes, both internal and with the central Mexican government. During this tumultuous political period Juan Bautista Alvarado was able to secure the governorship during 1836–1842. The military action which first brought Alvarado to power had momentarily declared California to be an independent state, and had been aided by Anglo-American residents of California, including Isaac Graham. In 1840, one hundred of those residents who did not have passports were arrested, leading to the Graham Affair, which was resolved in part with the intercession of Royal Navy officials.
One of the largest ranchers in California was John Marsh. After failing to obtain justice against squatters on his land from the Mexican courts, he determined that California should become part of the United States. Marsh conducted a letter-writing campaign espousing the California climate, the soil, and other reasons to settle there, as well as the best route to follow, which became known as "Marsh's route". His letters were read, reread, passed around, and printed in newspapers throughout the country, and started the first wagon trains rolling to California. He invited immigrants to stay on his ranch until they could get settled, and assisted in their obtaining passports.
After ushering in the period of organized emigration to California, Marsh became involved in a military battle between the much-hated Mexican general, Manuel Micheltorena and the California governor he had replaced, Juan Bautista Alvarado. The armies of each met at the Battle of Providencia near Los Angeles. Marsh had been forced against his will to join Micheltorena's army. Ignoring his superiors, during the battle, he signaled the other side for a parley. There were many settlers from the United States fighting on both sides. He convinced these men that they had no reason to be fighting each other. As a result of Marsh's actions, they abandoned the fight, Micheltorena was defeated, and California-born Pio Pico was returned to the governorship. This paved the way to California's ultimate acquisition by the United States.
In 1846, a group of American settlers in and around Sonoma rebelled against Mexican rule during the Bear Flag Revolt. Afterward, rebels raised the Bear Flag (featuring a bear, a star, a red stripe and the words "California Republic") at Sonoma. The Republic's only president was William B. Ide,[65] who played a pivotal role during the Bear Flag Revolt. This revolt by American settlers served as a prelude to the later American military invasion of California and was closely coordinated with nearby American military commanders.
The California Republic was short-lived; the same year marked the outbreak of the Mexican–American War (1846–48).
Commodore John D. Sloat of the United States Navy sailed into Monterey Bay in 1846 and began the U.S. military invasion of California, with Northern California capitulating in less than a month to the United States forces. In Southern California, Californios continued to resist American forces. Notable military engagements of the conquest include the Battle of San Pasqual and the Battle of Dominguez Rancho in Southern California, as well as the Battle of Olómpali and the Battle of Santa Clara in Northern California. After a series of defensive battles in the south, the Treaty of Cahuenga was signed by the Californios on January 13, 1847, securing a censure and establishing de facto American control in California.
Following the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo (February 2, 1848) that ended the war, the westernmost portion of the annexed Mexican territory of Alta California soon became the American state of California, and the remainder of the old territory was then subdivided into the new American Territories of Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and Utah. The even more lightly populated and arid lower region of old Baja California remained as a part of Mexico. In 1846, the total settler population of the western part of the old Alta California had been estimated to be no more than 8,000, plus about 100,000 Native Americans, down from about 300,000 before Hispanic settlement in 1769.
In 1848, only one week before the official American annexation of the area, gold was discovered in California, this being an event which was to forever alter both the state's demographics and its finances. Soon afterward, a massive influx of immigration into the area resulted, as prospectors and miners arrived by the thousands. The population burgeoned with United States citizens, Europeans, Chinese and other immigrants during the great California Gold Rush. By the time of California's application for statehood in 1850, the settler population of California had multiplied to 100,000. By 1854, more than 300,000 settlers had come. Between 1847 and 1870, the population of San Francisco increased from 500 to 150,000.
The seat of government for California under Spanish and later Mexican rule had been located in Monterey from 1777 until 1845. Pio Pico, the last Mexican governor of Alta California, had briefly moved the capital to Los Angeles in 1845. The United States consulate had also been located in Monterey, under consul Thomas O. Larkin.
In 1849, a state Constitutional Convention was first held in Monterey. Among the first tasks of the convention was a decision on a location for the new state capital. The first full legislative sessions were held in San Jose (1850–1851). Subsequent locations included Vallejo (1852–1853), and nearby Benicia (1853–1854); these locations eventually proved to be inadequate as well. The capital has been located in Sacramento since 1854 with only a short break in 1862 when legislative sessions were held in San Francisco due to flooding in Sacramento. Once the state's Constitutional Convention had finalized its state constitution, it applied to the U.S. Congress for admission to statehood. On September 9, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850, California became a free state and September 9 a state holiday.
During the American Civil War (1861–1865), California sent gold shipments eastward to Washington in support of the Union. However, due to the existence of a large contingent of pro-South sympathizers within the state, the state was not able to muster any full military regiments to send eastwards to officially serve in the Union war effort. Still, several smaller military units within the Union army were unofficially associated with the state of California, such as the "California 100 Company", due to a majority of their members being from California.
At the time of California's admission into the Union, travel between California and the rest of the continental United States had been a time-consuming and dangerous feat. Nineteen years later, and seven years after it was greenlighted by President Lincoln, the First transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869. California was then reachable from the eastern States in a week's time.
Much of the state was extremely well suited to fruit cultivation and agriculture in general. Vast expanses of wheat, other cereal crops, vegetable crops, cotton, and nut and fruit trees were grown (including oranges in Southern California), and the foundation was laid for the state's prodigious agricultural production in the Central Valley and elsewhere.
In the nineteenth century, a large number of migrants from China traveled to the state as part of the Gold Rush or to seek work. Even though the Chinese proved indispensable in building the transcontinental railroad from California to Utah, perceived job competition with the Chinese led to anti-Chinese riots in the state, and eventually the US ended migration from China partially as a response to pressure from California with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act.
Under earlier Spanish and Mexican rule, California's original native population had precipitously declined, above all, from Eurasian diseases to which the indigenous people of California had not yet developed a natural immunity. Under its new American administration, California's harsh governmental policies towards its own indigenous people did not improve. As in other American states, many of the native inhabitants were soon forcibly removed from their lands by incoming American settlers such as miners, ranchers, and farmers. Although California had entered the American union as a free state, the "loitering or orphaned Indians" were de facto enslaved by their new Anglo-American masters under the 1853 Act for the Government and Protection of Indians. There were also massacres in which hundreds of indigenous people were killed.
Between 1850 and 1860, the California state government paid around 1.5 million dollars (some 250,000 of which was reimbursed by the federal government) to hire militias whose purpose was to protect settlers from the indigenous populations. In later decades, the native population was placed in reservations and rancherias, which were often small and isolated and without enough natural resources or funding from the government to sustain the populations living on them. As a result, the rise of California was a calamity for the native inhabitants. Several scholars and Native American activists, including Benjamin Madley and Ed Castillo, have described the actions of the California government as a genocide.
In the twentieth century, thousands of Japanese people migrated to the US and California specifically to attempt to purchase and own land in the state. However, the state in 1913 passed the Alien Land Act, excluding Asian immigrants from owning land. During World War II, Japanese Americans in California were interned in concentration camps such as at Tule Lake and Manzanar. In 2020, California officially apologized for this internment.
Migration to California accelerated during the early 20th century with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the Lincoln Highway and Route 66. In the period from 1900 to 1965, the population grew from fewer than one million to the greatest in the Union. In 1940, the Census Bureau reported California's population as 6.0% Hispanic, 2.4% Asian, and 89.5% non-Hispanic white.
To meet the population's needs, major engineering feats like the California and Los Angeles Aqueducts; the Oroville and Shasta Dams; and the Bay and Golden Gate Bridges were built across the state. The state government also adopted the California Master Plan for Higher Education in 1960 to develop a highly efficient system of public education.
Meanwhile, attracted to the mild Mediterranean climate, cheap land, and the state's wide variety of geography, filmmakers established the studio system in Hollywood in the 1920s. California manufactured 8.7 percent of total United States military armaments produced during World War II, ranking third (behind New York and Michigan) among the 48 states. California however easily ranked first in production of military ships during the war (transport, cargo, [merchant ships] such as Liberty ships, Victory ships, and warships) at drydock facilities in San Diego, Los Angeles, and the San Francisco Bay Area. After World War II, California's economy greatly expanded due to strong aerospace and defense industries, whose size decreased following the end of the Cold War. Stanford University and its Dean of Engineering Frederick Terman began encouraging faculty and graduates to stay in California instead of leaving the state, and develop a high-tech region in the area now known as Silicon Valley. As a result of these efforts, California is regarded as a world center of the entertainment and music industries, of technology, engineering, and the aerospace industry, and as the United States center of agricultural production. Just before the Dot Com Bust, California had the fifth-largest economy in the world among nations.
In the mid and late twentieth century, a number of race-related incidents occurred in the state. Tensions between police and African Americans, combined with unemployment and poverty in inner cities, led to violent riots, such as the 1965 Watts riots and 1992 Rodney King riots. California was also the hub of the Black Panther Party, a group known for arming African Americans to defend against racial injustice and for organizing free breakfast programs for schoolchildren. Additionally, Mexican, Filipino, and other migrant farm workers rallied in the state around Cesar Chavez for better pay in the 1960s and 1970s.
During the 20th century, two great disasters happened in California. The 1906 San Francisco earthquake and 1928 St. Francis Dam flood remain the deadliest in U.S. history.
Although air pollution problems have been reduced, health problems associated with pollution have continued. The brown haze known as "smog" has been substantially abated after the passage of federal and state restrictions on automobile exhaust.
An energy crisis in 2001 led to rolling blackouts, soaring power rates, and the importation of electricity from neighboring states. Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Company came under heavy criticism.
Housing prices in urban areas continued to increase; a modest home which in the 1960s cost $25,000 would cost half a million dollars or more in urban areas by 2005. More people commuted longer hours to afford a home in more rural areas while earning larger salaries in the urban areas. Speculators bought houses they never intended to live in, expecting to make a huge profit in a matter of months, then rolling it over by buying more properties. Mortgage companies were compliant, as everyone assumed the prices would keep rising. The bubble burst in 2007–8 as housing prices began to crash and the boom years ended. Hundreds of billions in property values vanished and foreclosures soared as many financial institutions and investors were badly hurt.
In the twenty-first century, droughts and frequent wildfires attributed to climate change have occurred in the state. From 2011 to 2017, a persistent drought was the worst in its recorded history. The 2018 wildfire season was the state's deadliest and most destructive, most notably Camp Fire.
Although air pollution problems have been reduced, health problems associated with pollution have continued. The brown haze that is known as "smog" has been substantially abated thanks to federal and state restrictions on automobile exhaust.
Ironic perhaps, but even if the class 68's hadn't taken over the Valley flasks, neither loco featured here would be able to pose for the camera once more.
37229, carrying the name 'Jonty Jarvis', was stored at Kingmoor in December 2012, was stripped at Barrow Hill and the remains were cut at Rotherham in November 2013.
37682 was withdrawn after working the Welsh Warrior Pretendolino farewell tour in late October 2014 and was taken to LORAM at Derby to donate components to the 37/4 overhaul program. After an abortive preservation attempt, the former 37236 was taken to Rotherham, demolition being completed by the end of October 2016.
Happier times for the Tractor duo, under the crane at Valley on 22 September 2011.
Video still from The 6th Component Song 10
Music: David Monte Cristo
Video: James Michaels
Monte Cristo Records Videos
Jaguar C Type (1951-53) Engine 3442cc S6 Twin Cam
Production 52 (although with the abundance of Jaguar and particularly XK components there are also a great deal of replica cars)
Race Number 163 Julian Ghosh
Registration Number OKV 281 (Coventry).
JAGUAR SET
www.flickr.com/photos/45676495@N05/sets/72157623671588245...
The C type is also known as the Jaguar XK120-C built as a racing car with light weight tubular frame and an aerodynamic aluminium body. The road going XK 140 engine produced between 160-180bhp. The version in the C was originally tuned to 205bhp. Later C's were more powerful using triple choke Weber carburettors and high lift cam shafts, they were also lighter. From 1952 braking was improved by the use of disc brakes all round. The light weight multi tubular frame was designed by Bob Knight (not myself or a relative), the aerodynamic body by Malcolm Sayer. The cars finest hours came during the Le Mans 24 hour race. One won on their debut in 1951 a works entry driven by Peter Whitehead and Peter Walker. All three cars with enhanced aerodynamics retired due to cooling problems in 1952. For 1953 the body was thinner and the triple SU carburettors were replaced by three Webers which boosted output to 220bhp. Duncan Hamilton and Tony Rolt drove their C to victory despite Hamilton sustaining a broken nose from a collision with a bird, 4th place was taken by the Ecurie Belge C Tyoe of Roger Laurent and Jacques Swaters.
Many thanks for a fantabulous 40,811,024 views
Shot at the Chateau Impney Hill Climb, Chateuu Impney, Droitwich 12 July 2015 - Ref 108-173. .
I do not know a thing about trains, but when I saw this train , I had to get some pics of it's beautiful parts.
PictionID:44808639 - Title:Atlas Payload Component - Catalog:14_014200 - Filename:14_014200.TIF - - - Image from the Convair/General Dynamics Astronautics Atlas Negative Collection. The processing, cataloging and digitization of these images has been made possible by a generous National Historical Publications and Records grant from the National Archives and Records Administration---Please Tag these images so that the information can be permanently stored with the digital file.---Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum
c/n 15328.
Full US military serial ‘43-10052’.
The A-20G was the most produced model of the Boston / Havoc series with 2,850 being built. Many were supplied to the Soviet Union under lend-lease agreements.
This example was recovered in a derelict state from Olga-Bay Airfield, North of Vladivostok. Restored at Novosibirsk, not necessarily using entirely original components or materials, it went on display outside at Monino in 1995. In March 2006 the port undercarriage collapsed under a heavy snow loading and other parts of the airframe were also damaged. Since repaired, it has now moved to safer conditions indoors and is on display in the new Hangar 6B which has been built behind the entrance building. At the time of our visit the hangar had not been officially opened to the public, but we were given special permission to access it from Hangar 6A.
Central Air Force museum, Monino, Moscow Oblast, Russia.
27th August 2017
Some 19 years after the BNSF merger, a pair of good looking engines representing each half of the merger sun themselves in the Topeka, KS yard at 8th St. The GE was built for the Santa Fe in 1994, while the 2909 was originally built as the CB&Q #996 in 1964. For 50 years old, the old girl isn't looking half bad.
One of my work colleagues ordered this circuit board in a kit form.
I offered to put it together for him, as I used to work as a communications technician.
It's been over 16 years since I last fitted components onto a circuit board....it was quite enjoyable.
It worked 1st go!!
It is a voice changer module
With a thumbs up from the driver, First Great Western Class 143's, 143617 and 143603, work the 2T20 Exmouth to Paignton service towards Teignmouth.
The Pacer units, what can you even say about them? They've become a synonym for poor design, cut-price investments, short sighted decisions and generally just a failure to comprehend the demands of the rail-going public. People from all walks of life, train enthusiasts or not, take a glimpse of one of these units and immediately sigh with despair.
But are they really the devil on train wheels that enthusiasts like to criticise endlessly?
To trace the Pacer, you need to go back to the late-1970's, where after rationalisation of the railways under Beeching, the few remaining branchlines were under the operation of ageing diesel multiple units from the late 1950's and early 60's, primarily Derby Lightweights and units such as Class 117, 121, 115, 101 and 105. The intention of the new Pacer was to become a cheap and cheerful short-term stop-gap to replace these older units prior to the introduction of more permanent trains such as the later Class 150's and 153's.
To create these trains, the British Rail Board turned to the assistance of fellow nationalised transport company, British Leyland, and in 1978, a prototype named LEV1 (Leyland Experimental Vehicles) had been constructed, this unit consisting of a Leyland National bus body being yoked onto the chassis of an old four-wheel Freight Wagon. The vehicle was powered by a Leyland 510 bus engine, but with the transmission modified for train use by adding self-changing gears. The problems inherent with the later Pacer units were very quick to rear their heads, largely due to the fact that these units have no suspension. On regular trains, the wheels are connected to a separate bogey, and Flexicoil suspension between the bogey and the carriage helps make the ride comfortable as it moves along the track. LEV1 and the Pacer's on the other hand have the wheels directly attached to the chassis of the carriage, and thus every individual bump or distortion in the track is felt, making the ride incredibly uncomfortable, especially on jointed track.
Nevertheless, British Rail continued to develop the concept, and even tried to woo the Americans by sending LEV1, and several other later prototypes to the United States for Amtrak to consider on the MBTA commuter services from Boston to Concord in New Hampshire. These considerations subsequently fell through, and the original LEV1 prototype was returned to the UK for more tests and later preservation, whilst LEV2, after suffering accident damage, was kept in the United States and preserved at the Connecticut Trolley Museum.
Back in the UK, BR unleashed a next-gen prototype in 1980 dubbed the Class 140, continuing to use Leyland National bus components and engines, but instead being fitted with a different cab to comply with crash safety regulations. Only one unit of this class was produced, and tested until 1981 when it was withdrawn and preserved, where it now resides at the Keith and Dufftown Railway.
With testing considered complete, the first production Pacer class was now developed in the form of the Class 141, looking very similar to its Leyland National roots, but being heavily modified to comply with railway safety regulations. These units were powered by 200hp Leyland TL11 engines, again modified for railway use with mechanical self-changing gears. Top speed was 75mph and formations consisted of two-cars. These units were launched in 1984 and began work mostly across the West and South Yorkshire region around Huddersfield, Leeds, York, Sheffield and Harrogate. 20 of these units were built, and were notable for their uncomfortable ride, squeaking panels, bus-like seating, noise, poor reliability and draughty interiors. The units were operated in the same general area until 1997 when they were all withdrawn, although 12 units were later exported to Iran to operate around Tehran. The last known operation of these units was in about 2005.
Following the introduction of the Class 141's, BR and British Leyland then developed a second batch of Pacers known as the Class 142's, these being built for much more widespread use across the UK network. In comparison to the 141's, the design was modified slightly, although still very 'Bus-Like', and engines were changed to the more powerful 225hp Cummins LTA10-R 6-cylinder 10.0L powerplant. Top speed of the Class 142's is again 75mph, and 96 of these units were built between 1985 and 1987 at BREL Derby Works. The first locations of the Class 142 operation was in the North West around Manchester, Yorkshire, Newcastle, and in the South West of England around Plymouth.
However, almost immediately the Class fell into dismay, especially in the South West. Their long wheelbase and lack of bogeys meant that on the tight branch lines of Devon and Cornwall, the units suffered heavy flange wear, as well as creating the most awful squealing sound as they travelled round corners. They were also underpowered, which meant they suffered frequent adhesion problems attempting to climb from stations with steep gradients such as Gunnislake, St Ives and the Looe Branch. By 1988, the entire class had been sent north to Leeds and Manchester, being replaced by the original Class 121's and 117's they had been built to replace!
At the same time as the Class 142's, another batch of similarly built units were also developed by Hunslet-Barclay, known as the Class 143. The Class 143's featured a highly different design, with coachwork being built by Walter Alexander. Power once again came from the same Cummins engine as that in the Class 142, and 25 sets were built in 1985 for work around Newcastle and on the Welsh Valleys. A year later, BREL Derby and Walter Alexander formed another similar set of units called the Class 144, 23 almost identical sets for use around Leeds, distinguishable usually by the addition of an intermediate trailer on some sets.
Today, Pacer units have been refurbished, redistributed and revised heavily, especially after privatisation. Class 142's have been spread to South Wales, and across the North of England, whilst the Class 143's are now prime movers in the South West for First Great Western. Class 144's have always remained around Leeds, and a major parts of the West Yorkshire commuter network. It is interesting to note that even though these units were designed to be stop-gaps with a lifespan of about 10 years, nearly 30 years later these trains continue to ply their trade.
Several of the class however have been written off through accidents, with 142059 being written off after its brakes failed to stop it from smashing into the buffers at Liverpool lime Street in 1990. In 1999 the most serious accident occurred when a pair of Class 142's passed a red signal by accident and were slammed into by a Virgin Trains Class 87 travelling at 50mph. Upon impact, the Class 87 tore apart the lightweight bus-frames of the Pacer units, coming to rest halfway down the third carriage. Thankfully the Pacer was running empty-stock, so no passengers were aboard, and only a few injuries were incurred on the Virgin Trains service, but it did highlight the sheer lack of safety these units have. The units have also been notable for several derailments, as well as the engine falling out the bottom of one unit in South Wales. Two Class 143's have also been lost, those being 143613, which was gutted by fire on October 17th, 2004, and subsequently written off, and later in 2005, 143615, which was again lost to fire damage.
As mentioned, today, apart from the Class 141's and those units written off through accidents, nearly all of the Pacer units remain in daily operational use across the country. Of the units however, the Class 143's and 144's have often been considered the favoured sons, being refurbished heavily both internally and externally for a more pleasing travel experience. The removal of jointed track across the network has also allowed for much smoother rides, but on some sections of the network the quality is still an issue. I do actually quite enjoy travelling aboard the Class 143's as after their various refurbishments they are quite pleasant to travel on as commuter trains. The Class 142's on the other hands most operators have chosen to forget, with units under the control of Northern Rail being largely fitted with the original bus-bench interiors of the 1980's, or some modified interiors of 1990's Regional Railways.
Either way, both units are slated for decommissioning by December 31st, 2019, when a Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulation is enacted saying that all trains must have full access for wheelchairs and pushchairs, a problem the Pacers have often suffered due to their step-entrance design. It is proposed that Class 143's and 144's will be modified to allow for greater access, being fitted with ramps and some units modified into 4-car sets. The Class 142's on the other hand are not being considered for such, and the desire is to see off these trains by 2020, 35 years after the first ones hit the rails.