It's almost an hour after sunset at Yuba Gap on Union Pacific's Roseville Subdivision. Faint rays of light still illuminate the western horizon. What little light remains still highlights the slopes of Signal Peak, in the distance.

Signals herald the approach of an eastbound train. The dull sound of traffic on Interstate 80 becomes punctuated by the roar of two GE locomotives, quickly approaching the scene. Beams of light begin to dance through the trees. The roar becomes louder and louder.....then whoosh!

In less than 30 seconds, the ZDLSKP (Delano, CA to Selkirk, NY perishable train) passes through the scene, bracketed by an AC4400CW at each end. One minute later, quiet returns to this location on the mountain....for now.

© 2015 Patrick Dirden Photography

All Rights Reserved

Turner is located on the TS just east of Highway 99. In the summer of 1970, "new" power on the Tidewater, in the form of two RS-1's from the Spokane International, replaced aging 70 tonners and loaner WP switchers. The RS-1's expedited long perishable freights to the WP connection in Stockton. TS 746 is making a good 40 mph as it lugs a long train past Turner.

The Mundo Perdido is to the west of the Plaza of the Seven Temples. It is the largest ceremonial complex dating from the Preclassic period at Tikal.

The complex was organised as a large E-Group consisting of a pyramid aligned with a platform to the east that supported three temples.

The Mundo Perdido complex was rebuilt many times over the course of its history. By AD 250–300 its architectural style was influenced by the great metropolis of Teotihuacan in the Valley of Mexico, including the use of the talud-tablero form.During the Early Classic period (c. 250–600) the Mundo Perdido became one of the twin foci of the city, the other being the North Acropolis.From AD 250 to 378 it may have served as the royal necropolis. The Mundo Perdido complex was given its name by the archaeologists of the University of Pennsylvania; it is centred upon the Lost World Pyramid and a small platform to the west of it.

The Lost World Pyramid (Structure 5C-54) is the largest structure in the Mundo Perdido complex. It lies in the southwest portion of Tikal’s central core, south of Temple III and west of Temple V. It was decorated with stucco masks of the sun god and dates to the Late Preclassic; this pyramid is part of an enclosed complex of structures that remained intact and un-impacted by later building activity at Tikal. By the end of the Late Preclassic this pyramid was one of the largest structures in the Maya region. It attained its final form during the reign of Chak Tok Ich'aak in the 4th century AD, in the Early Classic, standing more than 30 metres high with stairways on all four sides and a flat top that possibly supported a superstructure built from perishable materials. Although the plaza later suffered significant alteration, the organization of a group of temples on the east side of this complex adheres to the layout that defines the so-called E-Groups, identified as solar observatories.

Angkor Wat or "Capital Temple" is a temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world. It was first a Hindu and later a Buddhist temple. It was built by the Khmer King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century in Yaśodharapura, present-day Angkor, the capital of the Khmer Empire, as his state temple and eventual mausoleum.

Breaking from the Shiva tradition of previous kings, Angkor Wat was instead dedicated to Vishnu. As the best-preserved temple at the site, it is the only one to have remained a significant religious center since its foundation. The temple is at the top of the high classical style of Khmer architecture. It has become a symbol of Cambodia, appearing on its national flag, and it is the country's prime attraction for visitors. Angkor Wat combines two basic plans of Khmer temple architecture: the temple-mountain and the later galleried temple, based on early Dravidian architecture, with key features such as the Jagati. It is designed to represent Mount Meru, home of the devas in Hindu mythology: within a moat and an outer wall 3.6 kilometres long are three rectangular galleries, each raised above the next. At the centre of the temple stands a quincunx of towers. Unlike most Angkorian temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west; scholars are divided as to the significance of this. The temple is admired for the grandeur and harmony of the architecture, its extensive bas-reliefs, and for the numerous devatas adorning its walls.

The modern name, Angkor Wat, means "Temple City" or "City of Temples" in Khmer; Angkor, meaning "city" or "capital city", is a vernacular form of the word nokor (នគរ), which comes from the Sanskrit word nagara (नगर). Wat is the Khmer word for "temple grounds" (Sanskrit: वाट vāṭa ""enclosure").

HISTORY

Angkor Wat lies 5.5 kilometres north of the modern town of Siem Reap, and a short distance south and slightly east of the previous capital, which was centred at Baphuon. It is in an area of Cambodia where there is an important group of ancient structures. It is the southernmost of Angkor's main sites.

According to one legend, the construction of Angkor Wat was ordered by Indra to act as a palace for his son Precha Ket Mealea.

According to the 13th century Chinese traveler Daguan Zhou, it was believed by some that the temple was constructed in a single night by a divine architect. The initial design and construction of the temple took place in the first half of the 12th century, during the reign of Suryavarman II (ruled 1113-C. 1150). Dedicated to Vishnu, it was built as the king's state temple and capital city. As neither the foundation stela nor any contemporary inscriptions referring to the temple have been found, its original name is unknown, but it may have been known as "Varah Vishnu-lok" after the presiding deity. Work seems to have ended shortly after the king's death, leaving some of the bas-relief decoration unfinished.

In 1177, approximately 27 years after the death of Suryavarman II, Angkor was sacked by the Chams, the traditional enemies of the Khmer. Thereafter the empire was restored by a new king, Jayavarman VII, who established a new capital and state temple (Angkor Thom and the Bayon respectively) a few kilometers to the north.

In the late 13th century, Angkor Wat gradually moved from Hindu to Theravada Buddhist use, which continues to the present day. Angkor Wat is unusual among the Angkor temples in that although it was somewhat neglected after the 16th century it was never completely abandoned, its preservation being due in part to the fact that its moat also provided some protection from encroachment by the jungle.

One of the first Western visitors to the temple was António da Madalena, a Portuguese monk who visited in 1586 and said that it "is of such extraordinary construction that it is not possible to describe it with a pen, particularly since it is like no other building in the world. It has towers and decoration and all the refinements which the human genius can conceive of."

In the mid-19th century, the temple was visited by the French naturalist and explorer, Henri Mouhot, who popularised the site in the West through the publication of travel notes, in which he wrote:

"One of these temples - a rival to that of Solomon, and erected by some ancient Michelangelo - might take an honorable place beside our most beautiful buildings. It is grander than anything left to us by Greece or Rome, and presents a sad contrast to the state of barbarism in which the nation is now plunged."

Mouhot, like other early Western visitors, found it difficult to believe that the Khmers could have built the temple, and mistakenly dated it to around the same era as Rome. The true history of Angkor Wat was pieced together only from stylistic and epigraphic evidence accumulated during the subsequent clearing and restoration work carried out across the whole Angkor site. There were no ordinary dwellings or houses or other signs of settlement including cooking utensils, weapons, or items of clothing usually found at ancient sites. Instead there is the evidence of the monuments themselves.

Angkor Wat required considerable restoration in the 20th century, mainly the removal of accumulated earth and vegetation. Work was interrupted by the civil war and Khmer Rouge control of the country during the 1970s and 1980s, but relatively little damage was done during this period other than the theft and destruction of mostly post-Angkorian statues. The temple is a powerful symbol of Cambodia, and is a source of great national pride that has factored into Cambodia's diplomatic relations with France, the United States and its neighbor Thailand. A depiction of Angkor Wat has been a part of Cambodian national flags since the introduction of the first version circa 1863. From a larger historical and even transcultural perspective, however, the temple of Angkor Wat did not become a symbol of national pride sui generis but had been inscribed into a larger politico-cultural process of French-colonial heritage production in which the original temple site was presented in French colonial and universal exhibitions in Paris and Marseille between 1889 and 1937. Angkor Wat's aesthetics were also on display in the plaster cast museum of Louis Delaporte called musée Indo-chinois which existed in the Parisian Trocadero Palace from C. 1880 to the mid-1920s. The splendid artistic legacy of Angkor Wat and other Khmer monuments in the Angkor region led directly to France adopting Cambodia as a protectorate on 11 August 1863 and invading Siam to take control of the ruins. This quickly led to Cambodia reclaiming lands in the northwestern corner of the country that had been under Siamese (Thai) control since 1351 AD (Manich Jumsai 2001), or by some accounts, 1431 AD. Cambodia gained independence from France on 9 November 1953 and has controlled Angkor Wat since that time.

ARCHITECTURE

SITE AND PLAN

Angkor Wat, located at 13°24′45″N 103°52′0″E, is a unique combination of the temple mountain, the standard design for the empire's state temples and the later plan of concentric galleries. The temple is a representation of Mount Meru, the home of the gods: the central quincunx of towers symbolises the five peaks of the mountain, and the walls and moat the surrounding mountain ranges and ocean. Access to the upper areas of the temple was progressively more exclusive, with the laity being admitted only to the lowest level. Unlike most Khmer temples, Angkor Wat is oriented to the west rather than the east. This has led many (including Maurice Glaize and George Coedès) to conclude that Suryavarman intended it to serve as his funerary temple.Further evidence for this view is provided by the bas-reliefs, which proceed in a counter-clockwise direction - prasavya in Hindu terminology - as this is the reverse of the normal order. Rituals take place in reverse order during Brahminic funeral services. The archaeologist Charles Higham also describes a container which may have been a funerary jar which was recovered from the central tower. It has been nominated by some as the greatest expenditure of energy on the disposal of a corpse. Freeman and Jacques, however, note that several other temples of Angkor depart from the typical eastern orientation, and suggest that Angkor Wat's alignment was due to its dedication to Vishnu, who was associated with the west.

A further interpretation of Angkor Wat has been proposed by Eleanor Mannikka. Drawing on the temple's alignment and dimensions, and on the content and arrangement of the bas-reliefs, she argues that the structure represents a claimed new era of peace under King Suryavarman II: "as the measurements of solar and lunar time cycles were built into the sacred space of Angkor Wat, this divine mandate to rule was anchored to consecrated chambers and corridors meant to perpetuate the king's power and to honor and placate the deities manifest in the heavens above." Mannikka's suggestions have been received with a mixture of interest and scepticism in academic circles. She distances herself from the speculations of others, such as Graham Hancock, that Angkor Wat is part of a representation of the constellation Draco.

STYLE

Angkor Wat is the prime example of the classical style of Khmer architecture - the Angkor Wat style - to which it has given its name. By the 12th century Khmer architects had become skilled and confident in the use of sandstone (rather than brick or laterite) as the main building material. Most of the visible areas are of sandstone blocks, while laterite was used for the outer wall and for hidden structural parts. The binding agent used to join the blocks is yet to be identified, although natural resins or slaked lime has been suggested. The temple has drawn praise above all for the harmony of its design. According to Maurice Glaize, a mid-20th-century conservator of Angkor, the temple "attains a classic perfection by the restrained monumentality of its finely balanced elements and the precise arrangement of its proportions. It is a work of power, unity and style." Architecturally, the elements characteristic of the style include: the ogival, redented towers shaped like lotus buds; half-galleries to broaden passageways; axial galleries connecting enclosures; and the cruciform terraces which appear along the main axis of the temple. Typical decorative elements are devatas (or apsaras), bas-reliefs, and on pediments extensive garlands and narrative scenes. The statuary of Angkor Wat is considered conservative, being more static and less graceful than earlier work. Other elements of the design have been destroyed by looting and the passage of time, including gilded stucco on the towers, gilding on some figures on the bas-reliefs, and wooden ceiling panels and doors.

FEATURES

OUTER ENCLOSURE

The outer wall, 1024 by 802 m and 4.5 m high, is surrounded by a 30 m apron of open ground and a moat 190 m wide. Access to the temple is by an earth bank to the east and a sandstone causeway to the west; the latter, the main entrance, is a later addition, possibly replacing a wooden bridge. There are gopuras at each of the cardinal points; the western is by far the largest and has three ruined towers. Glaize notes that this gopura both hides and echoes the form of the temple proper. Under the southern tower is a statue of Vishnu, known as Ta Reach, which may originally have occupied the temple's central shrine. Galleries run between the towers and as far as two further entrances on either side of the gopura often referred to as "elephant gates", as they are large enough to admit those animals. These galleries have square pillars on the outer (west) side and a closed wall on the inner (east) side. The ceiling between the pillars is decorated with lotus rosettes; the west face of the wall with dancing figures; and the east face of the wall with balustered windows, dancing male figures on prancing animals, and devatas, including (south of the entrance) the only one in the temple to be showing her teeth. The outer wall encloses a space of 820,000 square metres, which besides the temple proper was originally occupied by the city and, to the north of the temple, the royal palace. Like all secular buildings of Angkor, these were built of perishable materials rather than of stone, so nothing remains of them except the outlines of some of the streets. Most of the area is now covered by forest. A 350 m causeway connects the western gopura to the temple proper, with naga balustrades and six sets of steps leading down to the city on either side. Each side also features a library with entrances at each cardinal point, in front of the third set of stairs from the entrance, and a pond between the library and the temple itself. The ponds are later additions to the design, as is the cruciform terrace guarded by lions connecting the causeway to the central structure.

CENTRAL STRUCTURE

The temple stands on a terrace raised higher than the city. It is made of three rectangular galleries rising to a central tower, each level higher than the last. Mannikka interprets these galleries as being dedicated to the king, Brahma, the moon, and Vishnu.

Each gallery has a gopura at each of the points, and the two inner galleries each have towers at their corners, forming a quincunx with the central tower. Because the temple faces west, the features are all set back towards the east, leaving more space to be filled in each enclosure and gallery on the west side; for the same reason the west-facing steps are shallower than those on the other sides.

The outer gallery measures 187 by 215 m, with pavilions rather than towers at the corners. The gallery is open to the outside of the temple, with columned half-galleries extending and buttressing the structure. Connecting the outer gallery to the second enclosure on the west side is a cruciform cloister called Preah Poan (the "Hall of a Thousand Gods"). Buddha images were left in the cloister by pilgrims over the centuries, although most have now been removed. This area has many inscriptions relating the good deeds of pilgrims, most written in Khmer but others in Burmese and Japanese. The four small courtyards marked out by the cloister may originally have been filled with water.

North and south of the cloister are libraries.

Beyond, the second and inner galleries are connected to each other and to two flanking libraries by another cruciform terrace, again a later addition. From the second level upwards, devatas abound on the walls, singly or in groups of up to four. The second-level enclosure is 100 by 115 m, and may originally have been flooded to represent the ocean around Mount Meru.

Three sets of steps on each side lead up to the corner towers and gopuras of the inner gallery. The very steep stairways represent the difficulty of ascending to the kingdom of the gods. This inner gallery, called the Bakan, is a 60 m square with axial galleries connecting each gopura with the central shrine, and subsidiary shrines located below the corner towers. The roofings of the galleries are decorated with the motif of the body of a snake ending in the heads of lions or garudas. Carved lintels and pediments decorate the entrances to the galleries and to the shrines. The tower above the central shrine rises 43 m to a height of 65 m above the ground; unlike those of previous temple mountains, the central tower is raised above the surrounding four. The shrine itself, originally occupied by a statue of Vishnu and open on each side, was walled in when the temple was converted to Theravada Buddhism, the new walls featuring standing Buddhas. In 1934, the conservator George Trouvé excavated the pit beneath the central shrine: filled with sand and water it had already been robbed of its treasure, but he did find a sacred foundation deposit of gold leaf two metres above ground level.

DECORATION

Integrated with the architecture of the building, and one of the causes for its fame is Angkor Wat's extensive decoration, which predominantly takes the form of bas-relief friezes. The inner walls of the outer gallery bear a series of large-scale scenes mainly depicting episodes from the Hindu epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Higham has called these, "the greatest known linear arrangement of stone carving".

From the north-west corner anti-clockwise, the western gallery shows the Battle of Lanka (from the Ramayana, in which Rama defeats Ravana) and the Battle of Kurukshetra (from the Mahabharata, showing the mutual annihilation of the Kaurava and Pandava clans). On the southern gallery follow the only historical scene, a procession of Suryavarman II, then the 32 hells and 37 heavens of Hindu mythology.

On the eastern gallery is one of the most celebrated scenes, the Churning of the Sea of Milk, showing 92 asuras and 88 devas using the serpent Vasuki to churn the sea under Vishnu's direction (Mannikka counts only 91 asuras, and explains the asymmetrical numbers as representing the number of days from the winter solstice to the spring equinox, and from the equinox to the summer solstice). It is followed by Vishnu defeating asuras (a 16th-century addition). The northern gallery shows Krishna's victory over Bana (where according to Glaize, "The workmanship is at its worst"). and a battle between the Hindu gods and asuras. The north-west and south-west corner pavilions both feature much smaller-scale scenes, some unidentified but most from the Ramayana or the life of Krishna. Angkor Wat is decorated with depictions of apsaras and devata; there are more than 1,796 depictions of devata in the present research inventory. Angkor Wat architects employed small apsara images (30–40 cm) as decorative motifs on pillars and walls. They incorporated larger devata images (all full-body portraits measuring approximately 95–110 cm) more prominently at every level of the temple from the entry pavilion to the tops of the high towers. In 1927, Sappho Marchal published a study cataloging the remarkable diversity of their hair, headdresses, garments, stance, jewelry and decorative flowers, which Marchal concluded were based on actual practices of the Angkor period.

CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES

The stones, as smooth as polished marble, were laid without mortar with very tight joints that are sometimes hard to find. The blocks were held together by mortise and tenon joints in some cases, while in others they used dovetails and gravity. The blocks were presumably put in place by a combination of elephants, coir ropes, pulleys and bamboo scaffolding. Henri Mouhot noted that most of the blocks had holes 2.5 cm in diameter and 3 cm deep, with more holes on the larger blocks. Some scholars have suggested that these were used to join them together with iron rods, but others claim they were used to hold temporary pegs to help manoeuvre them into place. The monument was made out of millions of tonnes of sandstone and it has a greater volume as well as mass than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. The Angkor Wat Temple consumes about 6 million to 10 million blocks of sandstone with an average weight of 1.5 tons each. In fact, the entire city of Angkor used up far greater amounts of stone than all the Egyptian pyramids combined, and occupied an area significantly greater than modern-day Paris. Moreover, unlike the Egyptian pyramids which use limestone quarried barely half a km away all the time, the entire city of Angkor was built with sandstone quarried 40 km (or more) away. This sandstone had to be transported from Mount Kulen, a quarry approximately 40 km to the northeast. The route has been suggested to span 35 kilometres along a canal towards Tonlé Sap lake, another 35 kilometres crossing the lake, and finally 15 kilometres upstream and against the current along Siem Reap River, making a total journey of 90 kilometres. However, Etsuo Uchida and Ichita Shimoda of Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan have discovered in 2012 a shorter 35-kilometre canal connecting Mount Kulen and Angkor Wat using satellite imagery. The two believe that the Khmer used this route instead.

Virtually all of its surfaces, columns, lintels even roofs are carved. There are miles of reliefs illustrating scenes from Indian literature including unicorns, griffins, winged dragons pulling chariots as well as warriors following an elephant-mounted leader and celestial dancing girls with elaborate hair styles. The gallery wall alone is decorated with almost 1000 square metres of bas reliefs. Holes on some of the Angkor walls indicate that they may have been decorated with bronze sheets. These were highly prized in ancient times and were a prime target for robbers. While excavating Khajuraho, Alex Evans, a stonemason and sculptor, recreated a stone sculpture under 1.2 m, this took about 60 days to carve. Roger Hopkins and Mark Lehner also conducted experiments to quarry limestone which took 12 quarrymen 22 days to quarry about 400 tons of stone. The labor force to quarry, transport, carve and install so much sandstone must have run into the thousands including many highly skilled artisans. The skills required to carve these sculptures were developed hundreds of years earlier, as demonstrated by some artifacts that have been dated to the seventh century, before the Khmer came to power.

ANGKOR WAT TODAY

The Archaeological Survey of India carried out restoration work on the temple between 1986 and 1992. Since the 1990s, Angkor Wat has seen continued conservation efforts and a massive increase in tourism. The temple is part of the Angkor World Heritage Site, established in 1992, which has provided some funding and has encouraged the Cambodian government to protect the site. The German Apsara Conservation Project (GACP) is working to protect the devatas and other bas-reliefs which decorate the temple from damage. The organisation's survey found that around 20% of the devatas were in very poor condition, mainly because of natural erosion and deterioration of the stone but in part also due to earlier restoration efforts. Other work involves the repair of collapsed sections of the structure, and prevention of further collapse: the west facade of the upper level, for example, has been buttressed by scaffolding since 2002, while a Japanese team completed restoration of the north library of the outer enclosure in 2005. World Monuments Fund began conservation work on the Churning of the Sea of Milk Gallery in 2008 after several years of conditions studies. The project restored the traditional Khmer roofing system and removed cement used in earlier restoration attempts that had resulted in salts entering the structure behind the bas-relief, discoloring and damaging the sculpted surfaces. The main phase of work ended in 2012, and the final component will be the installation of finials on the roof of the gallery in 2013. Microbial biofilms have been found degrading sandstone at Angkor Wat, Preah Khan, and the Bayon and West Prasat in Angkor. The dehydration and radiation resistant filamentous cyanobacteria can produce organic acids that degrade the stone. A dark filamentous fungus was found in internal and external Preah Khan samples, while the alga Trentepohlia was found only in samples taken from external, pink-stained stone at Preah Khan. Angkor Wat has become a major tourist destination. In 2004 and 2005, government figures suggest that, respectively, 561.000 and 677.000 foreign visitors arrived in Siem Reap province, approximately 50% of all foreign tourists in Cambodia for both years. The site has been managed by the private SOKIMEX group since 1990, which rented it from the Cambodian government. The influx of tourists has so far caused relatively little damage, other than some graffiti; ropes and wooden steps have been introduced to protect the bas-reliefs and floors, respectively. Tourism has also provided some additional funds for maintenance - as of 2000 approximately 28% of ticket revenues across the whole Angkor site was spent on the temples - although most work is carried out by foreign government-sponsored teams rather than by the Cambodian authorities. Since Angkor Wat has seen significant growth in tourism throughout the years UNESCO and its International Co-ordinating Committee for the Safeguarding and Development of the Historic Site of Angkor (ICC), in association with representatives from the Royal Government and APSARA, organized seminars to discuss the concept of "cultural tourism". Wanting to avoid commercial and mass tourism, the seminars emphasized the importance of providing high quality accommodation and services in order for the Cambodian government to benefit economically, while also incorporating the richness of Cambodian culture. In 2001, this incentive resulted in the concept of the "Angkor Tourist City" which would be developed with regard to traditional Khmer architecture, contain leisure and tourist facilities, and provide luxurious hotels capable of accommodating large amounts of tourists. The prospect of developing such large tourist accommodations has encountered concerns from both APSARA and the ICC, claiming that previous tourism developments in the area have neglected construction regulations and more of these projects have the potential to damage landscape features. Also, the large scale of these projects have begun to threaten the quality of the nearby town's water, sewage, and electricity systems. It has been noted that such high frequency of tourism and growing demand for quality accommodations in the area, such as the development of a large highway, has had a direct effect on the underground water table, subsequently straining the structural stability of the temples at Angkor Wat. Locals of Siem Reap have also voiced concern over the charming nature and atmosphere of their town being compromised in order to entertain tourism. Since this charming local atmosphere is the key component to projects like Angkor Tourist City, local officials continue to discuss how to successfully incorporate future tourism without sacrificing local values and culture. At the ASEAN Tourism Forum 2012, both parties have agreed Borobudur and Angkor Wat to become sister sites and the provinces will become sister provinces. Two Indonesian airlines are considering the opportunity to open a direct flight from Yogyakarta, Indonesia to Siem Reap.

WIKIPEDIA

Plain of Jars, Site 1 near Phonsovan in Laos.

The Plain of Jars (near Phonsovan) is a megalithic archaeological landscape in Laos. Scattered in the landscape of the Xieng Khouang plateau, Xieng Khouang, Lao PDR, are thousands of megalithic jars. These stone jars appear in clusters, ranging from a single or a few to several hundred jars at lower foothills surrounding the central plain and upland valleys.

The Xieng Khouang Plateau is located at the northern end of the Annamese Cordillera, the principal mountain range of Indochina. Initial research of the Plain of Jars in the early 1930s claimed that the stone jars are associated with prehistoric burial practices. Excavation by Lao and Japanese archaeologists in the intervening years has supported this interpretation with the discovery of human remains, burial goods and ceramics around the stone jars. The Plain of Jars is dated to the Iron Age (500 BC to AD 500) and is one of the most important sites for studying Southeast Asian prehistory. The Plain of Jars has the potential to shed light on the relationship between increasingly complex societies and megalithic structures and provide insight into social organisation of Iron Age Southeast Asia’s communities.

More than 90 sites are known within the province of Xieng Khouang. Each site ranges from 1 up to 400 stone jars. The jars vary in height and diameter between 1 and 3 metres and are all without exception hewn out of rock. The shape is cylindrical with the bottom always wider than the top. The stone jars are undecorated with the exception of a single jar at Site 1. This jar has a human bas-relief carved on the exterior. Parallels between this ‘frogman’ at Site 1 and the rock painting at Huashan in Guangxi, China have been drawn. The paintings, which depict large full-frontal humans with arms raised and knees bent, are dated to 500 BC - 200 AD .

From the fact that most of the jars have lip rims, it is presumed that all stone jars supported lids, although few stone lids have been recorded; this may suggest that the bulk of lids were fashioned from perishable materials. Stone lids with animal representations have been noticed at few sites such as Ban Phakeo (Site 52). The bas-relief animals are thought to be monkeys, tigers and frogs. No in situ lid has ever been found.

Cavendish Mews is a smart set of flats in Mayfair where flapper and modern woman, the Honourable Lettice Chetwynd has set up home after coming of age and gaining her allowance. To supplement her already generous allowance, and to break away from dependence upon her family, Lettice has established herself as a society interior designer, so her flat is decorated with a mixture of elegant antique Georgian pieces and modern Art Deco furnishings, using it as a showroom for what she can offer to her well heeled clients.

Lettice has spent the evening at one of London’s most exclusive and glamorous nightclubs, the Embassy Club on Bond Street: dining with friends the Honourable Gerald Bruton, Celia Beauchamp, Peter Bradley, Marguerite de Virre and Lettice’s older brother and heir to the pater’s title, lands and fortune, Leslie Chetwynd. After dinner, they danced into the wee hours of the morning to the wonderful music of Bert Ambrose and his Orchestra.

Letting herself in through the front door with her latch key, Lettice still tiptoes about like she did when she was younger and sneaking home to her parents’ Sloane Square terrace. She deposits her cape, gloves, compact and bandeau on one of her tub chairs in the drawing room before slipping quietly through the green baize door into the servant’s part of her flat. Now in lisle clad feet only, there is no need to tiptoe past Edith’s room, but old habits die hard as she trips lighly across the black and white cheque linoleum floor. However, once in the kitchen, Lettice throws on the lights and makes a clattering noise as she goes looking about for a milk pan, a teacup, saucer, plate, the Huntley and Palmer’s Empire Assorted, and her decadent nightcap, the Bournville Cocoa.

“Can I be of any help, Miss?” Edith yawns as she steps bleary eyed into the kitchen in her dressing gown with her hair in Kirby grips.

“Oh, I shouldn’t think so Edith,” Lettice replies nonchalantly, gasping with delight as she finds the milk bottle in the food safe in the corner of the kitchen. “Nanny Webster always said that making cocoa was an art.” Giggling she continues. “Wouldn’t pampered Marguerite and Celia die if they saw me trying to make my own cocoa!”

“Have you ever made cocoa before, Miss?” Edith asks, watching her mistress with her arms akimbo.

“Well… not exactly, Edith, but it can’t be that hard.” Lettice replies as she looks in a rather perplexed fashion at the pan, the canister of cocoa and the milk.

“Well, I’m up now Miss, so shall I make it for you?”

“Oh! Oh, would you Edith?” Lettice gasps in delight. Turning around she throws her arms around Edith’s neck, much to the other woman’s consternation, and beams one of her winning smiles. “Oh you are a brick! There’s nothing quite like a hot cocoa after a night out dancing to help settle one down.”

“And whilst I make it, you can tell me what you and your friends got up to tonight, Miss.”

Edith busies herself pouring the milk into the pan and setting it on the stove whilst Lettice sinks into the ladderback chair, the only chair, in the small kitchen.

“Well, darling Marguerite almost got to dance with the Prince of Wales tonight… almost,” Lettice begins as she nibbles delicately on a Huntley and Palmer’s Bourbon biscuit.

This year the FFF+ Group have decided to have a weekly challenge called “Snap Happy”. A different theme chosen by a member of the group each week, and the image is to be posted on the Monday of the week.

This week the theme, “drinks” was chosen by Di, PhotosbyDi.

As adults, when we think of drinks, alcohol often comes to mind first. However, when it’s bedtime, Lettice is right, a cup of rich chocolaty Bourneville cocoa is a decadent nightcap. Lettice’s well set out ingredient selection is a little different to what you might think, for it is made up entirely of 1:12 size dollhouse miniatures from my miniatures collection, some of which come from my own childhood.

Fun things to look for in this tableaux include:

The canister of Bournville Cocoa, which is a 1:12 artisan miniature from Small Wonders suppliers in England. Bournville is a brand of dark chocolate produced by Cadbury. It is named after the model village of the same name in Birmingham, England and was first sold in 1908. Bournville Cocoa was one of the products sold by Cadbury. The label on the canister is a transitional one used after the First World War and shared both the old fashioned Edwardian letter B and more modern 1920s lettering for the remainder of the name. The red of the lettering is pre-war whilst the orange and white a post-war change.

The Huntley and Palmer’s biscuit tin and Bourbon biscuits are also 1:12 artisan pieces. Huntley & Palmers is a British firm of biscuit makers originally based in Reading, Berkshire. The company created one of the world\'s first global brands and ran what was once the world\'s largest biscuit factory. Over the years, the company was also known as J. Huntley & Son and Huntley & Palmer. The Huntley and Palmer’s Empire Assorted tin featuring Boudicca upon it was first used during the Great War to stimulate nationalist fervour both in the trenches and on the home front. The design was so popular that it carried on through the 1920s.

Lettice’s cup, saucer and plate are from a beautiful artisan tea set featuring a rather avant-garde Art Deco Royal Doulton design from the Edwardian era.

The milk bottle, copper milk pan and spoon are also 1:12 size miniatures. The copper pan is made of real copper and is very heavy for its size!

The sink in the background has some interesting items on it. On the left hand draining board stands a box of Sunlight soap and a can of Vim, both cleaning essentials in any 1920s household. Vim scouring powder was created by William Hesketh Lever (1st Viscount Leverhulme) and introduced to the market in 1904. It was produced at Port Sunlight in Wirrel, Merseyside, a model village built by Lever Brothers for the workers of their factories which produced the popular soap brands Lux, Lifebuoy and Sunlight. Sunlight Soap was first introduced in 1884.

To the left of the sink is the food safe with a mop leaning against it. In the days before refrigeration, or when refrigeration was expensive, perishable foods such as meat, butter, milk and eggs were kept in a food safe. Winter was easier than summer to keep food fresh and butter coolers and shallow bowls of cold water were early ways to keep things like milk and butter cool. A food safe was a wooden cupboard with doors and sides open to the air apart from a covering of fine galvinised wire mesh. This allowed the air to circulate while keeping insects out. There was usually an upper and a lower compartment, normally lined with what was known as American cloth, a fabric with a glazed or varnished wipe-clean surface. Refrigerators, like washing machines were American inventions and were not commonplace in even wealthy upper-class households until well after the Second World War.

So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44)

I fell in love with that bible verse. I feel that it portrays what our family has been going through in the last 9 years. I am thinking to even getting a tattoo based on that verse. :)

Happy Sunday....

Textures by Flypaper and Les Brumes.

Plain of Jars, Site 1 near Phonsovan in Laos.

The Plain of Jars (near Phonsovan) is a megalithic archaeological landscape in Laos. Scattered in the landscape of the Xieng Khouang plateau, Xieng Khouang, Lao PDR, are thousands of megalithic jars. These stone jars appear in clusters, ranging from a single or a few to several hundred jars at lower foothills surrounding the central plain and upland valleys.

The Xieng Khouang Plateau is located at the northern end of the Annamese Cordillera, the principal mountain range of Indochina. Initial research of the Plain of Jars in the early 1930s claimed that the stone jars are associated with prehistoric burial practices. Excavation by Lao and Japanese archaeologists in the intervening years has supported this interpretation with the discovery of human remains, burial goods and ceramics around the stone jars. The Plain of Jars is dated to the Iron Age (500 BC to AD 500) and is one of the most important sites for studying Southeast Asian prehistory. The Plain of Jars has the potential to shed light on the relationship between increasingly complex societies and megalithic structures and provide insight into social organisation of Iron Age Southeast Asia’s communities.

More than 90 sites are known within the province of Xieng Khouang. Each site ranges from 1 up to 400 stone jars. The jars vary in height and diameter between 1 and 3 metres and are all without exception hewn out of rock. The shape is cylindrical with the bottom always wider than the top.[1] The stone jars are undecorated with the exception of a single jar at Site 1. This jar has a human bas-relief carved on the exterior. Parallels between this ‘frogman’ at Site 1 and the rock painting at Huashan in Guangxi, China have been drawn. The paintings, which depict large full-frontal humans with arms raised and knees bent, are dated to 500 BC - 200 AD .

From the fact that most of the jars have lip rims, it is presumed that all stone jars supported lids, although few stone lids have been recorded; this may suggest that the bulk of lids were fashioned from perishable materials. Stone lids with animal representations have been noticed at few sites such as Ban Phakeo (Site 52). The bas-relief animals are thought to be monkeys, tigers and frogs. No in situ lid has ever been found.

'Don't You Want Me' by The Human League was top of the charts when I took this picture of 50010 arriving at Plymouth with the 3S15 12.12 Penzance - Glasgow perishables usually consisting of cauliflowers, cabbages, potatoes plus some parcels. I must have been bored this day as I took four photos at the station with my cheapy Ektachrome camera using 110 film. Although there had been no snow in Devon, British Rail Western Region was still in chaos caused by deep snowfalls and freezing temperatures around Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, South Wales and the Midlands. Trains from London and the North were arriving over two hours late. With 46037 appearing on the 1M74 16.18 Plymouth - Birmingham I had a run off that to Exeter.

I was hoping to upload photos of tours operating this week of 50050 at Totnes and 50007 & 50049 at Teignmouth as I was scheduled to be working in these towns. Alas I've been re-allocated elsewhere to my annoyance so a grainy 50 photo from over forty years ago will have to suffice.

Pentax MZ-5n 6.8.16Film3 (5)

The westbound "Salad Shooter" from New York to California heads west towards Sherman Hill near Granite, WY. The train is running at restricted speed due to high winds on the hill. November 18, 2013.

Captain Steven J. Card

2003

Oil on Canvas

Monumental art in one of the stairwells of Holland-America Line's M/S Westerdam.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SS Westernland was a transatlantic ocean liner that was launched as Regina in Scotland in 1917, renamed Westernland in 1929 and was scrapped in 1947. She began her career as a troop ship repatriating US troops after the Armistice of 11 November 1918.

In the Second World War, Westernland served as a troop ship, repair ship and destroyer depot ship.

In her career of almost three decades she was registered in the United Kingdom, Germany and the Netherlands and passed through the hands of at least eight different owners and operators, including several notable transatlantic shipping lines and the Royal Navy.

Building

Dominion Line, a subsidiary of the International Mercantile Marine Company (IMM), ordered Regina in 1913.[1] Harland & Wolff built her on slip A in its Govan yard, launching her on 19 April 1917.[2] Her registered length was 575.3 ft (175.4 m), her beam was 67.8 ft (20.7 m) and her depth was 41.2 ft (12.6 m).[3]

Although designed as an ocean liner, in the First World War she was completed as a troop ship with an incomplete superstructure, only one funnel and only one mast. On 26 October Harland & Wolff delivered her to the IMM's British and North Atlantic Steam Navigation Company.[2][4] Her UK official number was 140596 and she was registered in Liverpool.[4]

Regina had three screws. A pair of four-cylinder triple-expansion steam engines drove her port and starboard screws. Exhaust steam from their low-pressure cylinders powered a low-pressure steam turbine that drove her middle screw.[3] Sources disagree as to the combined power of the three engines: one cites it as 9,460 ihp[5] and another cites it as 12,200 ihp.[2] Between them the three engines gave her a speed of 16 knots (30 km/h).[6]

Harland & Wolff's Belfast yard built two sister ships for IMM: Pittsburgh (later named Pennland), laid down in 1913 and launched in 1920,[7] and Doric, launched in 1922 and completed in 1923.[8] Doric differed from Regina and Pittsburgh by having twin screws and pure turbine propulsion.[9]

From December 1918 Regina sailed between Liverpool and Boston repatriating US troops and carrying emigrants.[1] In 1920 August 1920 Regina arrived at Harland & Wolff's Belfast yard for completion as an ocean liner. Her upper promenade deck, second funnel and second mast were added and berths for 2,300 passengers: 600 cabin-class and 1,700 third class.[2] Her holds also had 50,480 cubic feet (1,429 m3) of refrigerated space for perishable cargo.[10]

IMM transferred Regina to another of its subsidiaries, Frederick Leyland and Company. On 16 March 1922 began her first voyage for Leyland Line from Liverpool to Portland, Maine via Halifax, Nova Scotia. On 29 April she left Liverpool again, this time on her first voyage to Quebec and Montreal. She made her last Leyland Line voyage on this route in November 1925.[2]

Leyland Line chartered Regina to White Star Line. Her first voyage for White Star Line began on 12 December 1925 from Liverpool to New York via Halifax. In June 1926 she was refitted for White Star Line with accommodation for cabin class, tourist class and third class passengers. Her last White Star Line voyage was in November 1929 from Liverpool to Montreal via Belfast, Glasgow and Quebec.[2]

Westernland in civilian service Mid 1930–Early 1940

At the end of 1929 Red Star Line chartered 'S.S. Regina' and renamed her 'Westernland' .[3] Her first Red Star Line voyage began on 10 January 1930 from Antwerp to New York via Le Havre and Southampton. In 1934 IMM sold the Red Star Line to Arnold Bernstein.[11] Her last Red Star Line voyage for IMM was on the same route and began on 30 November that year.[2]

Bernstein registered Westernland in Hamburg[12] and had her refitted to carry 486 tourist class passengers. He route remained Antwerp – Southampton – New York. Her first Red Star voyage for Bernstein began on 29 March 1935, and her last began on 6 May 1939.[2]

In 1939 Nazi Germany exiled Bernstein, and his German businesses were dissolved. Holland America Line bought the Red Star Line fleet including Westernland,[13] which it registered in Rotterdam.[14] That June she resumed service on the Antwerp – Southampton – New York route.[2] On 15–18 October 1939 she was in Rotterdam, which was not one of her usual ports of call.[15]

On 10 April 1940 Westernland left Antwerp for New York as usual.[2] On 10 May Germany invaded the Netherlands and Belgium, and on the same day Westernland took refuge in Falmouth Bay.[15]

On 7 June 1940 Westernland left Falmouth Bay for Avonmouth. She shuttled between Avonmouth, Newport, Wales and Falmouth until 12 July. On 14 July Westernland reached Liverpool[15] – the same day as her sister Pennland reached Liverpool from Halifax in Convoy HX 54.[16]

On 31 August 1940 Westernland and Pennland left Liverpool under escort[15] as part of the task force for the capture of Dakar. Westernland carried the Free French General Charles de Gaulle[17] and reached Freetown in Sierra Leone on 20 September.[15]

On 25 October 1940 Westernland left Freetown. She called at Takoradi on the Gold Coast and continued via Cape Town to Durban, where she arrived on 15 November.

She spent most of the next 10 months as a troopship in the Indian Ocean, visiting Mombasa, Bombay, Suez, Colombo, Aden, Port Sudan, Massawa, Singapore, Fremantle and Sydney.[15] When laden, Westernland carried more than 2,000 troops. The highest number recorded was 2,866 from Aden to Colombo in March 1942.[18]

On 30 September 1942 Westernland left Durban and the Indian Ocean. She called at Cape Town, Pernambuco and Hampton Roads, and reached New York on 13 November.[15] In November 1942 the Admiralty bought Westernland and had her converted into a repair ship. Her pennant number was F 87.[2]

In December 1942 Westernland returned to Britain with Convoy HX 219.[15] In January 1943 she was converted again, into a destroyer depot ship.[19]

Fate 1945–1947

In 1945 Westernland was transferred to the Ministry of War Transport, who contracted Cunard-White Star Line to manage her. In October 1946 the South Georgia Company bought her, intended to have her converted into a whaling factory ship, and contracted Christian Salvesen to manage her.[5]

However, the South Georgia Company abandoned its plan, and instead sold Westernland to Hughes, Bolckow and Company for scrap. On 1 August 1947 she arrived at Blyth, Northumberland to be broken up.[5]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Westernland

In long term ownership, since 1998. Registered 11 days before my one, surprisingly it's also done a higher mileage too. All the recent MOTs have had no major fails, just perishable items.

I still maintain that ZXs are one of the best 90s everyday cars still in reasonably easy to come by numbers. Mine has done 2000 miles in just over 2 months and hasn't once let me down.

October 15, 1977. one of the Northern Pacific's "Conditionaire" covered hoppers. They were equipped with mechanical refrigeration and sprayed with insulation. They were used to keep perishable foods temperature controlled all year long

Carta (Sibiu County): Cistercian monastery

The city and monastery of Carta are located 43 km from Sibiu on the road to Brasov. Here are preserved the ruins of the Cistercian monastery, one of the oldest and most important monuments of the primitive Gothic church in Transylvania. The Cistercians are a monastic order originating in France and widespread in several countries.

The Carta Cistercian Abbey played a major role in the political, economic and cultural history of medieval Transylvania, as well as in the introduction but also in the dissemination of Gothic art in the inter-Carpathian space.

The monastery was founded in the years 1205-1206 by King Andrew II of Hungary.

The beginnings of the monastery are confirmed with the erection of its first buildings, used, as the Cistercians used it, from perishable materials, that is to say wood. These can be dated with relative certainty between the years 1205-1206.

The stone parts of the monastery will be erected between the years 1220 and the end of 1230. The construction of the monastery was carried out in two main phases of execution, chronologically interrupted by the great Tatar invasion of 1241.

In the first phase of construction, which has stylistic characteristics dependent on the late Romanesque, the general plan of the monastery was drawn, the walls delimiting its inner courtyard being raised to a height of 3-4m above the ground.

In 1260, after the assassination caused by the Mongol invasion in the spring of 1241, construction work will resume under the direction of a new architect, trained in the environment of mature Gothic, and with the contribution of a workshop of stone with an eclectic structure.

By 1300, the church and the eastern wing of the Charter Monastery were completed, with the completion and construction of the southern wing of the abbey continuing for approximately two decades.

The fierce struggles with the Ottomans from 1421 to 1432 and the decline of the order made the church and its monastery a ruin. This also led to its closure by King Mathias Corvin in 1474.

However, the west facade is still standing and above the Gothic portal is a large rose window. The tower attached to the facade was built later, in the middle of the 15th century, and its transformation into a bell tower took place later.

Currently, the monastery no longer has all the original buildings and annexes, many of which collapse. The vaults of the huge church have collapsed and there are only a few exterior walls and two interior beams (south and north). To the south, there is still a single Roman column, and the side ships, according to the Cistercian plan, end in a small square choir. The main ship no longer has a ceiling - in its place is a cemetery in memory of the German soldiers killed in the First World War.

The Reformed Church today occupies only the choir and the apse of the old basilica. The Gothic portal has probably been moved from a side entrance and its profile betrays Gothic influences.

Numerous examples of the tombs of the founders of Cistercian churches allow the existence of a royal necropolis under Carta.

2021

Koyambedu Wholesale Market Complex, Koyambedu District, Chennai, India; one of Asia's largest (14.41 acres) perishable goods markets (fruits, vegetables, flowers).

©2013 Patrick J Bayens

Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM

The Normanton Railway Terminus:

The railway complex at Normanton consists of the major buildings of an important inland railway terminus connecting this port with the goldfield at Croydon.

A railway line between Normanton and Cloncurry had been discussed as early as 1883 and was approved by Parliament in 1886. This was a difficult stretch for carriers and a rail link would have been valuable to pastoral stations in the area and would also have served the Cloncurry Copper Mine. It was at the time intended to eventually link the new line with the Great Northern Railway connecting Charters Towers and the important port of Townsville. However, in November 1885 a major gold strike was reported at Belmore Station, 145 km east of Normanton and by the end of 1886 the population of the Croydon field was 2000 and 6000 in the following year. Transportation was a major problem and access to this field became more important than the link to Cloncurry. It was decided to divert the line to Croydon. Tenders were called in July 1887 and the first section to Haydon began in May 1888. The work was designed and supervised by George Phillips and this section opened on 7 May 1889. The current route of the line was finalised in 1889 and reached Croydon on 7 July 1891, opening on the 20 July.

In 1867 Phillips had taken part in the exploration of the country around Normanton with William Landsborough, working for him a surveyor. Soon afterwards, he surveyed the area chosen as a port to become the town of Normanton. The country was difficult for conventional railway tracks due to flooding, lack of suitable timber and voracious termites. In 1884 Phillips patented a system for taking railways across such country which utilised special U section steel sleepers laid directly on the ground. During floods the line could be submerged without washing out the ballast and embankments normally used, so that it could quickly be put back into service when the waters subsided. The steel sleepers were also impervious to termite attack, and although initially more expensive than timber sleepers, were cheaper to lay and maintain. It was this system that was specified for the Normanton to Croydon line and Phillips was engaged to supervise the construction. After the railway was completed he maintained an interest in the area, serving as MLA for Carpentaria, inspecting artesian bores and writing a report on ports and railways in 1909.

The station building and carriage shade were designed under Phillips direction by James Gartside, a draftsman for the department. and were built about 1889. The line was opened in 1891. At its peak, the complex at Normanton consisted of a station building containing a telegraph office, station master's and traffic manager's offices, clerks' room, waiting room, parcels and cloak room, booking office, and a ladies' room with a ramp to ladies-only earth closets. Attached to the station building, and sheltering the platform and three tracks, was an arcaded carriage shade with a curved roof .

The terminus also had a large goods shed with a crane and because the line was isolated, a workshop area comprising a maintenance store, suspense stores, a timber shed, tanks, locomotive store, fitting shop, carpenter's and blacksmith's shops, timber shed, gantry and engine shed.. There was also a horse and carriage dock, porters' and lamp rooms, closets, and a tool house nearby. Residences for the station master, enginemen and guard were located south-east of Landsborough St. The traffic manager's house and stables adjoined where the wharf line departed for the Margaret and Jane landing on the Norman River.

The goldfield at Croydon did not sustain its initial success. By the early 1900s its output had dropped considerably and after WWI when widespread mining diminished, it was obvious that the field would not recover. Traffic on the line was never high and steadily declined, although its value as a community service and a vital link during the wet season kept the line open. This was because the Phillips system worked well and the track could be put back into use almost immediately after flooding, whereas roads stayed impassable for much longer. Fortunately, the track took less maintenance than standard track because in the early 1920s the number of services and staff were considerably reduced. In the 1930s, all weather roads made the railway less important, but until the late 1960s the rail remained a vital transport link in the area. The terminus now functions largely as a tourist attraction. One railmotor was restored and named the 'Gulflander' in 1978.

Although the line initially used steam locomotives, supplying enough suitable water for them locomotives was a problem from the beginning on this line and trains eventually carried water trucks. Railmotors were also more economical to run, so in 1922 the first railmotor, a Panhard, was tried on this route. In 1929 steam locomotives were discontinued and railmotors only were used. Diesel locomotives supplemented these in the 1980s.

Some of the working buildings at the terminus deteriorated and were removed including the workshops, carpenters and blacksmiths, though the sites can be still plainly seen.

The Normanton to Croydon Railway Line:

The railway line linking Normanton to Croydon was built between 1888 and 1891 and is the last isolated line of Queensland Rail still in use. It utilised an innovative system of submersible track with patented steel sleepers and retains buildings of considerable architectural and technical interest at its terminus in Normanton.

In 1867 William Landsborough investigated the Norman River area to select a port site to serve the pastoral stations south of the Gulf of Carpentaria. With him was George Phillips who shortly thereafter surveyed the chosen site of Normanton. Phillips later supervised the construction of the Normanton to Croydon Railway, and retained an interest in the area, serving as MLA for Carpentaria in the 1890s.

A railway line between Normanton and Cloncurry had been discussed as early as 1883 and was approved by Parliament in 1886. This was a difficult stretch for carriers and a rail link would have been valuable to pastoral stations in the area and was planned to serve the Cloncurry Copper Mine. It was at the time intended to eventually link the new line with the Great Northern Railway connecting Charters Towers and the important port of Townsville. However, in November 1885 a major gold strike was reported at Belmore Station, 145 km east of Normanton and by the end of 1886 the population of the Croydon field was 2000, rising to 6000 in the following year. Transportation was a major problem and access to this field became more important than the link to Cloncurry. It was decided to divert the line to Croydon.

The line was technically innovative, in response to the terrain and conditions. The country was flat but difficult for conventional railway tracks due to flooding, lack of suitable timber for sleepers and termite attack. In 1884 Phillips patented a system for taking railways across such country which utilised special U section steel sleepers laid directly on the ground. During floods the line could be submerged without washing out the ballast and embankments normally used, so that it could quickly be put back into service when the waters subsided. The steel sleepers were also impervious to termite attack, and although initially more expensive than timber sleepers, were cheaper to lay and maintain. The bridges along the line were also designed to be submersible. This system was particularly suited to the Gulf country and was specified for the Normanton to Croydon line with Phillips engaged to supervise the construction. Tenders were called in July 1887 and the first section to Haydon began in May 1888. The first line laid was between the Normanton station site and the Margaret and Jane landing at Normanton wharf in order to bring materials from ships to the terminal site. This line has not survived.

Some problems were encountered with constructing the line because of the difficulty of maintaining a constant and adequate supply of Phillips sleepers. They were cast at the Toowoomba Foundry at Woolloongabba in Brisbane and also in Glasgow, but in order to keep construction going, timber sleepers were used on some sections and timber was also used for some bridges, originally designed to be made of steel.

The construction method involved clearing a three metre wide band ahead of the rail which was stumped, ploughed, harrowed, rolled and lightly ballasted. The U shaped sleepers were then laid on this prepared surface and the rail attached to them by special clips. The construction train then passed over them forcing the U shape down into the ground and depressing the sleepers for above half their depth. Soft spots were then packed. The finished rails were intended to be 25 to 50 mm above the surface. However, in practice the sleepers became more deeply embedded with time. The first section of 61km to Haydon was opened in May 1889, then to Patterson's (Blackbull) in December 1890, and to Croydon in July 1891.

The buildings for the terminus at Normanton consisted of a station with a large arched carriage shade and a goods shed, all constructed of corrugated iron on timber frames, although the framework for the station building was used to considerable decorative effect. Because the line was isolated, a range of maintenance buildings and facilities such as machine shops, blacksmith and carpenters shops were added over the next few years. At the other end of the line, Croydon had more modest goods and locomotive sheds and a station with a roofed section over 2 tracks. In 1895, a railway water reserve was proclaimed on the flooded Bird-in-the-Bush shaft on True Blue Hill at Croydon.

Most of the timber sleepers on the line were soon replaced because of termite damage, although one section over salt pan used timber rather than metal to prevent corrosion. A number of low level bridges form an important part of this line and were also intended to be metal. In 1900 two bridges at Glenore Crossing which had been built in timber in 1890 were replaced by low level concrete and steel bridges. That at Glenore Crossing number 3 reused fishbelly plate girders from the original 1876 Albert Bridge in Brisbane as main spans. Original metal and concrete bridges survive and those at 80 Mile Creek and Belmore Creek at Croydon are good examples of their type.

Initially the line carried perishables, mail and passengers, and goods like building materials and merchandise. It also ferried firewood for mine boilers and batteries as the land was progressively cleared. During the late 1890s special trains were run for picnics at most of the water holes along the line, particularly the Blackbull lagoon and weekend excursions from Normanton to Croydon or Golden Gate. The Golden Gate mine, some 4 miles west of Croydon and on the railway line, was first mined in 1887. It enjoyed prosperity from about 1895 to 1901, and the Golden Gate township itself had 1500 inhabitants. A service between Croydon and Golden Gate on the weekends was introduced in 1902.

However, the goldfield at Croydon did not sustain its initial success. By the early 1900s its output had dropped considerably and after WWI when widespread mining diminished, it was obvious that the field would not recover. The railway had only run at a profit between 1898 and 1902 and traffic, never high, steadily declined. The line stayed open as a community service and as a vital link during the wet season. This was largely because the Phillips system worked well and the track could be put back into use almost immediately after flooding, whereas roads stayed impassable for much longer. Fortunately, the track took less maintenance than standard track because in the early 1920s the number of staff was considerably reduced. To cut costs, and because the supply of suitable water had always been a problem, the first railmotor, a Panhard, was introduced in 1922. By 1929 steam trains had been completely phased out. In the 1930s, all-weather roads made the railway less important, but until the late 1960s the rail remained a vital transport link in the area. The terminus now functions largely as a tourist attraction. One railmotor was restored and named the 'Gulflander' in 1978 and a railmotor now makes a weekly trip hauling carriages and a flat top wagon for passengers' cars. In the wet season it also carries freight when the roads are cut. Stops are at Clarina (11 miles), Glenore (14m), Haydon (40m), RM Stop No1 (49m), Blackbull (56m), and on to Croydon (94m). There is often also a photo stop at the remains of the Golden Gate mine (92m).

Not all of the buildings have survived; the station at Croydon being destroyed by a storm in 1969. The tank there was demolished in 1972, that at Haydon in 1980, and the blacksmiths shop and workshops in Normanton were sold and demolished in 1980.

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

My favourite salad bowl broke all of its own accord. After the photo I superglued it back together; I'll surely find a second life for it.

Here is a poem about broken things by Pablo Neruda:

Things get broken

at home

like they were pushed

by an invisible, deliberate smasher.

It's not my hands

or yours

It wasn't the girls

with their hard fingernails

or the motion of the planet.

It wasn't anything or anybody

It wasn't the wind

It wasn't the orange-colored noontime

Or night over the earth

It wasn't even the nose or the elbow

Or the hips getting bigger

or the ankle

or the air.

The plate broke, the lamp fell

All the flower pots tumbled over

one by one. That pot

which overflowed with scarlet

in the middle of October,

it got tired from all the violets

and another empty one

rolled round and round and round

all through winter

until it was only the powder

of a flowerpot,

a broken memory, shining dust.

but which got broken anyway

"This Saturday, May 12, US letter carriers pick up donations of food that people have set out by their mailboxes. These donations are brought back to the Post Office and loaded unto trucks provided by local food pantries."

"Sixteen percent of all Americans are at risk of hunger—uncertain where their next meal may be coming from. That includes 1 in 5 children under the age of 18, plus 4 million seniors who are forced every day to choose between paying a utility bill and buying food."

(nalc.org)

Be sure to set out your non-perishable food-including pet food-near your mailbox so letter carriers like my hubby can help feed the hungry!

*I'd love to see my Flickr friends post images of food to remind others of the NALC Food Drive*

Facebook ♦ Twitter ♦ Pinterest ♦ Instagram ♦ 500px ♦ Website

The concept translates into the archetypical lighthouse conical shape, reduced to its simplest expression and conformed to the lifeguard stand proportions and wrapped in aged wood. The Beacon will act as a temporary drop-off location for non-perishable items such as canned food or clothes.

Building upon last year’s participation from OCAD, Ryerson University and Laurentian University, 2017 sees teams from three schools submitting design concepts; University of Waterloo, University of Toronto and Humber College School of Media Studies & IT, School of Applied Technology. Source:https://www.canadianarchitect.com/exhibitions-installations/winter-stations-2017/1003737469/

CRYO-TRANS

Benched in Southern California

4052 Princess Beatrice was an 84G Shrewsbury based locomotive. The GWR Star class machine is in deplorable external condition as stands is under the roof at the west end of Shrewsbury station. The lamp code tells us it is at the head of a class C parcels/perishables vacuum braked train.

4052 was a Churchward Star class 4-6-0, it entered traffic in June 1914 the loco had a fairly quiet life being allocated to Worcester twice, Hereford, and finally Shrewsbury, she was scrapped at Swindon Works in June 1953.

Peter Shoesmith 25/08/1952.

This is a re-scan of one of Peter's 33mm square negs, it is better, really...

Copyright John Whitehouse & Geoff Dowling: All rights reserved

Carta (Sibiu County): Cistercian monastery

The city and monastery of Carta are located 43 km from Sibiu on the road to Brasov. Here are preserved the ruins of the Cistercian monastery, one of the oldest and most important monuments of the primitive Gothic church in Transylvania. The Cistercians are a monastic order originating in France and widespread in several countries.

The Carta Cistercian Abbey played a major role in the political, economic and cultural history of medieval Transylvania, as well as in the introduction but also in the dissemination of Gothic art in the inter-Carpathian space.

The monastery was founded in the years 1205-1206 by King Andrew II of Hungary.

The beginnings of the monastery are confirmed with the erection of its first buildings, used, as the Cistercians used it, from perishable materials, that is to say wood. These can be dated with relative certainty between the years 1205-1206.

The stone parts of the monastery will be erected between the years 1220 and the end of 1230. The construction of the monastery was carried out in two main phases of execution, chronologically interrupted by the great Tatar invasion of 1241.

In the first phase of construction, which has stylistic characteristics dependent on the late Romanesque, the general plan of the monastery was drawn, the walls delimiting its inner courtyard being raised to a height of 3-4m above the ground.

In 1260, after the assassination caused by the Mongol invasion in the spring of 1241, construction work will resume under the direction of a new architect, trained in the environment of mature Gothic, and with the contribution of a workshop of stone with an eclectic structure.

By 1300, the church and the eastern wing of the Charter Monastery were completed, with the completion and construction of the southern wing of the abbey continuing for approximately two decades.

The fierce struggles with the Ottomans from 1421 to 1432 and the decline of the order made the church and its monastery a ruin. This also led to its closure by King Mathias Corvin in 1474.

However, the west facade is still standing and above the Gothic portal is a large rose window. The tower attached to the facade was built later, in the middle of the 15th century, and its transformation into a bell tower took place later.

Currently, the monastery no longer has all the original buildings and annexes, many of which collapse. The vaults of the huge church have collapsed and there are only a few exterior walls and two interior beams (south and north). To the south, there is still a single Roman column, and the side ships, according to the Cistercian plan, end in a small square choir. The main ship no longer has a ceiling - in its place is a cemetery in memory of the German soldiers killed in the First World War.

The Reformed Church today occupies only the choir and the apse of the old basilica. The Gothic portal has probably been moved from a side entrance and its profile betrays Gothic influences.

Numerous examples of the tombs of the founders of Cistercian churches allow the existence of a royal necropolis under Carta.

Seen at Elitch Gardens Amusement Park

2000 Elitch Circle

Denver, Colorado. USA.

July 19, 2008

Divco

From Wikipedia ;

Divco was a brand name of delivery trucks built and marketed in the United States. Divco is an acronym which stands for Detroit Industrial Vehicles COmpany. Divco became known for its multi-stop delivery trucks, particularly in use as home delivery vehicles by dairy producers. From 1926 until 1986, Divco produced trucks of various sizes and job descriptions.

History

The chief engineer of the Detroit Electric Vehicle Company, George Bacon, suggested using a gasoline engine for their line of delivery vehicles to overcome limits on their range and performance in cold weather. Because his bosses refused, Bacon left the company and with a group of investors, established the Detroit Industrial Vehicle Company in 1926.

The first Divco "Model A" were boxy, practical vehicles. High organizational costs meant the company went through a reorganization in 1927. In 1928, a larger, more conventional "Model G" was introduced that evolved into the "Model S" that was manufactured into the 1930s.

During the Great Depression the company was bought out by Continental Motors Company, which supplied most of the engines installed in Divco trucks, and then spun off from Continental in 1936 to be acquired by Twin Coach, thus becoming "Divco-Twin." A new design was introduced in 1937 featuring a welded all-steel van body and a snub-nosed hood, a model that was manufactured with almost no changes up to the end of the line in 1986. Along with the new "Model U", the company built a new production facility on the outskirts of Detroit.

With most Divco trucks, controls allowed driving while standing, including throttle and brake mounted on the steering column. The early models were not refrigerated, with perishable loads such as milk crates loaded and then covered with ice — making the trucks prone to rust from the inside out.

The company marketed to fleet buyers promoting their trucks as "a bigger value when you buy, produces more profit in your delivery operation, is worth more when you trade."

In 1957, Divco merged with the Wayne Works in Richmond, Indiana, to form Divco-Wayne. During the Divco-Wayne era, some Divco trucks were modified with seats and windows from the Wayne Works to produce a Divco Dividend Bus. Very few of these units were built between 1959 and 1961.

The truck manufacturing of Divco-Wayne continued to be through the Divco portion. Divco was spun off from the company in 1968, and production was moved from Detroit to Delaware, Ohio, in 1969. Production ended in 1986.

Wayne continued manufacturing buses until bankruptcy and liquidation in 1992.

One of the first signs of winter, aside from holiday lights, is roasted chestnuts sold on city streets. Slowly roasted, the chestnut, which is more like a starch than a nut, makes the perfect sweet and savory snack. Plus it’s healthy: low in fat and calories; full of fiber, calcium, and vitamin C.

Since chestnuts are highly perishable, they need to be eaten soon after purchasing them, and they should be stored in a breathable bag in the refrigerator.

1 Corinthians 15 53: English version (+ continuation, which makes it a bit more hopeful) below:

53For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory."

The night closes in as 50003 Temeraire awaits departure from Teignmouth with the 18:45 Penzance Paddington 'up Perishables' of 21st July 1985. Holidays at this time were always spent chasing the Class 50s, staying in either Teignmouth or Exeter. Seeing this working was the last picture of the day before retiring to the B&B for a nightcap! That summer I was anxiously awaiting A level results, the Class 50s provided a very nice distraction.

M40 near Gaydon 12/03/2022

Picture of one of the biggest perishable market in Asia.

"Das Buddhistische Haus", built 1923-1926;

Edelhofdamm 54

The Buddhist house, is a Theravada Buddhist temple complex (Vihara) in Frohnau, Berlin. It is considered to be the oldest and largest Theravada Buddhist center in Europe.

Entering the Elephant Door the visitor faces 73 steps up to reach the main building. The stair symbolizes the Buddha's Noble Eightfold Path to salvation from the suffering of the perishability.

Back corner of the perishables/grand aisle at Whole Foods Market in east Memphis.

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Whole Foods Market, 1963-built (as Fred Montesi Grocery), Poplar Ave. near White Station Rd., Memphis

PLEASE, no multi invitations, glitters or self promotion in your comments. My photos are FREE for anyone to use, just give me credit and it would be nice if you let me know, thanks - NONE OF MY PICTURES ARE HDR.

The present lighthouse has been in operation since 1884. This was the rear range light for the harbour, the front range light is no longer there. The lighthouse is white tapered wooden tower, with a red lantern. It was a guide for coastal steamers transporting non-perishable goods into the only protected harbour on the western side of Cape Breton Island. Over the years gypsum was shipped from here, there was also a lobster and salmon canning factory right next to the lighthouse.

Tower Height: 14.3meters (47ft)

Light Height: 13.4 meters (44ft) above water level

Anemone hybride ' Pamina' .

One of several temporary art installations for the Vancouver 2014-2016 Biennale. A sculpture by Canadian artist Cosimo Cavallaro.

The sculpture is located in Charleson Park on the south side of False Creek in Vancouver BC. This is the 3rd Biennale exhibition in Vancouver. This exhibition is titled "Open Boarders / Crossroads Vancouver".

“The sculptures in Love Your Beans break the boundaries that exist between objects and humans. They compel one to touch them, crossing borders when you allow yourself to be led by your senses. Love Your Beans is a simple shape that is easily understood as a womb, a place of comfort one seeks solace. Open borders is an acceptance of ones self, allowing yourself to exist without judgement.” - Cosimo Cavallaro

According to Cavallaro, the bean is the truest shape to create, a shape that comes about naturally through process. Unlike a perfect circle that can be traced, a bean is an organic shape, one that cannot be duplicated and one that changes with each person that creates it.

Love Your Beans comes as a turning point for Cavallaro. Opposed to the idea of creating lasting artworks, Cavallaro chose to work with perishables (Cheese Room, Chocolate Jesus) and found unexpected beauty in the process of destruction. Working in this medium for many years, Cavallaro experienced a sudden shift in perspective, as he realised he had no more anger to express.

Cavallaro, driven to produce art that speaks truth, recognized how easy it is to work within certain patterns. The artist moved away from the familiar theme of destruction, venturing towards the foreign theme of love and the playful nature of Jelly Beans.

“… the pop conceit of their deliberately super-sweet connotation allows them to transcend both their medium and the pop culture box, rising into whichever cortex of our brain houses the perfect combination of oral and visual desire. It’s enough to make your mouth, if not your eyes water” – MS, ArtScene

Medium: Fiberglass Resin

Size: 122 cm x 18 cm x 274 cm each

Weight: 320 kg each

Open Borders / Crossroads Vancouver:

The 3rd Vancouver Biennale exhibition began Spring 2014. We’re expanding to new cities, broadening our program to include a wider range of artistic disciplines, and inviting an unprecedented mix of famous and emerging artists from around the world to participate in a two-year celebration of great contemporary art, freely accessible to people where they live, work, play and transit.

The curatorial theme of the exhibition is Open Borders / Crossroads Vancouver. Unique in the world for its natural beauty, Vancouver becomes the international hub where artists from all nations, cultural backgrounds, political histories and artistic disciplines gather to celebrate art in public space. Together we inspire creativity, transform thinking and find our interconnectedness as global citizens through art.

The 2014 – 2016 Vancouver Biennale will feature diverse works by both breakthrough and established artists, in keeping with the theme Open Borders / Crossroads Vancouver. The 2014 – 2016 participants include globally-recognized figures ranging from Ai Weiwei, Vik Muniz, Andy Goldsworthy to Os Gêmeos.

Seen today on our cruise to Baltimore harbor with friends.

About the Ship

Lady Maryland is a Chesapeake Bay pungy schooner. Pungy schooners, designed to carry perishable cargo, such as produce from the Eastern Shore west across the Bay or pineapples from Bermuda to Baltimore, evolved from the fast, maneuverable Chesapeake pilot schooners of the 1700s. The first pungies were built in the mid-1800s and plied the Bay until the early 1900s. By the 1950s, there were no pungies on the Bay or in the world. When Lady Maryland was built in 1986, she became the first and only pungy schooner in existence since the 1950s, and she remains the only pungy in the world today. She is painted in the traditional pungy paint scheme of pink and green. The origins of this paint scheme are unknown, but one theory is that since the pungies transported produce, they were painted the colors of a watermelon as an advertising scheme.

My maternal grandfather's family were Chesapeake Bay watermen from St George Island and owned a pungy that was used as a "buy boat" that would buy the catch from local oyster tongers and take it to Baltimore to market. The pungy could hold 1,000 bushels of oysters. Sadly, the oysters have all but disappeared from the bay due to over-fishing, pollution and disease.

Read more about her here

livingclassrooms.org/lady_maryland_facts.php

Perishability in a photograph is important in a picture. If a photograph looks perishable we say, " I'm glad I have that moment."

Models:

photographer :sis ^^ The model: Dany

.... First Lutheran has opened a Little Free Pantry in front of the church on the north-east corner, open 24/7. People can take what they need or donate non-perishable food items to help keep the pantry stocked. The project's goal is to enhance food security in the Bond Street and Ryerson University neighborhood and help build a caring and supportive community ....

In a certain sense, Adam's sin was a sin arising from inquisitiveness, if such an expression be admissible. Originally, Adam saw contingencies in the aspect of their relationship to God and not as independent entities. Anything that is considered in that relationship is beyond the reach of evil; but the desire to see contingency as it is in itself is a desire to see evil; it is also a desire to see good as something contrary to evil. As a result of this sin of inquisitiveness - Adam wanted to see the "other side" of contingency - Adam himself and the whole world fell into contingency as such; the link with the divine Source was broken and became invisible; the world became suddenly external to Adam, things became opaque and heavy, they became like unintelligible and hostile fragments. This drama is always repeating itself anew, in collective history as well as in the life of individuals.

A meaningless knowledge, a knowledge to which we have no right either by virtue of its nature, or of our capacities, and therefore by virtue of our vocation, is not a knowledge that enriches, but one that impoverishes. Adam had become poor after having acquired knowledge of contingency as such, or of contingency in so far as it limits. We must distrust the fascination which an abyss can exert over us; it is in the nature of cosmic blind-alleys to seduce and to play the vampire; the current of forms does not want us to escape from its hold.

Forms can be snares just as they can be symbols and keys; beauty can chain us to forms, just as it can also be a door opening towards the formless.

Or again, from a slightly different point of view: the sin of Adam consists in effect of having wished to superimpose something on existence, and existence was beatitude; Adam thereby lost this beatitude and was engulfed in the anxious and deceptive turmoil of superfluous things.

Instead of reposing in the immutable purity of Existence, fallen man is drawn into the dance of things that exist, and they, being accidents, are delusive and perishable.

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Frithjof Schuon

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Quoted in: The Essential Frithjof Schuon (edited by Seyyed Hossein Nasr)

Perishables/grand aisle at the east Memphis Whole Foods Market.

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Whole Foods Market, 1963-built (as Fred Montesi Grocery), Poplar Ave. near White Station Rd., Memphis

Ambona w Kościele Pokoju, Świdnica, 15 sierpnia 2013 r.

Zgoda dla luteran na budowę Kościołów Pokoju ograniczona była wieloma warunkami:

kościół musiał być lokowany poza murami miasta, oddalony od nich na odległość strzału armatniego, nie mógł mieć dzwonnicy, nie mógł posiadać szkoły parafialnej, nie mógł mieć bryły przypominającej kościół, musiał być zbudowany z materiałów nietrwałych (drewna, słomy, piasku, gliny), okres budowy nie mógł przekroczyć 1 roku.

**

Pulpit inside the Church of Peace, Świdnica, August 15, 2013

The approval for Lutherans for building the Churches of Peace was limited with several conditions: the church had to be located outside town walls, in the distance of a cannon shot, without a bell tower, without a parish school, outside appearance had to be unlike a church, had to be built of perishable materials (wood, straw, sand, clay) and the time of construction had to be below one year.

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All photographs present here are exclusive property of Ankur Bhushan and may not be copied, downloaded, reproduced, transmitted, manipulated or used in any way without expressed, written permission from Ankur Bhushan. Copyright infringement is punishable by law and is strictly enforced.

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Plain of Jars, Site 1 near Phonsovan in Laos.

The Plain of Jars (near Phonsovan) is a megalithic archaeological landscape in Laos. Scattered in the landscape of the Xieng Khouang plateau, Xieng Khouang, Lao PDR, are thousands of megalithic jars. These stone jars appear in clusters, ranging from a single or a few to several hundred jars at lower foothills surrounding the central plain and upland valleys.

The Xieng Khouang Plateau is located at the northern end of the Annamese Cordillera, the principal mountain range of Indochina. Initial research of the Plain of Jars in the early 1930s claimed that the stone jars are associated with prehistoric burial practices. Excavation by Lao and Japanese archaeologists in the intervening years has supported this interpretation with the discovery of human remains, burial goods and ceramics around the stone jars. The Plain of Jars is dated to the Iron Age (500 BC to AD 500) and is one of the most important sites for studying Southeast Asian prehistory. The Plain of Jars has the potential to shed light on the relationship between increasingly complex societies and megalithic structures and provide insight into social organisation of Iron Age Southeast Asia’s communities.

More than 90 sites are known within the province of Xieng Khouang. Each site ranges from 1 up to 400 stone jars. The jars vary in height and diameter between 1 and 3 metres and are all without exception hewn out of rock. The shape is cylindrical with the bottom always wider than the top. The stone jars are undecorated with the exception of a single jar at Site 1. This jar has a human bas-relief carved on the exterior. Parallels between this ‘frogman’ at Site 1 and the rock painting at Huashan in Guangxi, China have been drawn. The paintings, which depict large full-frontal humans with arms raised and knees bent, are dated to 500 BC - 200 AD .

From the fact that most of the jars have lip rims, it is presumed that all stone jars supported lids, although few stone lids have been recorded; this may suggest that the bulk of lids were fashioned from perishable materials. Stone lids with animal representations have been noticed at few sites such as Ban Phakeo (Site 52). The bas-relief animals are thought to be monkeys, tigers and frogs. No in situ lid has ever been found.

I spotted this pair of military boots and the uniform at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

I guess it was left by a Vietnam Veteran who wanted to remember his fellow soldiers (or Marines).

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Items left at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial are collected by National Park Service employees and transferred to the NPS Museum and Resource Center, which catalogs and stores all items except perishable organic matter (such as live flowers) and unaltered US flags. The flags are redistributed through various channels (Wkipedia).

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The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is a national memorial in Washington, D.C. It honors U.S. service members of the U.S. armed forces who fought in the Vietnam War, service members who died in service in Vietnam/South East Asia, and those service members who were unaccounted for (Missing In Action) during the War.

Its construction and related issues have been the source of controversies, some of which have resulted in additions to the memorial complex. The memorial currently consists of three separate parts: the Three Soldiers statue, the Vietnam Women's Memorial, and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, which is the best-known part of the memorial.

The main part of the memorial, which was completed in 1982, is in Constitution Gardens adjacent to the National Mall, just northeast of the Lincoln Memorial. The memorial is maintained by the U.S. National Park Service, and receives around 3 million visitors each year. The Memorial Wall was designed by American architect Maya Lin. The typesetting of the original 58,195 names on the wall was performed by Datalantic in Atlanta, Georgia. In 2007, it was ranked tenth on the "List of America's Favorite Architecture" by the American Institute of Architects. (Wikipedia)

Here's a broadside view of one of the famous "Van Swearingen Superpower Berkshire" locomotives running at track speed through the Michigan countryside as the sun sets on a cold January day. Pere Marquette Locomotive #1225 is a 1941 product of the Lima Locomotive Works and one of 11, N-1 Class Berkshires purchased by the Pere Marquette Railway. Characterized as some of the finest steam locomotives ever built, these state-of-the-art engines were designed to haul heavy freights, carrying perishable goods, at passenger train speeds. With 69" drivers, a 245 psi boiler pressure, and 69,350 lbs of tractive effort, the N-1s were more than up to the task. Sadly, there careers were pretty short, with most of them being scrapped by 1958. Just two examples of the Pere Marquette N-1 Class remain. The #1225 is not only the only operable example, but she's also the last remaining, operable Pere Marquette steamer.

The 1225 is pictured here just east of the North Smith Road Crossing, about 3 miles northwest of Owosso, MI, during a January, 2019 photo shoot on Michigan's Great Lakes Central Railroad.

Generally when you think "Z Train" in 2018, a stack train comes to mind. One exception would be the UP "Super Fruit", a unit train of refrigerators loaded with perishables from the Pacific Northwest. A pair of SD70 variants have this one rolling at good clip through the small town of Cokeville, Wyoming.