Mamiya RZ67 / Pro & Pro II (NO RB)
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I can always count on seeing these deer. Not the best shot as then deer are in shade with bright light behind them.
Well, not always I am i excited about a rebuild nowadays, but for this one, I can say that CN has done a fantastic job with the design. Hopefully, expanding on the comfort of the original SD75i, that it continues to serve as a unit of reliability, but only time will tell. Here was my first catch of the new ACC's leading CN M394, passing under the approach Goreway signals which has had a slight change in 2024. The north track signal used to have a staggered head just like the one the south (left), but now only has one due to upgrades at Goreway which are now the LED Vader signals.
A spot for the future perhaps, but I saw this Journey on the same day as the black Chevrolet Orlando and thought I may as well document. This is probably the entry level specification, given the wheel trims and smallest engine optiion.
Something I have learnt is that the 2.4 motor in this one, is a 'World Gasoline Engine', part of the 'Global Engine Alliance'. Basically something initiated by Chrysler with Hyundai and Mitsubishi to create a family of engines with the same basic structure and parts but with the flexibility to offer capacities ranging from 1.8 to 2.4, Not a particularly ground breaking enterprise, and I don't recall anything remarkable about either their power, efficiency or reliability. Something I didn't know about though.
Im Jahr 2006 erteilte die USAF Lockheed Martin den Auftrag zur Modernisierung von 52 C-5 Galaxy durch das Reliability Enhancement und Re-engining Programm (RERP). Die C-5 RERP enthält über 70 Verbesserungen und soll die Lebensdauer der Flugzeuge auf mindestens 2045 verlängern. Außerdem soll die Zuverlässigkeit erhöht werden. Zu den Modifikationen gehört unter anderem der Einbau neuer GE CF6-80C2-Triebwerke mit 22 Prozent mehr Schub.
Zurück von Polen
Zwischen Landung in Deutschland, Stuttgart, US Airport.
Maximales Gesamt Gewicht: 381 Tonnen
Jupiter-9 85mm 2.0, vintage 40mm "Royal" extension tube, edited in Affinity, custom tone map Coolvanda
Coastliner has added two of these 8 year old Volvo B9s into the fleet from Lancashire. They are in standard livery but ablaze with Whitby & moors branding. First up was 2780 seen here on York Rd heading East for the coast.
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.
Today is Tuesday and we are in the kitchen of Lettice’s flat: Edith her maid’s preserve, except on Tuesdays, every third Thursday of the month and occasionally after a big party. That is when Mrs. Boothby, Lettice’s charwoman*, comes from her home in Poplar to do all the hard jobs and Edith shares the space with her. Although this can be a bit of challenge, especially as Mrs. Boothby likes to smoke indoors, Edith is grateful that unlike her previous positions, she does not have to scrub the black and quite chequered kitchen linoleum, nor polish the parquetry floors, not do her most hated job, black lead the stovetop. Mrs. Boothby does them all without complaint, with reliability and to a very high standard. She is also very handy on cleaning and washing up duty with Edith after one of Lettice’s extravagant cocktail parties. Edith also has to admit that after her original reluctance, Mrs. Boothby has turned out to be rather pleasant company and the two have had many fine chats over time.
“Oh Mrs. Boothby, after you’ve finished polishing the floors in the drawing room this morning, would you mind laying down this sheet on the space behind Miss Lettice’s chair and the Chinese screen?” Edith pushes a neatly folded white sheet across the kitchen table to the old char.
“Why ‘ave I got to put dahn an old sheet for?” She looks perplexed at the pile of fabric before her. “Don’t Miss Chetwynd ‘ave enough rugs?”
“Oh yes, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith trys somewhat unsuccessfully to cover her amused smile. “It isn’t for that.”
“Then what’s it for, if you don’t mind me askin’?”
“It’s a drop sheet, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith elucidates.
“Oh. She getting’ painters in then? I bet I could find her cheaper ‘ouse painters than ooever she got. My Bruvver does a bit a ‘ouse paintin’, an I reckon ‘e does a very fine job ‘n all.”
“Oh no, Mrs. Boothby. Miss Lettice is going to paint a table today.”
“Paint a table?” The old woman looks queryingly at her younger counterpart. “Why? Ain’t it any good as is?”
“Apparently not, Mrs. Boothby. However, it isn’t for her. It’s for Miss de Virre, I mean, Mrs. Channon. It’s a table from her house in Cornwall.”
“Tartin’ up tables!” The old cockney woman tuts as she casts her eyes to the ceiling. “What them rich fancy folk won’t fink up next. I just throw an oilcloth over my table when I got friends comin’ for tea. That covers up the marks good and proper.”
“Oh no, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith explains. “Miss Lettice is going to redecorate it as part of her re-design of Mrs. Channon’s drawing room.”
“Well,” grumbles the old woman. “Whatever she’s doin’ it for, I hope she don’t get paint on my nice clean polished floors.”
“That’s what the drop sheet is for, Mrs. Boothby.”
“Ere dearie, pop the kettle on so as we can ‘ave a nice cup of Rosie-Lee** before I get started on the floors.” Mrs. Boothby says to Edith. “Washin’ floors can be firsty work for a woman, so best I get a cuppa before I start.”
“Yes, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith replies, lighting the gas ring underneath the bright copper kettle and walking over to the pine dresser to fetch two Delftware cups, saucers a milk jug and the sugar bowl.
Mrs. Boothby groans as she bends her wiry body to the floor to check what she calls her ‘Boothby boxes’, which are two boxes kept in the corner of the kitchen next to the dresser. One contains her scrubbing brushes, dustpan, and polishing rags, whilst the other contains a plethora of cleaning products.
“Ah,” the old Cockney woman mutters as she delves through the latter, metal cans clunking against one another as she does her inventory. “Pop Vim on the shopping list, will you Edith love. This can’s all but empty nah.” She continues fossicking. “Oh, and we need some more floor polish too.”
“Do you like that Kleen-eze Mr. Willison sent me last time, Mrs. Boothby?” Edith asks as she lays out the tea things on the deal kitchen table above the char’s head.
“It weren’t bad stuff, that. Yeah, ta. Get ‘him to get us some more of it if ‘e can.” The old woman affirms.
“I’ll see if Frank can get me some,” Edith says blithely, yet as soon as the words are out of her mouth, she realises her mistake as a frisson of energy electrifies the kitchen.
Edith likes Mrs. Boothby, but she knows that any news will soon be spread around Poplar and the surrounding area once Mrs. Boothby hears it. She and the other charwomen she knows run a very well informed gossip chain, and there is little Mrs. Boothby can’t tell Edith about the comings and goings on in the household of her former employer Mrs. Plaistow, thanks to her charwoman friend Jackie who does work for her and quite a few other houses in Pimlico, including that of Lettice’s former client, successful Islington Studios*** actress, Wanetta Ward. Edith, who is a little starstruck by the glamourous American, often gets tasty titbits of gossip about her from Mrs. Boothby thanks to Jackie who also cleans for her, however Edith does not fancy the shoe being on the other foot. However, as she turns back from fussing unnecessarily over the kettle, she sees it is too late. Mrs. Boothby’s pale and wrinkled face, framed by her wiry grey hair tied up in a brightly coloured scarf is paying close attention to the young maid. Her dark eyes are gleaming with delight, and she smiles like the cat who ate the cream.
“Oh!” she says with one of her bushy eyebrows arching upwards. “Frank now, is it?”
“Well I…” Edith stutters, her own pale cheeks growing warm as a blush fills them with colour.
“Yes my girl?” Mrs, Boothby asks, as with another groan she resumes her upright state. “And just when did Mr. Willison’s young delivery boy go from bein’ Mr. Leadbeater or bein’ Frank? Last I ‘eard, you weren’t interested in ‘im.”
“I didn’t say I wasn’t interested in him, Mrs. Boothby,” Edith worries the blue rimmed edge of a saucer self-consciously. “I’d just never considered him as a prospect, is all. And I hadn’t Mrs. Boothby. Not until,”
“Yes,”
“Well, not until you’d mentioned it, Mrs. Boothby.”
“Aha!” the old cockney woman crows. “Ada Boothby does it again!”
“Does what, Mrs. Boothby?” Edith asks.
“Matchmakes, of course.” She smiles broadly, a glow of pride emanating from her slender figure in her grey dress and brightly printed cotton pinny. She rubs her careworn hands together with glee. “Oh I can’t wait to tell that damned Golda Friedmann dahn the end of my rookery****. She’ll be fit to be tied.”
“Wait!” Edith gasps, not understanding. “Who’s Golda Friedmann, and how she know about Frank and I? I don’t know her. She doesn’t work in the haberdashers in Poplar you sent me to.”
“Oh Lawd love you,” chortles Mrs. Boothby, the action resulting on one of her fruity hacking coughs that seem remarkably loud from such a diminutive figure. After catching her breath, she continues breathily, “She don’t know anyfink about you an’ your Frank.” She gulps again. “Nah! She’s the local matchmaker round our way, along with a few other Yids***** in Poplar. Goes around wiv ‘er nose in the air wrapped up in a fancy paisley shawl tellin’ folk she’s the one to match their son or daughter, like she was the Queen of Russia ‘erself.”
“Well she didn’t match me with Frank.” Edith says defensively.
“I know, Edith love.” Mrs. Boothby assures her with a calming wave of her hands.
“And nor did you, Mrs. Boothby,” Edith continues. “So I don’t see why you should feel so proud of yourself.”
“But you just said that if it weren’t for me, you wouldn’t of considered ‘im!”
“Well,” Edith takes the kettle off the stove and pours hot water into the white teapot. “That’s true, but I’m the one that mentioned what you’d said to me about he and I on the night of Miss Lettice’s supper party for Mr. Channon and Miss de Virre.” She puts the lid on the pot with a clunk. “Err, I mean Mrs. Channon.”
Mrs. Boothby drags up a chair to the deal kitchen table and takes a seat, never taking her eyes off Edith’s face. “So ahh, when did you and Mr. Leadbeater, or should I say Frank, start, walkin’ out togevva?” She walks her index and middle finger across the clean table in front of her, as if to demonstrate her meaning.
“Only a few weeks now.” Edith admits with downcast eyes and a shy smile.
“A few weeks?” Mrs. Boothby gasps in outrage. “And you didn’t think to tell me?”
“I guess it just slipped my mind, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith defends herself, setting out the tea cups in the saucers, pushing one across to the charwoman. “What with one thing an another. Besides,” she adds. “I didn’t want to tell you unless I was sure. I wouldn’t want to go disappointing you if it all came to aught.”
“But nah fings is workin’ out for the two of you then?” Mrs. Boothby asks as she accepts the cup and saucer and reaches for the milk jug, slopping a good glug into the bottom of her empty cup******.
“We seem to have struck a nice rhythm, and Frank and I have a lot in common.”
“Oh that’s lovely to ‘ear, dearie.” the old woman watches as Edith pours tea into her cup. “I told you, youse was pretty, didn’t I?” She takes hold of the sugar bowl and greedily spoons in several heaped teaspoons of fine white sugar into her tea before stirring it loudly. “And you never knew ‘till I told you. So where’ve you been goin’? The ‘Ammersmith Palais*******?”
“Yes, we’ve been there a few times, along with my friend Hilda.”
“She’s the parlour maid from your Mrs. Plaistow’s isn’t she?” Mrs. Boothby asks, before adding unnecessarily, “The plain one.”
“Oh I wouldn’t call her plain, Mrs. Boothby!” Edith defends her friend hotly as she pours tea into her own empty cup, before then adding a dash of milk. “That’s most uncharitable.”
“I didn’t say that, Jackie told me when I mentioned to ‘er that you was still friends wiv ‘er from when you worked there togevva.”
“Oh yes, I remember Jackie,” Edith picks up her cup and sips her tea. “Always with an ear out for gossip.”
“We chars ‘ave to take our pleasures where we can get ‘em, dearie.” Mrs. Boothby says with a slightly haughty tone as she slurps her own tea loudly. “Bein’ a char is ‘ard graft day in, day out. And you can ‘ardly take the moral ‘ighground, what wiv you askin’ me about the goings on at Miss Ward’s, nah can you?”
Edith, suitably chastened, remains silent, her lack of response serving as an affirmation of the old Cockney’s statement.
“Anyway, I might never ‘ave met your ‘Ilda, but I bet she’s not a patch on you deary, what wiv your peaches n’ cream complexion and beautiful hair. What you got natural from God, so many women I know get from lotions and potions. Nah wonder Frank was nervous ‘bout askin’ you to step out wiv ‘im. Youse a real catch Edith love.”
“I never said he was nervous, Mrs. Boothby.” Edith giggles.
“But ‘e were, weren’t ‘e?” The old woman chuckles knowingly as she cradles her warm cup in both her hands. “All little boys what fink they’re big men, get nervous round a pretty girl.”
“Well,” Edith admits. “Maybe just a little.” Then she adds, “But I was nervous too.”
“Well, that’s nice, dearie. Youse just enjoy bein’ young an’ ‘appy togevva.” The old woman gazes into the distance, a far away look sodtening the sharpness of her gaze and the squareness of her jaw as her mouth hangs open slightly. She stays that way for a moment or two before she regains her steely composure and sharp look. Turning back to Edith she says, “Nah, ‘ow does this sound, Edith love? Mrs. Ada Boothby, Matchmaker and ‘Igh Class Char? That would shove it right up that uppity Golda Friedmann and ‘er matchmaker friends!”
“Oh Mrs. Boothy!” Edith giggles.
*A charwoman, chargirl, or char, jokingly charlady, is an old-fashioned occupational term, referring to a paid part-time worker who comes into a house or other building to clean it for a few hours of a day or week, as opposed to a maid, who usually lives as part of the household within the structure of domestic service. In the 1920s, chars usually did all the hard graft work that paid live-in domestics would no longer do as they looked for excuses to leave domestic service for better paying work in offices and factories.
**Rosie-Lee is Cockney slang for tea, and it is one of the most well-known of all Cockney rhyming slang.
***Islington Studios, often known as Gainsborough Studios, were a British film studio located on the south bank of the Regent's Canal, in Poole Street, Hoxton in Shoreditch, London which began operation in 1919. By 1920 they had a two stage studio. It is here that Alfred Hitchcock made his entrée into films.
****A rookery is a dense collection of housing, especially in a slum area. The rookeries created in Victorian times in London’s East End were notorious for their cheapness, filth and for being overcrowded.
*****The word Yid is a Jewish ethnonym of Yiddish origin. It is used as an autonym within the Ashkenazi Jewish community, and also used as slang. When pronounced in such a way that it rhymes with did by non-Jews, it is commonly intended as a pejorative term. It is used as a derogatory epithet, and as an alternative to, the English word 'Jew'. It is uncertain when the word began to be used in a pejorative sense by non-Jews, but some believe it started in the late Nineteenth or early Twentieth Century when there was a large population of Jews and Yiddish speakers concentrated in East London, gaining popularity in the 1930s when Oswald Mosley developed a strong following in the East End of London.
******In the class-conscious society of Britain in the 1920s, whether you added milk to your cup of tea first or the tea was a subtle way of defining what class you came from. Upper-class people, or those who wished to ape their social betters added milk after the tea, whereas middle-class or working class people comfortable in their own skins were known to add milk before the tea.
*******The Hammersmith Palais de Danse, in its last years simply named Hammersmith Palais, was a dance hall and entertainment venue in Hammersmith, London, England that operated from 1919 until 2007. It was the first palais de danse to be built in Britain.
This busy domestic kitchen scene 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.
Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
In front of Mrs. Boothby’s box is a can of Vim with stylised Art Deco packaging and some Kleeneze floor polish. Vim was a common cleaning agent, used in any Edwardian 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. Kleeneze is a homeware company started in Hanham, Bristol. The company's founder, Harry Crook, had emigrated to the United States with his family several years earlier, and whilst there joined Fuller Brush as a sales representative. He returned to Bristol several years later, and started a business making brushes and floor polish which were sold door-to-door by salesmen. Technically Kleeneze didn’t start until 1923, which is one years after this story is set. I couldn’t resist including it, as I doubt I will ever be able to photograph it as a main part of any other tableaux. Thus, I hope you will forgive me for this indulgence.
In the box are two containers of Zebo grate polish, a bottle of Bluebell Metal Polish and a can of Brasso. Zebo (or originally Zebra) Grate Polish was a substance launched in 1890 by Reckitts to polish the grate to a gleam using a mixture that consisted of pure black graphite finely ground, carbon black, a binding agent and a solvent to keep it fluid for application with a cloth or more commonly newspaper. Brasso Metal Polish is a British all-purpose metal cleaning product introduced to market in 1905 by Reckitt and Sons, who also produced Silvo, which was used specifically for cleaning silver, silver plate and EPNS. Bluebell metal cleaning products were a household name in the 1920s and 1930s after the business was incorporated in 1900.
The tin buckets, wooden apple box, basket, mop, brush and pan are all artisan made miniatures that I have acquired in more recent years.
53504 Kernow (First)
YJ56AOT
seen in Penzance Bus Station.
There are official "Mousehole" branded buses, however I saw few, and photod none on this occasion- perhaps at this age reliability is an issue?
Regardless of that- this one appears in Buses of Somerset livery strangely...well, I suppose its similar...!
HMCR #9554 is a GE U23B originally built as L&N #2800 in December of 1974. The Louisville and Nashville picked up 90 U23Bs between 1973 and 1975 making it the largest owner of the model. The engine changed owners twice in the 1980s as the L&N merged into the Seaboard System 1982 and reorganized into CSX Transportation in 1986. By the mid-1990s, it was relegated to MOW service and renumbered #9554, a number it would keep for the rest of its career.
In 2000, CSX sold five of its MOW U23Bs, including #9554, to the Tishomingo Railway in Mississippi. The TISH sold #9553 and #9554 to Vintage Locomotives (VLIX) in 2008 and were sent up to the SARM at Oak Ridge; the remaining three TISH U23Bs were scrapped. The HMCR picked up the #9554 in 2015 making it the sixth owner of #9554 since it was built in 1974. It is one of the last GE U23Bs in revenue service anywhere.
In order to alleviate some reliability issues which has affected ARRIVA Kent & Surrey at Maidstone recently a number of vehicle swaps have taken place. The latest was to send three DAF BD250s to Southend (6255, 6258 and 6260) in return for three brand new Enviro 400 MMCs (6500, 6511 and 6516).
ARRIVA Kent & Surrey 6500 SN66 WHT is seen on Tower View, Kings Hill whilst working SDO route 575 to Maidstone Boy's Grammar School. Friday 26th May 2017.
ADL E40D - ADL Enviro 400 MMC (Ex-ARRIVA Kent Thameside)
C&NW C41-8 8577 shows off it's special "Safety and Reliability" paint at Boone, IA in August of 1993.
A Jeepney, heavily laden with an assortment of goods, travels down a sunlit road in the rural outskirts south of General Santos City, showcasing the ingenuity and resourcefulness of local transport methods in Mindanao, The Philippines. This vibrant scene highlights the adaptability and utility of the Jeepney, a symbol of everyday life and commerce in rural areas.
SM vehicles were introduced on Routes 353 and 362 in February 1971, the same time as decimalisation. The combination of the introduction of one man operation and a new currency at the same time was a disaster for reliability. The 362 is at Ley Hill.
Even thought the curvature of the earth has been enhanced very slightly in this birds eye view, the Ford grain truck and the silver tile elevator are what makes this image so cool. Having only 90 seconds to deploy the drone and elevate to 100 feet, BNSF 8532 won’t slack up on its 50 mph speed for me with westbound grain loads here at Danville, KS. on 10-07-2020. Compare the painted silver tile grain elevator with almost hidden steel annex bins to the mega bushel white concrete elevators built 50 years later. Today the Danville Co-op elevators only ship grain out by truck, not in covered railroad hoppers. And as best I can find, the Ford C is 57 years old………..good old Ford reliability!
Mahymobiles
The marriage between Chrysler and Ghia seemed a strange one: sturdy reliability from Detroit matched with daring innovation from Turin. Even so, the union was a successful one for the Americans.
In the 1930s, Chrysler had seen a promising future for its aerodynamic Airflow model. But the buyers were not taken with its bulbous shape and an investment of millions went down the drain. This disaster was followed by two more: the Second World War broke out and the company’s founder, Walter Chrysler, died. When peace returned, Chrysler adopted a cautious approach, turning out a series of conservative models. They even sold the famous Chrysler Building in New York. None of it worked. Sales continued to fall and Ford took over as America’s number two car manufacturer. A new wind was needed if Chrysler was ever to turn the corner. It arrived at the start of the 1950s in the shape of Virgil Exner, who designed new models with aggressive lines and shark-fin profiles. But the continuing need to cut costs meant that the cars remained inferior. For this reason, Chryslers began looking towards Italy for the coachwork of its more exclusive models. Ghia’s designers and craftsmen were both superior to and cheaper than their American counterparts. The result was a series of Ghia bodies for Chrysler chassis, with the ST Special as the most famous example. In 1954 and 1955 just a handful of these cars were produced at the workshops in Turin. Not even Chrysler knows exactly how many. The chassis came from the Chrysler New Yorker and the engine was Chrysler’s reliable Hemi V8, with hemispherical combustion chambers.
After various wanderings, one of the ST Specials eventually ended up in Brussels. When he saw it, Ivan Mahy knew he wanted to buy it, but patiently waited until the owner got fed up with paying the heavy tax on it. This moment arrived in 1970: Mahy bought the Ghia for just 15,000 Belgian francs. The car left the factory in blue, but the wife of the first owner preferred silver and so it was repainted, except for the roof. The Mahy Chrysler is still sometimes visited by other ST owners. One of them made an offer of 100,000 euros for the now dust-covered Ghia in Leuze. The offer fell on deaf ears.
Great Rocks signal box houses one of the Tyer type of electric token machines for the single line to Buxton.
Fascinating Victorian pieces of kit that just keep going and going with few reliability problems.