The Brickell Avenue Bridge is a bascule bridge in Downtown Miami, Florida, that carries U.S. Route 1 (US 1; Brickell Avenue) over the Miami River.

 

The original Brickell Avenue Bridge was built in 1929 and replaced in 1995. The Brickell Avenue Bridge was widened by one additional northbound lane in 2006 to reduce the traffic bottleneck through downtown. Before this, there were three southbound but only two northbound lanes. Currently, there are three lanes in each direction as well as a pedestrian walkway on both sides. Still, the bridge causes frequent traffic delays on the busy Brickell Avenue when it opens. According to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), the bridge opened 4,990 times in 2010.

 

The statue is a 53-foot bronze monument commissioned by the Florida Department of Transportation and created by Cuban Master Sculptor Manuel Carbonell in 1995. The "Pillar of History" consists of a 36-foot high carved bas-relief column that graphically narrates the lives of the Tequesta Indians, Miami's first inhabitants, and features 158 figures. At the top stands a 17-foot bronze sculpture, "Tequesta Family" portraying a Tequesta Indian warrior aiming an arrow to the sky, looking for space in eternity, with his wife and child by his side, while the son covers his face in expectation of their extinction.

 

Carbonell also created four bas reliefs, measuring 4-feet by 8-feet, which were installed in niches on the bridge's supporting piers. Each relief honors Miami's early founders and pioneers - William and Mary Brickell, Henry Flagler, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, and Julia Tuttle.

 

Credit for the data above is given to the following website:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brickell_Avenue_Bridge

 

© All Rights Reserved - you may not use this image in any form without my prior permission.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 01-Jan-22 (DeNoise AI)

 

HMY Airways was later renamed Harmony Airways.

 

Fleet No: "801".

 

This aircraft was delivered to EL Al Israel Airlines as 4X-EBL in Nov-87. It was sold to Boeing Capital in May-00 and leased back to El Al. It was returned to Boeing Capital as N789BA in Jan-01 and stored at Marana, AZ, USA.

 

The aircraft was leased to HMY Airways as C-GMYC in Nov-02. HMY Airways was renamed Harmony Airways in May-04. The airline ceased operations in Apr-07 and the aircraft was returned to the Boeing Aircraft Holding Company in Jun-07.

 

It was stored at Greenwood, MS, USA. By now it was 20 years old and was permanently retired. The aircraft was last noted still at Greenwood in Nov-08 in basic Harmony livery with many parts missing, it was broken up at Greenwood in 2009. Updated 01-Jan-21.

This bus is one of 20 2023 IC CE’s currently in the process of being added to the fleet. This bus replaced a 2003 IC CE 200 once in the fleet.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 17-Jan-19, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 11-Jul-23.

 

Ordered by Turkish Airlines and first flown in Nov-94 as an A310-304 with the Airbus test registration F-WWCO, the order was cancelled by Turkish Airlines and the aircraft was stored at Toulouse (France).

 

It was modified to A310-308 standard in Feb-95, sold to ILFC International Lease Finance Corporation and leased to Emirates Airline as A6-EKP in May-95.

 

ILFC sold it back to Airbus Industrie Financial Services in Feb-02 and after being returned by Emirates in Aug-02 it was due to be sold to the Spanish Air Force. However, the sale didn't happen and it was re-registered F-WIHR and stored at Toulouse.

 

It was leased to Air India as VT-EVX in Dec-02. The aircraft was permanently retired at Kemble, UK, in Feb-09 and the registration was cancelled a few days later. The aircraft was broken up in late 2009.

Replacing an earlier scanned print with a better version 15-Jun-16.

 

Operated by Piedmont Airlines on behalf of US Air.

 

Some people may wonder why there is an Iberia DC-9 in the background if this is Miami. Iberia based DC-9's and later MD-87's at Miami to provide Caribbean connections from their Madrid / Miami B747 services.

 

Fleet No: "HHA"

 

First flown in Dec-95 with the deHavilland Canada test registration C-GFYI, this aircraft had been ordered by Horizon Air but the order was cancelled and it was stored. It was leased to Piedmont Airlines as N986HA in Apr-96 and operated for US Air Express.

 

US Air Express was renamed US Airways Express in Feb-97. The aircraft continued in service until it was stored at Calgary, Alberta, Canada in Mar-04 when US Airways filed for US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

 

It was returned to the lessor in Sep-04 and remained in storage until it was leased to Air Niugini as P2-ANZ in Jun-05. The aircraft operated for Air Niugini for 9 years, it was returned to the lessor in Sep-14 and was stored again at Calgary.

 

It was sold to Wells Fargo Bank Northwest in Jul-15 becoming N986HA again. The aircraft was ferried to Denver-Centennial Airport, Colorado, USA in Oct-15 and stored.

 

In Nov-16 the aircraft was sold to the Sierra Nevada Corporation and converted for airborne reconnaissance. It operates in all white livery of behalf of the US Air Force 645 Aeronautical Systems Group. Current, updated 01-Sep-24.

Queenscliffe (pop 3,000). After the pastoral era the Borough of Queenscliffe was declared in 1863 when the town was already a sizeable. Its location at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay was strategically important. Pilot boats helped ships navigate the dangerous entrance. The town had two lighthouses by 1863 as the early sandstone one of 1844 had been replaced by a white painted stone lighthouse in 1863. At the same time a black basalt second lighthouse was erected within the fort precinct. Some sources say with imported Scottish bluestone however, other sources say the black basalt came from Footscray! The first pilot to tend his services to shipping began work in 1838 and by 1840 the settlement had four pilots. They lived in tents on the shores and they helped with six major shipwrecks before 1863. It was a treacherous place during a storm. By the late 19th century pleasure boats plied the waters mainly across to Sorrento. But Queenscliffe was also fortified to protect Port Phillip Bay. In 1863 three guns were placed here and the first part of the fort was built between 1863 and 1869. Once the railway from Geelong reached the town in 1879 and troops could be quickly moved there if needed further fortifications were erected. Two gun batteries and the Fort were completed in 1882. Then a garrison of troops, engineers and naval men were stationed there. The keep was finished in 1885 and the defensive gorge was dug in 1886. The colonies especially feared attack from Russia in the 1880s. The troops remained in place from 1883 to 1946. It became a museum in 1982. The fishing village of Queenscliffe was surveyed and named after Queen Victoria in 1853. A town pier followed shortly after land sales. The first houses, a group of ten, were built in 1853 for the pilot service men. A school, hotel and church opened in 1854 and the post office gained a telegraphic link to Melbourne in 1855. The first Mechanic’s Institute was erected in 1859. When the borough council was formed in 1863 it had 250 residences. The town has three museums – the Historical Museum in the Info Centre (free); the Maritime Museum (about $10); and the Fort Museum highlights the strategic and military history ($12). In the 1880s Queenscliffe became a popular summer retreat for Melbournians and hotels and guest houses dotted the town. Holidaymakers arrived by train or steamer.

 

Vue Grand Hotel 46 Hesse St. This prime town location has been a hotel site since 1859. The Vue Grand was built in the early 1880s with polychromatic brick work, a central three storey squat tower and rounded windows. But a fire in 1927 destroyed part of the hotel which was rebuilt with a Mediterranean terracotta tiled roof in Art Deco style.

The Post Office was built in its present location at 47 Hesse St in 1887. Colonial architect G Austin designed the lavish building which cost of £3,000 to build. Additions in 1915 destroyed the symmetrical façade. Note the oriel window above the central entrance door and its Italianate appearance with the horizontal white rendered bands. The Public Library 55 Hesse St. This classical style 1880s building with Corinthian pilasters on the façade, perfect symmetry, rounded windows and entrance and balustraded roof line.

58 Hesse St. A classical style Victorian shop and upstairs residence. Note pediment along austere roof line.

Uniting Churches formerly Methodist. 79 to 83 Hesse St. This complex contains three churches – the original rendered Wesleyan Methodist of 1868, the adjoining Gothic Methodist Church of 1888 with buttress and arched central entrance and across the side road the St Andrews Presbyterian Church built in the late 1890s. An earlier built 1862 Presbyterian Church was demolished to make way for this new church.

Seaview House 86 Hesse St. was built in 1875 as a single storey greengrocer shop. In 1890 an upper floor was added and the house became the Seaview Coffee Palace to promote temperance and avoidance of alcohol.

Coombe Lodge 90 Hesse St. A typical 1880s two storey house. Occupied for many years by doctors for the town.

The timber railway station and master’s residence was erected in 1881. It was an unusual design for a rural location as the large waiting room was built to accommodate holiday throngs from Melbourne.

The Royal Hotel 38 King St. The first hotel opened on this site in 1854. This impressive Italianate structure with four storey tower, bay windows on each end, arcaded veranda and good symmetry typifies the hotels of the 1880s.

The Queenscliffe Hotel at 16 Gellibrand St. was built in 1887 in tuck pointed red brick with Queen Anne features such as the polygonal tower, and the extensive use of cast iron lace work to create an arched effect for the veranda. The sides have Dutch gables but overall the hotel looks very Australian in style. Located in Gellibrand St.

The Ozone Hotel 42 Gellibrand St. Built in 1881 as Baillieu House for wealthy banker, businessman and pastoralist James George Baillieu. This fine Italianate rendered building has a four storey tower, is mainly a three storey structure with a slater mansard roof and widow’s walk on the tower. The iron veranda post are exceptionally high giving a grander appearance. As tourists flocked to the town in the early 1880s Baillieu had it converted into the Ozone Hotel in 1887 and two more wings were added to it.

Lathamstowe House 44 Gellibrand St. This pair of two storey Italianate duplexes was built next to Baillieu’s house in 1883. It was built by successful brewer Edward Latham as a seaside house for Anglican clergymen and their families. Latham was related to the Baillieu family. Like Baillieu House it had a four storey tower and widow’s walk. The arcaded verandas with the end bay windows are typically Italianate in style.

Anglican Church 20 Hobson St. The architect designed church was built in local limestone in 1864. The stuccoed brick tower was added in 1878. The roof line is exceptionally steep and dominates the appearance of this fine Gothic building as it covers the nave and the side aisles. Work began on a parish hall in 1870 but this was not completed until 1902. The land for this church was donated by Governor La Trobe who loved Queenscliffe and had a cottage of his own there in the 1840s and 1850s.

 

To the tune of CSNY's "Teach Your Children Well" - www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQOaUnSmJr8

 

DOB: 12/21/1922

Died: 01/04/1999

He was 77 years old.

  

My Dad's Favorite Quotes:

 

"You know, Suzie (he called me Suzie) you can be replaced". - (He was right. Unfortunately, you couldn't be, Dad.)

"If you had half a brain you'd be dangerous." (Up for debate)

"Do the right thing" - Huh.

"Do as I say, not as I do".

"How do ya like them apples?"

"I just want you to live an honest life". (Refer to "Do as I say, not as I do".

"You're no prize"

"Eat your heart out"

"You're an accident waiting to happen"

"You don't know when to quit, do you?"

"They broke the mold when they made you". Which mold?

"I forgot more than you know"

"you have a one-track mind" - It's "inherited" (wink-wink)

"Do you know what time it is?" (No - I confuse right and left. It only took 60 years to figure that one out)

"Get your ass in gear"

"Motor Mouth" - His polite way of saying shut-up. He never said shut-up. He always said this with a smile.

"Shit for brains" His name for my brothers.

"Go run around the block" (We did - many times I did not go home).

"Asshole buddies" - (When one of his buddies went somewhere with one of his other buddies other than him.)

"He talks like he's got a paper asshole".

"Don't dish it out if you can't take it" - See "Do as I say, not as I do".

"If you're going to live in my house you live by my rules".

"Every cigarette you smoke is another nail in your coffin".

"Your eyes look like two piss holes in the snow" - (First time wearing makeup.)

"You got band-aids for those mosquito bites?" (First time I'd asked Mom for a bra.)

"You have exactly till 6:00PM to eat those tomatoes (two hours away) or you go to bed *again* without any dinner.". (And?)

"Watch the tips goddammit!" - (Bringing the fishing poles in from the boat).

"You smell like burnt toast".

"I don't trust him/her as far as I can throw him/her". I was a child, remember? Maybe throwing your beer cans, cigarettes, cigars and bottles in the garbage would've been a good start rather than throwing around your kids.

"You know, sometimes I think about suicide." (He said this to me on Christmas Day - 10 days prior to placing a high-powered rifle in his mouth while sitting on the toilet and blew his brains out. With the cooperation of many officials in NJ who scoured their records I was finally able to obtain the police reports and autopsy details in May 2022 after requesting them as I never really believed it was a suicide.

 

Mom said he'd always stated he was going to commit suicide when he was ready, although I was not aware or told of that one while he was alive. IOW, he always had a plan. "He did it his way" - on his mother-in-law's birthday. He probably didn't even know it was.

 

He suicided 20 years ago (or so) today - January 4, 1999. Nobody knew my phone number to let me know - my Son was finally able to reach me. Somehow I lost a year at that point. I only know *somebody* put that bullet hole in the bathroom ceiling and his neighbor cleaned up the bathroom. That neighbor developed early dementia as many people do after witnessing such a horrific sight they do not recover from without counseling or talking about it and coming to terms with it. Family trauma and abuse is much the same. That is how people are then labeled with psychiatric terms, unfortunately they were not in fact the "crazy" ones. The true "crazy" ones stay under the radar and appear fully functioning. IOW, "they have jobs" according to today's society. I'd been told my Dad was a "functioning alcoholic".

 

He tried quitting smoking many times. Once he tried replacing cigarettes with Regal Crown sour cherry & sour lemon drops. No sugar-free options back then. That's when he lost his teeth. After he quit he gained tons of weight.

 

He sat at the dinner table waving his fork up and down frequently....fair warning to get ready to duck. The five of us always had dinner together every night - that's good for the family structure, it's said. A few times he turned the dinner table over or threw dishes at one of us. I only know he generally missed. I would occasionally lock myself in the bathroom to get away from the violence. He generally knew how to unlock those doors. I ran away from home frequently. I accidentally drove his red Chevy pickup truck into a pond. Someone helped me get it back up on land. I also accidentally set his red Chevy pickup on fire but he wasn't mad. He just laughed. He was a good sport like that. Brother Bob finally totaled it after being broadsided by a UPS truck (malfunctioning traffic light) on the way home from a Grateful Dead concert in Philadelphia. It really was a pretty truck - fire engine red with hand painted gold leaf lettering. It had ladder racks which I'd used as a jungle gym. He mostly put up tin, slate and shingle roofs. The most fun was taking the old shingles, slate and tin he ripped off the old roofs to the landfill in his dump truck which he parked around the corner on Hudson St not far from Gliba's bar (Chambersburg, NJ), dumping it off a cliff along the embankments of the Delaware River - he would back up to the edge as close as he could and hit the gas to attempt to scare us. He didn't. This was also near the huge penicillin and pharmaceutical dump by the Trenton Marine Terminal off Rt. 29 towards White City Lake..

 

US Navy Veteran. He had one older brother and one older sister. They (Mom & Dad) had three boys (one died - the second one - Russell - his stomach never closed so his guts were exposed and baby Russell only lived a short time, I'm told . I do not know if or where baby Russell was buried) but Mom said he always wanted a girl, anyway. Often I wonder if baby Russell lived and was given up for adoption. I check with 23 and me occasionally to see if any new family surfaced. He told the same stories year after year for over 40 years, yet never spoke about his time in the Navy (the *brotherhood*, code of silence, whatever). He was the baby of his family. He had brown eyes. He said people had brown eyes because they were full of shit up to their forehead. His Mom died when he was 12. He had a severe hearing deficit that was never addressed, as many Veterans do. He was diabetic although it was never addressed. He had metabolic syndrome although it was never addressed. He always kept, cleaned and took great care of his German Ruger which was kept in the headboard of their bed. We learned at an early age where it was and to "respect" it.

 

He either fished or stayed in his bedroom watching old war movies in his later years and went to flea markets occasionally. His back also started giving out. He refused to go to a doctor. I do not recall that he ever did until his 70's when he developed skin cancer (fisherman's arms). Then he wore a hat like Lawrence of Arabia. They took real good care of him at whichever doctor / hospital he'd gone to. Someone trashed all of his records upon his death as I found only a few after Mom passed away - a statement from CMS Medicare - a summary of claims processed dated 6/13/2003 from a Dr. John W. Petrozzi in Barnegat - $70 for an office visit dated 4/25/03. It was denied. Reason? "a. Our records show that the date of death was before the date of service. b. You do not have to pay this amount., c. The name or Medicare number was incorrect or missing. Ask your provider to use the name or number shown on this notice for future claims." My oldest brother wanted his "Red Dawn" book back. We never found it in the house but we combed through everything looking for it.

 

He would go meet his buddies for breakfast at a local diner. He was always mad at one of them at any given time. He had a loud, infectious laugh and a loud boisterous voice. He was also a tinsmith and spent a good portion of his Winters melting lead in the basement to make fishing sinkers. He had freezers full of bait (and hundred dollar bills wrapped in tin-foil). He was a phenomenal cook - he loved the typical German/ Polish/ Hungarian meat & potatoes diet. He adored his fatty meats (bacon, pork, Szalolonna, etc....). He never ate anything sugary except for tons of fresh fruit nightly. He only ate Wonder Bread (white) and tons of processed lunch meats (favorite was Lebanon Bologna). He came home for lunch daily for his bread and tomato sandwich w. fresh radishes on the side w. salt, He did like his Navy Bean Soup with ham. He also spent his afternoons at the American Legion drinking beer. The only "ritual" I remember aside from cleaning his gun weekly and going to Church with us once a year (Christmas) was breaking out the Limburger cheese every Sunday. That was the day we would all hold our noses and run out of the house screaming.

 

He would go fishing twice a week - a 1 1/2 hr. drive from Trenton & Lawrenceville, NJ to Waretown, NJ, where he docked his boat. There was a sharp turn around Cranberry Lake where he would drive 100MPH to try to scare us. It didn't. While smoking his cigars (that was not fun). I did, however, have many, many night terrors most of my younger life about being trapped in a car underwater, among others. Until I learned how to escape one if it indeed happened. My friends all received a glass-break tool for the holidays one year. www.thebugoutbagguide.com/best-car-escape-tool/

 

He taught me how to shoot guns, ride horses, sail and swim (by throwing me in deep waters without any life vest while he laughed),. I am not sure why so many fathers do this to their daughters....one would think they'd teach them how to swim, first. He taught me how to handle a boat, to navigate through channels, sandbars and the Barnegat Inlet. He taught me how to surf. He taught me to water ski (without knowing how to swim). He taught me to snow ski. He taught me how to drive (while using a quick backhand across the face if I made my turns too wide). He taught me how to shoot bow and arrow. He taught me how to shuffle, deal and play cards. He taught me how to detail a truck. He left me a $2,000 John Hancock Life Insurance policy which allowed me to purchase a Windows Millenium Edition Dell Dimension computer - my first Windows computer which enabled me to go back to school after my aneurysm. He taught me how to "be kind to animals" (after he beat them till they would no longer move) - I skip that part (hurting them). He & Mom hunted wild game (rabbits, pheasants and deer)) with 2 beagles (Tiny and Nellie who was later replaced by Rosie) which were kept outside year long. He had another dog before them - Speck. And another beagle, Queenie. He didn't mind me bringing home as many animals (and amphibians) as I was able. Except for snakes. Mom had a snake phobia and even the tiniest garter snake upset her, so I learned not to bring home snakes after the first one.

 

He frequently had his drinking buddies at the house till late at night. Mom always loved Frank Sinatra, hence he did his best to emulate him in every way he could. He built a beautiful bar in the basement - I was the family bartender. He got a player piano which was quite fun. He set us up with pinball machines, pool table, juke boxes, bowling machines, arcades, etc....which he'd gotten from his friend, Whitey Bralynski from Browns Novelty, who supplied the arcade, pinball machines & shooting games.to local diners, bowling alleys, etc. - an all cash business.

 

He & Mom hunted deer with bow and arrow together, also. They beat the shit out of us, whipped my brothers and I frequently (I was the only one to hit back). One of the more favorite methods of "teaching" was total isolation for a day or night or more (locked in a completely dark cellar way). He was not the major disciplinarian (at least not for me). We won't go there. He taught me how to not give a fuck about life although it was against my grain. The medical profession convinced him knee implants (which his body rejected) and various other surgeries would improve his quality of life - while in his 70's. They, as well as Medicare or the V.A. (not sure which), squeezed the last bit of benefits out of him prior to his death. He began getting major headaches. He took shark cartilage which his buddies told him would help with pain. He died a few months after these surgeries after he insisted he did not want a nurse visiting his house to change the packings after they removed a good portion of his colon. Unless of course, his insurance would not cover it. Mom was unable to pack his wounds. His neighbor Bobby LeFebvre would go over and do this. Dad never exercised although climbing up and down a ladder in his younger years qualified for a while. Other than passive sports (bowling) while younger. he did practice his boxing skills on the family although that extended out to cage fighting, MMA and simply total loss of control of his anger (on 3 little kids). Wills Eye Hospital in Philadelphia attempted to convince him he needed to have an eye surgery - he left there in the middle of the night - Mom and her neighbor, Judy, drove to go get him at 2AM. I had just returned to work after the aneurysm and could not leave my job II was partially blind and was taking the bus) so I was on the phone with Mom throughout the night. The hospital also attempted to convince him he'd had a brain aneurysm (he did not). He did have a small stroke one Thanksgiving Day and refused treatment at that time. But one day a week or two later he walked into a wall, fell, knocked himself out splitting his head open (and one eye went crooked) which concerned them, hence a visit to the hospital. We all do love the holidays, after all. Wills Eye Hospital removed one of my Mother's eyes - she was in her 70's also. They like to take eyes when they can - someone can always use them. He was a Democratic Committeeman in Lawrenceville, NJ, USA. He was also a boxer on his ship, a ship's cook, a roofing contractor, a great singer and comedian, and made friends wherever he went. He could be a very sharp dresser. He was also a die hard fisherman, a Charter Boat captain, and skilled builder, card player, gardener and carpenter. He was also an asshole, bigot and a stubborn fuck all his life. To the best of my knowledge, in spite of his earlier years as a boxer, he was never evaluated for TBI, trauma, hearing loss or any other neurological impairment or injury.

 

His favorite song was Frank Sinatra's "My Way". He loved to watch Dean Martin, All In The Family and Three's Company. He liked Chrissy. He never liked any of my friends and called all of my girlfriends (since elementary school) whores. He left instructions for Mom on how much to sell his boat, cars and trucks for and what to do with all his fishing stuff (an entire garage full) - that was very considerate, I thought. Once he & Mom were going to get a divorce - Dad said we had to choose who we wanted to live with. Ironically, I chose Dad. Brother Bob (the middle child) went hysterical and could not choose. So they reconciled after counseling with our Church pastor, we became The Brady Bunch and moved to the illustrious suburbs. Both he & Mom had themselves cremated and dumped in the Barnegat Inlet. We took Mom out on a neighbor's boat (Al Casamente, one of his fishing buddies who later was hitting on Mom, she said) - not sure who took Dad - perhaps it was one of his fishing buddies Jimmy McCarty. When their cat, Max died here in Kentucky his ashes were shipped to NJ and his neighbor Bobby again took care of it, so Max should be out there living with the fishes as well. I do not even remember which war Dad was in. - with everyone in our families on both sides generations back in wars, it became impossible to remember whose was whose, mostly because when I'd asked there were many different answers their paperwork disappeared. There was no obituary. No memorial service.

 

I was told two versions of how his Mom died. One was she was at the "beauty parlor" and died from what was called "beauty parlor stroke syndrome". The other story was she was getting her hair done and there was a mob bombing in which she was killed.

 

While Mom was sorting out his belongings after he allegedly committed suicide, she said she found a black bra in his closet. This would most likely account for why all of his belongings were disposed of.

 

RIP, Dad. Thank you for preparing me to deal with senior citizens. I hope I haven't created too much havoc as your Daughter (if I really was).

 

With Love,

Dysfunctional Veteran's Daughter

 

Moral of Story: Drinking, drugs, babysitters & kids don't mix. Think about it.

  

Publicity image for the new Superior 500 which replaced the Superior 400 model. The Superior 500 had a more streamlined body developed under the principles of Paul Jaráy (Vienna, 1889-1974) and the technical supervision of Josef Ganz (Budapest, 1898-1967).

At the end of 1933, a small delivery van variant was also introduced until 1938. After that year, Standard founder Wilhelm Gutbrod (near Stuttgart, 1890-1948) sold the small van under his own name as Gutbrod Merkur HV 504. The body was very similar to that of the Simca 5 Fourgonnette.

Note the use of tubular chrome seats. It was a new invention in the early 1920s.

 

Some background info:

In the 1930s there was an increasing need for a real people's car in the German-speaking region. A car affordable for the masses, the so called 'Volkswagen'.

One of the leading engineers at that time was Josef Ganz. After he had worked for Adler, BMW, Daimler-Benz and Röhr, he developed his own minicar in 1931, the 'Maikäfer'.

In Standard Fahrzeugbau he found a manufacturer and in 1932 the Standard Superior 400 was launched (officially presented at the IAMA, the Berlin international motor show, Febr. 1933).

This cheap car was based on the 'Maikäfer' principles: tubular chassis, rear engine, independent wheel suspension and with a streamlined body.

 

Journalist Paul Schilperoord wrote a very interesting book about the history of the development of the VW Beetle in the 1930s. In this book he describes the life and works of Josef Ganz who's technical ideas were taken over by Ferdinand Porsche. The book reads like a very exciting story.

See: Paul Schilperoord, Het ware verhaal van de Kever: hoe Hitler het ontwerp van een Joods genie confisqueerde, Veen Magazines, 2009.

In 2019 a documentary was made about Josef Ganz and his life story: Ganz, How I lost my Beetle (2019), by Suzanne Raes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNuS4GwU7CU

 

494 cc 2 cylinder 2-stroke rear engine.

490 kg.

Production Standard Superior 500: Nov. 1933-May 1935.

 

Image source: Paul Schilperoord, Het ware verhaal van de Kever: hoe Hitler het ontwerp van een Joods genie confisqueerde, Veen Magazines, 2009.

Location: Frankfurt.

Date: prob. Nov. 1933.

Original photographer/artist, place and exact date unknown.

 

Halfweg, Febr. 11, 2023.

 

© 2009/2023 Schilperoord/Sander Toonen, Halfweg | All Rights Reserved

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 08-Oct-20.

 

Fleet No: "7AA".

 

This aircraft was delivered to American Airlines as N770AN in Jan-99. It was withdrawn from service and stored at Mobile - Downtown (BFM), AL, USA in Mar-20 as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic. It was moved to Roswell, NM, USA in Aug-20 (I'm not sure if that's a permanent retirement as Roswell is normally where American's aircraft go at the end their lives...). Stored, updated (Oct-20).

Nikon D810 Beautiful Ballerina Goddess Dancing Ballet!

 

Nikon D810 Ballet Photos of Pretty Ballerina Dancing in Malibu! Captured with the Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II AF-S Nikkor Zoom Lens and the 50mm Sigma Art Lens !

 

facebook.com/mcgucken

 

instagram.com/45surf

instagram.com/johnnyrangermccoy/

 

Join me friends!!

 

instagram.com/45surf

 

www.facebook.com/elliot.mcgucken

 

I'm working on an anthology of classic, epic poetry, which begins with selections from Homer's Iliad and Odyssey! :) I've replaced the Roman names with the Greek names: "RAGE, Sing, O goddess, the rage of Achilles son of Peleus, that brought countless ills upon the Greeks. Many a brave soul did it send hurrying down to Hades, and many a hero did it yield a prey to dogs and vultures, for so were the counsels of Zeus fulfilled from the day on which the son of Atreus, king of men, and great Achilles, first fell out with one another."

 

All the best on your epic hero's odyssey into the art of photography!

 

Nikon D810 Beautiful Ballerina Dancers! Goddesses Dancing Ballet! Ballet amongst the California Spring Wildflowers!

Replacing an earlier scanned slide with a better version 09-Oct-15.

 

Fleet No: "967".

 

This aircraft was delivered to Caribair Puerto Rico as N967PR in Mar-68. Caribair was merged into Eastern Air Lines in May-73 and it continued to operate for Eastern until they ceased trading in Jan-91 when the aircraft was stored at Mojave, CA, USA.

 

It was sold by the liquidators to AVENSA, Venezuela, in Aug-91 as YV-82C. It was leased to LAV Linea Aerea Venezolana for a year between Aug-93 and Aug-94 and continued in service with AVENSA until, at the age of 31 it was retired and stored at Caracas, Venezuela, in Dec-99.

 

It was last noted still stored at Caracas in Feb-09 in derelict condition and has, presumably, since been broken up.

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 17-Jan-20 + DeNoise AI 05-Oct-22.

 

This aircraft first flew as D-CPRW in Feb-98 and was stored at Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany until it was leased to Minerva Airlines (Italy) in Jun-98. It was wet-leased to Alitalia Express in Aug-99 and returned to Minerva and the lessor in Nov-03 when it was stored at Innsbruck (?).

 

It was due to be leased to Air Alps Aviation at one point, but that didn't happen and the aircraft was moved to Bern, Switzerland in Jun-04. It was leased to EuroManx Airlines in Jun-05 and returned to the lessor in Jan-06.

 

The aircraft was leased to Cirrus Luftfahrt and wet-leased to Excellent Air (Germany) in May-06. It was returned to Cirrus in May-08. It was withdrawn from use and stored at Oberpfaffenhofen in Nov-11. Cirrus ceased operations in Jan-12 and the aircraft was returned to 328 Aircraft Trade GmbH.

 

It was sold to the Sierra Nevada Corporation as N307EF in Jul-12 and was transferred to the USAF Special Operations Command 3 days later. The aircraft was converted to Dornier C-146A Wolfhound standard with the serial 11-3097 (13097) in Jan-13. As far as I'm aware, it's still in service. Updated 04-Oct-22.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beamish_Museum

 

Beamish Museum is the first regional open-air museum, in England, located at Beamish, near the town of Stanley, in County Durham, England. Beamish pioneered the concept of a living museum. By displaying duplicates or replaceable items, it was also an early example of the now commonplace practice of museums allowing visitors to touch objects.

 

The museum's guiding principle is to preserve an example of everyday life in urban and rural North East England at the climax of industrialisation in the early 20th century. Much of the restoration and interpretation is specific to the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, together with portions of countryside under the influence of industrial revolution from 1825. On its 350 acres (140 ha) estate it uses a mixture of translocated, original and replica buildings, a large collection of artefacts, working vehicles and equipment, as well as livestock and costumed interpreters.

 

The museum has received a number of awards since it opened to visitors in 1972 and has influenced other living museums. It is an educational resource, and also helps to preserve some traditional and rare north-country livestock breeds.

 

History

Genesis

In 1958, days after starting as director of the Bowes Museum, inspired by Scandinavian folk museums, and realising the North East's traditional industries and communities were disappearing, Frank Atkinson presented a report to Durham County Council urging that a collection of items of everyday history on a large scale should begin as soon as possible, so that eventually an open air museum could be established. As well as objects, Atkinson was also aiming to preserve the region's customs and dialect. He stated the new museum should "attempt to make the history of the region live" and illustrate the way of life of ordinary people. He hoped the museum would be run by, be about and exist for the local populace, desiring them to see the museum as theirs, featuring items collected from them.

 

Fearing it was now almost too late, Atkinson adopted a policy of "unselective collecting" — "you offer it to us and we will collect it." Donations ranged in size from small items to locomotives and shops, and Atkinson initially took advantage of a surplus of space available in the 19th-century French chateau-style building housing the Bowes Museum to store items donated for the open air museum. With this space soon filled, a former British Army tank depot at Brancepeth was taken over, although in just a short time its entire complement of 22 huts and hangars had been filled, too.

 

In 1966, a working party was established to set up a museum "for the purpose of studying, collecting, preserving and exhibiting buildings, machinery, objects and information illustrating the development of industry and the way of life of the north of England", and it selected Beamish Hall, having been vacated by the National Coal Board, as a suitable location.

 

Establishment and expansion

In August 1970, with Atkinson appointed as its first full-time director together with three staff members, the museum was first established by moving some of the collections into the hall. In 1971, an introductory exhibition, "Museum in the Making" opened at the hall.

 

The museum was opened to visitors on its current site for the first time in 1972, with the first translocated buildings (the railway station and colliery winding engine) being erected the following year. The first trams began operating on a short demonstration line in 1973. The Town station was formally opened in 1976, the same year the reconstruction of the colliery winding engine house was completed, and the miners' cottages were relocated. Opening of the drift mine as an exhibit followed in 1979.

 

In 1975 the museum was visited by the Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother, and by Anne, Princess Royal, in 2002. In 2006, as the Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of England, The Duke of Kent visited, to open the town masonic lodge.

 

With the Co-op having opened in 1984, the town area was officially opened in 1985. The pub had opened in the same year, with Ravensworth Terrace having been reconstructed from 1980 to 1985. The newspaper branch office had also been built in the mid-1980s. Elsewhere, the farm on the west side of the site (which became Home Farm) opened in 1983. The present arrangement of visitors entering from the south was introduced in 1986.

 

At the beginning of the 1990s, further developments in the Pit Village were opened, the chapel in 1990, and the board school in 1992. The whole tram circle was in operation by 1993.[8] Further additions to the Town came in 1994 with the opening of the sweet shop and motor garage, followed by the bank in 1999. The first Georgian component of the museum arrived when Pockerley Old Hall opened in 1995, followed by the Pockerley Waggonway in 2001.

 

In the early 2000s two large modern buildings were added, to augment the museum's operations and storage capacity - the Regional Resource Centre on the west side opened in 2001, followed by the Regional Museums Store next to the railway station in 2002. Due to its proximity, the latter has been cosmetically presented as Beamish Waggon and Iron Works. Additions to display areas came in the form of the Masonic lodge (2006) and the Lamp Cabin in the Colliery (2009). In 2010, the entrance building and tea rooms were refurbished.

 

Into the 2010s, further buildings were added - the fish and chip shop (opened 2011)[28] band hall (opened 2013) and pit pony stables (built 2013/14) in the Pit Village, plus a bakery (opened 2013) and chemist and photographers (opened 2016) being added to the town. St Helen's Church, in the Georgian landscape, opened in November 2015.

 

Remaking Beamish

A major development, named 'Remaking Beamish', was approved by Durham County Council in April 2016, with £10.7m having been raised from the Heritage Lottery Fund and £3.3m from other sources.

 

As of September 2022, new exhibits as part of this project have included a quilter's cottage, a welfare hall, 1950s terrace, recreation park, bus depot, and 1950s farm (all discussed in the relevant sections of this article). The coming years will see replicas of aged miners' homes from South Shields, a cinema from Ryhope, and social housing will feature a block of four relocated Airey houses, prefabricated concrete homes originally designed by Sir Edwin Airey, which previously stood in Kibblesworth. Then-recently vacated and due for demolition, they were instead offered to the museum by The Gateshead Housing Company and accepted in 2012.

 

Museum site

The approximately 350-acre (1.4 km2) current site, once belonging to the Eden and Shafto families, is a basin-shaped steep-sided valley with woodland areas, a river, some level ground and a south-facing aspect.

 

Visitors enter the site through an entrance arch formed by a steam hammer, across a former opencast mining site and through a converted stable block (from Greencroft, near Lanchester, County Durham).

 

Visitors can navigate the site via assorted marked footpaths, including adjacent (or near to) the entire tramway oval. According to the museum, it takes 20 minutes to walk at a relaxed pace from the entrance to the town. The tramway oval serves as both an exhibit and as a free means of transport around the site for visitors, with stops at the entrance (south), Home Farm (west), Pockerley (east) and the Town (north). Visitors can also use the museum's buses as a free form of transport between various parts of the museum. Although visitors can also ride on the Town railway and Pockerley Waggonway, these do not form part of the site's transport system (as they start and finish from the same platforms).

 

Governance

Beamish was the first English museum to be financed and administered by a consortium of county councils (Cleveland, Durham, Northumberland and Tyne and Wear) The museum is now operated as a registered charity, but continues to receive support from local authorities - Durham County Council, Sunderland City Council, Gateshead Council, South Tyneside Council and North Tyneside Council. The supporting Friends of Beamish organisation was established in 1968. Frank Atkinson retired as director in 1987. The museum has been 96% self-funding for some years (mainly from admission charges).

 

Sections of the museum

1913

The town area, officially opened in 1985, depicts chiefly Victorian buildings in an evolved urban setting of 1913.

 

Tramway

The Beamish Tramway is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) long, with four passing loops. The line makes a circuit of the museum site forming an important element of the visitor transportation system.

 

The first trams began operating on a short demonstration line in 1973, with the whole circle in operation by 1993.[8] It represents the era of electric powered trams, which were being introduced to meet the needs of growing towns and cities across the North East from the late 1890s, replacing earlier horse drawn systems.

 

Bakery

Presented as Joseph Herron, Baker & Confectioner, the bakery was opened in 2013 and features working ovens which produce food for sale to visitors. A two-storey curved building, only the ground floor is used as the exhibit. A bakery has been included to represent the new businesses which sprang up to cater for the growing middle classes - the ovens being of the modern electric type which were growing in use. The building was sourced from Anfield Plain (which had a bakery trading as Joseph Herron), and was moved to Beamish in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The frontage features a stained glass from a baker's shop in South Shields. It also uses fittings from Stockton-on-Tees.

 

Motor garage

Presented as Beamish Motor & Cycle Works, the motor garage opened in 1994. Reflecting the custom nature of the early motor trade, where only one in 232 people owned a car in 1913, the shop features a showroom to the front (not accessible to visitors), with a garage area to the rear, accessed via the adjacent archway. The works is a replica of a typical garage of the era. Much of the museum's car, motorcycle and bicycle collection, both working and static, is stored in the garage. The frontage has two storeys, but the upper floor is only a small mezzanine and is not used as part of the display.

 

Department Store

Presented as the Annfield Plain Industrial Co-operative Society Ltd, (but more commonly referred to as the Anfield Plain Co-op Store) this department store opened in 1984, and was relocated to Beamish from Annfield Plain in County Durham. The Annfield Plain co-operative society was originally established in 1870, with the museum store stocking various products from the Co-operative Wholesale Society (CWS), established 1863. A two-storey building, the ground floor comprises the three departments - grocery, drapery and hardware; the upper floor is taken up by the tea rooms (accessed from Redman Park via a ramp to the rear). Most of the items are for display only, but a small amount of goods are sold to visitors. The store features an operational cash carrier system, of the Lamson Cash Ball design - common in many large stores of the era, but especially essential to Co-ops, where customer's dividends had to be logged.

 

Ravensworth Terrace

Ravensworth Terrace is a row of terraced houses, presented as the premises and living areas of various professionals. Representing the expanding housing stock of the era, it was relocated from its original site on Bensham Bank, having been built for professionals and tradesmen between 1830 and 1845. Original former residents included painter John Wilson Carmichael and Gateshead mayor Alexander Gillies. Originally featuring 25 homes, the terrace was to be demolished when the museum saved it in the 1970s, reconstructing six of them on the Town site between 1980 and 1985. They are two storey buildings, with most featuring display rooms on both floors - originally the houses would have also housed a servant in the attic. The front gardens are presented in a mix of the formal style, and the natural style that was becoming increasingly popular.

 

No. 2 is presented as the home of Miss Florence Smith, a music teacher, with old fashioned mid-Victorian furnishings as if inherited from her parents. No. 3 & 4 is presented as the practice and home respectively (with a knocked through door) of dentist J. Jones - the exterior nameplate having come from the surgery of Mr. J. Jones in Hartlepool. Representing the state of dental health at the time, it features both a check-up room and surgery for extraction, and a technicians room for creating dentures - a common practice at the time being the giving to daughters a set on their 21st birthday, to save any future husband the cost at a later date. His home is presented as more modern than No.2, furnished in the Edwardian style the modern day utilities of an enamelled bathroom with flushing toilet, a controllable heat kitchen range and gas cooker. No. 5 is presented as a solicitor's office, based on that of Robert Spence Watson, a Quaker from Newcastle. Reflecting the trade of the era, downstairs is laid out as the partner's or principal office, and the general or clerk's office in the rear. Included is a set of books sourced from ER Hanby Holmes, who practised in Barnard Castle.

 

Pub

Presented as The Sun Inn, the pub opened in the town in 1985. It had originally stood in Bondgate in Bishop Auckland, and was donated to the museum by its final owners, the Scottish and Newcastle Breweries. Originally a "one-up one down" cottage, the earliest ownership has been traced to James Thompson, on 21 January 1806. Known as The Tiger Inn until the 1850s, from 1857 to 1899 under the ownership of the Leng family, it flourished under the patronage of miners from Newton Cap and other collieries. Latterly run by Elsie Edes, it came under brewery ownership in the 20th Century when bought by S&N antecedent, James Deuchar Ltd. The pub is fully operational, and features both a front and back bar, the two stories above not being part of the exhibit. The interior decoration features the stuffed racing greyhound Jake's Bonny Mary, which won nine trophies before being put on display in The Gerry in White le Head near Tantobie.

 

Town stables

Reflecting the reliance on horses for a variety of transport needs in the era, the town features a centrally located stables, situated behind the sweet shop, with its courtyard being accessed from the archway next to the pub. It is presented as a typical jobmaster's yard, with stables and a tack room in the building on its north side. A small, brick built open air, carriage shed is sited on the back of the printworks building. On the east side of the courtyard is a much larger metal shed (utilising iron roof trusses from Fleetwood), arranged mainly as carriage storage, but with a blacksmith's shop in the corner. The building on the west side of the yard is not part of any display. The interior fittings for the harness room came from Callaly Caste. Many of the horses and horse-drawn vehicles used by the museum are housed in the stables and sheds.

 

Printer, stationer and newspaper branch office

Presented as the Beamish Branch Office of the Northern Daily Mail and the Sunderland Daily Echo, the two storey replica building was built in the mid-1980s and represents the trade practices of the era. Downstairs, on the right, is the branch office, where newspapers would be sold directly and distributed to local newsagents and street vendors, and where orders for advertising copy would be taken. Supplementing it is a stationer's shop on the left hand side, with both display items and a small number of gift items on public sale. Upstairs is a jobbing printers workshop, which would not produce the newspapers, but would instead print leaflets, posters and office stationery. Split into a composing area and a print shop, the shop itself has a number of presses - a Columbian built in 1837 by Clymer and Dixon, an Albion dating back to 1863, an Arab Platen of c. 1900, and a Wharfedale flat bed press, built by Dawson & Son in around 1870. Much of the machinery was sourced from the print works of Jack Ascough's of Barnard Castle. Many of the posters seen around the museum are printed in the works, with the operation of the machinery being part of the display.

 

Sweet shop

Presented as Jubilee Confectioners, the two storey sweet shop opened in 1994 and is meant to represent the typical family run shops of the era, with living quarters above the shop (the second storey not being part of the display). To the front of the ground floor is a shop, where traditional sweets and chocolate (which was still relatively expensive at the time) are sold to visitors, while in the rear of the ground floor is a manufacturing area where visitors can view the techniques of the time (accessed via the arched walkway on the side of the building). The sweet rollers were sourced from a variety of shops and factories.

 

Bank

Presented as a branch of Barclays Bank (Barclay & Company Ltd) using period currency, the bank opened in 1999. It represents the trend of the era when regional banks were being acquired and merged into national banks such as Barclays, formed in 1896. Built to a three-storey design typical of the era, and featuring bricks in the upper storeys sourced from Park House, Gateshead, the Swedish imperial red shade used on the ground floor frontage is intended to represent stability and security. On the ground floor are windows for bank tellers, plus the bank manager's office. Included in a basement level are two vaults. The upper two storeys are not part of the display. It features components sourced from Southport and Gateshead

 

Masonic Hall

The Masonic Hall opened in 2006, and features the frontage from a former masonic hall sited in Park Terrace, Sunderland. Reflecting the popularity of the masons in North East England, as well as the main hall, which takes up the full height of the structure, in a small two story arrangement to the front of the hall is also a Robing Room and the Tyler's Room on the ground floor, and a Museum Room upstairs, featuring display cabinets of masonic regalia donated from various lodges. Upstairs is also a class room, with large stained glass window.

 

Chemist and photographer

Presented as W Smith's Chemist and JR & D Edis Photographers, a two-storey building housing both a chemist and photographers shops under one roof opened on 7 May 2016 and represents the growing popularity of photography in the era, with shops often growing out of or alongside chemists, who had the necessary supplies for developing photographs. The chemist features a dispensary, and equipment from various shops including John Walker, inventor of the friction match. The photographers features a studio, where visitors can dress in period costume and have a photograph taken. The corner building is based on a real building on Elvet Bridge in Durham City, opposite the Durham Marriot Hotel (the Royal County), although the second storey is not part of the display. The chemist also sells aerated water (an early form of carbonated soft drinks) to visitors, sold in marble-stopper sealed Codd bottles (although made to a modern design to prevent the safety issue that saw the original bottles banned). Aerated waters grew in popularity in the era, due to the need for a safe alternative to water, and the temperance movement - being sold in chemists due to the perception they were healthy in the same way mineral waters were.

 

Costing around £600,000 and begun on 18 August 2014, the building's brickwork and timber was built by the museum's own staff and apprentices, using Georgian bricks salvaged from demolition works to widen the A1. Unlike previous buildings built on the site, the museum had to replicate rather than relocate this one due to the fact that fewer buildings are being demolished compared to the 1970s, and in any case it was deemed unlikely one could be found to fit the curved shape of the plot. The studio is named after a real business run by John Reed Edis and his daughter Daisy. Mr Edis, originally at 27 Sherburn Road, Durham, in 1895, then 52 Saddler Street from 1897. The museum collection features several photographs, signs and equipment from the Edis studio. The name for the chemist is a reference to the business run by William Smith, who relocated to Silver Street, near the original building, in 1902. According to records, the original Edis company had been supplied by chemicals from the original (and still extant) Smith business.

 

Redman Park

Redman Park is a small lawned space with flower borders, opposite Ravensworth Terrace. Its centrepiece is a Victorian bandstand sourced from Saltwell Park, where it stood on an island in the middle of a lake. It represents the recognised need of the time for areas where people could relax away from the growing industrial landscape.

 

Other

Included in the Town are drinking fountains and other period examples of street furniture. In between the bank and the sweet shop is a combined tram and bus waiting room and public convenience.

 

Unbuilt

When construction of the Town began, the projected town plan incorporated a market square and buildings including a gas works, fire station, ice cream parlour (originally the Central Cafe at Consett), a cast iron bus station from Durham City, school, public baths and a fish and chip shop.

 

Railway station

East of the Town is the Railway Station, depicting a typical small passenger and goods facility operated by the main railway company in the region at the time, the North Eastern Railway (NER). A short running line extends west in a cutting around the north side of the Town itself, with trains visible from the windows of the stables. It runs for a distance of 1⁄4 mile - the line used to connect to the colliery sidings until 1993 when it was lifted between the town and the colliery so that the tram line could be extended. During 2009 the running line was relaid so that passenger rides could recommence from the station during 2010.

 

Rowley station

Representing passenger services is Rowley Station, a station building on a single platform, opened in 1976, having been relocated to the museum from the village of Rowley near Consett, just a few miles from Beamish.

 

The original Rowley railway station was opened in 1845 (as Cold Rowley, renamed Rowley in 1868) by the NER antecedent, the Stockton and Darlington Railway, consisting of just a platform. Under NER ownership, as a result of increasing use, in 1873 the station building was added. As demand declined, passenger service was withdrawn in 1939, followed by the goods service in 1966. Trains continued to use the line for another three years before it closed, the track being lifted in 1970. Although in a state of disrepair, the museum acquired the building, dismantling it in 1972, being officially unveiled in its new location by railway campaigner and poet, Sir John Betjeman.

 

The station building is presented as an Edwardian station, lit by oil lamp, having never been connected to gas or electricity supplies in its lifetime. It features both an open waiting area and a visitor accessible waiting room (western half), and a booking and ticket office (eastern half), with the latter only visible from a small viewing entrance. Adorning the waiting room is a large tiled NER route map.

 

Signal box

The signal box dates from 1896, and was relocated from Carr House East near Consett. It features assorted signalling equipment, basic furnishings for the signaller, and a lever frame, controlling the stations numerous points, interlocks and semaphore signals. The frame is not an operational part of the railway, the points being hand operated using track side levers. Visitors can only view the interior from a small area inside the door.

 

Goods shed

The goods shed is originally from Alnwick. The goods area represents how general cargo would have been moved on the railway, and for onward transport. The goods shed features a covered platform where road vehicles (wagons and carriages) can be loaded with the items unloaded from railway vans. The shed sits on a triangular platform serving two sidings, with a platform mounted hand-crane, which would have been used for transhipment activity (transfer of goods from one wagon to another, only being stored for a short time on the platform, if at all).

 

Coal yard

The coal yard represents how coal would have been distributed from incoming trains to local merchants - it features a coal drop which unloads railway wagons into road going wagons below. At the road entrance to the yard is a weighbridge (with office) and coal merchant's office - both being appropriately furnished with display items, but only viewable from outside.

 

The coal drop was sourced from West Boldon, and would have been a common sight on smaller stations. The weighbridge came from Glanton, while the coal office is from Hexham.

 

Bridges and level crossing

The station is equipped with two footbridges, a wrought iron example to the east having come from Howden-le-Wear, and a cast iron example to the west sourced from Dunston. Next to the western bridge, a roadway from the coal yard is presented as crossing the tracks via a gated level crossing (although in reality the road goes nowhere on the north side).

 

Waggon and Iron Works

Dominating the station is the large building externally presented as Beamish Waggon and Iron Works, estd 1857. In reality this is the Regional Museums Store (see below), although attached to the north side of the store are two covered sidings (not accessible to visitors), used to service and store the locomotives and stock used on the railway.

 

Other

A corrugated iron hut adjacent to the 'iron works' is presented as belonging to the local council, and houses associated road vehicles, wagons and other items.

 

Fairground

Adjacent to the station is an events field and fairground with a set of Frederick Savage built steam powered Gallopers dating from 1893.

 

Colliery

Presented as Beamish Colliery (owned by James Joicey & Co., and managed by William Severs), the colliery represents the coal mining industry which dominated the North East for generations - the museum site is in the former Durham coalfield, where 165,246 men and boys worked in 304 mines in 1913. By the time period represented by Beamish's 1900s era, the industry was booming - production in the Great Northern Coalfield had peaked in 1913, and miners were relatively well paid (double that of agriculture, the next largest employer), but the work was dangerous. Children could be employed from age 12 (the school leaving age), but could not go underground until 14.

 

Deep mine

Reconstructed pitworks buildings showing winding gear

Dominating the colliery site are the above ground structures of a deep (i.e. vertical shaft) mine - the brick built Winding Engine House, and the red painted wooden Heapstead. These were relocated to the museum (which never had its own vertical shaft), the winding house coming from Beamish Chophill Colliery, and the Heapstead from Ravensworth Park Mine in Gateshead. The winding engine and its enclosing house are both listed.

 

The winding engine was the source of power for hauling miners, equipment and coal up and down the shaft in a cage, the top of the shaft being in the adjacent heapstead, which encloses the frame holding the wheel around which the hoist cable travels. Inside the Heapstead, tubs of coal from the shaft were weighed on a weighbridge, then tipped onto jigging screens, which sifted the solid lumps from small particles and dust - these were then sent along the picking belt, where pickers, often women, elderly or disabled people or young boys (i.e. workers incapable of mining), would separate out unwanted stone, wood and rubbish. Finally, the coal was tipped onto waiting railway wagons below, while the unwanted waste sent to the adjacent heap by an external conveyor.

 

Chophill Colliery was closed by the National Coal Board in 1962, but the winding engine and tower were left in place. When the site was later leased, Beamish founder Frank Atkinson intervened to have both spot listed to prevent their demolition. After a protracted and difficult process to gain the necessary permissions to move a listed structure, the tower and engine were eventually relocated to the museum, work being completed in 1976. The winding engine itself is the only surviving example of the type which was once common, and was still in use at Chophill upon its closure. It was built in 1855 by J&G Joicey of Newcastle, to an 1800 design by Phineas Crowther.

 

Inside the winding engine house, supplementing the winding engine is a smaller jack engine, housed in the rear. These were used to lift heavy equipment, and in deep mines, act as a relief winding engine.

 

Outdoors, next to the Heapstead, is a sinking engine, mounted on red bricks. Brought to the museum from Silksworth Colliery in 1971, it was built by Burlington's of Sunderland in 1868 and is the sole surviving example of its kind. Sinking engines were used for the construction of shafts, after which the winding engine would become the source of hoist power. It is believed the Silksworth engine was retained because it was powerful enough to serve as a backup winding engine, and could be used to lift heavy equipment (i.e. the same role as the jack engine inside the winding house).

 

Drift mine

The Mahogany Drift Mine is original to Beamish, having opened in 1855 and after closing, was brought back into use in 1921 to transport coal from Beamish Park Drift to Beamish Cophill Colliery. It opened as a museum display in 1979. Included in the display is the winding engine and a short section of trackway used to transport tubs of coal to the surface, and a mine office. Visitor access into the mine shaft is by guided tour.

 

Lamp cabin

The Lamp Cabin opened in 2009, and is a recreation of a typical design used in collieries to house safety lamps, a necessary piece of equipment for miners although were not required in the Mahogany Drift Mine, due to it being gas-free. The building is split into two main rooms; in one half, the lamp cabin interior is recreated, with a collection of lamps on shelves, and the system of safety tokens used to track which miners were underground. Included in the display is a 1927 Hailwood and Ackroyd lamp-cleaning machine sourced from Morrison Busty Colliery in Annfield Plain. In the second room is an educational display, i.e., not a period interior.

 

Colliery railways

The colliery features both a standard gauge railway, representing how coal was transported to its onward destination, and narrow-gauge typically used by Edwardian collieries for internal purposes. The standard gauge railway is laid out to serve the deep mine - wagons being loaded by dropping coal from the heapstead - and runs out of the yard to sidings laid out along the northern-edge of the Pit Village.

 

The standard gauge railway has two engine sheds in the colliery yard, the smaller brick, wood and metal structure being an operational building; the larger brick-built structure is presented as Beamish Engine Works, a reconstruction of an engine shed formerly at Beamish 2nd Pit. Used for locomotive and stock storage, it is a long, single track shed featuring a servicing pit for part of its length. Visitors can walk along the full length in a segregated corridor. A third engine shed in brick (lower half) and corrugated iron has been constructed at the southern end of the yard, on the other side of the heapstead to the other two sheds, and is used for both narrow and standard gauge vehicles (on one road), although it is not connected to either system - instead being fed by low-loaders and used for long-term storage only.

 

The narrow gauge railway is serviced by a corrugate iron engine shed, and is being expanded to eventually encompass several sidings.

 

There are a number of industrial steam locomotives (including rare examples by Stephen Lewin from Seaham and Black, Hawthorn & Co) and many chaldron wagons, the region's traditional type of colliery railway rolling stock, which became a symbol of Beamish Museum. The locomotive Coffee Pot No 1 is often in steam during the summer.

 

Other

On the south eastern corner of the colliery site is the Power House, brought to the museum from Houghton Colliery. These were used to store explosives.

 

Pit Village

Alongside the colliery is the pit village, representing life in the mining communities that grew alongside coal production sites in the North East, many having come into existence solely because of the industry, such as Seaham Harbour, West Hartlepool, Esh Winning and Bedlington.

 

Miner's Cottages

The row of six miner's cottages in Francis Street represent the tied-housing provided by colliery owners to mine workers. Relocated to the museum in 1976, they were originally built in the 1860s in Hetton-le-Hole by Hetton Coal Company. They feature the common layout of a single-storey with a kitchen to the rear, the main room of the house, and parlour to the front, rarely used (although it was common for both rooms to be used for sleeping, with disguised folding "dess" beds common), and with children sleeping in attic spaces upstairs. In front are long gardens, used for food production, with associated sheds. An outdoor toilet and coal bunker were in the rear yards, and beyond the cobbled back lane to their rear are assorted sheds used for cultivation, repairs and hobbies. Chalkboard slates attached to the rear wall were used by the occupier to tell the mine's "knocker up" when they wished to be woken for their next shift.

 

No.2 is presented as a Methodist family's home, featuring good quality "Pitman's mahogany" furniture; No.3 is presented as occupied by a second generation well off Irish Catholic immigrant family featuring many items of value (so they could be readily sold off in times of need) and an early 1890s range; No.3 is presented as more impoverished than the others with just a simple convector style Newcastle oven, being inhabited by a miner's widow allowed to remain as her son is also a miner, and supplementing her income doing laundry and making/mending for other families. All the cottages feature examples of the folk art objects typical of mining communities. Also included in the row is an office for the miner's paymaster.[11] In the rear alleyway of the cottages is a communal bread oven, which were commonplace until miner's cottages gradually obtained their own kitchen ranges. They were used to bake traditional breads such as the Stottie, as well as sweet items, such as tea cakes. With no extant examples, the museum's oven had to be created from photographs and oral history.

 

School

The school opened in 1992, and represents the typical board school in the educational system of the era (the stone built single storey structure being inscribed with the foundation date of 1891, Beamish School Board), by which time attendance at a state approved school was compulsory, but the leaving age was 12, and lessons featured learning by rote and corporal punishment. The building originally stood in East Stanley, having been set up by the local school board, and would have numbered around 150 pupils. Having been donated by Durham County Council, the museum now has a special relationship with the primary school that replaced it. With separate entrances and cloakrooms for boys and girls at either end, the main building is split into three class rooms (all accessible to visitors), connected by a corridor along the rear. To the rear is a red brick bike shed, and in the playground visitors can play traditional games of the era.

 

Chapel

Pit Hill Chapel opened in 1990, and represents the Wesleyan Methodist tradition which was growing in North East England, with the chapels used for both religious worship and as community venues, which continue in its role in the museum display. Opened in the 1850s, it originally stood not far from its present site, having been built in what would eventually become Beamish village, near the museum entrance. A stained glass window of The Light of The World by William Holman Hunt came from a chapel in Bedlington. A two handled Love Feast Mug dates from 1868, and came from a chapel in Shildon Colliery. On the eastern wall, above the elevated altar area, is an angled plain white surface used for magic lantern shows, generated using a replica of the double-lensed acetylene gas powered lanterns of the period, mounted in the aisle of the main seating area. Off the western end of the hall is the vestry, featuring a small library and communion sets from Trimdon Colliery and Catchgate.

 

Fish bar

Presented as Davey's Fried Fish & Chip Potato Restaurant, the fish and chip shop opened in 2011, and represents the typical style of shop found in the era as they were becoming rapidly popular in the region - the brick built Victorian style fryery would most often have previously been used for another trade, and the attached corrugated iron hut serves as a saloon with tables and benches, where customers would eat and socialise. Featuring coal fired ranges using beef-dripping, the shop is named in honour of the last coal fired shop in Tyneside, in Winlaton Mill, and which closed in 2007. Latterly run by brothers Brian and Ramsay Davy, it had been established by their grandfather in 1937. The serving counter and one of the shop's three fryers, a 1934 Nuttal, came from the original Davy shop. The other two fryers are a 1920s Mabbott used near Chester until the 1960s, and a GW Atkinson New Castle Range, donated from a shop in Prudhoe in 1973. The latter is one of only two known late Victorian examples to survive. The decorative wall tiles in the fryery came to the museum in 1979 from Cowes Fish and Game Shop in Berwick upon Tweed. The shop also features both an early electric and hand-powered potato rumblers (cleaners), and a gas powered chip chopper built around 1900. Built behind the chapel, the fryery is arranged so the counter faces the rear, stretching the full length of the building. Outside is a brick built row of outdoor toilets. Supplementing the fish bar is the restored Berriman's mobile chip van, used in Spennymoor until the early 1970s.

 

Band hall

The Hetton Silver Band Hall opened in 2013, and features displays reflecting the role colliery bands played in mining life. Built in 1912, it was relocated from its original location in South Market Street, Hetton-le-Hole, where it was used by the Hetton Silver Band, founded in 1887. They built the hall using prize money from a music competition, and the band decided to donate the hall to the museum after they merged with Broughtons Brass Band of South Hetton (to form the Durham Miners' Association Brass Band). It is believed to be the only purpose built band hall in the region. The structure consists of the main hall, plus a small kitchen to the rear; as part of the museum it is still used for performances.

 

Pit pony stables

The Pit Pony Stables were built in 2013/14, and house the museum's pit ponies. They replace a wooden stable a few metres away in the field opposite the school (the wooden structure remaining). It represents the sort of stables that were used in drift mines (ponies in deep mines living their whole lives underground), pit ponies having been in use in the north east as late as 1994, in Ellington Colliery. The structure is a recreation of an original building that stood at Rickless Drift Mine, between High Spen and Greenside; it was built using a yellow brick that was common across the Durham coalfield.

 

Other

Doubling as one of the museum's refreshment buildings, Sinker's Bait Cabin represents the temporary structures that would have served as living quarters, canteens and drying areas for sinkers, the itinerant workforce that would dig new vertical mine shafts.

 

Representing other traditional past-times, the village fields include a quoits pitch, with another refreshment hut alongside it, resembling a wooden clubhouse.

 

In one of the fields in the village stands the Cupola, a small round flat topped brick built tower; such structures were commonly placed on top of disused or ventilation shafts, also used as an emergency exit from the upper seams.

 

The Georgian North (1825)

A late Georgian landscape based around the original Pockerley farm represents the period of change in the region as transport links were improved and as agriculture changed as machinery and field management developed, and breeding stock was improved. It became part of the museum in 1990, having latterly been occupied by a tenant farmer, and was opened as an exhibit in 1995. The hill top position suggests the site was the location of an Iron Age fort - the first recorded mention of a dwelling is in the 1183 Buke of Boldon (the region's equivalent of the Domesday Book). The name Pockerley has Saxon origins - "Pock" or "Pokor" meaning "pimple of bag-like" hill, and "Ley" meaning woodland clearing.

 

The surrounding farmlands have been returned to a post-enclosure landscape with ridge and furrow topography, divided into smaller fields by traditional riven oak fencing. The land is worked and grazed by traditional methods and breeds.

 

Pockerley Old Hall

The estate of Pockerley Old Hall is presented as that of a well off tenant farmer, in a position to take advantage of the agricultural advances of the era. The hall itself consists of the Old House, which is adjoined (but not connected to) the New House, both south facing two storey sandstone built buildings, the Old House also having a small north–south aligned extension. Roof timbers in the sandstone built Old House have been dated to the 1440s, but the lower storey (the undercroft) may be from even earlier. The New House dates to the late 1700s, and replaced a medieval manor house to the east of the Old House as the main farm house - once replaced itself, the Old House is believed to have been let to the farm manager. Visitors can access all rooms in the New and Old House, except the north–south extension which is now a toilet block. Displays include traditional cooking, such as the drying of oatcakes over a wooden rack (flake) over the fireplace in the Old House.

 

Inside the New House the downstairs consists of a main kitchen and a secondary kitchen (scullery) with pantry. It also includes a living room, although as the main room of the house, most meals would have been eaten in the main kitchen, equipped with an early range, boiler and hot air oven. Upstairs is a main bedroom and a second bedroom for children; to the rear (i.e. the colder, north side), are bedrooms for a servant and the servant lad respectively. Above the kitchen (for transferred warmth) is a grain and fleece store, with attached bacon loft, a narrow space behind the wall where bacon or hams, usually salted first, would be hung to be smoked by the kitchen fire (entering through a small door in the chimney).

 

Presented as having sparse and more old fashioned furnishings, the Old House is presented as being occupied in the upper story only, consisting of a main room used as the kitchen, bedroom and for washing, with the only other rooms being an adjoining second bedroom and an overhanging toilet. The main bed is an oak box bed dating to 1712, obtained from Star House in Baldersdale in 1962. Originally a defensive house in its own right, the lower level of the Old House is an undercroft, or vaulted basement chamber, with 1.5 metre thick walls - in times of attack the original tenant family would have retreated here with their valuables, although in its later use as the farm managers house, it is now presented as a storage and work room, housing a large wooden cheese press.[68] More children would have slept in the attic of the Old House (not accessible as a display).

 

To the front of the hall is a terraced garden featuring an ornamental garden with herbs and flowers, a vegetable garden, and an orchard, all laid out and planted according to the designs of William Falla of Gateshead, who had the largest nursery in Britain from 1804 to 1830.

 

The buildings to the east of the hall, across a north–south track, are the original farmstead buildings dating from around 1800. These include stables and a cart shed arranged around a fold yard. The horses and carts on display are typical of North Eastern farms of the era, Fells or Dales ponies and Cleveland Bay horses, and two wheeled long carts for hilly terrain (as opposed to four wheel carts).

 

Pockerley Waggonway

The Pockerley Waggonway opened in 2001, and represents the year 1825, as the year the Stockton and Darlington Railway opened. Waggonways had appeared around 1600, and by the 1800s were common in mining areas - prior to 1800 they had been either horse or gravity powered, before the invention of steam engines (initially used as static winding engines), and later mobile steam locomotives.

 

Housing the locomotives and rolling stock is the Great Shed, which opened in 2001 and is based on Timothy Hackworth's erecting shop, Shildon railway works, and incorporating some material from Robert Stephenson and Company's Newcastle works. Visitors can walk around the locomotives in the shed, and when in steam, can take rides to the end of the track and back in the line's assorted rolling stock - situated next to the Great Shed is a single platform for passenger use. In the corner of the main shed is a corner office, presented as a locomotive designer's office (only visible to visitors through windows). Off the pedestrian entrance in the southern side is a room presented as the engine crew's break room. Atop the Great Shed is a weather vane depicting a waggonway train approaching a cow, a reference to a famous quote by George Stephenson when asked by parliament in 1825 what would happen in such an eventuality - "very awkward indeed - for the coo!".

 

At the far end of the waggonway is the (fictional) coal mine Pockerley Gin Pit, which the waggonway notionally exists to serve. The pit head features a horse powered wooden whim gin, which was the method used before steam engines for hauling men and material up and down mineshafts - coal was carried in corves (wicker baskets), while miners held onto the rope with their foot in an attached loop.

 

Wooden waggonway

Following creation of the Pockerley Waggonway, the museum went back a chapter in railway history to create a horse-worked wooden waggonway.

 

St Helen's Church

St Helen's Church represents a typical type of country church found in North Yorkshire, and was relocated from its original site in Eston, North Yorkshire. It is the oldest and most complex building moved to the museum. It opened in November 2015, but will not be consecrated as this would place restrictions on what could be done with the building under church law.

 

The church had existed on its original site since around 1100. As the congregation grew, it was replaced by two nearby churches, and latterly became a cemetery chapel. After closing in 1985, it fell into disrepair and by 1996 was burnt out and vandalised leading to the decision by the local authority in 1998 to demolish it. Working to a deadline of a threatened demolition within six months, the building was deconstructed and moved to Beamish, reconstruction being authorised in 2011, with the exterior build completed by 2012.

 

While the structure was found to contain some stones from the 1100 era, the building itself however dates from three distinct building phases - the chancel on the east end dates from around 1450, while the nave, which was built at the same time, was modernised in 1822 in the Churchwarden style, adding a vestry. The bell tower dates from the late 1600s - one of the two bells is a rare dated Tudor example. Gargoyles, originally hidden in the walls and believed to have been pranks by the original builders, have been made visible in the reconstruction.

 

Restored to its 1822 condition, the interior has been furnished with Georgian box pews sourced from a church in Somerset. Visitors can access all parts except the bell tower. The nave includes a small gallery level, at the tower end, while the chancel includes a church office.

 

Joe the Quilter's Cottage

The most recent addition to the area opened to the public in 2018 is a recreation of a heather-thatched cottage which features stones from the Georgian quilter Joseph Hedley's original home in Northumberland. It was uncovered during an archaeological dig by Beamish. His original cottage was demolished in 1872 and has been carefully recreated with the help of a drawing on a postcard. The exhibit tells the story of quilting and the growth of cottage industries in the early 1800s. Within there is often a volunteer or member of staff not only telling the story of how Joe was murdered in 1826, a crime that remains unsolved to this day, but also giving visitors the opportunity to learn more and even have a go at quilting.

 

Other

A pack pony track passes through the scene - pack horses having been the mode of transport for all manner of heavy goods where no waggonway exists, being also able to reach places where carriages and wagons could not access. Beside the waggonway is a gibbet.

 

Farm (1940s)

Presented as Home Farm, this represents the role of North East farms as part of the British Home Front during World War II, depicting life indoors, and outside on the land. Much of the farmstead is original, and opened as a museum display in 1983. The farm is laid out across a north–south public road; to the west is the farmhouse and most of the farm buildings, while on the east side are a pair of cottages, the British Kitchen, an outdoor toilet ("netty"), a bull field, duck pond and large shed.

 

The farm complex was rebuilt in the mid-19th century as a model farm incorporating a horse mill and a steam-powered threshing mill. It was not presented as a 1940s farm until early 2014.

 

The farmhouse is presented as having been modernised, following the installation of electric power and an Aga cooker in the scullery, although the main kitchen still has the typical coal-fired black range. Lino flooring allowed quicker cleaning times, while a radio set allowed the family to keep up to date with wartime news. An office next to the kitchen would have served both as the administration centre for the wartime farm, and as a local Home Guard office. Outside the farmhouse is an improvised Home Guard pillbox fashioned from half an egg-ended steam boiler, relocated from its original position near Durham.

 

The farm is equipped with three tractors which would have all seen service during the war: a Case, a Fordson N and a 1924 Fordson F. The farm also features horse-drawn traps, reflecting the effect wartime rationing of petrol would have had on car use. The farming equipment in the cart and machinery sheds reflects the transition of the time from horse-drawn to tractor-pulled implements, with some older equipment put back into use due to the war, as well as a large Foster thresher, vital for cereal crops, and built specifically for the war effort, sold at the Newcastle Show. Although the wartime focus was on crops, the farm also features breeds of sheep, cattle, pigs and poultry that would have been typical for the time. The farm also has a portable steam engine, not in use, but presented as having been left out for collection as part of a wartime scrap metal drive.

 

The cottages would have housed farm labourers, but are presented as having new uses for the war: Orchard Cottage housing a family of evacuees, and Garden Cottage serving as a billet for members of the Women's Land Army (Land Girls). Orchard Cottage is named for an orchard next to it, which also contains an Anderson shelter, reconstructed from partial pieces of ones recovered from around the region. Orchard Cottage, which has both front and back kitchens, is presented as having an up to date blue enameled kitchen range, with hot water supplied from a coke stove, as well as a modern accessible bathroom. Orchard Cottage is also used to stage recreations of wartime activities for schools, elderly groups and those living with dementia. Garden Cottage is sparsely furnished with a mix of items, reflecting the few possessions Land Girls were able to take with them, although unusually the cottage is depicted with a bathroom, and electricity (due to proximity to a colliery).

 

The British Kitchen is both a display and one of the museum's catering facilities; it represents an installation of one of the wartime British Restaurants, complete with propaganda posters and a suitably patriotic menu.

 

Town (1950s)

As part of the Remaking Beamish project, with significant funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the museum is creating a 1950s town. Opened in July 2019, the Welfare Hall is an exact replica of the Leasingthorne Colliery Welfare Hall and Community Centre which was built in 1957 near Bishop Auckland. Visitors can 'take part in activities including dancing, crafts, Meccano, beetle drive, keep fit and amateur dramatics' while also taking a look at the National Health Service exhibition on display, recreating the environment of an NHS clinic. A recreation and play park, named Coronation Park was opened in May 2022 to coincide with the celebrations around the Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II.

 

The museum's first 1950s terrace opened in February 2022. This included a fish and chip shop from Middleton St George, a cafe, a replica of Norman Cornish's home, and a hairdressers. Future developments opposite the existing 1950s terrace will see a recreation of The Grand Cinema, from Ryhope, in Sunderland, and toy and electricians shops. Also underdevelopment are a 1950s bowling green and pavilion, police houses and aged miner's cottages. Also under construction are semi-detached houses; for this exhibit, a competition was held to recreate a particular home at Beamish, which was won by a family from Sunderland.

 

As well as the town, a 1950s Northern bus depot has been opened on the western side of the museum – the purpose of this is to provide additional capacity for bus, trolleybus and tram storage once the planned trolleybus extension and the new area are completed, providing extra capacity and meeting the need for modified routing.

 

Spain's Field Farm

In March 2022, the museum opened Spain's Field Farm. It had stood for centuries at Eastgate in Weardale, and was moved to Beamish stone-by-stone. It is exhibited as it would have been in the 1950s.

 

1820s Expansion

In the area surrounding the current Pockerley Old Hall and Steam Wagon Way more development is on the way. The first of these was planned to be a Georgian Coaching Inn that would be the museum's first venture into overnight accommodation. However following the COVID-19 pandemic this was abandoned, in favour of self-catering accommodation in existing cottages.

 

There are also plans for 1820s industries including a blacksmith's forge and a pottery.

 

Museum stores

There are two stores on the museum site, used to house donated objects. In contrast to the traditional rotation practice used in museums where items are exchanged regularly between store and display, it is Beamish policy that most of their exhibits are to be in use and on display - those items that must be stored are to be used in the museum's future developments.

 

Open Store

Housed in the Regional Resource Centre, the Open Store is accessible to visitors. Objects are housed on racks along one wall, while the bulk of items are in a rolling archive, with one set of shelves opened, with perspex across their fronts to permit viewing without touching.

 

Regional Museums Store

The real purposes of the building presented as Beamish Waggon and Iron Works next to Rowley Station is as the Regional Museums Store, completed in 2002, which Beamish shares with Tyne and Wear Museums. This houses, amongst other things, a large marine diesel engine by William Doxford & Sons of Pallion, Sunderland (1977); and several boats including the Tyne wherry (a traditional local type of lighter) Elswick No. 2 (1930). The store is only open at selected times, and for special tours which can be arranged through the museum; however, a number of viewing windows have been provided for use at other times.

 

Transport collection

Main article: Beamish Museum transport collection

The museum contains much of transport interest, and the size of its site makes good internal transportation for visitors and staff purposes a necessity.

 

The collection contains a variety of historical vehicles for road, rail and tramways. In addition there are some modern working replicas to enhance the various scenes in the museum.

 

Agriculture

The museum's two farms help to preserve traditional northcountry and in some cases rare livestock breeds such as Durham Shorthorn Cattle; Clydesdale and Cleveland Bay working horses; Dales ponies; Teeswater sheep; Saddleback pigs; and poultry.

 

Regional heritage

Other large exhibits collected by the museum include a tracked steam shovel, and a coal drop from Seaham Harbour.

 

In 2001 a new-build Regional Resource Centre (accessible to visitors by appointment) opened on the site to provide accommodation for the museum's core collections of smaller items. These include over 300,000 historic photographs, printed books and ephemera, and oral history recordings. The object collections cover the museum's specialities. These include quilts; "clippy mats" (rag rugs); Trade union banners; floor cloth; advertising (including archives from United Biscuits and Rowntree's); locally made pottery; folk art; and occupational costume. Much of the collection is viewable online and the arts of quilting, rug making and cookery in the local traditions are demonstrated at the museum.

 

Filming location

The site has been used as the backdrop for many film and television productions, particularly Catherine Cookson dramas, produced by Tyne Tees Television, and the final episode and the feature film version of Downton Abbey. Some of the children's television series Supergran was shot here.

 

Visitor numbers

On its opening day the museum set a record by attracting a two-hour queue. Visitor numbers rose rapidly to around 450,000 p.a. during the first decade of opening to the public, with the millionth visitor arriving in 1978.

 

Awards

Museum of the Year1986

European Museum of the Year Award1987

Living Museum of the Year2002

Large Visitor Attraction of the YearNorth East England Tourism awards2014 & 2015

Large Visitor Attraction of the Year (bronze)VisitEngland awards2016

It was designated by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council in 1997 as a museum with outstanding collections.

 

Critical responses

In responding to criticism that it trades on nostalgia the museum is unapologetic. A former director has written: "As individuals and communities we have a deep need and desire to understand ourselves in time."

 

According to the BBC writing in its 40th anniversary year, Beamish was a mould-breaking museum that became a great success due to its collection policy, and what sets it apart from other museums is the use of costumed people to impart knowledge to visitors, rather than labels or interpretive panels (although some such panels do exist on the site), which means it "engages the visitor with history in a unique way".

 

Legacy

Beamish was influential on the Black Country Living Museum, Blists Hill Victorian Town and, in the view of museologist Kenneth Hudson, more widely in the museum community and is a significant educational resource locally. It can also demonstrate its benefit to the contemporary local economy.

 

The unselective collecting policy has created a lasting bond between museum and community.

“When the sun has set no candle can replace it” . Twin Peaks, San Francisco . #twinpeaks #sanfrancisco #california #westcoast #clickingmann #view #sunset #mountains #topoftheworld #landscape #photography #travel #travelphotography #photooftheday #holiday #lightroom #500px, via Instagram ift.tt/2BG4O4A

The William Jolly Bridge was constructed between 1928 and 1932 following the formation of Greater Brisbane in 1925, and was one of the first major capital works of the new city Council and bears the name of its first Mayor. At the time of construction, the only traffic bridge linking North and South Brisbane was the second Victoria Bridge, built in 1897 to replace an earlier bridge washed away in the flood of 1893. The William Jolly Bridge crosses the Brisbane River at the tip of the South Brisbane peninsula between Grey Street, South Brisbane, and the intersection of Skew and Saul Streets on the northern bank.

 

The tip of the South Brisbane peninsula is traditionally a point of crossing. A sandy beach marked the point of crossing for aboriginal tribes from the Moreton region, then later for Europeans who crossed the river near this point on the North Quay ferry, and then from the 1930s via the William Jolly Bridge. On the south bank, aboriginal and later European pathways and land use patterns formed the basis for subsequent traffic networks.

 

Prior to European settlement, the whole of the South Brisbane peninsula was known as Kurilpa, meaning the place of rats, due to the large number of bush rats to be found in the lush vegetation of the area. (The recently developed riverfront park adjacent to the bridge at South Brisbane is now called Kurilpa Point.). The first European use of the south bank occurred soon after the establishment of the Moreton Bay Penal settlement in 1825 when convicts cleared the flats across the river in order to grow grain to feed the settlement. In 1830 the cultivation of the flats on the south bank was ordered to cease by the Commandant, however throughout the 1830s timber was being exported to Sydney from the south bank. Those enroute to the outstations at Cowper's (Coopers) Plains, Limestone Hill and Cleveland crossed the area.

 

On the 10th of February 1842, Moreton Bay was declared open for free settlement. As the point of entry and exit, South Brisbane prospered in the 1840s. In 1846 Brisbane was brought within the provisions of the Police Towns Act of 1839, and boundaries to the town were set.

 

The first ferry to convey passengers, horses and carriages began operation from Russell Street circa 1842. For over 30 years this was the only vehicular ferry crossing to North Brisbane in this area, except for a brief period from June 1865 - November 1867 when a temporary timber bridge, which was rapidly destroyed by marine borer, spanned the river.

 

A burial ground had been established on the northern bank where Skew Street is now located, (later moved to Hale Street), and to the rear of the burial ground a new gaol was established by 1860 and military barracks in 1864. Farming was established along the banks of the river, and development concentrated on Petrie Terrace. Land between the new burial ground and barracks was put up for auction in 1861, and from 1863 the auctioning of suburban allotments (now Paddington) encouraged the spread of the settlement along the ridges.

 

The North Quay Ferry, a row boat, crossed the river where the bridge now stands, and the River Road (now Coronation Drive) was established as a track which serviced properties towards Toowong. The opening of the Brisbane-Ipswich railway in 1875 isolated the strip of riverfront residences from the working class houses in Milton and Paddington, and this contributed to the relative lack of development along the northern bank of the Milton Reach of the river in subsequent years.

 

The opening of the Victoria Bridge on the 15th of June 1874 provided an important transport and communications link between the north and south banks of the river, and provided further impetus to the development of the south bank. The Victoria Bridge was funded by the Brisbane Municipal Council and a toll was imposed to recover costs. Eventually, responsibility for the bridge was taken over by the Queensland Government.

 

In the 1880s, the south bank experienced a development boom. A dry dock was opened in 1881, coal wharves at Woolloongabba and associated rail links were established circa 1885, and South Brisbane was established as the passenger terminus for suburban and country lines built during the 1880s. Industry and commerce was attracted to the area, and Stanley Street developed into a major retail centre and thoroughfare. The spread of housing included the development of large residences located along the ridges with views of the river, and industry developed along the southern bank of the Milton reach.

 

The establishment of the South Brisbane municipality occurred on the 7th of January 1888. The development of the civic centre focused on the Stanley and Vulture Street intersection, with the construction of the Town Hall, Fire Station, Post Office and Railway Station. The boom of the 1880s collapsed, followed by maritime and pastoral strikes in the early 1890s, and the collapse of banks in 1893. Land and rent values plummeted to their lowest levels and hundreds of home owners applied to the Council to work out their rates. A series of floods in 1893 resulted in the collapse of the Indooroopilly rail bridge in 1893, which diverted all rail traffic to South Brisbane, and the collapse of Victoria Bridge on 6 February 1893 which cut vital transport and communications links with the central city. A report in the Telegraph on the 8th of February 1893 described the event as What a terrible hiatus in the course of business alone has been caused by the collapse of Victoria Bridge. Once again, for practical purposes, the metropolis is divided into two separate towns. No bridge, no telephone, no telegraph, and vastly inadequate ferry accommodation.

 

Urban expansion on both sides of the river continued with the opening of the new Victoria Bridge in 1897 and the advent of electric trams. The first encroachment of industry into the residential enclave along the high northern embankment occurred above the North Quay ferry terminal in 1897 with the construction of the Helidon Spa Company's extensive works from the North Quay-River Road intersection. The residential enclave was further reduced when the Morrow-Rankin biscuit factory was established upstream from the Helidon Spa works in 1913.

 

On the 3rd of October 1903, the Government gazetted the proclamation which constituted the City of South Brisbane. From 1908 the South Brisbane City Council tried to bring all the wharves in the South Brisbane Reach under its control and encouraged further commercial and industrial development along the river front. As finance permitted, provision of services such as gas, electricity, road sealing, water supply and an adequate system of drainage and sanitation improved the living and working conditions in the area and generated a demand for residential accommodation and improved cross river communication.

 

In the immediate post-war period, residential growth created continued demand for public transport, particularly through and from the South Brisbane peninsula. Land resumption for road widening was enacted in both Stanley and Melbourne Streets, and in September 1925, South Brisbane City Council is noted as having a population of 40,000 persons. The completion of the Sydney-Kyogle-South Brisbane interstate railway benefited the local economy with a demand for factory and manufacturing sites. Health factors, noise and nuisance associated with industry and proximity to wharves and docks all contributed to the changing perception of the area bounded by Grey and Boundary Streets, Montague Road and the river. As a result, when the time came to resume land in connection with the construction of the William Jolly Bridge, there was scant opposition.

 

By the time Greater Brisbane was formed in 1925, the need for further cross river links had been established. Traffic across the Victoria Bridge had increased 76% from 1912 - 1925, and in 1923 it was noted that traffic tonnage had increased 49.5% in 15 months. The 1897 Victoria Bridge had a paved deck with bituminous surfacing on wrought iron troughing. Between 1920 - 1922 this paving was replaced by concrete, causing traffic congestion. In 1922, the need for additional traffic on Victoria Bridge was identified, and the Mayor of Brisbane noted the need for cross river traffic as pressing and urgent. The Victoria Bridge structure was investigated in 1923 to determine its strength for further loading, and WJ Doak, Bridge Engineer of the Queensland Railways, noted that the bridge is now loaded to rather more than its orthodox capacity under live load, but it was considered that there was no immediate danger of collapse. His recommendations included various repairs, and that a second bridge should be built.

 

The first meeting of the Greater Brisbane Council in March 1925 passed a motion concerning the employment of experts to investigate what cross river facilities were required and their best locations. Mayor William Alfred Jolly was Chairman of the Bridges and Ferries Committee, and recommended that three experts be employed. A motion was passed on the 20th of May 1925 to appoint a Cross River Commission, which reported on the 11th of January 1926 (chairman RWH Hawken, Professor of Engineering at the University of Queensland, WN Nelson and R Martin Wilson). The report showed 11 proposed river crossings, and considered costs and savings made due to the reduction in haulage costs etc, and the need for a railway bridge was also discussed. A crossing at Kangaroo Point was estimated to cost 6 times the Grey Street crossing, and further reports were commissioned from WJ Earle, the City Planner, and EF Gilchrist, the City Engineer. These reports proposed the Grey Street bridge be two level for road and rail traffic, and a second bridge from Wellington Road to Sydney Street, New Farm, with a major ring road called the Main Parkway Boulevard, be constructed.

 

On the 7th of June 1926 Council decided to build a bridge from Grey Street, South Brisbane. However, it is interesting to note that Gilchrist Avenue (named after EF Gilchrist City Engineer), which is on the other side of the rail line to the proposed Main Parkway Boulevard, is in essence part of the proposed traffic system for the William Jolly Bridge as per Earle's recommended ring road system. The existing Gilchrist Avenue's original drawings are dated the 25th of June 1930.

 

The Council called applications for a bridge engineer to design a steel or reinforced concrete bridge on the 10th of July 1926. Alison Eavis Harding Frew (1883 - 1952) was appointed Engineer on the 12th of November 1926.

 

Problems were encountered with the design of the bridge due to the depth of rock below the river bed increasing from approximately 14m to 23m on the southern bank. Due to the costly foundation work, a bridge type with long spans was chosen. Harding Frew considered five bridge types, each a variation on a theme, stating in his report that it is frankly admitted that the purely economical aspect alone has not been given as much weight... as the consideration of utility, with good taste, combined with minimum maintenance cost....The maintenance requirements for, and performance of, steel bridges was also noted as a concern.

 

Harding Frew recommended bridge type A and the Council adopted his recommendation, of which some of the details of approaches etc changed from design to construction. The chosen bridge design was to be of concrete encased steel with arched ribs which rise through the deck. The final decision of the type of bridge, from the five under consideration, was essentially aesthetic, and was influenced by the so-called Rainbow Arch Bridge, carrying Robert Street, Saint Paul Minnesota across the Mississippi River. Harding Frew acknowledged this in his report, including photographs of the bridge, and stated that the time has come when some improvement in the appearance of our city bridges should be looked for in Queensland....The questions of utility and aesthetics should also be weighed carefully, especially in relation to a city's importance, its civic pride, and its future. The selected bridge design differed from the Saint Paul bridge in that it has three major spans whereas the Saint Paul bridge only has one, and this has been suggested as possibly making the William Jolly Bridge unique.

 

The Council resumed large areas of land bounded by Roma, Saul and Skew Streets, and between Skew Street, Eagle Terrace and North Quay on the northern side, and on the southern side, east of Grey Street between Montague Road and Melbourne Street. The final position of the bridge was determined by Harding Frew's recommendations (Earle and Gilchrist's were slightly upstream from the present site) and was accepted by Council in late 1926. The bridge was to have a North Quay underpass, and the estimated total cost was £700,000 including viaducts, resumptions, roadways, approaches and contingencies. This caused dismay, and the Commissioner for Main Roads considered that the cost should be contained to £500,000 by reducing the North Quay roadworks, minimising resumptions and building a different type of bridge.

 

Nevertheless, Council called tenders and MR Hornibrook Ltd submitted the lowest of £384,850 and this was accepted on the 8th of May 1928. Work commenced in August 1928 and was completed in March 1932.

 

An artist's impression at the time of construction shows trams crossing the bridge with overhead cables, a monument of some kind at the intersection of Skew and Saul Streets, and a different number of viaducts on southern side to those actually built.

 

An incident occurred on the 17th of February 1927 which highlighted the potentially disastrous situation of having only one bridge across the Brisbane River. The cargo steamer Chronos was taken upstream by a rising tide and the bow was wedged under the Victoria Bridge. Tugs managed to pull it out eventually, but the rising tide could have dislodged a span of the bridge and dumped it in the river, and this was highlighted in the Press at the time.

 

As mentioned, the depth to rock over much of the length of the William Jolly Bridge posed a major problem in the design of the foundations. The original design had the piers supported on timber piles, with inclined piles to resist the thrust from the small arch. Piles were driven immediately to the south of the pier, but it became impossible to drive them to rock and the design was changed to utilise reinforced concrete caissons (heavy, hollow, vertical reinforced concrete cylinders), and the contractor was noted as being completely in accord with this decision. The southern approach spans piers founded on timber piles all driven to rock, or to such depths as it was possible to drive them without damage, and the river piers are founded on reinforced concrete caissons. To achieve this the Sand Island method was invented by Manuel Hornibrook (1893 - 1970).

 

The Sand Island is an artificial island constructed by placing sand within a closed ring of sheet piles driven into the bed of the river. Two islands were constructed for each pier (one for each of the cylindrical caissons) with the caissons being 28 ft in diameter at the base. The pier on the sloping mud bank also used this method with rectangular caissons. Hornibrook is quoted as stating...as far as I am concerned the idea is an original one....The idea came to me one morning about 3 o'clock. I was so much taken up with it that I got out of bed and commenced to design a scheme to carry out the piers for the Grey Street Bridge. The use of Sand Islands was highly successful and very accurate, and overcame the problem of requiring the cutting edge to be placed directly on dry ground. The material was dredged out of the centre of the caisson and the cylinder progressively sank, however it was necessary to ensure that the caisson was fixed securely to rock and it was therefore essential to ensure man-access into the cylinder. This was achieved by using an air-lock system, but as the men worked under high pressure they could possibly suffer from the bends and an hospital air-lock was located at the surface for repressurisation if required. The foundations for the bridge were very deep, and the experience gained in the construction of this bridge, and later the Story Bridge, was considered of great value and to be a major achievement.

 

The steelwork was fabricated at the Evans Deakin and Co plant at Rocklea, and the arches had just been fixed in place when, on the 5th of February 1931 a major flood swept timber falsework away but fortunately the steelwork remained in place.

 

The steelwork was encased in Gunite, a sprayed dry mix concrete, the process of which was based on an invention in the United States at turn of century to spray plaster of paris in the reconstruction of skeletons of prehistoric animals. Between 1904 - 1909 this method was modified to spray sand and cement using a machine known as a Cement-Gun. Gunite was copyrighted in 1912 and continued as a proprietary trademark until 1967, when it became a generic term. The process involves a mixture of sand and cement which is loaded into one chamber, a stream of the dry mixture is forced along a delivery pipe to the gun, and on discharge is mixed with an annular jet of water. It was only in the 1920s that the process spread internationally, and it is difficult to ascertain whether other examples of bridges using the Gunite process, beside the Saint Paul Minnesota bridge, exist. It would appear that the use of Gunite in the arches, beams, deck members and hangers of the main spans, is a major early use of the process in Australia. The Opening Booklet for the bridge states The encasing of broad flange beams with concrete applied under pressure introduces new methods to Brisbane.

 

The southern approach of the bridge, to the south of Montague Road, was designed to have wider footpaths and roadway than the remainder of the bridge to conform with the decision of the Council to utilise this portion of the Approach, so that access might be had to abutting buildings (directly) from the bridge roadway.

 

The concrete balustrades were made by the Hume Pipe Co Ltd, and were centrifugally cast in their factory at West End. The Hume brothers invented the centrifugal casting method, for the casting of concrete pipes etc, and their firm was established in Adelaide in 1910. The mould for the grotesques, which decorate the bridge, was made by Karma Eklund, daughter of the State Manager, Hugo Eklund.

 

The structural steelwork including angles, plates, channels etc was almost wholly imported from Great Britain. Broad flange beams were supplied from Belgium, the largest being 30 x 12 inches which were larger than Australian rolled beams at the time. The use of large sections in the southern approaches allowed longer spans thereby reducing the number of piers. The cement and aggregate was supplied by the Queensland Cement and Lime Co.

 

Provision for a major water pipe never eventuated, and the closer spacing of stringers in the centre to support a tramway was not utilised. The decorative towers were intended to support overhead cables for the proposed tramway. The bridge originally crossed the North Quay underpass on two continuous, reinforced-concrete girder spans, each 33 ft with girders of variable depth. These have since been replaced by precast, prestressed concrete deck units above Coronation Drive, which links onto the riverside expressway, and in the process the footpath widths have been reduced.

 

The extent of work included in the bridge contract excluded some retaining walls, roadways etc on the northern side which were designed by the council. A statement was presented to the council on the 14th of November 1933 showing the official final cost as £688,387/12/5.

 

The bridge was officially opened on the 30th of March 1932, just eleven days after the opening of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. A large crowd gathered on both sides of the river and 600 invited guests were in attendance. The bridge was named the Grey Street Bridge.

 

There was great community interest in the massive public works under construction at the time. It was the era of the Great Depression and massive public works, and Vida Lahey, a distinguished Queensland artist, painted the bridge at least three times during its construction. She also painted other public works including Anzac Square, the State Government Offices, and the Central Railway Station. Although there was widespread public interest in the bridge, it was eclipsed within ten years by the much larger and more prominent Story Bridge.

 

An unusual feature of the Bridge is that the arches rise through the deck. It is noted that those living in Brisbane tend to regard this as normal for a bridge of this type, however this is in fact most unusual and few bridges around the world, including the Sydney Harbour Bridge, have this feature. The problem confronting Harding Frew was not the span to rise ratio of the arch itself, but rather its effect on the design of the deep foundations required at the site.

 

The bridge was designed to alleviate the traffic on the Victoria Bridge, but by as early as 1939 it was carrying 45% of the cross river traffic and was effectively doing more than it was designed to achieve.

 

On the 5th of July 1955, the Council decided to rename the bridge the William Jolly Bridge, in honour of William Alfred Jolly (1881 - 1955). Jolly was Alderman of Windsor Town Council from 1912 to 1925, including 5 years as Mayor. On the 21st of February 1925 he was elected first Mayor (later Lord Mayor) of the Greater Brisbane Council for six years until his retirement in 1931. JW Greene was in office when the bridge was opened. Jolly had moved the motions which led to the construction of the bridge. The Greater Brisbane Act gave the Council a charter which vested in the Council the power to frame its own legislation and the Council proceeded with a bold policy of civic improvements, including the Grey Street (William Jolly) Bridge, the new City Hall, Anzac Square, the tramways, water supply, and sewerage.

 

Originally the bridge, roadways and footpaths were illuminated by spherical glass light fittings on cast metal mountings on both sides of the arches and the decorative arches of the tower-like elements. These fittings were replaced by the present lighting in 1964.

 

Many of the balustrades have been replaced, and prior to 1972 the complete roadway was resurfaced with asphalt. The bridge was first painted in 1974. A cream colour was chosen to reflect the approximate colour of newly poured concrete. Floodlighting was also introduced in 1974.

 

The original two-span overpass over North Quay, later over Coronation Drive, was replaced by the present single-span structure using precast, prestressed concrete deck units in 1988.

 

Source: Queensland Heritage Register.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 05-Jun-20, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 26-Jan-24.

 

'jmc AIR' was derived from the initials of Thomas Cook's son, John Mason Cook'. Who knew! Actually very few people had any idea of what it stood for and the company was renamed Thomas Cook Airlines in Mar-03.

 

This aircraft was delivered to GECAS and leased to Philippine Airlines as RP-C2114 in Nov-80. It operated PAL's last DC-10 service in Feb-96 before being returned to the lessor in Mar-96.

 

The aircraft was leased to Caledonian Airways (the British Airways version, previously British Airtours, not the original Caledonian!) as G-GOKT in May-96. This Caledonian was merged with Flying Colours Airlines to form 'jmc AIR' in Mar-00 (jmc Air was renamed Thomas Cook Airlines in Mar-03).

 

The aircraft was returned to the lessor in Jan-01 and stored at Manchester, UK. In May-01 the aircraft was re-registered N352WL and leased to World Airways the following month. It was returned to the lessor in Feb-05 and permanently retired at Greenwood, MS, USA.

 

It was last noted at Greenwood in May-07 with all useful parts removed although the registration wasn't cancelled until Apr-17!

In 1995 Toyota started production of the US built Tacoma pickup. It replaced the Hilux on the North American market. This one has a 2.4 litre 4-cylinder engine. The first generation was built until 2004.

Still need some plates in red to replace the blue ones and finish the back section of the Viper.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 20-Apr-16.

 

First flown with the Airbus test registration D-AVYD, this aircraft was delivered to Tunis Air in Sep-98. Now almost 18 years old (as of Apr-16), it continues in service.

File: 2016001-0105

Previous scaled down image replaced with full size 2592 x 3872 image.

  

Lulu modelling and photographed in casual outfit. Newport, Wales, United Kingdom, 29th January 2016.

  

She is seen here, modelling in a light brown and cream coloured stripped faux fur coat made by Quality Fashion, bought second-hand from a charity shop. She is wearing her own black scoop neckline top, with her own dark blue jeans. She is wearing a pair of black high heels. The photographs were taken in front of a studio backdrop, using a Nikon D200 DSLR.

 

In 1985, when I was at a deaf school in my last year, I decided to get into doing photography as a career. It is the kind of off-beat job that I would like to do, so I tried to apply for a college course studying photography. But the hearing teachers, my own family, family friends, career advisors, and even the social workers, told me that I should not do photography as a job because I am deaf.

 

In those days here in the United Kingdom, there were discrimination against disabled people, as there weren’t much laws protecting our rights at that time. My mother told me I can’t do photography, because I’m deaf with speech impaired.

 

I tried to make an effort to get them into helping me get a college course, studying photography. But they got me on a training course at college, instead of a proper serious course. From 1987 to 1989, I spent two days studying traditional graphic design while at college, with three days work experience for a professional photographer as part of my training course, mainly as photographer’s assistant and darkroom technician.

 

I admit that I became hooked on doing graphic design, so in additional to wanting to become a photographer, I decided I want to become a graphic designer as a second option.

 

After leaving college, I attempted to get a job working either in photography or graphic design, but as I mentioned earlier, in those days, there were still discrimination against the disabled people, so employers are likely to favour hearing people over deaf people.

 

For a few years, I continue to do my own photography and my own graphic design projects at home, in order to keep up my skills, while at same time, trying to find a job. Then I got married, and started a family life, but divorced her and I became a full-time single parent, so everything was put on hold for a while, until the kids were much older.

 

Finally, in the United Kingdom, we got The Equality Act 2010, that would protect our rights.

 

Few years later, while my kids were old enough to attend full-time school, I resumed my own projects, mainly to refresh my skills. I would need to improve my portfolio if I were to try to apply for a job, or may even consider going freelance. One of the graphic design projects I planned to do, requested a female model.

 

So I searched online, looked at some of the modelling agencies and model booking websites.

 

I booked Lulu for a two-hours outdoors photo-shoot in Newport, Gwent, South Wales. I arrived at her home, met up with her, and went through the details of the photo-shoot. We went into city centre, and I found a perfect location for my needs, did the photo-shoot for my graphic design project.

 

When the outdoors photo-shoots were done, there was still time to spare, I think maybe one and half hour of the booked two-hours slot was used up, leaving maybe half hour left.

 

I think that both she and her husband didn’t think it was right, I think they feel like they were overcharging me for less time used, or something like that. They were nice and polite, and they allowed me to use up what was left of the booked timeslot. They pointed out that they have a small makeshift studio in their spare bedroom, and suggested I could use it for some indoor photo-shoots, use what was left of the booked timeslot to do more photographs if I wish to do so. I figured why not? Not only that I would get my money’s worth, but also take a chance to do more refresher photography.

 

And this is one of the series of photos I took in the remaining half hour of the booked timeslot.

 

Point of note: Lulu had left a glowing and positive review on my profile, on the model booking website, pointing out that despite my being deaf with speech impaired, she had found working with me a pleasure and enjoyable.

  

The Comment Box for my photo is NOT an advertising billboard for any Groups. (e.g.: “As seen in [whatever] group.”)

 

You are free and welcome to comment for yourself, with your own words, but not for the group Admins. Any comments with clickable links will be considered as spam and will be deleted.

 

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 18-Apr-24.

 

Named: "Al-Wuseil".

 

First flown as an A330-203 with the Airbus test registration F-WWKU, this aircraft was delivered to Qatar Airways as A7-ACD at the end of Mar-03. It was sold to Doha Leasing (A330) Ltd on delivery and leased back to Qatar Airways.

 

It was converted to A330-202 standard in Sep-04 to bring it in line with the rest of the Qatar A330-200 fleet. It was returned to the lessor in May-18 and sold to Wilmington Trust SP Services (Dublin) Ltd as EI-GGP in Jun-18.

 

The aircraft was leased to Air Italy (Italy) a few days later. Air Italy ceased operations on 11-Feb-20, just at the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Italy suffered very badly early on).

 

It was returned to the lessor and stored at Doha, Qatar. The aircraft was 'leased' to Qatar Airways as A7-ACR in Nov-20, although it never entered service. It was ferried to Teruel, Spain in Dec-20 and permanently retired. It was broken up at Teruel in Sep-21. Updated 01-Apr-24.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 02-May-18, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 20-Mar-24.

 

Fleet No: '9290'.

 

This aircraft was delivered to Frontier Airlines as N7347F in Sep-79. It was sold to United Airlines in Jul-85 and leased back to Frontier. It was returned to United Airlines as N990UA in Apr-86.

 

The aircraft was sold to a lessor in Jun-89 and United bought it back again in Nov-95. After 22 years in service it was retired and stored at Victorville, CA, USA in Oct-01.

 

In May-03 it was sold to Ram Air Sales Inc and made it's final flight to Marana, AZ, USA where it was permanently retired. It was finally broken up at Marana in 2017.

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 26-Aug-21 (DeNoiseAI).

 

Taken from the Templeton Bridge,

 

Fleet No: "722".

 

First flown with the Boeing test registration N1786B, this aircraft was originally to have been registered N17730. This wasn't taken up and the aircraft was delivered to Continental Airlines as N27722 in Apr-99. It was fitted with blended winglets in May-05. Continental Airlines was merged into United Airlines in Oct-10 and the blended winglets were changed to split scimitar winglets in Sep-15. Current, updated (Aug-20)

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 15-Mar-21, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 16-Nov-25.

 

Fleet No: "7958".

 

This aircraft was delivered to United Airlines as N7458U in Mar-80. It was sold to Wilmington Trust Company in Jun-89 and leased back to United. United bought it back in Sep-95. The aircraft was retired and stored at Victorville, CA, USA in Nov-01.

 

It was sold to Guilford Transportation Industries Inc in Jun-02. It was registered to Pan-Am Railways Inc in Jul-02 and ferried to Portsmouth, NH, USA. However, it never entered service again. It was permanently retired and eventually broken up. The registration was cancelled in Sep-09. Updated 16-Nov-25.

Replaced in 2015 from the Airlink service 100 between Waverley Bridge and Edinburgh Airport by new buses, the original vehicles were transferred to East Coast Buses. Seen at Abbeymount is 20940 - SN10DKK.

Opened in 1991 replacing a smaller store on the other side of town.

[explore]

 

TAKE OFF the OLD one

and let GET the NEW one

 

! ~

 

[Tam Đảo 1 ngày bình yên :X ]

 

Tặng thối um !!!

mềnh cũng thick cái ẻng nài lắm , nhìn 1 fát là ra cái des lun :-> hị

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 26-Mar-17, plus DeNoise AI 28-Nov-22.

 

Right side. The fuselage livery incorporates the 'JAS' titles although on this side they appear as a 'mirror image'.

 

This aircraft was delivered to JAS Japan Air System as JA8004 in Jun-97. JAS was merged into Japan Airlines Domestic in Apr-04. In Oct-06 Japan Airlines Domestic was merged into 'the other half', Japan Airlines International.

 

The 'International' was dropped in Apr-11 when the airline became Japan Airlines again. The aircraft was sold to Delta Air Lines as N940DN in May-12 and initially stored at Marana, AZ, USA.

 

It was ferried to Jacksonville-Cecil Field, FL, USA in Jan-13 for heavy maintenance, painting and cabin reconfiguration and entered service in Apr-13. The aircraft was permanently retired at San Bernardino, CA, USA in Jan-19 with 46,186 hours and 37,519 flight cycles 'on the clock'.

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 27-Sep-20.

 

Operating on behalf of CMTA Compagnie Mauritanienne de Transport Aerien

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise 07-Sep-25.

 

First flown in Nov-94 with the Airbus test registration F-WWAA, this aircraft was stored at Toulouse until it was delivered to China Eastern Airlines as B-2325 in Mar-95.

 

It was retired and stored at Shanghai-Hongqiao in Mar-14. The aircraft was sold to AVIC Leasing in Dec-14 and converted to freighter configuration at Dresden, Germany in Mar-16 and leased to Uni-Top Airlines, China in later the same month.

 

The aircraft was permanently retired at Shanghai-Hongqiao in Jun-19.

Replacing an earlier scanned print with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 06-Aug-21.

 

Leased from/operated by Maersk Air.

 

An early build B737-700 (Line No:11), this aircraft was first flown with the Boeing test registration N35161. It was delivered to Maersk Air (Denmark) as OY-MRB in Mar-98. It was wet-leased to Air Malta in Mar-00 and returned to Maersk Air in Oct-00.

 

The aircraft was sold to GECAS in Dec-00 and immediately leased to GOL Transportes Aereos (Brasil) as PR-GOA. It was returned to GECAS in Sep-12 and stored at Greenwood, MS, USA where it was subsequently broken up after only 14 years in service.

Replacing a photo from Apr-15 with a better version.

 

Named: "Princess Salma Bint Abdullah".

 

This aircraft was delivered to the CIT Leasing Corporation and leased to Royal Jordanian Airlines as JY-BAC in Oct-15. Current (Sep-18).

Replaced on X43 duties by 'Sky Class' Enviro 400s, several of the previous 'Witch Way' Volvo B9TL / Wright are now in 'Hotline' livery for the 152 on which The Blackburn Bus Company 2768 was photographed in Hoghton.

 

This image is copyright and must not be reproduced or downloaded without the permission of the photographer.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 26-Jul-17 + DeNoise AI 18-Oct-22.

 

Fleet No: "50M".

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 03-Mar-18, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 15-Apr-23.

 

'Wanula Dreaming', Australia World Tail livery, left side.

 

This aircraft was delivered to British Airways as G-BNLS in Mar-91. It was in service with British Airways for 23 years until it was permanently retired and stored at Victorville, CA, USA in May-14. It was last noted still stored at Victorville in May-15.

African American Flag reimagines the United States flag, replacing its colors with the red, green, and black of the Pan-African Universal Negro Improvement Association, founded in 1914. Hammons created this version—one in an edition of ten—for an exhibition at Jack Tilton Gallery in New York City in 1990.

 

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is located in Manhattan on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues and is one of the world's leading museums of modern and contemporary art. Its collection includes 20th-century painting and sculpture, films and photographs, and an extensive collection of books.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 26-Aug-21 (DeNoiseAI)

 

'all go' titles, right side. 'go now' titles. left side.

 

This aircraft was delivered to ILFC and leased to Garuda Indonesia Airlines as PK-GWF in Apr-90. It was returned to the lessor in Mar-98 and leased to Go Fly Ltd as G-IGOF the following month (see note below).

 

Go Fly was merged into the easyJet Airline Company in Dec-02 and the aircraft stayed with them until it was returned to the lessor in Nov-03. It was leased to Garuda again in Dec-03 as PK-GHS.

 

The aircraft was transferred to Garuda Citylink in May-04 and returned to the lessor in Jan-09 and leased to Sriwijaya Air as PK-CJY in Feb-09. The aircraft was damaged beyond repair when it caught fire at Jakarta (CGK) in Oct-14.

 

Note: Go Fly Ltd was set up by British Airways as a low-cost answer to Ryanair and easyJet. It was based at Stansted, UK. It didn't really catch on and it's somewhat ironic that BA eventually sold Go Fly to easyJet in Dec-02.

(Replaced with a slightly rotated version.)

The ideas behind the steampunk sci-fi subgenre have been around since Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, but it was given its moniker in the late '80s as a speculative-fiction genre, alongside cyberpunk, ribofunk and splatterpunk. While the others peer 15 minutes into the future, steampunk envisions a future that has collapsed onto a re-imagined Victorian past. Steam and clockworks replace silicon logic, brass and copper stand in for titanium and plastic, and airships replace spaceships.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 28-Dec-25.

 

First flown with the Boeing test registration N1786B, this aircraft was delivered to Air-Berlin as D-ABAX in Apr-00. It was fitted with Blended Winglets in May-01.

 

The aircraft was sold to Jackson Square Aviation in Nov-07 and leased to Shenzhen Airlines as B-5361 later the same month.

 

After 12 years with Shenzhen Airlines the aircraft was returned to the lessor in early Apr-19 and permanently retired at Castellon de la Plana - Costa Azahar, Spain. It was broken up there in Aug-19.

The Annunciation Cathedral in Voronezh, Russia, is a towering Eastern Orthodox cathedral constructed between 1998 and 2009, serving as the episcopal seat of the Voronezh diocese within the Russian Orthodox Church. The cathedral building stands at approximately 85 meters, reaching a total height of 97 meters including its bell tower, with five copper domes; it ranks among the tallest Orthodox churches worldwide. Designed in the Russian-Byzantine style by architect V. P. Shevelyov and patterned after the historic St. Vladimir's Cathedral in Kyiv, the cathedral was consecrated on September 18, 2011, by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, marking a significant revival of Orthodox architecture in the region following the Soviet era.

 

This modern structure replaces an earlier Annunciation Cathedral on the same site, which originated with a wooden church commissioned by Saint Mitrofan of Voronezh, the first bishop of the Voronezh Eparchy established in 1681, and built from 1684 to 1692 to bolster the Orthodox presence in the frontier area. This initial structure was replaced by a stone cathedral in Ukrainian Baroque style, constructed between 1718 and 1735. The cathedral became a focal point for veneration after Mitrofan's canonization in 1832, when Emperor Nicholas I attended the opening of his relics there, sparking widespread pilgrimages. The historic site evolved into the core of the Blagoveshchensky Mitrofansky Monastery by 1836, but the cathedral was demolished by Soviet authorities in the 1950s as part of anti-religious campaigns.

 

Today, the Annunciation Cathedral not only functions as a center for liturgical services, including regular divine liturgies led by Metropolitan Leonty of Voronezh and Liski (as of 2023), but also houses the relics of Saint Mitrofan, returned to the Church in 1989 after Bolshevik confiscation, alongside those of other local saints like Anthony of Voronezh and Tikhon of Zadonsk. A monument to Saint Mitrofan was unveiled in front of the cathedral in 2003, underscoring its role as a pilgrimage destination and symbol of enduring faith in Voronezh's history. The attached bell tower draws inspiration from designs by architect Giacomo Quarenghi, blending historical reverence with contemporary grandeur, while ongoing projects include embellishing reliquaries for the saints' remains.

 

Following the destruction of the original cathedral during the Soviet era, which cleared the site in the city center, reconstruction efforts for a new Annunciation Cathedral began in 1998 as part of the broader post-Soviet religious revival supported by the Russian Orthodox Church. On August 7, 1998, the Voronezh city administration allocated a plot in the central Pervomaysky Garden to the Voronezh Diocese for the project. The first stone was laid on August 28, 1998, during the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, with Metropolitan Methodius of Voronezh and Lipetsk leading the ceremony, attended by regional and city leaders. Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia consecrated the foundation on October 15, 1998, during his visit to Voronezh, marking the official initiation under Church auspices.

 

Construction progressed steadily from 1998 to 2009, resulting in a five-domed structure designed in the Russo-Byzantine style by architect Vladimir Petrovich Shevelev. The design drew inspiration from the demolished 19th-century St. Vladimir's Cathedral in Voronezh, which had been built in a similar style influenced by Konstantin Thon, while the attached bell tower echoed the 18th-century design by Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi for the original Annunciation Cathedral. Key milestones included raising the main dome in November 2001, installing a 12-meter cross weighing nearly 5 tons on October 14, 2001, and mounting the 6-ton main bell on the belfry on March 23, 2002. The belfry was completed in 2003, and on December 4, 2003, a cross was raised atop its 84-meter spire.12 During this phase, on May 23-24, 2003, a bronze monument to St. Mitrofan of Voronezh—8.5 meters tall and weighing 8 tons, sculpted by I.P. Dikunov—was unveiled in the square before the cathedral to commemorate the city's first bishop.

 

Funding for the project relied primarily on public donations and charitable contributions, with significant support from local businesses such as the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant until 2003. In August 2003, the Regional Public Charitable Fund of St. Mitrofan was established by Metropolitan Sergius and Voronezh Oblast Governor Vladimir Kulakov to coordinate collections from residents and organizations, ensuring transparent budgeting. By 2009, the fund's board expanded to include high-ranking officials like Governor Alexey Gordeev, facilitating additional financing from enterprises; total expenditures reached approximately 450 million rubles. The cathedral was officially opened on December 6, 2009, with the first Divine Liturgy in the upper church led by Metropolitan Sergius, though full consecration by Patriarch Kirill occurred in 2011.

 

The Annunciation Cathedral in Voronezh exemplifies the Russo-Byzantine architectural style, a revivalist approach that draws on medieval Russian Orthodox traditions blended with 19th-century imperial influences. This style is characterized by its emphasis on verticality, ornate detailing, and symbolic forms evoking ancient Byzantine and Kievan Rus' heritage. The cathedral's design was specifically modeled after the lost St. Vladimir's Cathedral in Kiev and the works of architect Konstantin Thon, such as the Grand Kremlin Palace and the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, incorporating pseudo-Russian elements like bulbous domes and patterned brickwork to convey grandeur and spiritual elevation.

 

In terms of scale, the cathedral stands as one of the tallest Eastern Orthodox churches worldwide, reaching a height of 97 meters at its central dome. Its configuration features five prominent copper-colored domes arranged in a traditional cross plan, symbolizing the five wounds of Christ and providing a visual anchor in the skyline. This imposing structure not only dominates its surroundings but also underscores the post-Soviet resurgence of monumental religious architecture in Russia.

 

Situated at coordinates 51°40′34″N 39°12′39″E in the heart of Voronezh, the cathedral integrates seamlessly into the urban fabric of the city, serving as a focal point along the Voronezh River embankment and enhancing the area's historical and cultural landscape. Reconstructed between 1998 and 2009, it revives this style to reaffirm the Orthodox presence in a modern context.

 

The Annunciation Cathedral in Voronezh exhibits a classic five-dome configuration emblematic of Russian Orthodox architecture, consisting of a prominent central dome flanked by four smaller ones that together form the cathedral's distinctive silhouette. Constructed between 1998 and 2009 under the design of architect V. P. Shevelyov, the domes contribute to the structure's towering height of 97 meters, with the central dome installed in 2001 and all topped by stainless steel crosses coated in titanium since 2000. This layout draws inspiration from the late 19th-century St. Vladimir's Cathedral in Kyiv, emphasizing the Russo-Byzantine style's emphasis on verticality and symmetry.

 

The exterior facades reflect the building's cruciform plan, presenting a majestic and imposing presence that echoes the proportions of the demolished St. Vladimir's Cathedral while adhering to Russo-Byzantine principles of form and massing. The walls, built primarily of brick with stone accents typical of the style, feature subtle ornamental elements such as arched windows and decorative cornices that enhance the overall harmony without overwhelming the structure's clean lines. Portals at the main entrances are framed with classical detailing, inviting entry while maintaining the architectural restraint favored in post-Soviet reconstructions.

 

Attached to the main body of the cathedral is a prominent bell tower, designed to replicate the 18th-century structure originally conceived by Italian architect Giacomo Quarenghi for the site's earlier cathedral. Rising to the full 97-meter height, the bell tower adopts a multi-tiered form with a flat Greek-style dome crowning its summit, supported by a drum on a pitched roof. Installed bells, starting with a 6-ton bass bell in 2002 produced locally in Voronezh, enable the tower to serve both acoustic and symbolic functions, its tiers adorned with simple neoclassical motifs that nod to Quarenghi's Baroque influences adapted to the Russo-Byzantine context.

 

The Annunciation Cathedral in Voronezh features a distinctive division into an upper and lower temple, reflecting traditional Orthodox architectural principles for multifunctional sacred spaces. The upper temple encompasses a vast, two-light volume with a cross-shaped plan under the main dome, centered around the principal altar dedicated to the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos. Below, the lower temple aligns with the crypt level and houses altars consecrated to the All-Merciful Savior and the Life-Giving Cross of the Lord, complemented by a lower aisle dedicated to Saints Dimitry of Rostov, Mitrofan of Voronezh, and Tikhon of Voronezh, which was solemnly dedicated on August 24, 2012, by Metropolitan Sergius of Voronezh and Borisoglebsk.

 

The interior is adorned in a classical Orthodox style, emphasizing spiritual elevation through iconography and decorative elements. The iconostasis comprises three tiers, with the central conch partially open to enhance visual connection to the altar; its royal doors form a deep semicircular portal embellished with intricate carving, plates of Pamir lapis lazuli, and gilded filigree overlays featuring vegetal motifs. The icons were crafted by Archimandrite Andrey (Tarasov) and artisans from the Holy Trinity Brotherhood in Shchigry, under the Kursk Diocese. A monumental mosaic deesis behind the altar replicates the 14th-century composition from Constantinople's Hagia Sophia, depicting Christ enthroned flanked by the Theotokos and John the Forerunner. Complementing these are extensive frescoes and wall paintings covering approximately 6,500 square meters across vaults and walls, executed by 15 artists over 11 years following the cathedral's initial opening in 2009; they follow a hierarchical scheme with Christ, the Theotokos, apostles, and angels in the upper registers bathed in golden light, biblical narratives midway, and scenes from the lives of Voronezh saints below, all integrated with liturgical furnishings such as candle stands and incense burners to support traditional services.

 

Central to the cathedral's interior is the veneration of relics, particularly those of Saint Mitrofan of Voronezh, the first bishop of the diocese, whose incorrupt remains were originally interred in the original Annunciation structure in 1703 and reconfirmed as miraculous in 1717 and 1832 during reconstructions. Following Soviet-era confiscation in 1929 and storage in the Voronezh Regional Museum after partial return to the Church in 1989, the relics were solemnly transferred to the reconstructed cathedral on December 5, 2009, via a grand procession involving thousands of pilgrims and clergy from the nearby Pokrovsky Cathedral, where they had been housed temporarily. Encased in ornate reliquaries, they now reside in the lower temple, drawing devotees for prayer and healing petitions during daily liturgies—the first of which occurred there on April 7, 2004—and major feasts, with the full consecration of the site by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow on September 18, 2011, underscoring their role in communal worship. The interior also enshrines a particle of the relics of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk and the remains of Hieromartyr Peter (Zverev), enhancing the space's sanctity. This relic devotion connects symbolically to the external bronze monument of Saint Mitrofan, unveiled in 2003 directly before the cathedral, which serves as a focal point for pilgrims approaching the interior shrine.

 

During services, the sounds from the adjacent exterior bell tower enhance the liturgical atmosphere within, calling the faithful to prayer.

 

The Annunciation Cathedral serves as the principal cathedral of the Voronezh Metropolis within the Russian Orthodox Church, a status it has held since 1682 when it was established under the first Voronezh Bishop, Saint Mitrofan of Voronezh. As the seat of the diocesan bishop, currently Metropolitan Leontius of Voronezh and Liskinsk (appointed in 2024), it functions as the central hub for the ecclesiastical hierarchy in the region, overseeing spiritual leadership and major administrative activities for the diocese's clergy, monastics, and laity. Post-reconstruction in 2011, it has solidified its preeminent position among Voronezh's Orthodox churches, surpassing others like the Intercession and Holy Trinity cathedrals in its role as the primary site for hierarchical liturgies and diocesan gatherings.

 

The cathedral hosts the major patronal feast of the Annunciation of the Most Holy Theotokos on April 7 (March 25 in the Julian calendar), marked by solemn Divine Liturgies and processions that draw worshippers from across the metropolis. This feast underscores its dedication to the biblical event of the Archangel Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin Mary, with veneration centered on icons depicting the Annunciation, including those in the cathedral's iconostasis. Ongoing religious activities include daily services such as morning Hours, Divine Liturgy, Vespers, and Matins, conducted regularly in both the upper and lower temples to sustain the liturgical life of the community. Baptisms, a key sacrament, are performed on Tuesdays at 12:00 p.m., and on Thursdays and Sundays at 1:00 p.m., accommodating families seeking initiation into the Orthodox faith.

 

Pilgrimages to the cathedral are prominent, particularly those focused on the veneration of the Annunciation icon and the relics of Saint Mitrofan, which serve as a draw for devotees seeking spiritual intercession and healing. These activities reinforce the cathedral's role in fostering devotion within the Voronezh Diocese, where it remains the focal point for regional Orthodox pilgrimage and sacramental life following its late 20th-century reconstruction.

 

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 10-Apr-24. Slightly blurred!

 

Named: "Luiz Vaz de Camoes".

 

First flown with the Airbus test registration D-AVZI, this aircraft was delivered to TAP Air Portugal as CS-TJF in Jan-01. Current, updated 10-Apr-24.

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 27-Dec-24.

 

This aircraft was delivered to PIA Pakistan International Airlines as AP-BGJ in Jan-04. It was withdrawn from service and stored at Karachi, Pakistan in Jul-24. Stored, updated 27-Dec-24.

Replacing those very tired looking omnidekkas since brand new, a smarter looking Pink line takes place in the roads around Bilborough and the city centre. Think pink as you can guarantee a smooth ride with free wifi and USB onboard. And a perfect day to photograph these as they look super smart.

 

no. YN19 EFO

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 10-Aug-21.

 

-Delft Blue Daybreak- Netherlands World Tail livery.

 

This aircraft was delivered to British Airways as G-BGDF in Mar-80. It was sold to a lessor in Mar-90 and leased back to British Airways. It was returned to the lessor in Oct-00 and stored the following month.

 

The aircraft was re-registered N902PG in Mar-01 and re-registered again as N954PG in Jun-01. It was leased to Aerolineas Argentinas as LV-ZYG in Nov-01. The aircraft was permanently retired at Buenos Aries-Ezieza International, Argentina in Mar-09.

 

Note: The aircraft was disassembled in 2012 and moved by road Jul-13 to Villa Martelli in Buenos Aries where it was reassembled and displayed at the Tecnopolis Fair in new blue & white Aerolineas Argentinas livery. It was disassembled again and moved by road 09-Apr-14 to Moron where it was reassembled and repainted in fictitious 'Sudamerican Airlines' livery to appear in an episode of the Argentine TV Show 'Showmatch'. In Jul-14 it was moved back to the Villa Martelli

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 26-Mar-23.

 

On the tail you can just make out the Goodjet logo under the thin layer of paint.

 

First flown in Oct-90 with the Airbus test registration F-WWIY, this aircraft was delivered to GATX Leasing and leased to LACSA (Costa Rica) as N482GX in Dec-90, it was wet-leased to Aero Quetzal in Sep-91 and returned to LACSA in Oct-91.

 

It was returned to the lessor in Jan-95 and leased to Air Charter (France) as F-GLGN in Feb-95. It was returned to the lessor in Nov-98 and stored. The aircraft was leased to Air Europe SpA (Italy) in Apr-99 and returned to the lessor in Apr-01.

 

Then it was leased to Canada 3000 Airlines as C-GVXH. Canada 3000 ceased operations in Nov-01 in the aftermath of the 911 terrorist attacks in the USA. The aircraft was returned to the lessor and initially stored at Toronto, ON, Canada.

 

It was moved to Toulouse, France in Apr-02 and re-registered F- GKCI the following month. It was re-registered F-WKCI in Aug-02 before being leased to Transair Sweden as SE-RCG in Oct-02. On delivery to Transair, it was immediately wet-leased to Goodjet (Norway).

 

Transair Sweden ceased operations for Goodjet in Dec-02 due to a US$ 3 million debt (they were declared bankrupt in Jan-03). Goodjet also ceased operations and were declared bankrupt the same month!

 

The aircraft was repossessed by the lessor and stored at Bordeaux, France. It was leased to Free Bird Airlines (Turkey) as TC-FBE in Nov-03. It was returned to the lessor and stored at Goodyear, AZ, USA in Oct-11. The aircraft was sold to AeroTurbine Inc as N216AT and permanently retired. It was broken up at Goodyear in late 2012.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 10-Jun-21, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 22-Sep-23.

 

'Blue Poole', England World Tail livery. The tail scheme appears to be a lighter blue compared to the same livery on other aircraft.

 

First flown in Oct-82, this was a very early B757 (c/n 9), it was British Airways first Boeing 757 (although it was the fourth to be delivered after G-BIKB/C/D) and was delivered as G-BIKA in Mar-83.

 

It was sold to DHL (Holdings) UK in Jul-00 and stored at Wichita, KS, USA until it was converted to freighter configuration with a main deck cargo door in Feb-01. It was leased to EAT European Air Transport as OO-DLN in Mar-01 and operated on behalf of DHL Europe.

 

The aircraft was transferred to EAT Leipzig GmbH (European Air Transport Germany) as D-ALEA in Mar-10 while operations for DHL Europe continued. In Mar-16 it was transferred to DHL (Holdings) UK as G-BIKA again and continued until it was permanently retired at Madrid, Spain, in Dec-16 after almost 34 years in service. The registration was cancelled in Aug-17.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 09-Apr-14.

 

Operated as a freighter by Baltic Airlines, it's seen here still in the basic livery of Manx Airlines, it's previous operator.

 

This was quite a late build Viscount which first flew in Aug-59. Originally ordered by Trans Australia Airlines as a Viscount 816, it should have become VH-TVR but the order was cancelled before delivery.

 

It was initially stored and then converted to a type V.836 in Apr-60 and sold to the Union Carbide Corporation for executive operation as N40N in May-60. It was sold to the Royal Australian Air Force in Aug-64 as A6-435 and operated for five years until it was sold in the USA in Nov-69 as N40NA to the Alda Corporation.

 

It returned to Australia the following month as VH-EQP with Jet Air Australia and was sold to the Brins Finance Corporation in Sep-70 and sold on the same day to Gates Aviation Turbine Propeller Sales.

 

In Jun-71, continuing it’s ‘executive’ role, it was sold to The Sultan of Oman’s Air Force serialled ‘501’. In Sep-78 it was sold to Royal Swazi National Airways as 3D-ACM but the sale was never completed and the aircraft stayed in Oman until Mar-79 when it was sold to British Midland Airways in the UK as G-BFZL.

 

The aircraft was briefly leased to BMA subsidiary Manx Airlines in Oct/Nov-83 and then leased to them again in Nov-85. In May-86 it was sold to British Aerospace (BAe), leased back to BMA and sub-leased to Manx Airlines, all on the same day.

 

It continued in service with Manx until it was returned to BAe in Nov-88 and immediately leased to Baltic Airlines. It was briefly sub-leased to Manx Airlines again in Apr/May-90 (when this photo was taken).

 

In May-90 Baltic Airlines was merged into British Air Ferries who changed their name to British World Airlines in Apr-93. In Apr-97 it was sold to Heli-Lift Ltd and leased to their subsidiary Heli Jet Aviation.

 

In Mar-98 it was transferred to their South African division as ZS-NNI and was later stored at Lanseria, South Africa, until it was sold to Trans Inter Congo in Nov-02 as 9Q-CGL. In Apr-03, now 44 years old, it was written off in a take-off accident in the Democratic Republic of Congo.