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.

In the early nineteen sixties STIB wanted to replace their prewar convoys (motor + trailer) with articulated trams . These would require less staff to carry the same number of passengers. With the help of BN and ACEC a prototype was devised in 1962. It was based on the 7000-series of cars that had been running in Brussels since the early nineteen fifties (e.g. car 7047). However, the trials were disappointing because the technology wouldn’t allow three motorised bogies to run simultaneously. This seriously impaired the capabilities of the car. A satisfactory technical solution was only found ten years later. This allowed the purchase of a large series of articulated cars. The prototype was rebuilt to fit in with this series of cars in 1974.

*Taken from the Brussels Tram Museum website.

Replacing an earlier scanned 6"x4" print with a better version 06-Apr-11, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 12-Jul-23.

Named: "Skate Viking".

This aircraft was delivered to SAS Scandinavian Airlines System as SE-DBR in Feb-69. It was re-registered OY-KIE in Dec-90. In Feb-98 the aircraft was sold to a lessor and leased back to SAS.

After 31 years in service the aircraft was withdrawn from use and stored at Copenhagen, Denmark in Mar-00. It was ferried to Lake City, FL, USA in May-01, returned to the Celsius Amtec Corporation as N339CA and stored.

In Sep-01 the aircraft was leased to Aeropostal - Alas de Venezuela as YV-11C. It was permanently retired at Caracas, Venezuela in 2006.

NOTE: According to some sources it never entered service with Aeropostal and was used as a spares aircraft! This is quite possible as I have been unable to find any photo evidence of the aircraft, either in service or in Aeropostal livery.

The Pacific Union took a trip back to the 1930s, got inspired by the Char D2, and met someone unusual, it seems. I'm not the happiest with this MOC, mostly because my intended design turned out too tall so I chopped it down to what you see here, losing mudguards and hull MG in the process. this actually has much higher ground clearance than you'd think, too... I built this in all of today, because my original MOC was too big, the replacement was too complicated, and this morning I was out of time for anything more.

Sorry about the bad photo, it was taken with a phone on a shelf in the basement. Only place with enough all-around lighting. Tagging Ultra because this is technically and spiritually Tinny Tank 2.0 and he always loved that one.

Isolette iii/Solinar.

Fuji Neopan Acros 100, Xtol 1+2 13 min.

Braun FS 120.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 31-Jan-21.

Air Alliance, Air Canada partner (operated by Air Georgian)

Fleet No: "953".

First flown with the Beechcraft/Raytheon test registration N21063, this aircraft was delivered to Air Georgian (Canada) as C-GHGA in Dec-97 and operated on behalf of Canadian Regional with 'Ontario Regional' titles. It was returned to Air Georgian in early May-00 and operated on behalf of Air Alliance operating on behalf of Air Canada. Operations continued with Air Canada Regional, Air Canada Jazz and Air Canada Express. It was returned to Air Georgian in late 2018 and was stored at Muskoka, On, Canada in Jan-19 in basic Air Canada 'Toothpaste' livery. No further information. Air Georgian ceased operations in May-20 and it's assets were sold to a new company, Pivot Airlines, which co-incidentally happens to have the same Management personnel as Air Georgian. Updated Jan-21.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 30-Apr-22 (DeNoise AI).

Named: "Tooa".

This aircraft was delivered to ILFC International Lease Finance Corporation and leased to Polynesian Airlines as 5W-ILF in Sep-92. It was sold to Polynesian in Jun-97. The aircraft was briefly leased to Ansett Australia between Apr/May-01 and then leased to Freedom Air (New Zealand) between May/Aug-01.

It was sold back to ILFC in Oct-01 and immediately leased to QANTAS Airways as VH-TAB. It was returned to the lessor in Oct-03 as N262KS and was leased to Cayman Airways as VP-CKY in Nov-03. The aircraft was returned to the lessor in Nov-17 and stored at Goodyear, AZ, USA.

In Apr-19 it was re-registered N282AA with Aerownership and ferried to San Salvador, El Salvador where it was again stored. It was leased to One Airlines, Chile as CC-DAN in Aug-19 although I can't see anywhere that it ever entered service (according to Wikipedia the airline "is in a semi-operational state").

One Airlines ceased operations in Jun-20 and the aircraft appears to have been ferried to Asheville, NC, USA in Jul-20 and stored. It was returned to Aerownership as N282AA in Apr-22. It'll be 30 years old this year! Stored, updated 07-May-22.

The construction of a new fire station to replace Gipton and Stanks fire stations and removal of 24 fulltime posts from the establishment by way of planned retirements.

Key Points:

 Gipton is classed as a very high risk area and Stanks as medium risk area.

 Stanks fire station is poorly located at the outer edge of the local community and access/egress from the site is problematic.

 In the 5 year period between 2004/5 and 2009/10 operational demand in these areas reduced by 28% (there has been a reduction of 61% of serious fires) . 2

 WYFRS has piloted a new type of vehicle (Fire Response Unit) to deal with smaller fires and incidents to free up fire appliances to respond to more serious emergencies.

 The pilot has been successful and it is believed that a District based Fire Response Unit will handle in the region of 3,000 calls per year.

 The new fire station would have lower running costs.

 The two Killingbeck fire appliances would be supplemented by a Resilience Pump for use during spate conditions.

 Targeted community safety and risk reduction work would continue.

1. Foreword

1.1 This proposal forms one of a number of similar initiatives developed by West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (WYFRS) as part of its plans for the future provision of a highly effective and professional Fire and Rescue Service.

1.2 Each proposal is based on sound and comprehensive research, using real data from past performance and predictions of future demand and risk. Multiple sources of analysis have been used, allied to professional judgment and experience, to form the basis of robust business cases for change. The proposals are also reflective of the significant improvements in fire and community safety achieved over the past 10 years and represents a return on the investment made by the Authority on behalf of the public of West Yorkshire.

1.3 The proposals also incorporate a number of new and innovative approaches to addressing the challenge of maintaining high standards of performance for an emergency response service, within ever tightening financial constraints. The proposals have been developed as a package of inter related initiatives, representing major capital investment in local communities, whilst at the same time delivering annual recurring savings.

2. Introduction

2.1. Gipton fire station was constructed in 1937; it provides the initial emergency response cover for the residential and commercial areas of Gipton, Harehills, Burmantofts, Killingbeck, Halton Moor and Oakwood.

 The fire station area covers approximately 8.45 square miles.

 There is a population of 75,316.

 There are approximately 2015 commercial properties within the area.

2.2. Stanks fire station was constructed 1973; it provides the initial emergency response cover for the mainly residential locations of Whinmoor, Swarcliffe, Whitkirk, Colton, Halton, Crossgates, Scarcroft, North Seacroft, Wellington Hill, Manston, Barwick-in-Elmet, Scholes and Thorner.

 The station area covers approximately 14.39 square miles

 There is a population of 42,452

 There are approximately 663 commercial properties within the area.

2.3. Gipton has been classified as a very high risk area using the WYFRS Risk Matrix methodology. During 2009/10 there were 2196 operational incidents within this area including 86 dwelling fires and 33 Road Traffic Collisions. Stanks fire station area has been classified as medium risk and during the same period there were 688 operational incidents in the area including 34 dwelling fires and 12 Road Traffic Collisions. 1

2.4. Three fire appliances currently provide the initial fire and rescue coverage for Gipton and Stanks and are constantly crewed by 60 whole-time firefighters. The operational demand in these areas has reduced by 28% between 2004/5 and 2009/10 (there has been a reduction of 61% of serious fires) yet the provision of operational resources has remained the same over this period of time. 24

3. Community Impact Assessment

3.1. The following statement is taken from the 2011-2015 Community Risk Management Strategy and emphasises our commitment to deliver an efficient economic and effective range of services, “Every area within WYFRS will be considered in order to provide a better service at reduced cost”.

3.2. To enable WYFRS to deliver against this commitment a wide range of analysis and modelling tools have been used to determine the current and predicted levels of service delivery, together with their associated costs. These tools have also been used to undertake four separate impact assessments in regard to WYFRS proposals which will seek to:

 Identify options which minimise reductions in service delivery standards and where there is scope for service delivery improvement.

 Develop measures that will mitigate any negative impact upon service delivery and where possible maximise opportunities to achieve improvements.

3.3. WYFRS has developed a risk matrix which allocates a separate score/rating for hazards within communities. It is possible to use this risk rating in conjunction with the costs for providing services to each fire station to compare the cost of fire and rescue cover for each area. Gipton is one of the more cost effective stations in West Yorkshire but Stanks is almost 50% more expensive proportionate to the risk. 6

3.4. For most parts of the day the operational demand on resources based at the new station will be comparable to those of equally resourced fire stations. Figure 1 compares the predicted average operational activity levels for the new station with those of two other fire stations provided with two appliances. It indicates that although operational activity levels are generally comparable they are slightly higher during the evening hours due to the occurrence of smaller nuisance fires. 7

3.5. A Fire Response Unit has been piloted in Leeds District; this unit will attend small fires, car fires and certain fire alarms. These types of incident occur frequently in the East Leeds area. Figure 2 shows the level of activity in the new fire station area with the incidents the Fire response Unit attends taken out of the activity levels. The benefit of the Fire Response Unit can clearly be seen. The activity levels for the new station have been reduced considerably compared to other stations; it also shows that the new station will be less operationally active during the evening than the other local stations.

3.6. The new station in East Leeds will have a comparable level of activity to other fire stations provided with two appliances. 7

Figure 2 - Activity Timeline of Incidents Excluding Secondary Fires and Some False Alarms

Site Locations

3.7. An extensive review of emergency response cover has recently been completed and this has included the use of evaluation tools alongside local knowledge and professional judgment to identify optimum locations to build new WYFRS fire stations.

3.8. A site search mapping system has identified a number of appropriate areas across the County to build new fire stations and a number of sites have been identified within these areas which would provide the best solutions. A new fire station site must first be available for purchase and also provide access to road networks, it must not be located within flood plains and it must meet local planning permission requirements.

3.9. Analysis has been undertaken using the Fire Service Emergency Cover (FSEC – see also para 3.15) toolkit, together with the Phoenix/Active resource modelling toolkit.

3.10. The optimum area for a fire station between Gipton and Stanks has been identified as being situated on the A64 in the vicinity of Killingbeck police station. This proposed site is approximately 1.6 miles from Gipton Approach and 2.2 miles from Sherburn Road. The presence of a large site owned by West Yorkshire Police at this location may also present some potential to co-locate resources.

Determining where resources should be located

3.11. Independent research has assisted WYFRS to determine the potential impact that the implementation of each proposal would have on fire appliance attendance times to operational incidents. A simulation model has been used to identify the performance impact of moving resources to the new fire station. This modelling measures how the location of a new fire station would have performed if it had been in existence and responded to the actual incidents that did occurred in this area between 2007/8 and 2009/10. 4

3.12. Models have been run for locating a two fire appliances at Gipton and closing Stanks, and then run again for locating a two fire appliances at Stanks and closing Gipton, both these options provide a significantly lower level of response performance than would be achieved by locating

3.13. The proposals has a small reduction in performance in fire appliance attendance times against the Risk based Planning Assumptions for all incidents across the whole of West Yorkshire of approximately 0.3% for first appliance and 0.1% for the second appliance. 4

3.14. Local Impact – Figure 3 identifies that:

 There is a reduction in response performance against the Risk Based Planning Assumptions in the Gipton station area. The main reason for this is simultaneous activity. This change will be greatly mitigated by the Fire Response Unit. The predicted response times still represent good performance and are appropriate for the. Further impact will be achieved by targeted risk reduction activities.

Fire Service Emergency Cover (FSEC) toolkit

3.15 The FSEC software toolkit has been developed by Central Government (Department for Communities and Local Government) for use by Fire and Rescue Authorities in determining appropriate fire and emergency cover. It enables the relationship between dwelling fire casualties and the social demographics of small areas in the county (super output areas) and the location of response resources (fire stations) to be determined. Four demographic benchmarks are used to demonstrate this relationship and to represent predicted risk associated with a range of appliance response times.

3.16 Analysis of the FSEC outputs (which is a cost benefit analysis in regard to property and life risk) predicts that the relocating the fire station to Killingbeck will:

 Reduce the risk to the community.

 Result in significant efficiencies. 9

3.17 The FSEC modelling suggests that the impact of the Killingbeck proposal would be less than other relocation options

3.18 The Phoenix/Active software tool is another analysis tool used to identify the impact of any changes of the Risk Based Planning Assumptions referred to above. It predicts that locally there is likely to be a small adverse impact on the performance against Risk Based Planning Assumptions. Across the Brigade the impact is negligible. 10

Predicted Risk Level

3.19. A new fire station located, within the Killingbeck area would attract the same risk classification as the Gipton fire station area therefore the new fire station would be classified as very high risk. Targeted risk reduction activity will help to reduce the risk, with the aim of reducing it sufficiently enough to re-categorise the area as high risk in the future. 1

3.20. Isochrones (travel distance) can be drawn around the proposed location of the new fire station (Section 8). These indicate the distance the appliance would be able to travel within the Risk Based Planning Assumption time of 7 minutes.

3.21. Section 8 also illustrates that for this area of West Yorkshire a single fire station in the new location provides fire appliance coverage which is more proportionate to risk than the current arrangements.

Risk Reduction

3.20 During 2010 a comprehensive and integrated framework for service delivery was developed, this is outlined in the Community Risk Management Strategy 2011-15. This was implemented in 2011 and is proving a very effective means for targeting resources and reducing risk and is an essential method for reducing any negative impact of change in fire cover. Fundamental to this approach is the introduction of District Risk Reduction Teams and Local Area Risk Reductions Teams.

3.21 The location of a fire station in the Killingbeck area will enable targeted community safety activities such as Home Fire Safety Checks to continue.

4 Firefighter Safety Impact Assessment

Risk and firefighters gathering risk information about premises.

4.1 One of WYFRS’s risk indicators is dedicated solely to “Firefighter safety” and has taken cognisance of the following statement within the 2009 WYFRS Firefighter Safety Strategy; “Effective gathering and analysis of information prior to operational incident attendance is of critical importance”.

4.2 The firefighter safety indicator captures the following information to reflect this statement:

 The predominance of specified commercial properties within each fire station area.

 The availability of associated risk information held for commercial properties.

 The predominance of high-rise properties within each fire station area.

4.3 The swift arrival of supporting resources can have a beneficial impact upon the safe management of operational incidents and this is the rationale for this information being captured by the indicator.

4.4 Following the 2009/10 evaluation process the firefighter safety risk bandings for Gipton and Stanks have been determined as high and very low respectively. 1

8

4.5 The targets for operational risk information for the 2012/13 IRMP Action Plan will be set in a proportionate manner, with areas of higher risk levels receiving a greater number of operational risk information inspections. More inspections will take place in areas such as Gipton to increase the availability of risk information available to firefighters via the Mobile Data Terminals (MDT’s) and as more information is made available the corresponding risk level will be reduced.

4.6 The Premises Data-base currently indicates that there are a total of 1650 commercial properties within the Gipton and Stanks area that have not been made subject to an operational information inspection. A high priority has been placed on firefighters in Gipton visiting the premises where incidents could potentially occur. 11

4.7 It is therefore anticipated that the availability of risk information via the Mobile Data Terminals (MDT’s) for properties within all areas will be considerably improved by 2015, by which time the corresponding firefighter safety risk banding will have been reduced to Medium

The arrival times of the 2nd fire appliance

4.9. During 2009/10 there were a total of 333 operational incidents within the areas of Gipton and Stanks which required the attendance of more than one pumping appliance (one every 1.1 days). 12

4.10. Currently the North and East Leeds area has two fire appliances based at Gipton, Moortown and Leeds with one at Rothwell, Garforth, Stanks and Wetherby.

4.11. Increased second pump arrival times require the first attending crew to manage the initial stages of certain incidents in isolation; there is some potential for fires to become more developed in these initial stages.

4.12. The proposal improves the second appliance attendance times into Garforth station areas and there is little impact for the others local station areas.

5. Equality Impact Assessment

5.1 The new Public Sector Equality Duty places a requirement on the organisation to ensure where changes affect service delivery to the community or employees WYFRS assess those changes for any possible negative impact on equality. In this context equality refers to the protected characteristics in the Equality Act 2010, race, gender, disability, religion and belief, sexual orientation, age, gender-reassignment, maternity and pregnancy and marriage and civil partnerships.

5.2 This Equality Impact Assessment has been completed by using information drawn from the Office for National Statistics in regard to this area and has been used to determine whether the removal of a fire appliance from the area will lead to an adverse or disproportionate impact upon any sections of the population. 13

5.3 A 2008 report provided by the Communities and Local Government (CLG) department analysed the correlation between dwelling fires and socio demographics. This report has been used to provide an indication of whether any particular groups within the population are at heightened risk from fire. The report indicates that sick/disabled persons, lone pensioners and Black Caribbean/African groups were associated with a greater incidence of dwelling fires.

5.4 The Gipton and Harehills population was estimated as being 24,904 during 2001 with a fairly equal gender distribution. The predominant ethnic group within the population is White British with Asian/Asian British representing the next major group, followed by Pakistani, Black British/Caribbean and Asian/British Bangladeshi.

9

5.5 Approximately 49% of the resident Gipton and Harehills population are Christians, 23% are of Muslim faith and 25% declared no religious preference. In 2001 16% of the population was aged over 60 and 20% of the population had a limiting long-term illness.

5.6 The WYFRS Prevention strategy contained within the 2011-2015 Community Risk Management Strategy emphasises that risk reduction activities will be focussed toward areas of the county identified as being at higher risk from dwelling fires, deliberate fire setting and road traffic collisions and that an appropriate and proportionate allocation of resources will be made available for District Risk Reduction Teams (DRRT) to achieve this.

5.7 Although the Ward statistics indicate that the communities of Gipton and Harehills are very diverse the findings of the Equality Impact Assessment are that this proposal will not lead to any negative changes in the delivery of Prevention, Protection and Response services and consequently there will be no anticipated impact upon any under-represented groups. The Equality Impact Assessment also confirms that there is no negative impact on any employee group.

6. Organisational Impact Assessment

Efficiencies

6.1 This proposal will enable WYFRS to manage some of the financial deficit caused by reduced government funding.

6.2. The proposal has considered the less than optimal positioning of existing fire stations and appliances together with the reduced operational demand placed and associated costs. The most cost effective solution to these issues is to provide a new fire station and ensure that two fire appliances will be crewed by nine firefighters who will respond to emergencies in less than two minutes from being mobilised.

6.3. This can be achieved by reducing the staffing at Gipton and Stanks by 24 posts; this will be done by way of planned retirements. The staffing and duty system at the new fire station will remain the same.

6.4. The removal of posts that coincide with forecasted retirements will achieve significant revenue savings.

6.5. Although capital investment will be required to construct a new fire station, part of these costs will potentially be off-set by the sale of the two existing fire station sites.

6.6. There will be other associated savings delivered by this proposal, including:

 Reduction of Personal Protective Equipment.

 Reduction in consumables and station maintenance costs.

 The new station will be more environmentally friendly and have energy efficiency technology.

6.7. The analysis undertaken for Gipton and Stanks has identified that there is considerable overlap in the existing Risk Based Planning Assumption isochrones (footprints) for these areas. This overlap represents a duplication of resource coverage and therefore one of the objectives for providing a more efficient service within these areas is to reduce this overlap. 14

10

Impact across West Yorkshire and Resilience

6.8 The reduction in pumping appliances in this area does have a small impact upon attendance times against the Risk Based Planning Assumptions across West Yorkshire for all incidents; performance is reduced by 0.3% for first appliances and 0.1% for second appliances. 4

6.9 In order to maintain WYFRS’s operational resilience, the fire appliance currently sited at Stanks will be relocated at the new fire station. This fire appliance will not be continually staff but will be activated during periods of anticipated or unanticipated high levels of operational activity and in response to significant events which could affect emergency response; such as wide area flooding, bonfire night, periods of bad weather or when attending very large incidents.

6.10 The use of Resilience Pumps supports WYFRS strategy of staffing the appropriate number of fire appliances for normal levels of activity and having the mechanisms to add further fire appliance when required. This strategy is important in maintaining an excellent fire and rescue service whilst meeting the efficiencies required by the reduction in public service budgets.

7. Conclusions

7.1 The existing fire stations at Gipton and Stanks are 3.7 miles apart and consolidating resources at a new fire station at a central location is an economic, effective and efficient way of providing fire and rescue services for these areas.

7.2 The provision of two front-line fire appliances constantly crewed by whole-time firefighters is still deemed appropriate for this area despite the success of previous year’s risk reduction activities.

7.3 Targeted risk reduction initiatives co-ordinated by the Leeds Outer North East, Inner North East and Outer East Local Area Risk Reduction Teams will be undertaken.

7.4 It is expected that the targets established for gathering safety critical risk information, will mitigate the impact upon the safety of WYFRS firefighters resulting from the removal of a pumping appliance from this area.

7.5 The introduction of a Resilience Pump will maintain three appliances in the area and support WYFRSs resilience arrangements

7.6 The consolidation of Gipton and Stanks resources at one central location together with the addition of a Resilience Pump will deliver significant efficiency savings whilst maintaining a high level of service delivery and providing employees with vastly improved accommodation facilities.

Peerless Confectionery went out of business in May of 2007 and a short time later its buildings were leveled and replaced by condos. There were just two revenue runs of which I am aware by Chicago Terminal during its short time servicing Peerless which took place in January and February of 2007. They are documented below in my CTM album.

The CTM SW8 is running light up the last mile that was left of the former Milwaukee Road Chicago & Evanston North Line to retrieve cars left behind by CP at Peerless Confectionery at Diversey Parkway the week before.

Chicago Terminal is no more as of 2019 and the last train to operate north of Clybourn was to retrieve gondolas parked on the former Peerless spur in 2009.

Seventh in a series of screen grabs I will post from video I took on the first day of Chicago Terminal operations as it made its way from the UP North Avenue Yard where it was a tenant on its way to switch Finkl Steel and Peerless Confectionery. I was a guest of Ed Ellis for the first two days of operations to document it. I also wound up acting as a pilot for the crew as CP left behind no instructions.

Images are from converted from DVD format and cleaned up as much as possible in Photoshop. It was a dreary, overcast day with rain on and off again, and the SW8 engine in which we were riding was rocking back and forth which made taking videos a challenge.

If you want to see a video of mine that shows CP working this line go to-

studio.youtube.com/video/pQXSrwYdoQk/edit

Due to conversations in the cab that the crew probably didn't want being made public I am not going to share the full video of this trip plus I do not feel like taking the time to edit out the audio. Enjoy the still images instead from those first two days in this album.

www.flickr.com/photos/39092860@N06/albums/72157704913274794

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 26-May-23.

Excel Airways, operated by Air Atlanta Icelandic.

First flown with the Boeing test registration N6009F, this aircraft was delivered to Britannia Airways as G-BNYS in Mar-88. It was wet-leased to Air New Zealand in Jan-94, returning to Britannia in Apr-94.

In Apr-98 it was sold to a finance company and leased back to Britannia. The aircraft was returned to the lessor in Apr-01 and immediately leased to Air Atlanta Icelandic as TF-ATO and sub-leased to Excel Airways.

It returned to Air Atlanta Icelandic at the end of Oct-01 and was sub-leased to LAC - Lignes Aerienns Congolaises in Feb-02. It returned to Air Atlanta Icelandic at the end of Apr-02 and was sub-leased to Excel Airways again in May-02 for the summer season, returning to Air Atlanta Icelandic in Oct-02.

In Nov-02 it was sub-leased to Aeromar (Mexico) for the winter season. On it's return in May-03, it was transferred to Air Atlanta Europe as G-BNYS and sub-leased to Excel Airways once again, returning to Air Atlanta Europe in Nov-03 it was returned to Air Atlanta Icelandic as TF-ATO the following day.

It was sub-leased to Saudi Arabian Airlines in Dec-03 for a Haj Pilgrimage operation and returned to Air Atlanta Icelandic in Mar-04. It was again transferred to Air Atlanta Europe and sub-leased to Excel Airways as G-BNYS in Apr-04.

The aircraft returned to Air Atlanta Europe at the end of Oct-05 and was ferried to San Antonio, TX, USA for heavy maintenance and winter storage. It returned to the UK in Mar-06 and was returned to the lessor and leased direct to Excel Airways.

On the 30-Nov-06, Excel Airways was renamed XL Airways UK. The aircraft continued in service and was returned to the lessor in Nov-07. Ten days later it was leased to Air Seychelles as S7-EXL.

The aircraft returned to the lessor in Jan-09. It was sold to GA Telesis as N767HS and was retired and stored at Kemble, UK. It was broken up at Kemble in Jul-09.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 19-Jan-22 (DeNoise AI).

Air 2000 had a contract with TCS Expeditions for 'Round-the-World' winter charters in the early 2000's and the aircraft was suitably repainted. Air 2000 titles were retained on the right-hand side.

Named: "Explorer 1".

This aircraft was delivered to Guinness Peat Aviation (later to become GECAS) and leased to Air 2000 as G-OOOU in Aug-91. It was wet-leased to Kiwi Travel International (New Zealand) in Nov-95 and returned to Air 2000 in Apr-96.

In Mar-99 it was operated for TCS Expeditions in an all First Class configuration for exclusive 'Round-the-World' charter flights, returning to Air 2000 the following month. Similar flights were operated for TCS Expeditions between Jan/Mar-00, Jan/Mar-01 and Nov-01/Feb-02.

The aircraft was returned to the lessor in Sep-02 and stored. In Apr-03 it was leased to Air Atlanta Icelandic as TF-ARI and operated on behalf of Excel Airways in May-03. It returned to Air Atlanta Icelandic in Nov-04 and was placed in winter storage at Marana, AZ, USA until Mar-05 when it was again operated for Excel Airways.

In Nov-05 the lease was transferred to Excel Airways and the aircraft was re-registered G-VKNA. Excel Airways was renamed XL Airways in Nov-06. The aircraft was returned to the lessor in Sep-07 and immediately leased to Aladia.com (Mexico) as XA-MTY.

Aladia ceased operations in Oct-08 and the aircraft was returned to the lessor and re-registered N240MQ in Nov-08. It was initially stored at Lake City, FL, USA and later at Victorville, CA, USA.

It was sold to FedEx Federal Express in Aug-09 and remained stored at Victorville. The aircraft was re-registered N930FD in May-10 and was ferried to Mobile-BFM, AL, USA for freighter conversion with a main deck cargo door. It entered service with FedEx in Oct-10. Now 33.5 years old it continues in service. Updated 19-Jan-25.

Replacing the E93A, the 1949-53 English E493A got a new grille with vertical bars and the headlights were moved into the guards, rather than on top of the guards like the E93A.

The Australian version was updated at the same time, the A53A replaced by the 1949-53 A493A, compared to the English car, it got a longer boot and a steel rather than fabric centred roof.

2 and 4 door saloons were built in the UK, before the War, a few tourers and drop-head coupes were also built. In Australia, the 4 door saloon and their own coupe utility version were built.

The equivalent 2 door Fords of the time were the English E494A Anglia and the Australian A494A Anglia, they had a different grille and the headlights still on top of the guards.

Engine; 1172cc 30hp sidevalve 4 cyl

Replacing the usual Boeing 787-9.

+++ DISCLAIMER +++

Nothing you see here is real, even though the conversion or the presented background story might be based on historical facts. BEWARE!

Some background:

The Panther tank, officially Panzerkampfwagen V Panther (abbreviated PzKpfw V) with ordnance inventory designation Sd.Kfz. 171, was a German medium tank of World War II. It was used on the Eastern and Western Fronts from mid-1943 to the end of the war. The Panther was intended to counter the Soviet T-34 medium tank and to replace the Panzer III and Panzer IV. Nevertheless, it served alongside the Panzer IV and the heavier Tiger I until the end of the war. It is considered one of the best tanks of World War II for its excellent firepower, protection, and mobility although its reliability in early times were less impressive.

The Panther was a compromise. While having essentially the same Maybach V12 petrol (700 hp) engine as the Tiger I, it had better gun penetration, was lighter and faster, and could traverse rough terrain better than the Tiger I. The trade-off was weaker side armor, which made it vulnerable to flanking fire. The Panther proved to be effective in open country and long-range engagements.

Between 1964-1973 the USSR rebuilt the entire Syrian military from the ground up, reorganizing it along Warsaw Pact lines and equipping it with gear strictly of Soviet origin. There was no place for ex-Wehrmacht tanks and in any case, Czechoslovakia had ended spares & ammo support for the Panzer IV and the Panthers, so the types had no future. The surviving tanks were scrapped in Syria, except for a single Panzer IV survivor sold to a collector in Jordan.

Specifications:

Crew: Five (commander, gunner, loader, driver, radio operator)

Weight: 50 tonnes (55.1 long tons; 45.5 short tons)

Length: 6.87 m (22 ft 6 in) hull only

7.52 m (24 ft 7¾ in) overall with gun facing forward

Width: 3.42 m (11 ft 3 in) hull only

3,70 m (12 ft 1¾ in) with retrofitted side skirts

Height: 2.99 m (9 ft 10 in)’

Ground clearance: 56 cm (22 in)

Suspension: Double torsion bar, interleaved road wheels

Fuel capacity: 720 liters (160 imp gal; 190 US gal),

some Syrian Panthers carried two additional external 200 l fuel drums

Armor:

15–80 mm (0.6 – 3.93 in)

Performance:

Maximum road speed: 56 km/h (35 mph)

Operational range: 250 km (160 mi) on roads; 450 km (280 mi)with auxiliary fuel tanks

100 km (62 mi) cross-country

Power/weight: 14 PS (10.1 kW)/tonne (12.7 hp/ton)

Engine & transmission:

Maybach HL230 V-12 gasoline engine with 700 PS (690 hp, 515 kW)

ZF AK 7-200 gearbox with 7 forward 1 reverse gear

Armament:

1× 7,5 cm KwK 40 (L/48) with 87 rounds

2× 7.92 mm MG 34 or 42, or similar machine guns;

one co-axial with the main gun, another in the front glacis plate

with a total of 5.100 rounds (not always mounted)

Provision for a 12.7 mm DShK or Breda anti-aircraft machine gun on the commander cupola

The kit and its assembly:

A rather exotic what-if model, even though it’s almost built OOB. Inspiration came when I stumbled upon the weird Syrian Panzer IVs that were operated against Israel during the Six Day War – vehicles you would not expect there, and after more than 20 years after WWII. But when I did some more research, I was surprised about the numbers and the variety of former German tanks that Syria had gathered from various European countries, and it made me wonder if the Panther could not have been among this shaggy fleet, too?

I had a surplus Dragon Panther Spähpanzer in The Stash™, to be correct a “PzBeobWg V Ausf. G”, an observation and artillery fire guidance conversion that actually existed in small numbers, and I decided to use it as basis for this odd project. The Dragon kit has some peculiarities, though: its hull is made from primed white metal and consists of an upper and lower half that are held together by small screws! An ambiguous design, because the parts do not fit as good as IP parts, so that the model has a slightly die-cast-ish aura. PSR is necessary at the seams, but due to the metal it’s not easy to do. Furthermore, you have to use superglue everywhere, just as on a resin kit. On the other side, surface details are finely molded and crisp, even though many bits have to be added manually. However, the molded metal pins that hold the wheels are very robust and relatively thin – a feature I exploited for a modified running gear (see below).

For the modified Panther in my mind I had to retrograde the turret back to a late standard turret with mantlet parts left over from a Hasegawa kit – they fitted perfectly! The PzBeobWg V only comes with a stubby gun barrel dummy. But I changed the armament, anyway, and implanted an aftermarket white metal and brass KwK 40 L48, the weapon carried by all Syrian Panzer IVs, the Jagdpanzer IVs as well as the StuG IIIs. This standardization would IMHO make sense, even if it meant a performance downgrade from the original, longer KwK 42 L70.

For a Syrian touch, inspired by installations on the Panzer IVs, I added a mount for a heavy DShK machine gun on the commander’s cupola, which is a resin aftermarket kit from Armory Models Group (a kit that consists of no less than five fiddly parts for just a tiny machine gun!).

To change and modernize the Panther’s look further, I gave it side skirts, leftover from a ModelCollect T-72 kit, which had to be modified only slightly to fit onto the molded side skirt consoles on the Panther’s metal hull. A further late addition were the fuel barrels from a Trumpeter T-54 kit that I stumbled upon when I looked for the skirts among my pile of tank donor parts. Even though they look like foreign matter on the Panther’s tail, their high position is plausible and similar to the original arrangement on many Soviet post-WWII tanks. The whip antennae on turret and hull were created with heated black sprue material.

As a modern feature and to change the Panther’s overall look even more, I replaced its original solid “dish” road wheels with T-54/55 “starfish” wheels, which were frequently retrofitted to T-34-85s during the Fifties. These very fine aftermarket resin parts (all real-world openings are actually open, and there’s only little flash!) came from OKB Grigorovich from Bulgaria. The selling point behind this idea is/was that the Panther and T-54/55 wheels have almost the same diameter: in real life it’s 860 vs. 830 mm, so that the difference in 1:72 is negligible. Beneficially, the aftermarket wheels came in two halves, and these were thin enough to replace the Panther’s interleaved wheels without major depth problems.

Adapting the parts to the totally different wheel arrangement was tricky, though, especially due to the Dragon kit’s one-piece white metal chassis that makes any mods difficult. My solution: I retained the inner solid wheels from the Panther (since they are hardly visible in the “3rd row”), plus four pairs of T-54/55 wheels for the outer, more rows of interleaved wheels. The “inner” T-54/55 wheel halves were turned around, received holes to fit onto the metal suspension pins and scratched hub covers. The “outside” halves were taken as is but received 2 mm spacer sleeves on their back sides (styrene tube) for proper depth and simply to improve their hold on the small and rounded metal pin tips. This stunt worked better than expected and looks really good, too!

Painting and markings:

Basically very simple, and I used pictures of real Syrian Panzer IVs as benchmark. I settled for the common green livery variant, and though simple and uniform, I tried to add some “excitement” to it and attempted to make old paint shine through. The hull’s lower surface areas were first primed with RAL 7008 (Khakigrau, a rather brownish tone), then the upper surfaces were sprayed with a lighter sand brown tone, both applied from rattle cans.

On top of that, a streaky mix of Revell 45 and 46 – a guesstimate for the typical Syrian greyish, rather pale olive drab tone - was thinly applied with a soft, flat brush, so that the brownish tones underneath would shine through occasionally. Once dry, the layered/weathered effect was further emphasized through careful vertical wet-sanding and rubbing on all surfaces with a soft cotton cloth.

The rubber side skirts were painted with an anthracite base and the dry-brushed with light grey and beige.

The model then received an overall washing with a highly thinned mix of grey and dark brown acrylic artist paint. The vinyl tracks (as well as the IP spare track links on the hull) were painted, too, with a mix of grey, red brown and iron, all acrylic paints, too, that do not interact chemically with the soft vinyl.

The decals/markings are minimal; the Arabian scribble on the turret (must be a name?), using the picture of a Syrian Panzer IV as benchmark, was painted in white by hand, as well as the white circle on the turret roof. The orange ID triangles are a nice contrast, even though I was not able to come up with real-life visual evidence for them. I just found a color picture of a burned T-34-85 wreck with them, suggesting that the color was a dull orange red and not florescent orange, as claimed in some sources. I also found illustrations of the triangles as part of 1:35 decal sets for contemporary Syrian T-34-85s from FC Model Trend and Star Models, where they appear light red. For the model, they were eventually cut out from decal sheet material (TL-Modellbau, in a shade called “Rotorange”, what appears to be a good compromise).

Dry-brushing with light grey and beige to further emphasize edges and details followed. Finally, the model was sealed with matt acrylic vanish overall, and some additional very light extra dry-brushing with silver was done to simulate flaked paint. Dirt and rust residues were added here and there with watercolors. After final assembly, the lower areas of the model were furthermore powdered with mineral pigments to simulate dust.

The idea of a modernized WWII Panther: a simple idea that turned into a major conversion. With the resin DShK machine gun and T-54/55 wheel set the costs of this project escalated a little, but in hindsight I find that the different look and the mix of vintage German and modern Soviet elements provide this Panther with that odd touch that sets it apart from a simple paint/marking variation? I really like the outcome, and I think that the effort was worthwhile - this fictional Panther shoehorns well into its intended historical framework. :-D

Replacing an earlier photo from 22-Jun-15 with a better version.

First flown with the Airbus test registration D-AUBR, this aircraft was delivered to Lufthansa as D-AIZU in Jun-13. It was leased to Eurowings in Apr-15 and sub-leased to Germanwings in May-15, remaining in full Eurowings livery.

It returned to Eurowings in Oct-15. The aircraft was transferred to Brussels Airlines (another Lufthansa Group airline) as OO-SNP in Mar-23 and repainted in 'Star Alliance' livery. Current, updated 15-Nov-24.

E48 (SN12AVX) is seen at Kingsend, Ruislip whilst on ML-1.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a (slightly) better version 03-Dec-21 (DeNoise AI).

Very grainy, taken on a dark and murky day at LAX (but rescued by 'noise reduction' software).

An 'unlucky' aircraft which didn't stay long with any airline. First flown with the Boeing test registration N57008, this aircraft was an early standard B767-205 (Line No:81), delivered to Braathens S.A.F.E (Norway) as LN-SUV in Mar-84.

It was returned to the Boeing Equipment Holding Company as N767BE in Sep-85 and leased to TACA International Airlines in Oct-85. It returned to Boeing in May-86 and was leased to VARIG Brazil as PP-VNL the following month.

Boeing sold it to ILFC International Lease Finance Corporation in Aug-86 while the lease to VARIG continued. It was returned to ILFC in May-87 and was leased to Britannia Airways as G-BNAX the following day, for the summer season.

Returning to ILFC in Oct-87 as N650TW, the aircraft was converted to a B767-205ER before being leased to TWA Trans World Airlines in Oct-87. It was sub-leased to Gulf Air between May/Sep-88.

In Mar-01 it was returned to ILFC and stored. In Oct-01 the aircraft was leased to Aero Continente (Peru) as OB-1758. It became OB-1758-P in Jun-03. It was returned to ILFC in Oct-04 as N371LF and stored at Dothan, AL, USA.

The aircraft was leased to MaxJet in Jan-06 and was re-registered N260MY the following month. MaxJet ceased operations in Dec-07 and it was impounded at New York-JFK. ILFC managed to retrieve it in Jan-08 and it was stored at Victorville, CA, USA.

It was leased to Air Seychelles (still as N260MY) in Aug-08 and was re-registered in S7-ILF in Sep-10. It was returned to ILFC in Nov-11 as N391LF and permanently retired at Goodyear, AZ, USA. The registration was cancelled in Mar-12. It was last noted still stored at Goodyear in Mar-13 and was subsequently broken up.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI.

First flown with the Airbus test registration D-AVZG, this aircraft was delivered to SABENA Belgian World Airlines as OO-SUB in Apr-99. SABENA ceased trading in Nov-01 and the aircraft was stored at Brussels, Belgium.

It was stored at Brussels for more than 4 years until it was sold to Nouvelair Tunisie as TS-IQB in Mar-05. In Apr-14 the aircraft was sold to a lessor and was originally due to be leased to Onur Air as TC-OEB, however the lease wasn't taken up and it was leased to Germania as D-ASTV later that month.

It was painted in an Alltours (German Tour Operator) logojet livery in May-14 and repainted into Germania's standard livery in Mar-15. Germania ceased operations in Feb-19, the aircraft was returned to the lessor and initially stored at Dusseldorf before being flown to Castellon de la Plana - Costa Azahar, Spain in Mar-19 for further storage.

It was re-registered OE-IDK in May-19 and permanently retired. It was broken up at Castellon de la Plana in Jan-20

Replaced 33860 with low power and my first E200 on #120

In December 2021 it was announced that this unique batch of 10 buses would transfer to Potteries.

Replace the 2x4 white slopes with 2x2.

I shortened the tanker to 28 long. It needs alot more work on the top, but

this is mainly just a sketch.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 22-Mar-25.

Originally built as a B767-204, this aircraft was first flown with the Boeing test registration N6067E and delivered to Britannia Airways, UK as G-BLKV in Feb-85.

It was wet-leased to LAB Lloyd Aero Boliviano, Bolivia between Nov-89 / Jan-90. The following day it was leased to Aero Peru. In Mar-90 the aircraft was sold to United Aviation Services Inc, USA, leased back to Britannia and wet-leased to Aero Peru. It returned to Britannia Airways and the lessor in mid May-90.

In late May 90 the aircraft was leased to Air New Zealand as ZK-NBI. In Jun-90, before it entered service it was retro-fitted with long range tanks, becoming a B767-204ER.

The aircraft was wet-leased to Air Aruba between Jun / Dec-92. It was returned to the lessor in Jun-97 and leased to Air Europa as EC-GOJ in Jul-97. It returned to the lessor in May-01 and was stored at Victorville, CA, USA.

In Jul-01 the aircraft was re-registered N10698. It was sold to GECC General Electric Capital Corp and remained stored until it was leased to Air Atlanta Icelandic as TF-ATY in May-02. On the same day it was wet-leased to Nigeria Airways, returning to Air Atlanta in Dec-02.

It was wet-leased to Aeromar, Mexico in Apr-23 and returned to Air Atlanta in Sep-03. In Jan-04 the aircraft was wet-leased to Saudia Saudi Arabian Airlines for a Haj Pilgrimage operation, returning to Air Atlanta in Feb-04. In Jun-04 it was wet-leased to Air Algerie, Algeria and returned to Air Atlanta in Mar-05.

The aircraft was returned to the lessor in Apr-05. It was to Wells Fargo Bank Northwest as N307MT the same day and was ferried to Tel Aviv, Israel for freighter conversion.

It was converted to full freighter configuration with a main deck cargo door in Oct-05 and transferred to GECAS as OY-SRK. It was leased to Star Air, Denmark three days later. Star Air is part of the Maersk Group and it was merged into Maersk Air Cargo in Apr-22. It still carries Star Air titles.

Now 40 years old it continues in service. Updated 22-Mar-25.

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 16-Oct-21 (DeNoise AI).

This aircraft was delivered to British Airways, in full Caledonian Airways livery, as G-BPEA at the end of Mar-89. It was leased to Caledonian Airways in early Apr-89 (the later BA version of Caledonian, not the original Caledonian Airways which became B.Cal).

During it's time with Caledonian, the aircraft was wet-leased to many other airlines. to North American Airlines (Jan/Mar-90), El Al Israel Airlines (Mar/May-90), Nationair Canada (Dec-90/Mar-91), British Airways (Nov-91/Mar-92), Nationair Canada again (Dec-92/Mar-93), LAPA Argentina (Dec-93/Mar-94 and Dec-94/Mar-95).

It was returned to British Airways in Nov-95 and continued in service in full BA livery. The aircraft was sold to a lessor in May-97 and leased back to British Airways until it was returned to the lessor in Oct-00 and stored at Marana, AZ, USA.

It was moved to Tucson, AZ, USA in Mar-01 and was re-registered N903PG the following month. The aircraft remained stored until it was leased to Cebu Pacific Air (Philippines) as RP-C2714 in Feb-02.

In Feb-06 it was returned to the lessor and leased to Air Slovakia as OM-ASA in Mar-06. The aircraft was wet-leased to RAK Airways (Ras al Khaimah, UAE) between Jun/Jul-08. It returned to the lessor as N580SH in Oct-09 and was stored at Miama, FL, USA.

It remained stored until it was leased to SBA Santa Barbara Airlines (Venezuela) as YV-450T in Jan-11. It was withdrawn from service and stored at Mexico City, Mexico in Apr-17 and returned to the lessor as N635SH at the end of May-18.

The aircraft was permanently retired and broken up at Mexico City in 2019. Updated 13-Nov-21.

The "Dorset Coast Express " from Hereford to Weymouth hauled by WCR 47786 "Roy Castle O.B.E. " and 47237 at the rear storms past Southampton Airport ( 1z15). 47237 replaced 47245 which had a low coolant problem.

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 24-Nov-19.

This aircraft was delivered to Aeroflot as RA-85750 in 1992, it was transferred to Air Volga around Oct-95. It was sold to Omskavia around Apr-96. The aircraft was leased to Iran Airtours as EP-MAR by Mar-97, returning to Omskavia as RA-85750 in Apr-01. It was leased to Iran Airtours again, this time as EP-MBO in Mar-00 and returned to Omskavia as RA-85750 around Apr-01. In Jan-02 the aircraft was leased to Mahan Air as EP-MHV and returned to Omskavia as RA-85750 around Mar-05. It was last noted in service in Sep-05. No further information.

Westgate Watertower which was built in 1911 to replace a Westgate reservoir which was just north of the building. On Westgate, Lincoln, Lincolnshire.

Between November 1904 and April 1905, 1006 people in Lincoln contracted typhoid and of these 113 died. It was Lincoln's biggest peacetime tragedy. The outbreak of the disease was caused by a polluted supply of drinking water, which at the time was taken from a reservoir at Hartsholme (on the edge of the city) and from the River Witham.

Despite heavy chlorination of the water public faith in the supply dwindled and many resorted to drawing water from ancient wells. Faced with a crisis, city officials and the Water Board realised that the provision of clean water and proper sanitation would be the only way to curb the disease and restore the residents' faith in the public water supply.

The first step was to find a suitable source clean water, this was located over the county border at Elkesley in Nottinghamshire where bore holes were sunk through the limestone. (The cores from the boreholes can be seen in this shot taken in The Arboretum in Lincoln).

A 22-mile long main was laid from Elkesley to Lincoln, where the construction of the Westgate Water Tower was commissioned by the Lincoln Corporation. The architect, Sir Reginald Blomfield (1856-1942), designed the tower to resemble a medieval keep giving a sense of continuity with the city's castle and cathedral. On its completion the Westgate Water Tower had an immediate impact on the city.

The local paper, the Lincolnshire Echo, recorded an "air of excitement in the city in anticipation of a new supply of drinking water". This mammoth project was not completed until 1911. Still in use today and a principal source of water for uphill Lincoln the tower, holding some 330,000 gallons (1,356,000 ltrs), remains an imposing landmark visible from miles away.

Inofrmation Source:

www.heritageconnectlincoln.com/character-area/chapel-lane...

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 04-Dec-21, plus DeNoise AI 10-Dec-22.

Swissair Express, op by Flightline

This aircraft was delivered to Pacific Southwest Airlines (USA) as N365PS in Dec-85. It was sold to lessor on delivery and leased back to Pacific Southwest.

It was re-registered N189US in Dec-87 prior to being merged into US Air in Apr-88. The aircraft was withdrawn from use and stored at Mojave, CA, USA in May-91. US Air was renamed US Airways in Feb-97.

The aircraft was leased to Flightline (UK) as G-FLTA in Feb-98. It was wet-leased to Jersey European Airways between Oct-98/Mar-99, to Swissair Express between Mar-99/Apr-00, to Croatia Airlines between Apr/Jun-00 and to IAC Integrated Aviation Consortium between Apr-02/2008.

Flightline ceased operations in Dec-08, the aircraft was stored at Southend (UK) and returned to Westall Aviation in Apr-09.

It was sold to the Aircraft Holding Network (USA) as N174FF in Jul-12. It was due to be sold to Neptune Aviation Services for water-bomber conversion but the sale was cancelled.

The aircraft was sold to TAM Bolivia (the airline of the Bolivian Air Force) as FAB-106 in Nov-13. It was permanently retired at La Paz, Bolivia in 2017. Updated 10-Dec-12.

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 10-Jan-20.

First flown with the Boeing test registration N6038E, this aircraft was delivered to Airtours International Airways as G-SJMC in Mar-94. It was wet-leased to Garuda Indonesia Airlines on a Haj Pilgrimage operation between Jan/Mar-02.

In May-02 Airtours was renamed MyTravel Airways and more Garuda Haj Pilgrimage operations took place between Jan/Mar-03, Dec-03/Feb-04 and Dec-04/Feb-05.

In Apr-05 the aircraft was leased to SkyService Airlines (Canada) as C-GLMC, but not for long... It suffered a 'very' heavy landing at Punta Cana. Dominican Republic in May-05.

It bounced and landed nosewheel first causing severe damage to the landing gear, wings and fuselage. It was almost written off and was at Punta Cana for five months being repaired. In Oct-05 it was ferried to Portland, OR, USA for repainting and returned to service with MyTravel Airways as G-SJMC in Nov-05.

The aircraft was re-registered G-TCCA in Feb-08 and MyTravel Airways was merged into Thomas Cook Airlines UK at the end of Mar-08. In Nov-08 another Haj Pilgrimage was operated for Garuda Indonesian Airlines with the aircraft returning to Thomas Cook in Jan-09.

The Thomas Cook Group also owned Condor Flugdienst and in Dec-13 the aircraft was wet leased to Condor for the winter, returning to Thomas Cook UK at the end of Apr-14. The winter lease was repeated between Nov-14/Apr-15 and Nov-15/Apr-16.

It operated its last service for Thomas Cook UK in Oct-16 and was again leased to Condor in early Nov-16. The aircraft operated its last passenger service from Varadero to Frankfurt on 18/19-Nov-16, ferried back to Thomas Cook UK and was stored at Manchester.

It was sold to a lessor and leased to Atlas Air as N1373A in Feb-17 and ferried to Tel Aviv for freighter conversion. The aircraft was converted to 'F' with a main deck cargo door in Oct-17 and operated for Amazon Prime Air in Nov-17.

Now 28.5 years old, it continues in service. Updated 01-Dec-22.

Replacing an earlier photo from Feb-16 with a better version.

Repainted in FlyBe's latest livery with additional 'Cancer Research UK - Kids and Teens' special livery overlaid.

First flown with the Embraer test registration PT-SGN, this aircraft was delivered to GOAL German Operating Aircraft Leasing and leased to FlyBe Airlines as G-FBEM in Aug-08.

It was withdrawn from service and stored at Exeter, UK in Apr-14 and returned to service in Jun-15, the aircraft was repainted in FlyBe's purple livery in Dec-15. It was sold to Propius Leasing in Jul-17 while the lease to FlyBe continued. It was returned to the lessor in Aug-18.

The aircraft was leased to Stobart Air as EI-GGB in Dec-18 and returned to the lessor in Nov-19. It was immediately leased to Great Dane Airlines (Denmark) as OY-GDC. In Sep-20 it was wet-leased to Bamboo Airways (Vietnam) in their full livery and returned to Great Dane Airlines in Apr-21.

Great Dane ceased operations in Oct-21 and the aircraft was returned to the lessor and stored at Billund, Denmark. It was due to be leased to DAT Danish Air Transport but the lease wasn't taken up.

In Sep-23 the aircraft was repainted in full Air Serbia livery and leased to Marathon Airlines (Greece), still as OY-GDC. It was wet-leased to Air Serbia in Oct-23.

The aircraft overran the runway on take-off from Belgrade (Serbia) on 18-Feb-24 (see below). It managed to get airborne and returned to Belgrade on a full emergency. The wet-lease was terminated two days later when it was returned to Marathon Airlines.

It was stored at Belgrade, returned to the lessor and repaired. It took a while and was completed in Oct-24. The aircraft was leased direct to Air Serbia as YU-ATP a few days later. Current, updated 23-Oct-24.

Note: The aircraft overran the runway on take-off at Belgrade while operating a service to Dusseldorf. The crew didn't use the runway full length and maybe miscalculated their take-off weight against the shorter runway length available. The aircraft ran off the end of the runway and collided with an ILS antenna and approach lights. It managed to get airborne and landed safely back at BEG 40mins later The left side of the fuselage, the left wing root and the left tailplane were badly damaged, there was also a fuel leak.

aviation-safety.net/wikibase/351783 it's an interesting read!

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.[citation needed] It is an educational resource, and also helps to preserve some traditional and rare north-country livestock breeds.

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.

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. Further additions to the Town came in 1994 with the opening of the sweet shop and motor garage,Beamish Museum 2014 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) 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.

I haven't had much time for the computer lately........babysitting and gardening and home renos. It just wasn't the time of year to be spending lots of time learning a new photomanpulation program. But today I investigated Picmonkey and Aviary , the sites recommended by Google and Flickr as Picnik replacements. Didn't like either........too simplistic. But found PIXLR, which seems to be a cross between Picnik and Gimp.

It was quite easy to learn the simple effects........crop, exposure, saturation, vignette, sharpness, blur, etc. But there are still many tools I have to learn and the layering possibilities seem much more sophisticated than Picnik. One thing it seems to be mjissing is drop shadow and framing........and couldn't get the vignette to outline the edges like I prefer. But for the most part...........I'm happy.

Here's a site I found that lists and rates the various photo editing sites. She likes Picmonkey best, so I might look at it again..........seems there's an advanced version.

kimellabella.blogspot.ca/2012/04/final-review-of-quality-...

UPDATE: I rediscovered picmonkey and found options I'd overlooked the first time.......so now quite like it. Also..........the Picnik folks are about to launch a new site called ribbit that is SO like picnik!

© all rights reserved

The following information is from Wikipedia.

The Resurrection Gate connects the north-western end of Red Square with Manege Square and gives its name to nearby Voskresenskaya Square (Resurrection Square). The gate adjoins the ornate building of the Moscow City Hall to the east (left) and the State Historical Museum to the west (right). Just in front of the chapel is a bronze plaque marking kilometre zero of the Russian highway system. You can see the towers of St. Basil's Cathedral through the arch on the right.

In 1931, the Resurrection Gate and the chapel were demolished in order to make room for heavy military vehicles driving through Red Square during military parades. Both structures were completely rebuilt in 1994-1995, and a new icon of the Iveron Theotokos was painted on Mount Athos to replace the original.

Religion in the Soviet Union:

The Soviet Union was established by the Bolsheviks in 1922, in place of the Russian Empire. At the time of the 1917 Revolution, the Russian Orthodox Church was deeply integrated into the autocratic state, enjoying official status. This was a significant factor that contributed to the Bolshevik attitude to religion and the steps they took to control it.[1] Thus the USSR became the first state to have as one objective of its official ideology the elimination of existing religion, and the prevention of future implanting of religious belief, with the goal of establishing state atheism (gosateizm).[2][3][4][5] Under the doctrine of state atheism in the Soviet Union, there was a "government-sponsored program of forced conversion to atheism" conducted by Communists.[6][7][8]

The vast majority of people in the Russian empire were, at the time of the revolution, religious believers, whereas the communists aimed to break the power of all religious institutions and eventually replace religious belief with atheism. "Science" was counterposed to "religious superstition" in the media and in academic writing. The main religions of pre-revolutionary Russia persisted throughout the entire Soviet period, but they were only tolerated within certain limits. Generally, this meant that believers were free to worship in private and in their respective religious buildings (churches, mosques, etc.), but public displays of religion outside of such designated areas were prohibited. In addition, religious institutions were not allowed to express their views in any type of mass media, and many religious buildings were demolished or used for other purpose.

As the founder of the Soviet state, V. I. Lenin, put it:

Religion is the opium of the people.

Replacing an earlier scanned slide with a better version 23-Dec-15.

Originally this aircraft was to have been registered G-BMMP but this wasn't taken up and it was delivered to Air Europe as G-DDDV in Mar-81.

Because UK & European leisure traffic is so seasonal, Air Europe were one of the forerunners in leasing out capacity during the 'low' season. This aircraft was leased to Air Florida between Nov-82/Apr-83. It was also leased to British Airtours between Nov-84/Apr-85.

When it returned to Air Europe the aircraft was sold to the GPA Group Ltd (later to become part of GECAS) and leased back. It was sub-leased to British Airtours again from Nov-85/Apr-86, and Nov-86/May-87, and again from Nov-87/Apr-88.

In Apr-88 British Airtours was renamed Caledonian Airways after British Airtours parent company British Airways had taken over British Caledonian. The aircraft continued with the new Caledonian until the end of Apr-88 when the lease was transferred to GB Airways.

It stayed with GB Airways until mid Nov-89 when it was returned to Air Europe and the GPA Group and leased to Gulf Air the same day as A4O-BL. It returned to GPA Group in Oct-92. In Dec-92 it was leased to East West Airlines (India) as VT-EWD but was repossessed by GPA Group in Oct-96 and stored.

In Dec-97 it was sold to Aero USA Inc as N633GP. The aircraft was leased to LAPA Lineas Aereas Privadas Argentinas in Feb-98 as LV-YGB. LAPA was renamed ARG Linea Privada Argentina in Sep-01. It was returned to AeroUSA Inc in Aug-03.

Two months later it was sold to La Rioja Air Company and was leased to Southern Winds (Argentina) in Nov-03. It was retired at Cordoba, Argentina, in Aug-05 after 24 years in service. It was last noted still stored at Cordoba in Aug-11 and I'm assuming it's since been broken up.

I have SERIOUS doubts that there are any dentists in the house that are willing to accept the challenge. There’s actually nothing to worry about as the alligator will merely grow a new tooth. The teeth can be replaced multiple times in their lives, so no need to be concerned about this well-being. The alligator is being studied for multiple reasons and one of those reasons is for their ability to regrow teeth. Would be nice if researchers can learn from them and apply it humans and have us regrow teeth. This is actually the same alligator that I posted a couple of days ago. I took the initial shots and then traveled up the bayou for about 20 minutes and then returned to find him with his mouth open and the tooth dangling by a bit of tissue. Photo captured on Horsepen bayou of this twelve-footer.

A7R00472uls

Replacing an earlier scanned slide with a better version 26-Oct-21 (DeNoise AI).

Short-term lease to British Caledonian in basic Air Manchester livery.

A rare shot as this aircraft was only leased short-term in this hybrid livery for 10 weeks between mid Nov-83 and the end of Jan-84, it was previously destined for the very short-lived airline Air Manchester, painted in their full livery as G-BMAN but it was never delivered.

Delivered to Autair International Airways in Feb-68 as G-AVOF, it was sold to Cambrian Airways in Dec-69. The aircraft was briefly leased to Gulf Air in Oct/Nov-74. Cambrian was merged into British Airways in Apr-76. The aircraft was sold to British Aerospace in Nov-78 and leased back to British Airways.

It was returned to B.Ae in Aug-80 and stored. It was due to be sold to Air Manchester in mid 1982 as G-BMAN but they ceased operations and were merged into British Air Ferries in Sep-82. The sale was cancelled and the aircraft was given the temporary registration G-16-32 with British Aerospace in Sep-82 and became G-AVOF again in Mar-83.

In May-83 it was leased to British Island Airways for the summer season, returning to B.Ae in Nov-83. A week later it went to British Caledonian Airways on a short-term lease until the end of Jan-84 when it was returned to B.Ae.

It was leased to Dan-Air Services in May-84 for the summer season, returning to B.Ae in Oct-84. It was sold to Britt Airways (USA) in Mar-85 as N392BA. In May-87 it was sold to Okada Air, Nigeria, as 5N-AYT. It was stored at Benin City, Nigeria, in Dec-97 and broken up there around 1999.

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

Photo taken on board a Western Airlines Boeing 720B, N93147 en-route Los Angeles/Portland/Vancouver.

Delivered to Western Airlines in Mar-69 as N4522W, Western only kept it for 4 years. It was sold to the US Trust Company of New York in Oct-73 and immediately leased to Air France, still as N4522W. Air France operated it for 7 years before returning it to the lessor in Apr-80. It was sold to Westinghouse Leasing Corporation the same month and leased to Air California in Jun-80, they bought it 5 months later in Oct-80 when it was also re-registered N470AC. Air California were renamed AirCal in Apr-81. In Jul-87, AirCal were merged into American Airlines and the aircraft continued in service until it was returned to the lessor in Apr-89. It was sold to Polaris Aircraft Leasing Corporation and leased to Braniff Airlines the same month. The aircraft was returned to Polaris in Feb-90 and stored at Goodyear, AZ, USA. In Jan-92 it was leased to Viscount Air Service. In Mar-94 it was re-registered N302VA. It was returned to Polaris in Aug-96 and stored again at Goodyear, AZ. In Apr-97, now 28 years old, it was sold to the AAR Financial Services Corp and ferried to Roswell, NM, USA, where it was broken up later that year.

I got the Ferris Wheel (10247) as a birthday present this year and also built the Fairground Mixer (10244) just recently. The only amusement ride I missed was the Grand Carousel (10196) since I was still in my dark ages back then und now it's way too expensive to buy this set.

But that didn't stop me. I had to build it: I used a different colour scheme and made some changes on the roof. I also didn't like the jumper horses and replaced them by two pirate ships, two cars, two locomotives and two propeller aircrafts.

Back to album

Liberty Local Schools 9 - 1986 Thomas Ford - Retired; Bus Yard - Liberty Township, Ohio. Picture taken in 2002. One of two 1986 Thomas Fords once in the fleet. The area where this bus was parked was recently fenced-in when the picture was taken. The spare buses at Liberty park in this lot. The part of the school shown behind the bus has since been torn down. Traded-in to Myers Equipment Corp. and replaced with a 2005 Thomas Freightliner.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 23-Jan-24.

Cyrillic titles, left side. English titles, right side. With additional 'operated by Albanian Airlines' titles with the word 'Albanian' painted out. The odd tail logo is Turan Air, overpainted with the Bulgarian flag.

A rough history... dates are approximate.

Built in 1986, this aircraft was delivered to LOT Polish Airlines as SP-LCB in Aug-86. It was sold to Turan Air (Azerbaijan) as 4K-733 in Jul-95.

In Jun-00 it was sold to Hemus Air (Bulgaria) in basic Turan Air livery as LZ HMP. At some point (late 2000 to early 2001) it was leased to Albanian Airlines.

The aircraft was sold to Bulgarian Air Charter as LZ-LCV in mid 2002. It was wet-leased to Kish Air (Iran) in early 2004, returning to Bulgarian Air Charter in mid 2004.

It was sold back to Turan Air as 4K-733 in Sep-06. Turan Air ceased operations in 2013 and the aircraft was stored at Baku, Azerbaijan. I can't find any further record of the aircraft and I'm assuming it was eventually broken up at Baku. Updated 17-Mar-24.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 14-Dec-21 (DeNoise AI).

Taken through glass with some reflections

Fleet No: '779'.

This aircraft was ordered by Delta Air Lines and was allocated the registration N461DA, but this wasn't taken up and it was delivered to Delta as N452DA in Jan-73.

It was sold to Peoplexpress Airlines in Dec-83 and was re-registered N511PE in May-84. In Sep-86 the aircraft was sold to a lessor and leased back to Peoplexpress. In Feb-87 Peoplexpress was merged into Continental Airlines.

It was returned to the lessor in Aug-99 and stored at Miami, FL, USA. It was sold to Pegasus Aviation Inc in May-00 and converted to freighter configuration with a main deck cargo door in Feb-01.

The aircraft was leased to Kitty Hawk Aircargo in May-01. It was returned to the lessor and leased to CAT Custom Air Transport in Dec-02. It continued in service with CAT until it was retired in Jun-06 and stored at Roswell, NM, USA.

It was sold to U Boats Parts Inc in Jul-07 and was last noted at Roswell in Sep-11, still with it's engines but missing it's outer wings and other parts. It was eventually broken up.

Introduced in Aug. 1966 the VW 1500 Käfer was replaced by the 1302 S in Aug. 1970.

In Aug. 1967 the VW Käfer received a face-lifted front with straight standing headlights. This one is still from the old type, so this version has been built for only one year.

1493 cc air-cooled boxer engine.

Total production VW Beetle: 1938-2003, however in Germany till 1978.

Production VW 1500 Beetle: Aug. 1966-Aug. 1970.

Original Portugese reg. number: 1966/1967.

Number seen: 8.

Chaves (P.), Avenida Dom João I, Estr. Nacional Nº 2, Aug. 15, 2017.

© 2017 Sander Toonen Amsterdam | All Rights Reserved

Replaced a wrecked Corbeil

Covent Garden (/ˈkɒvənt/) is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as "Covent Garden". The district is divided by the main thoroughfare of Long Acre, north of which is given over to independent shops centred on Neal's Yard and Seven Dials, while the south contains the central square with its street performers and most of the elegant buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the London Transport Museum.

Though mainly fields until the 16th century, the area was briefly settled when it became the heart of the Anglo-Saxon trading town of Lundenwic. After the town was abandoned, part of the area was walled off by 1200 for use as arable land and orchards by Westminster Abbey, and was referred to as "the garden of the Abbey and Convent". The land, now called "the Covent Garden", was seized by Henry VIII, and granted to the Earls of Bedford in 1552. The 4th Earl commissioned Inigo Jones to build some fine houses to attract wealthy tenants. Jones designed the Italianate arcaded square along with the church of St Paul's. The design of the square was new to London, and had a significant influence on modern town planning, acting as the prototype for the laying-out of new estates as London grew. A small open-air fruit and vegetable market had developed on the south side of the fashionable square by 1654. Gradually, both the market and the surrounding area fell into disrepute, as taverns, theatres, coffee-houses and brothels opened up; the gentry moved away, and rakes, wits and playwrights moved in. By the 18th century it had become a well-known red-light district, attracting notable prostitutes. An Act of Parliament was drawn up to control the area, and Charles Fowler's neo-classical building was erected in 1830 to cover and help organise the market. The area declined as a pleasure-ground as the market grew and further buildings were added: the Floral Hall, Charter Market, and in 1904 the Jubilee Market. By the end of the 1960s traffic congestion was causing problems, and in 1974 the market relocated to the New Covent Garden Market about three miles (5 km) south-west at Nine Elms. The central building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980, and is now a tourist location containing cafes, pubs, small shops, and a craft market called the Apple Market, along with another market held in the Jubilee Hall.

Covent Garden, with the postcode WC2, falls within the London boroughs of Westminster and Camden, and the parliamentary constituencies of Cities of London and Westminster and Holborn and St Pancras. The area has been served by the Piccadilly line at Covent Garden tube station since 1907; the journey from Leicester Square, at 300 yards, is the shortest in London.

Early history

The route of the Strand on the southern boundary of what was to become Covent Garden was used during the Roman period as part of a route to Silchester, known as "Iter VII" on the Antonine Itinerary. Excavations in 2006 at St Martin-in-the-Fields revealed a Roman grave, suggesting the site had sacred significance. The area to the north of the Strand was long thought to have remained as unsettled fields until the 16th century, but theories by Alan Vince and Martin Biddle that there had been an Anglo-Saxon settlement to the west of the old Roman town of Londinium were borne out by excavations in 1985 and 2005. These revealed Covent Garden as the centre of a trading town called Lundenwic, developed around 600 AD, which stretched from Trafalgar Square to Aldwych. Alfred the Great gradually shifted the settlement into the old Roman town of Londinium from around 886 AD onwards, leaving no mark of the old town, and the site returned to fields.

Around 1200 the first mention of an abbey garden appears in a document mentioning a walled garden owned by the Benedictine monks of the Abbey of St. Peter, Westminster. A later document, dated between 1250 and 1283, refers to "the garden of the Abbot and Convent of Westminster". By the 13th century this had become a 40-acre (16 ha) quadrangle of mixed orchard, meadow, pasture and arable land, lying between modern-day St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane, and Floral Street and Maiden Lane. The use of the name "Covent"—an Anglo-French term for a religious community, equivalent to "monastery" or "convent" —appears in a document in 1515, when the Abbey, which had been letting out parcels of land along the north side of the Strand for inns and market gardens, granted a lease of the walled garden, referring to it as "a garden called Covent Garden". This is how it was recorded from then on.

The Bedford Estate (1552–1918)

After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1540, Henry VIII took for himself the land belonging to Westminster Abbey, including the convent garden and seven acres to the north called Long Acre; and in 1552 his son, Edward VI, granted it to John Russell, 1st Earl of Bedford. The Russell family, who in 1694 were advanced in their peerage from Earl to Duke of Bedford, held the land from 1552 to 1918.

Russell had Bedford House and garden built on part of the land, with an entrance on the Strand, the large garden stretching back along the south side of the old walled-off convent garden. Apart from this, and allowing several poor-quality tenements to be erected, the Russells did little with the land until the 4th Earl of Bedford, Francis Russell, an active and ambitious businessman, commissioned Inigo Jones in 1630 to design and build a church and three terraces of fine houses around a large square or piazza. The commission had been prompted by Charles I taking offence at the condition of the road and houses along Long Acre, which were the responsibility of Russell and Henry Carey, 2nd Earl of Monmouth. Russell and Carey complained that under the 1625 Proclamation concerning Buildings, which restricted building in and around London, they could not build new houses; the King then granted Russell, for a fee of £2,000, a licence to build as many new houses on his land as he "shall thinke fitt and convenient". The church of St Paul's was the first building, begun in July 1631 on the western side of the square. The last house was completed in 1637.

The houses initially attracted the wealthy, though when a market developed on the south side of the square around 1654, the aristocracy moved out and coffee houses, taverns, and prostitutes moved in. The Bedford Estate was expanded in 1669 to include Bloomsbury, when Lord Russell married Lady Rachel Vaughan, one of the daughters of the 4th Earl of Southampton.

By the 18th century, Covent Garden had become a well-known red-light district, attracting notable prostitutes such as Betty Careless and Jane Douglas. Descriptions of the prostitutes and where to find them were provided by Harris's List of Covent Garden Ladies, the "essential guide and accessory for any serious gentleman of pleasure". In 1830 a market hall was built to provide a more permanent trading centre. In 1913, Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford agreed to sell the Covent Garden Estate for £2 million to the MP and land speculator Harry Mallaby-Deeley, who sold his option in 1918 to the Beecham family for £250,000.

Modern changes

Charles Fowler's 1830 neo-classical building restored as a retail market.

The Covent Garden Estate was part of Beecham Estates and Pills Limited from 1924 to 1928, after which time it was managed by a successor company called Covent Garden Properties Company Limited, owned by the Beechams and other private investors. This new company sold some properties at Covent Garden, while becoming active in property investment in other parts of London. In 1962 the bulk of the remaining properties in the Covent Garden area, including the market, were sold to the newly established government-owned Covent Garden Authority for £3,925,000.

By the end of the 1960s, traffic congestion had reached such a level that the use of the square as a modern wholesale distribution market was becoming unsustainable, and significant redevelopment was planned. Following a public outcry, buildings around the square were protected in 1973, preventing redevelopment. The following year the market moved to a new site in south-west London. The square languished until its central building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980. An action plan was drawn up by Westminster Council in 2004 in consultation with residents and businesses to improve the area while retaining its historic character. The market buildings, along with several other properties in Covent Garden, were bought by a property company in 2006.

Geography

Historically, the Bedford Estate defined the boundary of Covent Garden, with Drury Lane to the east, the Strand to the south, St. Martin's Lane to the west, and Long Acre to the north. However, over time the area has expanded northwards past Long Acre to High Holborn, and since 1971, with the creation of the Covent Garden Conservation Area which incorporated part of the area between St Martins Lane and Charring Cross Road, the Western boundary is sometimes considered to be Charring Cross Road. Shelton Street, running parallel to the north of Long Acre, marks the London borough boundary between Camden and Westminster. Long Acre is the main thoroughfare, running north-east from St Martin's Lane to Drury Lane.

The area to the south of Long Acre contains the Royal Opera House, the market and central square, and most of the elegant buildings, theatres and entertainment facilities, including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, and the London Transport Museum; while the area to the north of Long Acre is largely given over to independent retail units centred on Neal Street, Neal's Yard and Seven Dials; though this area also contains residential buildings such as Odhams Walk, built in 1981 on the site of the Odhams print works, and is home to over 6,000 residents.

Governance

The Covent Garden estate was originally under the control of Westminster Abbey and lay in the parish of St Margaret. During a reorganisation in 1542 it was transferred to St Martin in the Fields, and then in 1645 a new parish was created, splitting governance of the estate between the parishes of St Paul Covent Garden and St Martin, both still within the Liberty of Westminster. St Paul Covent Garden was completely surrounded by the parish of St Martin in the Fields. It was grouped into the Strand District in 1855 when it came within the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works.

In 1889 the parish became part of the County of London and in 1900 it became part of the Metropolitan Borough of Westminster. It was abolished as a civil parish in 1922. Since 1965 Covent Garden falls within the London boroughs of Westminster and Camden, and is in the Parliamentary constituencies of Cities of London and Westminster and Holborn and St Pancras. For local council elections it falls within the St James's ward for Westminster, and the Holborn and Covent Garden ward for Camden.

Economy

The area's historic association with the retail and entertainment economy continues. In 1979, Covent Garden Market reopened as a retail centre; in 2010, the largest Apple Store in the world opened in The Piazza. The central hall has shops, cafes and bars alongside the Apple Market stalls selling antiques, jewellery, clothing and gifts; there are additional casual stalls in the Jubilee Hall Market on the south side of the square. Long Acre has a range of clothes shops and boutiques, and Neal Street is noted for its large number of shoe shops. London Transport Museum and the side entrance to the Royal Opera House box office and other facilities are also located on the square. During the late 1970s and 1980s the Rock Garden music venue was popular with up and coming punk rock and New Wave artists.

The market halls and several other buildings in Covent Garden were bought by CapCo in partnership with GE Real Estate in August 2006 for £421 million, on a 150-year head lease. The buildings are let to the Covent Garden Area Trust, who pay an annual peppercorn rent of one red apple and a posy of flowers for each head lease, and the Trust protects the property from being redeveloped. In March 2007 CapCo also acquired the shops located under the Royal Opera House. The complete Covent Garden Estate owned by CapCo consists of 550,000 sq ft (51,000 m2), and has a market value of £650 million.

Landmarks

The Royal Opera House, often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", was constructed as the "Theatre Royal" in 1732 to a design by Edward Shepherd. During the first hundred years or so of its history, the theatre was primarily a playhouse, with the Letters Patent granted by Charles II giving Covent Garden and Theatre Royal, Drury Lane exclusive rights to present spoken drama in London. In 1734, the first ballet was presented; a year later Handel's first season of operas began. Many of his operas and oratorios were specifically written for Covent Garden and had their premières here. It has been the home of The Royal Opera since 1945, and the Royal Ballet since 1946.

The current building is the third theatre on the site following destructive fires in 1808 and 1857. The façade, foyer and auditorium were designed by Edward Barry, and date from 1858, but almost every other element of the present complex dates from an extensive £178 million reconstruction in the 1990s. The Royal Opera House seats 2,268 people and consists of four tiers of boxes and balconies and the amphitheatre gallery. The stage performance area is roughly 15 metres square. The main auditorium is a Grade 1 listed building. The inclusion of the adjacent old Floral Hall, previously a part of the old Covent Garden Market, created a new and extensive public gathering place. In 1779 the pavement outside the playhouse was the scene of the murder of Martha Ray, mistress of the Earl of Sandwich, by her admirer the Rev. James Hackman.

Covent Garden square

Balthazar Nebot's 1737 painting of the square before the 1830 market hall was constructed.

The central square in Covent Garden is simply called "Covent Garden", often marketed as "Covent Garden Piazza" to distinguish it from the eponymous surrounding area. Laid out in 1630, it was the first modern square in London, and was originally a flat, open space or piazza with low railings. A casual market started on the south side, and by 1830 the present market hall was built. The space is popular with street performers, who audition with the site's owners for an allocated slot. The square was originally laid out when the 4th Earl of Bedford, Francis Russell, commissioned Inigo Jones to design and build a church and three terraces of fine houses around the site of a former walled garden belonging to Westminster Abbey. Jones's design was informed by his knowledge of modern town planning in Europe, particularly Piazza d'Arme, in Leghorn, Tuscany, Piazza San Marco in Venice, Piazza Santissima Annunziata in Florence, and the Place des Vosges in Paris. The centrepiece of the project was the large square, the concept of which was new to London, and this had a significant influence on modern town planning in the city,[56] acting as the prototype for the laying-out of new estates as the metropolis grew. Isaac de Caus, the French Huguenot architect, designed the individual houses under Jones's overall design.

The church of St Paul's was the first building, and was begun in July 1631 on the western side of the square. The last house was completed in 1637. Seventeen of the houses had arcaded portico walks organised in groups of four and six either side of James Street on the north side, and three and four either side of Russell Street. These arcades, rather than the square itself, took the name Piazza; the group from James Street to Russell Street became known as the "Great Piazza" and that to the south of Russell Street as the "Little Piazza". None of Inigo Jones's houses remain, though part of the north group was reconstructed in 1877–79 as Bedford Chambers by William Cubitt to a design by Henry Clutton.

Covent Garden market

The first record of a "new market in Covent Garden" is in 1654 when market traders set up stalls against the garden wall of Bedford House. The Earl of Bedford acquired a private charter from Charles II in 1670 for a fruit and vegetable market, permitting him and his heirs to hold a market every day except Sundays and Christmas Day. The original market, consisting of wooden stalls and sheds, became disorganised and disorderly, and the 6th Earl requested an Act of Parliament in 1813 to regulate it, then commissioned Charles Fowler in 1830 to design the neo-classical market building that is the heart of Covent Garden today. The contractor was William Cubitt and Company. Further buildings were added—the Floral hall, Charter Market, and in 1904 the Jubilee Market for foreign flowers was built by Cubitt and Howard.

By the end of the 1960s, traffic congestion was causing problems for the market, which required increasingly large lorries for deliveries and distribution. Redevelopment was considered, but protests from the Covent Garden Community Association in 1973 prompted the Home Secretary, Robert Carr, to give dozens of buildings around the square listed-building status, preventing redevelopment. The following year the market relocated to its new site, New Covent Garden Market, about three miles (5 km) south-west at Nine Elms. The central building re-opened as a shopping centre in 1980, with cafes, pubs, small shops and a craft market called the Apple Market. Another market, the Jubilee Market, is held in the Jubilee Hall on the south side of the square. The market halls and several other buildings in Covent Garden have been owned by the property company Capital & Counties Properties (CapCo) since 2006.

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

The current Theatre Royal on Drury Lane is the most recent of four incarnations, the Second of which opened in 1663, making it the oldest continuously used theatre in London. For much of its first two centuries, it was, along with the Royal Opera House, a patent theatre granted rights in London for the production of drama, and had a claim to be one of London's leading theatres. The first theatre, known as "Theatre Royal, Bridges Street", saw performances by Nell Gwyn and Charles Hart. After it was destroyed by fire in 1672, English dramatist and theatre manager Thomas Killigrew engaged Christopher Wren to build a larger theatre on the same spot, which opened in 1674. This building lasted nearly 120 years, under leadership including Colley Cibber, David Garrick, and Richard Brinsley Sheridan. In 1791, under Sheridan's management, the building was demolished to make way for a larger theatre which opened in 1794; but that survived only 15 years, burning down in 1809. The building that stands today opened in 1812. It has been home to actors as diverse as Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean, child actress Clara Fisher, comedian Dan Leno, the comedy troupe Monty Python (who recorded a concert album there), and musical composer and performer Ivor Novello. Since November 2008 the theatre has been owned by composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and generally stages popular musical theatre. It is a Grade I listed building.

London Transport Museum

The London Transport Museum is in a Victorian iron and glass building on the east side of the market square. It was designed as a dedicated flower market by William Rogers of William Cubitt and Company in 1871, and was first occupied by the museum in 1980. Previously the transport collection had been held at Syon Park and Clapham. The first parts of the collection were brought together at the beginning of the 20th century by the London General Omnibus Company (LGOC) when it began to preserve buses being retired from service. After the LGOC was taken over by the London Electric Railway (LER), the collection was expanded to include rail vehicles. It continued to expand after the LER became part of the London Passenger Transport Board in the 1930s and as the organisation passed through various successor bodies up to TfL, London's transport authority since 2000. The Covent Garden building has on display many examples of buses, trams, trolleybuses and rail vehicles from 19th and 20th centuries as well as artefacts and exhibits related to the operation and marketing of passenger services and the impact that the developing transport network has had on the city and its population.

St Paul's Church

St Paul's, commonly known as the Actors' Church, was designed by Inigo Jones as part of a commission by Francis Russell in 1631 to create "houses and buildings fitt for the habitacons of Gentlemen and men of ability". Work on the church began that year and was completed in 1633, at a cost of £4,000, with it becoming consecrated in 1638. In 1645 Covent Garden was made a separate parish and the church was dedicated to St Paul. It is uncertain how much of Jones's original building is left, as the church was damaged by fire in 1795 during restoration work by Thomas Hardwick; though it is believed that the columns are original—the rest is mostly Georgian or Victorian reconstruction.

Culture

The Covent Garden area has long been associated with both entertainment and shopping, and this continues. Covent Garden has 13 theatres, and over 60 pubs and bars, with most south of Long Acre, around the main shopping area of the old market. The Seven Dials area in the north of Covent Garden was home to the punk rock club The Roxy in 1977, and the area remains focused on young people with its trendy mid-market retail outlets.

Street performance

Street entertainment at Covent Garden was noted in Samuel Pepys's diary in May 1662, when he recorded the first mention of a Punch and Judy show in Britain. Impromptu performances of song and swimming were given by local celebrity William Cussans in the eighteenth century. Covent Garden is licensed for street entertainment, and performers audition for timetabled slots in a number of venues around the market, including the North Hall, West Piazza, and South Hall Courtyard. The courtyard space is dedicated to classical music only. There are street performances at Covent Garden Market every day of the year, except Christmas Day. Shows run throughout the day and are about 30 minutes in length. In March 2008, the market owner, CapCo, proposed to reduce street performances to one 30-minute show each hour.

Pubs and bars

The Covent Garden area has over 60 pubs and bars; several of them are listed buildings, with some also on CAMRA's National Inventory of Historic Pub Interiors; some, such as The Harp in Chandos Place, have received consumer awards. The Harp's awards include London Pub of the Year in 2008 by the Society for the Preservation of Beers from the Wood, and National Pub of the Year by CAMRA in 2011. It was at one time owned by the Charrington Brewery, when it was known as The Welsh Harp; in 1995 the name was abbreviated to just The Harp, before Charrington sold it to Punch Taverns in 1997. It has been owned by the landlady since 2010.

The Lamb and Flag in Rose Street has a reputation as the oldest pub in the area, though records are not clear. The first mention of a pub on the site is 1772 (when it was called the Cooper's Arms – the name changing to Lamb & Flag in 1833); the 1958 brick exterior conceals what may be an early 18th-century frame of a house replacing the original one built in 1638.[94] The pub acquired a reputation for staging bare-knuckle prize fights during the early 19th century when it earned the nickname "Bucket of Blood". The alleyway beside the pub was the scene of an attack on John Dryden in 1679 by thugs hired by John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, with whom he had a long-standing conflict.

The Salisbury in St. Martin's Lane was built as part of a six-storey block around 1899 on the site of an earlier pub that had been known under several names, including the Coach & Horses and Ben Caunt's Head; it is both Grade II listed, and on CAMRA's National Inventory, due to the quality of the etched and polished glass and the carved woodwork, summed up as "good fin de siècle ensemble". The Freemasons Arms on Long Acre is linked with the founding of the Football Association in 1896; however, the meetings took place at The Freemasons Tavern on Great Queen Street, which was replaced in 1909 by the Connaught Rooms.

Other pubs that are Grade II listed are of minor interest, they are three 19th century rebuilds of 17th century/18th century houses, the Nell Gwynne Tavern in Bull Inn Court, the Nag's Head on James Street, and the White Swan on New Row; a Victorian pub built by lessees of the Marquis of Exeter, the Old Bell on the corner of Exeter Street and Wellington Street; and a late 18th or early 19th century pub the Angel and Crown on St. Martin's Lane.

Cultural connections

Covent Garden, and especially the market, have appeared in a number of works. Eliza Doolittle, the central character in George Bernard Shaw's play, Pygmalion, and the musical adaptation by Alan Jay Lerner, My Fair Lady, is a Covent Garden flower seller. Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 film Frenzy about a Covent Garden fruit vendor who becomes a serial sex killer, was set in the market where his father had been a wholesale greengrocer. The daily activity of the market was the topic of a 1957 Free Cinema documentary by Lindsay Anderson, Every Day Except Christmas, which won the Grand Prix at the Venice Festival of Shorts and Documentaries.

Transport

Covent Garden is served by the Piccadilly line at Covent Garden tube station on the corner of Long Acre and James Street. The station was opened by Great Northern, Piccadilly and Brompton Railway on 11 April 1907, four months after services on the rest of the line began operating on 15 December 1906. Platform access is only by lift or stairs; until improvements to the exit gates in 2007, due to high passenger numbers (16 million annually), London Underground had to advise travellers to get off at Leicester Square and walk the short distance (the tube journey at less than 300 yards is London's shortest) to avoid the congestion. Stations just outside the area include the Charing Cross tube station and Charing Cross railway station, Leicester Square tube station, and Holborn tube station. While there is only one bus route in Covent Garden itself—the RV1, which uses Catherine Street as a terminus, just to the east of Covent Garden square—there are over 30 routes which pass close by, mostly on the Strand or Kingsway.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Covent_Garden

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 20-Aug-16, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 16-Apr-23.

Aero Peru ceased operations in Mar-99.

With additional '25 years' Aero Peru titles.

An aircraft with a very long and slightly confusing history. Delivered to a lessor and leased to Caledonian Airways (not the original Caledonian which became B.Cal but the Caledonian which was previously British Airtours) as G-BUDX in May-92.

The aircraft was sub-leased to Ambassador Airways in May-93. At the end of Oct-93, Ambassador wet-leased it to Avianca Colombia for the winter season and it returned to Ambassador in Apr-94. At the end of Nov-94 Ambassador was in severe financial difficulties and it was impounded at Manchester, UK.

It was returned to the lessor in early Dec-94 and remained stored at Manchester. It was re-registered N592KA for just one day in May-95, becoming SE-DSK for lease to Sunways Airlines Sweden. It was repossessed by the lessor in Sep-97 and became N592KA again.

In Apr-98 it was leased to AeroMexico and immediately sub-leased to Aero Peru, returning to the lessor in Apr-99. It was re-registered N521NA in Jul-99 and leased to National Airlines. It was returned to the lessor in Nov-02 and was leased to Transmeridian Airlines the following month.

They wet-leased it to Aerolineas Santo Domingo from Jun/Oct-03 and then to Travelspan from Nov-03/Feb-04. Transmeridian ceased operations in Sep-05 and the aircraft returned to the lessor and was stored at Miami, FL, USA.

It was leased to Avianca Colombia in Jan-06, returning to the lessor in Oct-08. In Nov-08 it was leased to AeroGal (Ecuador) as HC-CHC, only to be re-registered N521NA again a week later and then back to HC-CHC in early Dec-08. It was returned to the lessor in Apr-10 and was stored at Tucson, AZ, USA as N169CA.

In Jun-10 it was leased to National Airlines again, for two years, returning to the lessor in Jun-12 when it was stored at Victorville, CA, USA. It was sold to FedEx Federal Express in Sep-12 and remained stored. It was re-registered N979FD in Apr-13 and was converted to freighter configuration with a main deck cargo door at Singapore-Seletar in Nov/Dec-13. Current, updated 16-Apr-23.

Another shot of 66175 and 66303 at Dryclough Junction on the 21st February 2015. 66175 was on the rear of 6T70 22:00 (Fri) Belmont Down Yard to Halifax. The trains weren't in the best of positions for photography, but at least they were accessible.

Here is a paper toy commission I finished up tonight for the good guys over at Replaced by Robots animation studio in Toronto. This little guy is there logo. His head can spin around on his body.

Built by General Motors of Canada in 1981, Locomotive DFB7064 underwent a major overhaul and rebuild at KiwiRail's Hutt Workshops in 2022. The 43 year old locomotive now spends its days (as far as I know) leading long distance suburban trains between the city of Wellington and Masterton in the Wairarapa district just over 100km (or 62 miles) away...!

In the very near future, the DF /DFB / DFT fleet will be replaced, but until that happens, this and other DF /DFB-class locomotives will be soldiering on...!

I'm pleased to report that PEEWEE appears to be still making good progress. Thank you all for the very kind messages that so many of you have left in the last few days; those messages are very much appreciated...!

Thanks so much for the very kind and encouraging comments beneath this photo...! Your support is always greatly appreciated.

Replaced Mercedes Vito formerly used in this role

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 27-Oct-17, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 30-May-23.

Fleet No: '5548'.

This aircraft was delivered to Northwest Airlines as N548US in Aug-96. Blended winglets were added in May-07. Northwest was merged into Delta Airlines in Oct-08.

Now 27 years old, the aircraft continues in service. Updated 30-May-23.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 31-Jan-24.

Operated on behalf of Balkan Bulgarian Airlines by Slovak Airlines.

Named: "Gerlach" (very small, under the flight deck window).

Some of the dates in this history are approximate. The aircraft was built in 1995 and stored until it was delivered to Slovak Airlines in May-98. It was wet-leased to Balkan Bulgarian Airlines in mid 2001 and returned to Slovak Airlines in Oct-02.

It was sold to Pulkovo Avia as RA-85835 in Dec-03. Pulkovo Avia was merged into Rossiya Russian Airlines in Nov-06 and the aircraft continued in service until it was permanently retired at St. Petersburg, Russia in Dec-09. It was broken up at St. Petersburg in Aug-13