Replaced a large chassis admiral 27k

Built in 1991 and closed only 10 years later. Glass block windows were smashed out over time and replaced with cinder block....

========================

Located on the PRR's Connecting Railway, this station replaced an earlier one known as Germantown Junction. Established in the early 1870's, Germantown served as a stop on the Connecting Railway, serving the neighborhoods and industries in the area. By the 1890's, after the completion of the Delair bridge, and the continuing growth of the area, Germantown Junction was woefully inadequate.

P.R.R. president, George P Roberts had plans put in place for a replacement facility designed by architect Theophilus P. Chandler Jr. Chandler designed the main building in the so-called Châteauesque style. Behind the terra-cotta clad structure containing the ticket offices and waiting rooms, a tunnel would stretch under the tracks accessing two platforms. Construction started in 1896, however the death of Roderts along with the Panic of 1896 caused work to be put on hold. Work finally resumed in 1900 under company president Alexander Cassatt, who considered this station as part of a massive capital expenditure that also involved the building of Penn Station in New York City and Union Station in Washington DC.

Upon opening in 1901, the new Germantown Junction served as the Philadelphia stop for service linking New York to Harrisburg and the west, as well as the Philadelphia Terminal for express service to New York (Broadway Limited and the American) As crowds continued to overwhelm the station, a renovation was carried out in 1912 by architect William Cookman to replace the two side platforms with island platforms that could serve two trains each. Major modifications were carried out to the main building as well with the basement opened up and expanded to form a new entrance level. Upon completion in 1915, the remodeled station was renamed North Philadelphia. With the completion of the Broad Street Subway in 1928, a passageway was constructed underground to link it's North Philadelphia station to the P.R.R. station as well as the Reading's North Broad Station nearby. Here passengers were able to travel to Center City, or the neighborhoods north, further taking pressure off Broad Street Station (eventually replaced by 30th Street/Suburban Stations)

After World War II, North Philadelphia Station and the surrounding neighborhoods suffered from the loss of industries, "white flight" to the suburbs as well as increased reliance on private cars. Despite a major renovation carried out in 1955, traffic continued to decline and the number of trains stopping there began to drop. Following a fire in 1976, now owner Amtrak undertook repairs that involved bricking off the windows among other things.

Amtrak built a new ticket office in 1991 situated at the north of the platform underpass, and a series of renovations were done throughout the decade. Platforms were rebuilt and elevators to allow disabled access were added. A developer transformed the main station house into retail space serving as the centerpiece of a new community shopping center. A new Pathmark Supermarket was added as part of the project giving people in the impoverished neighborhood access to basic groceries.

It would seem that all the efforts had gone to waste however. Amtrak closed the North Philadelphia ticket office in 2001. Although Amtrak and Septa trains still stop here, conditions deteriorated to a point where it seemed that station was flat-out abandoned. Platform windows were smashed and never fixed, while the elevators were decommissioned permanently because the vandalism had become so severe. Parking lots surrounding the station now sit virtually unused except as a dumping ground. A severe blow was dealt to the neighborhood in 2015, when the Pathmark store closed as part of parent company A&P's bankruptcy, returning the area to a "food desert".

Hope could be on the horizon however as an ambitious proposal has been unveiled calling for residential and commercial space on the former parking lots and refurbishment of a nearby abandoned factory. If pulled off, this project could easily serve as a catalyst in bringing one of the worst areas in Philadelphia back to it's former glory....

Replaced the shadow and added a checkered flag.

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.

Railway Gazette reported on the 16th December 2016 that the leaders of the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority had givene the go-ahead for a £460m project to replace the Merseyrail suburban electric multiple-unit fleet. This includes the selection of Stadler to supply a fleet of 52 trainsets for entry into service from the end of 2020. Contracts are expected to be signed in early 2017.

‘This is a once in a generation opportunity for custom-built trains that will be safer and carry more people more quickly’, said Chair of the combined authority and Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson. ‘Unusually, these trains will be owned by us locally, meaning we can make sure the trains are exactly what passengers want and that they are ready for our future plans.’

The project is being financed from a reserve fund which had been established for the purpose, as well as loans which the combined authority is to secure from sources including the European Investment Bank. Transport authority Merseytravel will own the trains and lease them to the operating concessionaire, which will be paid a lower operating fee to account for the expected increase in revenue and lower running costs.

The fleet renewal programme also includes power supply, track, and station upgrades and refurbishment of the Kirkdale and Birkenhead North depots. The reduced journey times and better reliability means the decision has been made to order 52 EMUs to replace the current fleet of 59 trains.

The first EMU is scheduled to be delivered in summer 2019 for several months of testing ahead of the delivery of series-built trains by the end of 2020. A new timetable will be introduced in 2021 once the existing Class 507 and 508 units dating from the 1970s have been withdrawn; the new trains’ better acceleration and braking is expected to enable Hunt’s Cross – Southport journey times to be reduced by 9 min.

The 65 m long four-car EMUs will have the same number of seats as the existing three-car sets, but will be 4 m longer with wide through gangways to provide an increase in standing space. This will increase total capacity per EMU from 303 to 486 passengers.

There will be a mix of airline and facing seats, with more space for bicycles, pushchairs and persons with reduced mobility. The train body will be designed specifically for the Merseyrail network, with lower floors and a sliding step to provide near-level access.

There will be a passenger intercom and CCTV linked to the driver and control room. The doors will be illuminated red, amber and green inside and out to show when they are opening or closing and when it is safe to board and alight.

At 99 tonnes, the EMUs will be lighter than the current 105 tonne trains, and energy consumption is expected to be 20% lower, including regenerative braking; options for energy storage are to be studied.

The 750 V DC third-rail EMUs will be capable of conversion to dual-voltage operation for use on 25 kV 50 Hz lines with a view to serving Skelmersdale, Warrington and Wrexham in the longer term.

The trains will be equipped for driver controlled operation, which the combined authority said was ‘put forward by all bidders’ as way to meet the requirements of a report into a fatal incident in 2011. The driver will be responsible for opening and closing the doors and for train dispatch, eliminating the need for guards. Roving customer service roles will be created, with staff available to assist passengers ‘at key locations and times’. There will be fewer customer service roles than guards positions, and while the combined authority envisages there will be natural wastage over the next four years, it has endorsed proposal to guarantee continued employment for all guards currently permanently employed.

‘In an ideal world we’d like to have a second member of staff on every train to ensure the highest level of customer service, but there aren’t the resources to do that’, said Councillor Liam Robinson, Chair of the Merseytravel Committee. ‘Some guards will have the opportunity to be employed in a new on-board customer service role and others will be able to take advantage of other redeployment opportunities, all on the same terms and conditions as now.’

The contract came in slightly over budget (£460m vs target of £400m)

52 units, slightly over the tender requirement of 50 but a reduction from current fleet of 59 (increased reliability and faster journey speeds anticipated to compensate)

65m versus tender specification of 60m to allow doubling up, though that wasn't expected to be normal operating practise just for event strengthening (3m longer than current 62m fleet) and they have significantly higher capacity (60%) from being a wide aisle articulated design.

No mention of earlier proposed fleet extension options, the tender called for 60 options on top of original 50

99 tonnes, 6 tonnes lighter than existing trains and 20% more energy efficient.

DOO but with driver aides such as radar to detect obstructions and people standing too close.

The single doors in the end cars appear to be to allow them to work in multiples without having to extend the platforms. By having a single door in the middle of the car the front and or back could potentially overhang the platform ends to provide a capacity uplift without the additional infrastructure costs.

Images- Merseytravel/Stadler.

Replaced this on 5-9-11 with a slightly re-processed version that was also cropped better to remove clutter around the edge of the frame. I think the colors now have more realistic reds.

The Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation received a Save America's Treasures grant, a Georgia Heritage Grant, and numerous donations from Friends of Andalusia to restore the Hill house at Andalusia. andalusiafarm.org/andalusia/restoration.htm

The internet and mobile technology has revolutionised the way we live, for both good and bad. At the touch of a button you can buy just about anything (!), though it has turned the younger generation into zombies – a generation that's never known any other way of communicating.

Information for people under 25 – this is the inside of a telephone kiosk, those odd glass boxes you occasionally see on roadsides (some are red, with lots of little windows in). Think of it as a Tardis, just in REAL life? Try texting (or sexting!) on one of these!! Also, you have to insert coins, real ones not bitcoins, and it's not paid for by mum and dad... no contract either!

Sadly, this is not the sort of WEB the 'phone box was designed for – this example in Upper Lydbrook, Gloucestershire, is a prime example of how we've fallen out of favour with the dated technology that the phone box has become. This one still works, though no one has used it in ages, by the looks. Another example in nearby Stowfield was just the same – working but overgrown and forgotten...

Please check out my VW Jetta 12V Car Battery Replacement Guide.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 09-Oct-18.

With additional small 'SAS' sticker by the passenger door.

First flown with the ATR test registration F-WWLV 19-Jan-96. This was the ATR.72-212A(500) prototype. After development flying it should have been sold to Air Greece and then China Xinjiang Airlines (as B-3021) but both sales were not taken up and the aircraft was sold to Cimber Air, Denmark as OY-CIM in Feb-99. It was leased to Air Nostrum as EC-JCR in Oct-04 and operated on behalf of Iberia Regional. The aircraft was returned to Cimber Air in Aug-06 and immediately leased to Binter Canarias. It returned to Cimber Air as OY-CIM in Jul-09. Cimber Air ceased operations in May-12 and the aircraft was stored at Copenhagen, Denmark. In Aug-13 it was sold to Swiftair, Spain as EC-LYJ and immediately wet-leased to Antrak Air, Ghana. It was returned to Swiftair in early 2014. In Feb-15 the aircraft was wet leased to Air Europa. Current (Oct-18).

Julie Strain HEAVY METAL 2000 F.A.K.K. Fantasy Figure...

Shot with my Cell Phone Camera is a lot of fun!

It won't replace my Canon 40D, for sure, but it is fun and Quick.

Julie Strain HEAVY METAL 2000 F.A.K.K.2 was a Tower Records Exclusive. Featuring Regular (red outfit), ~ Camera Phone

The acronym F.A.K.K. (Federation Assigned Ketogenic Kilzone) is a universal warning to all Federation deep space navigators.

It indicates an extreme bio-hazard to all carbon-based life forms, from simple one-cell organisms to complex sentient life.

F.A.K.K. 2 indicates a bio-hazard exponentially more dangerous, an area where life enters and only death remains. F.A.K.K. 2 is also the name of a world so sublime, with a secret so great, that only the most terrifying classification could keep the spoilers away.

F.A.K.K. 2 is now a woman who has assumed the name of the world she cherished, when that name alone could no longer protect her tranquil paradise from greed, cruelty and annihilation.

With vengeance in her soul, love in her heart and two fully automatic, 4-barreled blasters in her hands, F.A.K.K. 2 is a ravishing avenger on a deadly mission.

A steel-eyed huntress and expert warrior. F.A.K.K. 2 fights with a single purpose.

She will not rest until she's freed her sister from the ruthless, power-hungry monster who abducted her when he ravaged their majestic planet and stole its greatest secret.

Lord Tyler - Ruthless, evil and sadistic, he discovers the key to universal rule on the F.A.K.K. 2 home world.

After destroying all of the innocents there, he sets out to fulfill his every twisted desire!

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 19-Feb-17 + DeNoise AI 06-Oct-22.

This aircraft was delivered to ANA All Nippon Airways as JA8342 in Apr-95. It was withdrawn from service at Tokyo-Haneda in Jul-20 and permanently retired at Victorville, CA, USA in Aug-20. Updated 06-Oct-22.

The plot on the corner of Christchurch Rd and Spurgeon Rd was occupied by by the Clarence Park Motor Works as early as 1911, with the site retaining an association with servicing the needs of the local motoring community, ending its days as a petrol station, until being replaced by a Tesco Express store in 2006.

.

.

.

A [ very ] potted history of Pokesdown......

Prior to 1810 there was no town of Bournemouth. All that lay between Poole and Christchurch, themselves not the large towns they are today, was unspoilt heathland with the more fertile land of the Stour Valley to the north and east that had supported small farming communities such as Wick, Iford, Holdenhurst, Throop, Muccleshell and Ensbury for centuries.

Although these communities were centred on the individual villages, farms and smallholdings would have been scattered across the surrounding area, an example being Pokesdown Farm which, along with a few cottages for farm workers, stood on the very edge of the heath where it began to slope down on the sides of the Stour Valley overlooking Iford and Wick.

Most of the farms, smallholdings and associated cottages came and went without being recorded on maps although Pokesdown Farm is one of the few exceptions, its origins are a little lost in the mists of time, some claim to have traced it back to 1580 although it was certainly there in the 1660s.

In 1766 when Edmond Bott had a large home called Stourfield House built at Pokesdown [ see seperate images and set for further info ] which at the time would have been in the middle of nowhere and perhaps a very unlikely place to want to build a house.

Stourfield House would no doubt have been a catalyst for more development at Pokesdown if only in the form of cottages for those drawn there by the employment opportunities such a relatively large house and grounds would bring to an impoverished rural community. It is likely that the former Pokesdown Farm morphed into Stourfield Farm in connection with the house.

The last two remaining old thatched cottages, known as 'Lily of the Valley Cottages' and being at least 200 years old, were demolished in the latter 1960s when Appletree Close was created, and with their passing went the last ties with the area's rural past.

The building of Stourfield House predates the official birth of Bournemouth in 1810 by some 44 years and except for the modest Bourne Tregonwell estate that remained all but unknown to the outside world, the first notable development to take place, and what really sparked the development of the town of Bournemouth was Sir George Gervis' 'Marine Village of Bourne' in the mid to late 1830s.

As Bournemouth began to expand around the mouth of the Bourne Stream in today's town centre the community of Pokesdown also continued to grow.

Bournemouth expanded its boundaries to take in neighbouring areas such as the fledgling Boscombe in 1876 and Westbourne in 1884 but Pokesdown, that had a chapel built in 1835, followed by a church, a couple of pubs, two blacksmiths, two schools, laundries and, in 1886 , a railway station, and who's population had grown from 171 in 1861, 867 in 1871 to almost 4500 in 1893, became an urban district that allowed it to govern itself on a local level but ultimately Pokesdown became part of the fast expanding Bournemouth in 1901.

Originally Pokesdown covered a larger area than it does today, reaching to the coast and a lot further into Boscombe. Twenty first century Pokesdown is a densely built up area with busy main roads and side streets clogged with parked cars, a problem that blights the modern world.

Stood outside Pokesdown Station with our back to the entrance i suppose we'd class Pokesdown as covering Christchurch Rd to the right towards Boscombe up to the junction with Parkwood Rd, Christchurch Rd to the left going over the railway bridge and along to the brow of what is called Pokesdown Hill that actually runs through an area that prefers to call itself Boscombe East on its way to Iford, and Seabourne Rd opposite until it meets Southbourne Grove.

The area boasts an interesting variety of architecture but has seen some buildings replaced by blocks of flats and tenement houses which is understandable if older properties, though full of character, don't meet the needs of modern society. It's a problem that needs to be managed carefully and is by no means one unique to Bournemouth and is being experienced across the country.

At the time of writing some traders and residents are involved in promoting Pokesdown as Bournemouth's 'vintage quarter'. a destination for independent shops as well as those offering a wider range of goods and services, in a bid to raise the area's profile.

The green on the corner of Christchurch Rd and Seabourne Rd next to the Seabournes Pub and directly opposite the railway station is being transformed with borders of flowers and an information board that highlights the area's history, with the aid of a £22,000 Lottery grant..

FURTHER READING.

www.pokesdown.org/history/PokesdownPast/04_Village_Starts...

Click on the 'history' tag to read J A Young's 'Pokesdown's Past'.

Pokesdown and Neighbourhood 1895 - 1910. A memoir by E G Wills A Bournemouth Local Studies Publication.

Review LG LED IPS Monitor 23MP65HQ (LG 23EA63V replaced) An Phat PC by dtien87 ductien daoductien - www.anphatpc.com.vn

Replaced all of the sound proofing under the cab

(radio broadcast from 312 & 313)

as for people we replace with Synths, those are only murderers of the innocent, harmful chem dealers, and people who beat those weaker than them. before this broadcast, I called down a Courser to eliminate a mother beating her daughter for "not helping fight the Deathclaws". Coursers are Terminators programmed for any task, but they are most efficient at removal of useless human garbage. the girl now has a loving mother, who is still human, but manufactured by us

Replaced my M-stem with a H-stem, Aberhallo stem adapter and straight handle bars (58 cm)

It is about 2cm lower now. Brake/shifter cables are not modified.

All Saints' Church is the Church of Ireland Parish Church of the Parish of Raheny, prominent on the Howth Road as it approaches the centre of Raheny, Dublin, Ireland. It lies in walled grounds with mature tree cover, just south of the village core, and is widely hailed as a fine architectural specimen.

All Saints' was built for the Church of Ireland Parish of Raheny, to replace the historic St. Assam's Church in the centre of Raheny village.

In 1881, Arthur Edward Guinness, Lord Ardilaun, who already held certain rights in the parish, notably the right of presentation of the rector, made a proposal to construct a new church, on a site he would provide at the village end of his St. Anne's Estate, and this was agreed by the parish in 1885. Lord Arthur's father had previously agreed with the Parish to build a new church, but the plans did not come to fruition.

The new church was sponsored (to the tune of 9,000 pounds in the 1880s) by Lord Ardilaun. The church was designed by George Ashlin and built almost entirely of Irish materials. The main contractors were Messrs Collen Brothers of Dublin and Portadown, who also carried out other work for Lord Ardilaun.

The building style is described as "early English", and it has a cruciform shape. The walls are of Wicklow granite, with limestone dressings, and there is a substantial belfry, with Cumberland slates, an octagonal spire and a weathervane. There is also a small crypt, where some of the Guinness family are buried.

The shape of the building was cut out at the Raheny end of the estate, with a curtilage provided, in 1885, and building commenced shortly thereafter, and the new All Saints' Church was completed around October 1889. The Service of Dedication of the church took place on December 16, 1889 but full consecration could not take place, as the freehold of the land was not available, being held by the Howth Estate. Lord Ardilaun committed to maintaining the building on two conditions, firstly that the rites of the church be standard, and second that both the new and old (St. Assam's) churches be well-maintained.

A new organ was provided for All Saints' after a new Rector was appointed in 1918, and in 1926, a one ton bell was given in memory of Lady Ardilaun by her nephew and principal heir, Bishop Benjamin Plunket, retired Bishop of Meath. In 1938, the Bishop began steps to transfer the church to the Representative Church Body on behalf of the parish, and this was effected on January 1, 1939, though in the absence of the freehold of the land, full consecration as parish church was still not possible. On All Saints' Day, 1939, the church's fiftieth anniversary was celebrated.

In 1945, an additional acre of ground near the church was purchased from Dublin Corporation. In 1960, the parish entered into a Union with the Parish of Coolock, which has its own historic church, St. John the Evangelist.

In 1969, the new Parochial Hall was dedicated as "Johnston Hall." At about the same time in 1969, the freehold of the land at All Saints was finally purchased from the Howth Estate, for 250 pounds, leaving the way open for full consecration.

The church was finally consecrated on December 16, 1989, after a memorial service on November 1.

Adjacent to All Saints' is the Johnson Hall, for community activities, a modern Rectory, replacing the original Rectory which stood on glebe lands across the Howth Road, and a well-preserved ornamented gate lodge, for the verger.

U2 front man Bono married Alison Hewson at the church on 21 August 1982, with Adam Clayton as best man.

Replacing wood framing

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 13-Jun-20.

Taken from the Pendleton bridge.

Fleet No: "5TA".

This aircraft was delivered to ILFC International Lease Finance Corporation and leased to TWA Trans World Airlines as N701TW in Jul-96. TWA was merged into American Airlines in Dec-01. The aircraft was returned to the lessor in Nov-06 and sold to L-3 Communications Advanced Aviation LLC in Jan-07. L-3 Communications specialise in electronic surveillance equipment (amongst other things!) and the aircraft was used as a flying testbed. It was retro fitted with blended winglets in 2007. The aircraft was transferred to the United States Air Force serialled 09-0016 in Mar-11 as an 'Elint' (Electronic Intelligence) aircraft. Current, updated (Jun-20).

Replacing an earlier scanned 6"x4" print with a better version 30-Dec-14, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 31-Mar-23.

This aircraft was delivered to Bavaria Fluggesellschaft as D-BIBI in May-64. It was sold back to Handley Page Aircraft as G-AVPN in Jun-67 and leased to Itavia as I-TIVB the following month. Itavia bought it in Jul-70.

It was sold to BIA British Island Airways as G-AVPN in Jul-73 and BIA was merged into AirUK in Jan-80. It was wet-leased to 'Skyguard' in Aug-85 and returned to AirUK in Sep-85. In Feb-86 the aircraft was sold to Nordic Oil Services and leased to Business Air Centre.

In Mar-86 it was sub-leased to Euroair Transport and returned to Business Air Centre in Sep-86. The aircraft was returned to Nordic Oil Services in Aug-87 and stored at Norwich, UK.

It was leased to British Air Ferries as a small package freighter in Nov-89 and then sold to Channel Express Air Services in Nov-91. It was sold to The Dart Group PLC (owners of Channel Express and later Jet2.com) in Feb-92 and leased back to Channel Express.

After 33 years in service the aircraft was permanently retired at Bournemouth, UK in Jul-97. It was donated to the Yorkshire Air Museum in Oct-97 and placed on display at Elvington, Yorkshire. I was advised in Apr-19 that over the intervening years the airfame had suffered from extensive corrosion and at that time only the nose section survived.

Replaced some more old parts with fresh new parts. Replaced the old distributor cap, distributor rotor and the cabling with fresh new ones :)

Car is smooth again, as it showed some jerkiness onder WOT.

Replacing rail ties and spikes. www.dailydieseldose.com for more!

Replaced componants.

Replace the blue parts.

Replacing an earlier scanned photo with a better version 09-Jun-22 (DeNoise AI).

Basic original Swissair livery with Swiss International Airlines titles.

First flown with the Airbus test registration D-AVZE, this aircraft was delivered to ILFC and leased to Swissair as HB-IOL in Dec-99. It was withdrawn from service in Nov-01 and stored at Zurich, Switzerland.

Swissair ceased operations at the end of Mar-02 and Crossair took over some European routes under the authority of the Swiss Government. Crossair was officially renamed Swiss International Airlines at the beginning of Jul-02.

The aircraft was stored at Amman, Jordan in Mar-20 due to the COVID-19 Pandemic and returned to service in May-21. It was stored at Amman again between Nov-21/Mar-22. Current, updated 09-Jun-22.

Oregon DOT. Crews use a helicopter with a long line to install a mesh to protect the highway from potential rockfall.

Photo: Oregon DOT- www.flickr.com/photos/oregondot/51875693366/

WashTec SoftCare Pro Classic in white/yellow "Shell Design" with red SofTecs brushes installed in 2016, replacing a WashTec SoftCare Pro

Video - youtu.be/7E3GGgg5hnw

• Operator •

Shell

• Supplier •

WashTec UK

• Address •

Shell Petrol Station

Hitchin Road

Luton

LU2 7UP

England

Car Wash replaced in 2026 with a brand new Karcher CW5

flic.kr/p/2rTECYQ

During 1916 the British born Australian architect Walter Richmond Butler (1864 – 1949) designed a new Anglican Mission to Seamen to be built on an oddly shaped triangular block of land at 717 Flinders Street on the outskirts of the Melbourne central city grid, to replace smaller premises located in adjoining Siddeley Street, which had been resumed by the Harbour Trust during wharf extensions.

The Missions to Seamen buildings, built on reinforced concrete footings, are in rendered brick with tiled roofs. Walter Butler designed the complex using an eclectic mixture of styles, one of which was the Spanish Mission Revival which had become a prevalent style on the west coast of America, especially in California and New Mexico during the 1890s. The style revived the architectural legacy of Spanish colonialism of the Eighteenth Century and the associated Franciscan missions. The revival of the style is explicit in the Mission’s small, yet charming chapel with its rough-hewn timber trusses, in the bell tower with its pinnacles and turret surmounted by a rustic cross and in the monastic-like courtyard, which today still provides a peaceful retreat from the noisy world just beyond the Missions to Seamen’s doorstep. The chapel also features many gifts donated by members of the Harbour Trust and Ladies’ Harbour Lights Guild, including an appropriately themed pulpit in the shape of a ship's prow and two sanctuary chairs decorated with carved Australian floral motifs. Some of the stained glass windows in the chapel depict stories and scenes associated with the sea intermixed with those Biblical scenes more commonly found in such places of worship.

The adjoining Mission to Seamen’s administration, residential and recreational building shows the influence of English domestic Arts and Crafts architecture, with its projecting gable, pepper pot chimneys and three adjoining oriel windows. The lobby, with its appropriately nautically inspired stained glass windows, features a large mariner's compass inlaid in the terrazzo floor. Built-in timber cupboards, wardrobes, paneling and studded doors throughout the buildings evoke a ship's cabin.

Walter Butler, architect to the Anglican Diocese in Melbourne, had come to Australia with an intimate knowledge and experience of the Arts and Crafts movement and continued to use the style in his residential designs of the 1920s. The main hall has a reinforced concrete vaulted ceiling. Lady Stanley, wife of the Mission's patron, Governor Sir Arthur Lyulph Stanley, laid the foundation stone of the complex in November 1916. The buildings were financed partly by a compensation payment from the Harbour Trust of £8,500.00 and £3,000.00 from local merchants and shipping firms. The Ladies' Harbour Lights Guild raised over £800.00 for the chapel. Most of the complex was completed by late 1917 whilst the Pantheon-like gymnasium with oculus was finished soon afterwards. The substantially intact interiors, including extensive use of wall paneling in Tasmanian hardwood, form an integral part of the overall design.

The Missions to Seamen buildings are architecturally significant as a milestone in the early introduction of the Spanish Mission style to Melbourne. The style was to later find widespread popularity in the suburbs of Melbourne. The choice of Spanish Mission directly refers to the Christian purpose of the complex. The Missions to Seamen buildings are unusual for combining two distinct architectural styles, for they also reflect the imitation of English domestic architecture, the Arts and Crafts movement. Walter Butler was one of the most prominent and progressive architects of the period and the complex is one of his most unusual and distinctive works.

The Missions to Seamen buildings have historical and social significance as tangible evidence of prevailing concerns for the religious, moral, and social welfare of seafarers throughout most of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. The complex has a long association with the Missions to Seamen, an organisation formed to look after the welfare of seafarers, both officers and sailors, men "of all nationalities". It had its origins in Bristol, England when a Seamen's Mission was formed in 1837. The first Australian branch was started in 1856 by the Reverend Kerr Johnston, a Church of England clergyman, and operated from a hulk moored in Hobsons Bay; later the Mission occupied buildings in Williamstown and Port Melbourne. In 1905 the Reverend Alfred Gurney Goldsmith arrived at the behest of the London Seamen's Mission to establish a city mission for sailors working on the river wharves and docks. The building reflects the diverse role played by the Mission with its chapel, hall and stage, billiards room, reading room, dining room, officers' and men’s quarters, chaplain's residence, and gymnasium. It is still in use to this day under the jurisdiction of a small, but passionate group of workers, providing a welcome place of refuge to seamen visiting the Port of Melbourne.

Walter Butler was considered an architect of great talent, and many of his clients were wealthy pastoralists and businessmen. His country-house designs are numerous and include “Blackwood” (1891) near Penshurst, for R. B. Ritchie, “Wangarella” (1894) near Deniliquin, New South Wales, for Thomas Millear, and “Newminster Park” (1901) near Camperdown, for A. S. Chirnside. Equally distinguished large houses were designed for the newly established Melbourne suburbs: “Warrawee” (1906) in Toorak, for A. Rutter Clark; “Thanes” (1907) in Kooyong, for F. Wallach; “Kamillaroi” (1907) for Baron Clive Baillieu, and extensions to “Edzell” (1917) for George Russell, both in St Georges Road, Toorak. These are all fine examples of picturesque gabled houses in the domestic Queen Anne Revival genre. Walter Butler was also involved with domestic designs using a modified classical vocabulary, as in his remodelling of “Billilla” (1905) in Brighton, for W. Weatherley, which incorporates panels of flat-leafed foliage. Walter Butler also regarded himself as a garden architect.

As architect to the diocese of Melbourne from 1895, he designed the extensions to “Bishopscourt” (1902) in East Melbourne. His other church work includes St Albans (1899) in Armadale, the Wangaratta Cathedral (1907), and the colourful porch and tower to Christ Church (c.1910) in Benalla. For the Union Bank of Australia he designed many branch banks and was also associated with several tall city buildings in the heart of Melbourne’s central business district such as Collins House (1910) and the exceptionally fine Queensland Insurance Building (1911). For Dame Nellie Melba Butler designed the Italianate lodge and gatehouse at “Coombe Cottage” (1925) at Coldstream.

Birmingham Oratory seen from Beaufort Road.

It's founder is now Saint John Henry Newman.

The Birmingham Oratory is an English Catholic religious community of the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri, located in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham. The community was founded in 1849 by the Blessed John Henry Newman, Cong.Orat., the first house of that congregation in England.

Part of the complex of the Oratory is the Parish Church of the Immaculate Conception, commonly referred to as the Oratory Church. It now also serves as the national shrine to Newman.

The current church was constructed between 1907 and 1910 in the Baroque style to replace the original structure as a memorial to Newman. It was designed by the architect Edward Doran Webb. It is familiarly called the Little Rome in Birmingham.

Prior to a final determination regarding the beatification of Newman, the Holy See gave instructions that his remains were to be transferred from the Oratorian cemetery in the West Midlands to the Oratory Church. A marble tomb was built for this but not installed in the church. When church and civil authorities opened the grave in October 2008, however, they found no human remains from his grave.

The Grade II* listed church continues to serve the Congregation of the Oratory there. Elsewhere in England, there are also communities of the Congregation at the Brompton Oratory in London and the Oxford Oratory.

In February 2012, the church suffered the theft of a large metal cross from its roof. The loss was valued at £30,000.

Grade II* Listed Building

The Church of the Immaculate Conception (The Oratory), the Oratory Priests' House and the Former Oratory School Buildings

Summary

A Roman Catholic, Oratory church, designed by E Doran Webb and built between 1903-1909, incorporating earlier work by John Hungerford Pollen of 1858, Henry Clutton of 1872-3, and an addition by G B Cox in 1927, together with the accompanying presbytery building, designed by Terence Flanagan in 1851 and the former Oratory School buildings designed by Henry Clutton in 1861-2 and 1872-3.

Description

ORATORY CHURCH

A Roman Catholic, Oratory church, designed by E Doran Webb from 1903-1909 and incorporating earlier work by John Hungerford Pollen of 1858, Henry Clutton of 1872-3, and an addition by G B Cox in 1927.

MATERIALS: the building is of limestone ashlar with a lead roof and internally clad with a rich variety of marble veneers, inlays and mosaic work. The Tunnel vault over the nave is of chestnut which was painted in 1959.

PLAN: the building is oriented north-south, with the northern end representing the ritual eastern end. Ritual compass directions are used throughout this description. The basilican plan has a nave flanked by aisles. At either side of the nave alternating bays contain either a side chapel or a confessional, placed against the outer walls of the side aisles. The sanctuary has an apsidal end and there are transepts to each side whose outer walls are flush with those of the nave aisles. Above the crossing is a dome, and clerestory lighting is by large lights which pierce the sides of the tunnel vault. Further side chapels are placed at either side of the sanctuary. The organ gallery and loft are positioned in the south transept, above the altar of the Sacred Heart. The earlier St Philip’s Chapel (now dedicated to the Blessed John Newman) is attached to the south side of the south transept. The gallery at the western end of the nave is placed over bays of the earlier school cloister. The Oratory House lies to the south and is connected to the church through the Sacristy.

EXTERIOR: the west end of the church is fronted by the cloister garth of the former Oratory School. The façade is of three bays, divided by Composite pilasters with paired pilasters to the corners. At ground floor level it has three openings which front bays of the cloister. The central, taller, opening has a moulded, lugged surround above which is a pulvinated frieze and a broken, segmental pediment with figures of angels at either side, carved in relief and supporting an escutcheon with a coat of arms and a cardinal’s hat. At either side are portals with Gibbs surrounds and prominent triple keystones set against pulvinated friezes. At gallery level is a single, central light with segmental top, flanked by corbel brackets. The top of the wall has an entablature with pulvinated frieze and a triangular pediment.

The north flank of the nave has seven bays. The division of the bays is unmarked at ground-floor level, but buttresses with concave tops appear between the clerestory bays. At the top of the aisle walls is a balustrade with vase-shaped balusters and square piers. A similar balustrade is placed above the clerestory, along the skyline, and encircles the building above a full entablature with pulvinated frieze. The narrow nave windows which light the alternate bays housing confessionals have moulded surrounds and the larger clerestory windows have pilasters at either side and pedimental tops. The transept at left is blank, save for a niche with an arched head containing a statue of Philip Neri. The left corner has an octagonal staircase turret with a pepper-pot top. In the re-entrant angle between the eastern flank of the north transept and the chancel is the later Shrine of St Philip. This has walls clad with faience tiles, channelled rustication, canted corners and a stone surround to the half-glazed double doors at the centre of its north front. There is a dentilled cornice to the top of the wall. Above this is the drum of the dome, with pilasters placed between the segment-headed windows. Above the entablature the ribbed copper dome has a cross finial.

The chancel has a single window to the upper wall at left, but is otherwise blind, with square buttresses rising for the full height of the wall and continuing the cornice.

The south flank is largely masked by the Oratory House building, the Sacristy and Pollen’s Chapel of St Philip (now the Blessed John Newman), which are all characterised by red brick walling. The chapel has an apsidal end with three arched windows and above this the library has sash windows, all with stone surrounds. The eastern end of the south transept has an octagonal staircase turret, similar to that seen on the north side. In the re-entrant angle with the chancel is the lower Chapel of St Charles, which has three windows to its south flank. Above it both the transept and chancel have windows with moulded, pedimental surrounds.

The dome has four windows to its drum with moulded surrounds and floating pediments. Each window is flanked by three pairs of engaged Tuscan columns. There are four piers with arched niches, which were intended to be filled with carvings of the Evangelists, but this work was not carried out and the attached blocks project from the walls. Above the entablature is a parapet with balustrade panels and the ribbed dome, with its copper sheathing, rises above that to the stone lantern, which has arched lights and small, engaged columns. The domed top culminates in a ball and gilded cross.

INTERIOR: the nave has mosaic flooring laid in overlapping fan-shaped patterns. The aisle arcades have monolithic, unfluted columns of Breccia marble with bases of green Swedish marble and Composite capitals. These support a full entablature with plain frieze, from which springs the painted timber barrel vault.

The walls of the sanctuary are covered with panels of red African onyx with borders of yellow Siena marble. The altar stands forward from the rear wall on a stepped platform. It was designed by Dunstan Powell in 1899 for the old church. The tabernacle is circular with a domed roof which has enamel inlay. The frontal is of green Connemara marble with lapis lazuli plaques around the edges. Above the altar is a suspended baldacchino of gilded and painted wood. The ceiling of the apse has mosaic decoration representing the Coronation of the Virgin flanked by St John the Baptist and St John the Evangelist. Fixed to the side walls are choir stalls of Italian walnut, with tall backs, divided by panelled Corinthian pilasters and with a frieze of swags and ribbons to the top.

The pendentives at the crossing, below the dome, have mosaics representing the Prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. Later decoration around the drum represents the Evangelists and major saints. The choir gallery is supported by a double colonnade supporting round arches. The grille to the front of the gallery is elaborately carved and gilded, as is the organ case above, both designed by Ernesto Sensi. At ground level, the altar of the Sacred Heart lies behind the double colonnade and was designed by John Pollen for the earlier church on this site. Against the northern wall of the north transept is Our Lady’s altar. The altar and altar rails were brought from the Church of S Andrea della Valle in Rome in 1911. The altar is flanked by columns of Siberian onyx, originally intended for Westminster Cathedral, which now support gilded statues of kneeling angels. The Shrine of St Philip Neri leads off from the east side of the transept. Its richly decorated interior has walls veneered in Siena marble and monolithic columns of red Languedoc marble to the corners. The Cosmatesque floor has a variety of inlayed patterns. The marble altar contains a wax effigy of the saint and the altar piece (after Guido Reni) has an elaborate gilded frame. To the south wall is a reliquary chest with relics and souvenirs of the saint given to Newman in Rome in 1846-7.

The series of side chapels off the nave all take the form of an apsidal niche with mosaic semi-dome and are richly decorated with panels of different marble veneers. Fixed altars have mosaic or marble fronts or, in the case of the chapel of St Athanasius, a glass panel revealing the decorated coffin of St Valentine. Confessionals are set in alternate bays which each have a stone screen, formed of a round arched central portal, flanked by two flat-headed entrances. Above this is a central stone sculpture niche, with carved consoles to its sides, flanked by a wrought metal screen. The wooden confessionals are set behind the stone screens, at the back of each side bay.

The baptistery is set in the western-most side bay of the north aisle. It was designed by Dunstan Powell and opened in 1912. It has a decorated metal barrier and richly-moulded plaster walls with swags and putti in high relief above ebony panelling. The bowl is of alabaster and the bronze cover (Hardman), which swings to one side, has a figure of St John the Baptist as finial.

The earlier side chapel, approached from the south transept and designed by JH Pollen in 1858, has an altarpiece of Chellaston alabaster designed by Giles Gilbert Scott in 1880.

ORATORY PRIESTS' HOUSE

A presbytery for Fathers of the Oratory, designed by Terence Flanagan in 1851 in an Italian Renaissance style.

MATERIALS & PLAN: the house is of red brick laid in Flemish bond, with ashlar dressings and a hipped, slate roof. It has three floors and a T-shaped arrangement of corridors on each floor, off which are individual rooms.

EXTERIOR: the southern front, facing Hagley Road, has five bays, symmetrically disposed. There are stone quoins at the corners and stone string courses between the floors, that between the ground and first floors having Vitruvian scroll ornament. A sill band also runs across the façade at first floor level. There are sash windows of twelve panes at ground and first floor levels, and six panes to the attic. Window surrounds are aedicular with lugs and panelled cornice heads at ground floor level. The central doorway has a similarly-moulded surround, above which is a square panel with a broken, segmental pediment, flanked by scrolls. The first floor windows are plainer with brackets below their sills, save for the central opening, which has a lugged surround with panelled cornice, as before, and scrolls to its side. The central, second-floor window has a lugged and shouldered surround. To the top of the wall is a dentilled cornice and the ridge carries four chimneys to full height.

The east front has two bays at left which continue the pattern of the street front. Recessed at right is a lower, two-storey range of four bays which have plainer window surrounds and a string course between the floors. At right again and projecting are five bays to the original height and pattern.

The north front has two widely-spaced bays at left, of the established pattern, with a C20 addition at ground floor level housing the kitchen. To right of this is a projecting single bay with Venetian window to the ground floor and at right again is the curved wall which marks the apsidal end of the chapel of St Philip Neri at ground floor level (now dedicated to the Blessed John Newman), added to the earlier church by Pollen in 1858. This has three arched lights at lower level, above which is the library of the Oratory House, with two blind windows with rectangular heads. Above the parapet and recessed is the curved timber and glass lantern which lights the library.

Chimneys across the building are to their original height and take the form of two square stacks joined by an arch.

INTERIOR: the entrance lobby is flanked by parlours with cornices. A central corridor runs north-south on all floors and a stone staircase with rectangular well is placed at the southern end. This has two metal balusters per tread and a mahogany handrail. The recreation room has an ante-room, divided from the main room by an arch, cornicing and a black marble fire surround. The dining room has wooden panelling, divided by pilasters with applied paterae and plaster anthemia to the top. There is an arched stove recess in the centre of the northern wall and a revolving cupboard by which food could be served to the fathers. In the north-east corner is a pulpit with panelled sides, tester and steps. At first floor level is a Chapter room with fitted platform, benches, cupboards and desk. Individual rooms at first floor level have an outer baize door, to denote private study, as well as an inner door. The study of Blessed John Newman is preserved as it was at his death, with bookcases, an altar and suspended baldacchino. The House library is at second floor level and has fitted bookcases to the walls and a cast iron gallery approached by a spiral staircase. Its deeply coved ceiling rises to the central timber and glass lantern.

ORATORY SCHOOL

A range of former school buildings, now part of the Oratory complex. The School Hall range facing the street was designed by Henry Clutton in 1861-2 and the cloister range, to the north, was designed in 1872-3.

MATERIALS & PLAN: red brick walling laid in English bond, with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. The building has two storeys and is arranged around a rectangular cloister at the southern (ritual western) end of the Oratory church.

EXTERIOR: the southern front faces Hagley Road and abuts the earlier Oratory Priests' House to its right, which is slightly set back. The street frontage has blind brick walling at ground floor left, with a deep, flush stone band at the level of the springing of the round-arched portal at far right. This has a wrought-iron screen with a central gate and repoussé panels and leads through to the cloister behind this range. At first floor level are six windows with arched heads and pilasters at either side, supported by brackets. Flush stone bands run below the sills and at the level of the springing of the arches. The spandrel between the two central windows carries a circular, metal clock face. To the top of the wall is a cornice with brackets and above is a blocking course, sheathed with lead.

The short east flank is blind and abuts the Oratory Priests' House.

The west flank has two bays with first floor windows as before and two arched ground floor lights with prominent keystones. Projecting at left of this is a similar, single bay which appears to be part of an incomplete extension. A C20 extension in plum brick extends to the north of this.

The cloisters have brick vaults with stone dressings to the passage beneath the roadside range and to the northern side which abuts the ritual west front of the church. The east and west sides have beamed ceilings and the south side has deep stone brackets extending from square piers to support a first floor corridor. The east and west ranges and the northern range at either side of the church façade, which runs in front of part of the cloister, have short columns on high, tapered bases with Italian Romanesque capitals. First floor windows above the east and west cloister are arched lights or square-headed lancets.

INTERIOR: the ground floor former gymnasium (now the parish room) has transverse iron H-beams, from which hooks are suspended for gym equipment. A central row of iron columns supports the ceiling. A dog-leg staircase with stone treads leads to the generous first floor landing. The former school room has encased, transverse beams to the ceiling and arched sash windows to the north, south and west sides with a raised platform at the east end. The first floor Chapel has a canted north (ritual east) end, circular windows to the sides and a rectangular skylight.

Persuant to s1 (5) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the angled lift extension to the west of the School buildings and the triangular, single-storey kitchen block to the north of the Oratory Priests' House are not of special architectural or historic interest.

History

The congregation of the Oratory was founded in Rome in around 1552 by Philip Neri. His system of devotion was dependant on private and public prayer and contemplation, mixed with practical acts of charity. He attracted a group of disciples and their meetings, which included music and sermons, were moved to an ‘oratory’ or place of prayer. His group continued to grow and was granted the Church of S Maria in Valicella, which it rebuilt as the ‘Chiesa Nuova’, in which St Philip Neri is buried. The order spread widely in the C17 and C18, but contracted following the French Revolution and during the Italian Risorgimento. It was revived, especially in England, by John Newman, who had been an Anglican clergyman, but converted to Catholicism in 1845 and was then ordained priest in Rome in 1847. He founded the first Oratorian congregation in Birmingham in 1848, followed the following year by a second house in London. The first Birmingham community was based at Maryvale and then moved to a former gin distillery in Digbeth, where the community worked with the poor. Pope Pius IX had charged Newman with converting the educated classes, as well as the poor, and for this reason he moved the community to Edgbaston in 1852. The present House was built in that year, together with a temporary church. In 1859 he founded the Oratory School, a boarding school which was intended to be run on different lines to the Benedictine abbey schools which had previously dominated Catholic education in England. The school hall, which fronts Hagley Road, was designed by Henry Clutton in 1861-2 with a cloister range behind of 1872-3. All three buildings exist on the same site and physically overlap. Newman continued to live in the Oratory House as one of the community, even after his appointment as Cardinal in 1879, up until his death in 1890. In September 2010 Newman was beatified.

The church that John Newman had built in 1853 was designed by Terence Flanagan, who had also built the Oratory Priests' House. Despite ambitious designs by Louis Joseph Duc, also of 1853, and H R Yeoville Thomason, of 1860 (both in a Lombard Romanesque style), the initial construction was architecturally modest, and the roof timbers were salvaged from an abandoned factory. To this John Hungerford Pollen added an aisle with a round-arched arcade and an apse and transepts in 1858, but the essential form of the Flanagan church survived until after Newman’s death. In the following years it was decided to build a new church as a fitting tribute to the Cardinal and his work. The foundation stone of the new church, designed by E Doran Webb, was laid in 1903 and it was officially opened six years later. At its southern (ritual west) end it incorporates cloister bays of the former Oratory School, designed by Henry Clutton, of 1872-3, as well as the chapel of St Philip Neri (now dedicated to Cardinal Newman) designed by Pollen and built in 1858. The Shrine of St Philip Neri was designed by G B Cox and added to the north-west corner of the church (ritual north-east) in 1927.

Following the removal of the Oratory School to a site in Berkshire the school at Edgbaston was renamed St Philip's Grammar School. This has closed on the present site and the C19 buildings are now used as parish rooms.

Cardinal John Newman was beatified in September 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI during his visit to Birmingham.

Reasons for Listing

The Church of the Immaculate Conception (Birmingham Oratory), The Oratory Priests' House and The Oratory School Buildings are listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

* Architectural quality and fittings: the group of three, inter-related Oratory buildings – church, school and priests’ house – have considerable design quality and form a unified whole; the design and craftsmanship of the fittings of the church are of very high quality;

* Survival of the original plan: the church, priests’ house and school are all very largely as they were originally completed and although the function of the school buildings has changed, its appearance is little altered;

* Interrelated grouping: the three parts of the group show the religious mission of the Congregation of the Oratory as interpreted by John Newman with a central church, its attendant priesthood and school.

Map Number 2026-045, Replaces Map Number 2024-125

***

For directions on how to view download a map, office contact information, and answers to other questions, please click here.

I have to feather back the paint edges, apply some primer , then color and blend in the clear coats. There will be some baking and sanding mixed in there also.

"Notre-Dame de Reims" replaced an older church, burnt down in 1211. That church had been built on the site of the basilica where Clovis was baptized by Saint Remi, bishop of Reims, in 496. The erection of the the large Gotihc cathedral, the place,where the kings of France were crowned, started before 1220. In 1233 a dispute between the cathedral´s chapter and the population regarding taxation and jurisdication ended in a revolt. After several clerics were killed during the uproar, the chapter fled the town and work on the new cathedral was suspended for three years. By 1241 the choir was already used, the nave got roofed in 1299.

Work on the western facade was slow. It was completed within the 14th century, a hundred years after the work started.

During the Hundred Years' War the English held Reims after a long siege, but it got reconquered by Jeanne d'Arc´s army in 1429, so that Charles VII of France (aka "le Bien-Servi") was crowned here on 17 July 1429.

In the first weeks of WWI German shellfire burned, damaged and destroyed important parts of the cathedral. Restoration work began in 1919 - and is been steadily going on since.

Standing near the choir´s altar, facing west. The distance from the choir to large rose window is more than 130m.

Native copper-replaced cross-bedded sedimentary rocks from the Precambrian of Michigan, USA. (CMNH 20309, Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Cleveland, Ohio, USA)

A mineral is a naturally-occurring, solid, inorganic, crystalline substance having a fairly definite chemical composition and having fairly definite physical properties. At its simplest, a mineral is a naturally-occurring solid chemical. Currently, there are over 5500 named and described minerals - about 200 of them are common and about 20 of them are very common. Mineral classification is based on anion chemistry. Major categories of minerals are: elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, phosphates, and silicates.

Elements are fundamental substances of matter - matter that is composed of the same types of atoms. At present, 118 elements are known. Of these, 98 occur naturally on Earth (hydrogen to californium). Most of these occur in rocks & minerals, although some occur in very small, trace amounts. Only some elements occur in their native elemental state as minerals.

To find a native element in nature, it must be relatively non-reactive and there must be some concentration process. Metallic, semimetallic (metalloid), and nonmetallic elements are known in their native state as minerals.

Copper is the only metallic element that has a "reddish" color - it’s actually a metallic orange color. Most metallic elements, apart from gold & copper, are silvery-gray colored. Copper tends to form sharp-edged, irregular, twisted masses of moderately high density. It is moderately soft, but is extremely difficult to break. It has no cleavage and has a distinctive hackly fracture.

The unbelievable copper specimen shown above comes from northern Michigan's White Pine Mine, which is developed in the Precambrian-aged Nonesuch Shale (~1.07 to 1.08 Ga). At this mine, native copper is usually encountered filling fractures (joints). This large, 70-pound specimen represents actual sedimentary rock that has been replaced by native copper. The irregular layers are crossbeds, which formed as the original sediments were deposited by a one-directional current. The small black-colored patches are bits of the unaltered sedimentary host rock. White Pine Mine copper mineralization occurred at 1.05 to 1.06 billion years ago.

Stratigraphy: lower Nonesuch Shale (near the contact with the Copper Harbor Conglomerate), late Mesoproterozoic, ~1.07-1.08 Ga

Locality: near the southwestern shaft at the 2500 foot level, White Pine Mine, Upper Peninsula of Michigan, USA

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

Photo gallery of copper:

www.mindat.org/gallery.php?min=1209

This structure replaced one just like it to make room for an industrial park, with pole preservative being the only difference when this was installed.

The original (from the previous 1960's construction) brown-glaze insulator chains are intact. The anti-sway polymer brackets look like they were added more recently.

One of the poles of the tower was marked as an LHB 1986 75' Class 2 DF-MP.

August 2006: Berlin / Potsdamer Platz - DRI

i replaced the original photo with this suggested cropped version.

look here for the original.

We had a weekend in Borrowdale recently, a Christmas present that we tagged a day on to. After calling at work on Saturday morning to open for business we headed up the motorway to Penrith. The road through the central lakes was washed away in the recent floods and it is going to be a long job replacing it. This made the diverted journey around 145 miles but we had a good run up there. We wanted to get walking ASAP so we pulled in at Threlkeld with a view to heading up Clough Head, and subject to conditions, head over the Dodds and back by the Old Coach Road. We had left appalling weather at home, wind, rain, fog and sleet on the tops. Thankfully it was better further north. There was laying snow on the summits, it was fairly calm low down and some summits were cloud free.

We left the car at 11.10 in our winter gear, straight up through the quarries and the steep scree slope (another Red Screes), by now we were into the snow line. The cloud was down, the wind gale force and the summit frozen hard – a different world up here. South next to Calfhow Pike, the wind made it difficult to talk and it was around -4 so the there was a fair wind-chill factor. It was tough going to our next top – Great Dodd, part of the Helvellyn massif – It was to icy to walk in places which meant deviating from the path, and losing our bearings, visibility was around ten yards with spindrift creating a whiteout at times. We battled on to the top and found the summit cairn. Great Dodd isn’t the easiest top to find your way off in low visibility, we would have gone further but in these conditions it was pointless so we retraced our steps to Calfhow and clear conditions. From here we followed Mosedale beck to Mariel Bridge, which is on the Old Coach Road, this gave us a circular route back to our start. The Old Coach Road has been wrecked by the floods and the 4x4 off roaders are making it a lot worse. 9.25 miles in 3 ¼ hours and we were in Brysons Tearooms in Keswick for Coffee and cake by 3.45pm. We carried on to Borrowdale and checked in at our hotel, not a bad day really.

After a poor night in a poor bed we were breakfasted and out for 8.30. We drove the few miles up to Seatoller and we were kitted up and away at 9.10. A bitterly cold and icy morning, there was some sun but not as much as promised. We could see the summit of Great End covered in cloud, we were heading up there on to the Sca Fell massif. We followed the valley to the east of Seathwaite Fell, a new path for us. Once in the snow the going was very icy with the path ice covered in places. The snow was dry and powdery and in places it had blown over the underlying ice. At this point I might add, we do own crampons. After a winter of splashing around soaked we didn’t expect to need them and they were at home – very clever! This was our first real winters day this winter, other than an hour on Sca Fell Pike on Christmas Day, we haven’t seen winter conditions this winter. By the time we got to Esk Hause it was difficult to stay upright and on our way to Great End we had to pick our way very carefully around the worst of the ice. The spindrift made it difficult to see the ground at times, spinning around our feet in a mist. Once on the summit the cloud was thick and the wind speed high. We had been here fairly recently so I knew the layout of the summit and we had little difficulty finding the summit cairn. We were cursing our lack of crampons and the cloud. Instead of heading into the cloud along the Sca Fell Pike path we decided to get under the cloud, back to Esk Hause and head over Allen Crags and Glaramara. At this point we both took some heavy falls, as did others up there, a lot turned around and headed back down, it was deadly. The cloud had thickened, there wasn’t a ray of sun to soften things. Our chosen route was one of the hardest afternoons we had ever had. Everywhere was frozen solid, we had to kick toe or heel holes to move on slopes that we wouldn’t have broken stride on normally. Minor rock scrambles down steep crags had become life threatening in places and we proceeded with extreme care. The knees were creaking on the long descent to Seathwaite. 10.3 miles in six hours, almost half the speed of yesterday. We made it Keswick for afternoon tea – and bought some Micro Spikes for unfinished business to deal with tomorrow. A beautiful day was forecast so fingers crossed we headed back for a soak in the tub.

Day three, a gorgeous icy, sunny winters day. Things looked promising. We left along yesterday’s route at the same start time – with walking poles and Micro Spikes! At the top of the valley we met a guy who had set off before us, two guys known to him were picking their way through the crags, tiny specks on the 800 foot rocky crag. Some appeared to have tried to climb the snow filled chimney that runs to the summit but we heard later that conditions weren’t suitable. Even though it was minus four the sun had softened the snow just enough to get a grip and it was easier to avoid the worst of the ice, unlike yesterday. The summit of Great End was incredible with never ending vistas. We could see a steady stream of walkers on every path by now. Word had got out that we were in for a rare treat today, plus it was school half term so a lot of people were off work. I visited every possible viewpoint as we went to the summit of Ill Crag , Broad Crag and finally Sca Fell Pike. It was 1.00 PM by now and a steady stream of elated walkers were arriving on England’s highest point. It was bitter but beautiful. We had around five miles back to the car along the Corridor Route to Styhead, Stockley Bridge and Seathwaite. Part of this route we had covered recently on Christmas Day and despite the snow and ice we powered along. We would have been back in two hours but! A mile from the car, following the manmade path down Taylorgill Force to Stockley Bridge Jayne Stumbled. It’s not often she walks in front. I normally lead and relay instructions and warnings back to her. She hit the rock path with her head and face really hard, stunned, she rolled off the path over a drop. She was vertical, resting on a rock on her knees and clinging on to the edge of the path with her fingertips. I grabbed her rucksack and held her whilst I checked her injuries. She had a bad bump on her temple, another on her forehead, split the bridge or her nose, her glasses had gone flying but would straighten. Being left handed she had stuck her left hand out and it had been bent back, it was swelling and discolouring pretty fast. When I had established that nothing was serious enough to stop her moving I got her back on to the path to see to her injuries. The pain initially made her think that she was in a worse state than ( I thought) she really was. She could move her fingers and wrist, albeit with some pain but not enough for it to be broken. The wound to the bridge of her nose although very painful wasn’t going to be a problem. The bumps on her head were turning into eggs by now. I gave her Ibuprofen and Paracetemol and she sat and composed herself for the final mile. We made it to the café in Keswick and got a slightly later afternoon break, our first of the day again. 11.3 miles today in 6 ¼ hours and fairly tough going. It was nothing more than a careless, tired perhaps, stumble on one of the horrible ( our own opinion, I might add) manmade paths made out of irregular stones which are laid at odd angles and are a nightmare to descend when wet on tired legs. A few days later and Jayne is sat on reception at the doctors looking like she’s been boxing, with a purple eye and nose, her left hand swollen and purple – otherwise she’s OK. I came down with mild food poisoning during the night and had to drive 145 miles home at 8.00 the morning after feeling extremely ill. I was due to start fasting for a Colonoscopy in three days. I ended up eating six slices of toast over a four day period – Monday evening to Thursday evening- Having had over 40 stomach endoscopies in twenty years the colonoscopy was nothing more than uncomfortable and , subject to biopsy results, everything looked OK. The trapped wind was another matter – for two days! All in all a very traumatic week. Needless to say we didn’t use the Micro Spikes.

Replacing a concrete structure built in the 1930's in Highland NY...this one opened about 2010.

Replaces Thomas TL960 from Veolia fleet

The F-105 Thunderchief, which would become a legend in the history of the Vietnam War, started out very modestly as a proposal for a large, supersonic replacement for the RF-84F Thunderflash tactical reconnaissance fighter in 1951. Later this was expanded by Republic’s famous chief designer, Alexander Kartveli, to a nuclear-capable, high-speed, low-altitude penetration tactical fighter-bomber which could also replace the F-84 Thunderstreak.

The USAF liked the idea, as the F-84 had shown itself to be at a disadvantage against Chinese and Soviet-flown MiG-15s over Korea, and ordered 200 of the new design before it was even finalized. This order was reduced to only 37 aircraft with the end of the Korean War, but nonetheless the first YF-105A Thunderchief flew in October 1955. Although it was equipped with an interim J57 engine and had drag problems, it still achieved supersonic speed. When the design was further refined as the YF-105B, with the J75 engine and area ruling, it went over Mach 2. This was in spite of the fact that the design had mushroomed in size from Kartveli’s initial idea to one of the largest and heaviest fighter ever to serve with the USAF: fully loaded, the F-105 was heavier than a B-17 bomber. The USAF ordered 1800 F-105s, though this would be reduced to 830 examples.

Almost immediately, the F-105 began to be plagued with problems. Some of the trouble could be traced to the normal teething problems of any new aircraft, but for awhile it seemed the Thunderchief was too hot to handle, with a catastrophically high accident rate. This led to the aircraft getting the nickname of “Thud,” supposedly for the sound it made when hitting the ground, along with other not-so-affectionate monikers such as “Ultra Hog” and “Squat Bomber.” Despite its immense size and bad reputation, however, the F-105 was superb at high speeds, especially at low level, was difficult to stall, and its cockpit was commended for its ergonomic layout. Earlier “narrow-nose” F-105Bs were replaced by wider-nosed, radar-equipped F-105Ds, the mainline version of the Thunderchief, while two-seat F-105Fs were built as conversion trainers.

Had it not been for the Vietnam War, however, the F-105 might have gone down in history as simply another mildly successful 1950s era design. Deployed to Vietnam at the beginning of the American involvement there in 1964, the Thunderchief was soon heading to North Vietnam to attack targets there in the opening rounds of Operation Rolling Thunder; this was in spite of the fact that the F-105 was designed primarily as a low-level (and, as its pilots insisted, one-way) tactical nuclear bomber. Instead, F-105s were heading north festooned with conventional bombs.

As Rolling Thunder gradually expanded to all of North Vietnam, now-camouflaged Thuds “going Downtown” became iconic, fighting their way through the densest concentration of antiaircraft fire in history, along with SAMs and MiG fighters. The F-105 now gained a reputation for something else: toughness, a Republic hallmark. Nor were they defenseless: unlike the USAF’s primary fighter, the F-4 Phantom II, the F-105 retained an internal 20mm gatling cannon, and MiG-17s which engaged F-105s was far from a foregone conclusion, as 27 MiGs were shot down by F-105s for the loss of about 20. If nothing else, Thud pilots no longer burdened with bombs could simply elect to head home at Mach 2 and two thousand feet, outdistancing any MiG defenders.

If the Thud had any weakness, it was its hydraulic system, which was found to be extremely vulnerable to damage. However, it was likely more due to poor tactics and the restrictive Rules of Engagement, which sent F-105s into battle on predictable routes, unable to return fire on SAM sites until missiles were launched at them, and their F-4 escorts hamstrung by being forced to wait until MiGs were on attack runs before the MiGs could be engaged. The tropical climate also took a toll on man and machine, with the end result that 382 F-105s were lost over Vietnam, nearly half of all Thuds ever produced and the highest loss rate of any USAF aircraft.

The combination of a high loss rate and the fact that the F-105 really was not designed to be used in the fashion it was over Vietnam led to the type’s gradual withdrawal after 1968 in favor of more F-4s and a USAF version of the USN’s A-7 Corsair II. An improved all-weather bombing system, Thunderstick II, was given to a few of the F-105D survivors, but this was not used operationally.

The Thud soldiered on another decade in Air National Guard and Reserve units until February 1984, when the type was finally retired in favor of the F-16, and its spiritual successor, the A-10 Thunderbolt II.

59-1743 went through many names in its USAF service. Delivered in 1960 to the 4520th Combat Crew Training Wing at Nellis AFB, Nevada, it trained new F-105 pilots. With the attrition of single-seat Thuds in Vietnam, 1743 was transferred to the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing at Korat RTAFB, Thailand. Several pilots flew 1743, but the most famous was Colonel Paul Douglas, who commanded the 388th TFW in 1968. Though 1743 had carried the name "Darn Dago," Douglas renamed it "Arkansas Traveler" after the P-47 Thunderbolt he had flown during World War II. Since Douglas had scored eight aerial victories during the war, he applied those to his F-105 and flew with them in combat over North Vietnam.

Later, after a stint with the Takhli-based 355th TFW (during which 1743 was renamed "Lead Zeppelin"), the aircraft returned home. It was passed to the 192nd TFG (Virginia ANG) at Richmond, where it was renamed for the fourth and last time, as "Hanoi Express." Because of its history, 1743 was spared from the scrapyard when it was retired in 1981, and donated to the Hill AFB Museum in Utah. It was restored back to its Vietnam appearance and went on display in 1987.

When I saw "Arkansas Traveler" in 1996, it was starting to look a bit faded after a decade outdoors in Utah. Still, it showed off the majesty of the F-105 design, and the friend I was traveling with said seeing it was the highlight of the trip. Though the picture quality is poor (it was taken with a disposable camera and the original photo sat in a box for years), it shows the standard USAF Southeast Asia camouflage 59-1743 wore in combat, as well as Douglas' eight World War II kills below the cockpit, represented by German swastikas. 1743 has since been moved inside.

replacing a shitty sensor D600 after 3 years suffering

Replaced hood form Ex CACS bus 6 (2008 CE)

Replacing an earlier digital photo with a better version 23-Oct-19, plus Topaz DeNoise AI 30-Jan-24.

Landing on the far runway with quite a bit of heat shimmer!

A purpose built freighter, this aircraft was first flown in Feb-99 with the McDonnell Douglas test registration N9030Q.

It was stored at Kingman, AZ, USA after it's 1st flight and returned to Longbeach, CA, USA prior to delivery to EVA Air Cargo as B-16113 in Aug-99.

After only 16 years in service the aircraft was permanently retired at San Bernardino, CA, USA in Mar-15. It was last noted still at San Bernardino in Oct-16.