View allAll Photos Tagged streamlined
The sleek, streamlined A-ROSA ships are elegantly designed to ply some of the world's most historic and storied rivers, offering travellers an informed, intimate experience of Europe's most beautiful riverside cities, villages and landscapes
To all who visit and view, and – especially – express support and satisfaction: you are much appreciated!
Es dürfen innerhalb des entsprechenden Streckenabschnitts nur solche Fahrzeuge ihre Fahrt fortsetzen, die mit einer Sprechfunkanlage ausgerüstet sind, dies wird von der Wasserschutzpolizei überwacht
__________________________________________________
Rhine River – Album Description – Mainz, Germany – 2017DEC31:
I was super thrilled to get a river view room!
The Rhine glistened New Year’s Eve, day/night, 6 floors below.
I saw two events from my window, a River Plunge & fireworks!
My photo favorites: cruise boats docking/leaving, & solar halo.
The best of 1121 photos on this layover are in an 8-album set:
• Mainz, Germany – 2017DEC31 – Rhine River
• Mainz, Germany – 2017DEC31 – River Plunge
• Mainz, Germany – 2017DEC31 – Old Minster Church
• Mainz, Germany – 2017DEC31 – Shopping Centers
• Mainz, Germany – 2017DEC31 – St. Quentin's Church
• Mainz, Germany – 2017DEC31 – Market
• Mainz, Germany – 2017DEC31 – City Hall!
• Mainz, Germany – 2017DEC31 – New Year's Eve
Enjoy this 8% of the 393 Rhine River photos I took here today!
____________________________________________
New Year's Eve – Album Description – Mainz, Germany – 2017DEC31:
My New Year's Eve layover in Mainz!
We took off early (scheduled 1645/actual 1638) and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany, early (scheduled 0115/actual 0044), for our 2720 layover, 20 minutes longer than our scheduled 27 hours.
At the crew hotel I got a river view room! Unusual! I ran a hot bath and hopped in the tub; suddenly hotel guests opened my door and came into my room! In the unexpected excitement of getting a rare river view, I forgot to lock and latch my door!
After my nap I eagerly headed up the hill past the "Sun" where Joe and I ate Christmas Eve dinner with 7 other crewmembers a week ago to the Old Minster Church for their New Year's Eve 5:00 p.m. service; I learned of it from their pastor, my friend Hendrik Maskus. Heartwarming! Flute teacher Katrin Schild played beautiful duets, accompanied by Makoto Mikawa. She said to bring my flute for us to play duets this coming year!
Meandering back to the crew hotel I paused to admire some lovely Christmas lights and decorations along the way.
My room faced the hotel elevators, just a mere few feet away: after loud fireworks, waves of late-night revelers spilled out of those elevators sharing volumes of celebratory experiences.
Several hours later our full flight took off, and we crossed the southern tip of Greenland, arriving 33 minutes early, at 1352; at home I greeted Joe, whom I saw last year (48 hours prior)!
When Joe got up the next morning at 7 here it was 7⁰F (-14⁰C).
Hope you enjoy this 9.7% of 1121 photos I took here this day!
The Aerotrain was a streamlined trainset introduced by General Motors Electro-Motive Division in the mid-1950s.[1] Like all of GM's body designs of this mid-century era, this train was first brought to life in GM's Styling Section. Chuck Jordan was in charge of designing the Aerotrain as Chief Designer of Special Projects. It utilized the experimental EMD LWT12 locomotive (U.S. Patent D177,814), coupled to a set of modified GM Truck & Coach Division 40-seat intercity bus coach bodies (U.S. Patent D179,006). The cars each rode on two axles with an air suspension system, which was intended to give a smooth ride, but had the opposite effect.
The two Aerotrain demonstrator sets logged over 600,000 miles (970,000 km) and saw service on the following railroads:
the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway;
the New York Central Railroad;
the Pennsylvania Railroad; and
the Union Pacific Railroad.
In February 1956, the Pennsylvania Railroad introduced the Pennsy Aerotrain between New York City and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, operating it for nine months. Pennsylvania Railroad's schedule was timed so that westbound passengers traversed Horseshoe Curve at lunchtime, while eastbound passengers traversed the curve at dinner time.[2]
The same year, Aerotrain No. 2 was leased as a demonstrator to the New York Central, and operated between Cleveland and Chicago.
In March 1956, the Aerotrain made a series of experimental runs for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway in California as a San Diegan consist, running between Los Angeles and San Diego. Its use in permanent service were later abandoned because the entire trainset had to be turned around at each end of the line, and the train required helper locomotives on the Sorrento Grade north of San Diego.
In the summer of 1957 the Aerotrain was operated by the Union Pacific as the City of Las Vegas, running between Los Angeles and Las Vegas. The train was eventually relegated to Chicago commuter service on the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad.
GM's "lightweight with a heavyweight future" was introduced at a time when US passenger train revenues were steadily declining due to competition from airlines and private automobile travel. Although it featured an eye-catching, streamlined design, the Aerotrain failed to capture the imagination of the American public. The cars, based on GM bus designs and using an air cushioning system, were rough riding and not very comfortable for passengers. The design of the locomotive section rendered routine maintenance difficult and time-consuming. The locomotive unit was also underpowered. Eventually, both trainsets were retired in 1966 after only a decade's use. The Museum of Transportation in St. Louis, Missouri, and the National Railroad Museum in Green Bay, Wisconsin each have one of the locomotives, and two of the cars.
Disneyland operated a scale version of the Aerotrain, known as the Viewliner, from 1957 to 1959 (see below). Since 1958, the Washington Park and Zoo Railway in Portland, Oregon has operated a scale, diesel-powered replica of the Aerotrain (dubbed the Zooliner) to transport zoo visitors.
South Shields bus 134-CU4607 was the first of three Crossley double-deckers which arrived during 1946. Looking very smart in their Manchester style streamlined livery, they were the first new buses built after the wartime ‘utility’ standard was relaxed. The industry was just getting back on its feet and deliveries were slow in coming. This one arrived in February, with the other two following in June and July. It is seen here being shown off at the Pier Head terminus at the bottom of Ocean Road
February 1946 : official photograph, colour by Malcolm Fraser
This streamlined train consists of a 4-10-4 steam loco, one baggage car, three coaches and a observation car.
On the streamlined Alfasud coupé, the 2.5 V6 in a central position.
Racing chassis and a configuration for four-wheel drive.
Museo Storico Alfa-Romeo
Viale Alfa-Romeo
Arese
Italy - Italia
November 2018
This C&O Hudson locomotive was built by ALCO in 1926 as a 4-6-2 Pacific type locomotive hauling standard passenger service trains. In 1946, the C&O decided to rebuild several Pacific class locomotives as 4-6-4 Hudson type locos for newly planned Luxury Chessie Passenger trains. Unfortunately due to automobile and airplane expansion around that time, the Luxury Chessie trains never came to be. The rebuilt Hudsons served standard passenger service until 1953. This locomotive went into storage until 1968 when it was then moved to the B&O Railroad Museum in Baltimore, MD. Its definitely awesome to see in person, and never gets old. I've seen it 3-4 times and still can't help but capture pictures of it and stare at it for long periods of time. Definitely a sexy locomotive.
Colas' 67027 is seen tailing 67023 on the 1Q50/1338 Burton Ot Wetmore Sidings to Doncaster West Yard NR test working, seen at Willington Station on 20/09/18.
File name: 08_05_000286
Title: Economy and comfort in modern streamlined coaches
Date issued: 1910-1959 (approximate)
Physical description: 1 print (poster) : color
Genre: Travel posters; Prints
Subjects: Railroad travel; Railroad passenger cars; New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad Company
Notes: Title from item.
Location: Boston Public Library, Print Department
Rights: Rights status not evaluated
50039 "Implacable" brakes to a stand at Sherborne with the 1220 Exeter to Waterloo on 2nd June 1986.
Another photo where the front of the engine is covered in flies collected over the previous days. I know the trains are generally more streamlined today but try finding evidence in the quantities you had on locos years ago, of flies and other insects - you'd be hard pushed to see anything approaching the levels then noticed.
The loco was withdrawn in June 1989 after 20 years of BR service, and was scrapped at Old Oak Common in July 1991.
Norfolk & Western Engine 611 sits on a side-track, being readied for the day's events. The Strasburg Railroad is graciously hosting this behemoth, and it definitely drew in the crowds! A Hostling Tour was already well underway when I took this shot, which although I was a bit bummed I wasn't able to get a ticket for that, it was still perfectly fine to be there seeing this engine in person.
My wife and I had traveled several hours to Roanoke, VA to see this engine cold at the Virginia Museum of Transportation several years back, and that trip turned into a great disappointment. It was raining on that day's visit in VA, and for whatever reason, the museum wouldn't let the public go out to where the engine was sitting. I was "upset" to put it lightly, and it was a bear of a ride back home to Pennsylvania.
The day I took this picture however, there was no rain. There was no "Closed" sign. The doors were open, the skies were perfect, and I finally got to fulfill a wish to see this streamlined beauty in person.
rear wing upper streamlined curve ..
BMW 8i plug-in hybrid sports car
Newlands Corner, Albury //Merrow - Guildford,Surrey -UK
1:76 Scale, OO Gauge model railway - Radford Mill.
Set in the Big Four steam era.
Seen at Mansfield Exhibition 2022.
The streamlined cabs had a wrap-around 7-pane windscreen with the driver sat centrally in the cab. The V-shaped "speed whiskers" livery has been recreated using a small amount of coloured vinyl.
The history of the base ZIL-111 started in 1956. ZIL-111D with a body "convertible" is a modified ZIL-111G with a body "limousine" produced since 1962, which in turn was a modification of the basic model ZIL-111.
The first car to receive the (still unofficial) this index was constructed in 1948, the ZIS-110M number 5. He is the only five cars in this series had a streamlined body with a single pontoon sidewalls, similar in appearance to the body "Packard Clipper" in 1947. Second ZIS-111 "Moscow" appeared in the early 1950s, he was a creation of designer Valentin zilovskogo sprout. It was built only two or three copies, one of which was shown at the Exhibition of Economic Achievements. At the exhibition visitors, this car did not cause great pride in the domestic auto industry. Frankly American car-like "Buick" of the late 1940s, nothing but a big bird on the hood, did not attract attention, and generally looked mediocre.
In the early 1950s in the American automotive industry has arisen a tendency to change the annual lineup. As a rule, these changes were only the exterior and interior, chassis remained the same for several years. Keep up with such a rapid fashion could not even Europe, not to mention the Soviet Union with its planned economy. Indeed, the car just did, put on the conveyor belt - and the next year to change all the seals, snap-in, spend millions of rubles for the sake of fashion. The only solution here was to create a machine progressive enough to "margin of safety" was enough for a few years.
Knowing this and seeing that the plant itself could not find a worthy replacement for veteran ZIS-110 ZIS leadership decided to hold a competition to create a project perspective the car - ZIS-111 new generation. Among a number of proposals liderovali two projects already built by ZIS-111 "Moscow" sprout and experienced car with the outline of "Packard" 1955 model year, a young designer from the LM Yeremeyev.
It was a clash of different schools, different approaches: a, zilovskogo, and another, dared to revise established views of the plant. Battles have been hot. ZIS sprout had already been built and almost ready to launch into production, but the option Eremeeva turned much more fresh and sovremennym.V finally won Yeremeyev. After the germ left the factory.
In 1956, a design project Yeremeyev was embodied in the life-size clay. In 1957, a new car under the name of ZIL-111 was released (in 1956, died IA Likhachev, and the plant was renamed in his honor). In a metal machine was a beautiful, yet rigorous. The front part was like at the same time, "Packard" and "Mercury" 1955-1956 period, while at the same time, comparing favorably to both of them. A much more elegant than the "Packard", and more representative than the "Mercury", he became the personification of the Soviet Union period, thaw. Large glass area and a panoramic windshield missed a lot of light into the cabin. Located on the side molding and sagittal "gill slits" are copied from the "Imperial" in 1956 (on a batch molding ZIL-111 was replaced by a figure known to us gulls). The rear portion was done in the style of "Packard." Large vertical lights, covered wings, reminiscent of the arches of Gothic cathedrals.
In 1958, with some modifications ZIL-111 went into the series. The designs of the ZIL-111 was not just a step forward compared to the ZIS-110, it was a real breakthrough. ZIS-110 was a design in 1941 and ZIL-111 is fully consistent with the requirements of 1955. During this period the automobile world of America has replaced three basic models, and by 1955 in the technological sense of the early machines of the 1940s has disappeared. New ZIL, like its predecessor, remained framed machine, this is probably where the similarities end there. New gasoline V-shaped eight-cylinder engine with a cast iron block and aluminum cylinder heads weighed 350 kg and gave 200 hp (ZIS-110 - 140 hp).
For the first time on a serial domestic car was installed two-speed automatic transmission with push-button control. The car was much lower. Due to the increased width of the bodywork and interior remodeling space in the car became more, respectively, the passengers could accommodate much more comfortable than its predecessor.
In 1959, the series went to changed ZIL-111 with the installation of domestic air-conditioning, called ZIL-111A. Cooled air conditioning and reduced humidity in the cabin when the outdoor temperature exceeds 18 ° C. The engine ZIL-111A also has an index, "111A" - it was connected with the installation of the compressor and some changes in the design of the drive components. Externally, ZIL-111A can be distinguished on the back nepanoramnomu glass, it was done in conjunction with the installation of the sides of the rear window air conditioner.
In 1960 appeared convertible ZIL-111V: big seven-seater had a canvas awning and 4 side lifting windows in chrome frames. The rise of the windows, as well as the rise of the curtain, implementation-lyalsya through a hydraulic drive. Tent, as in chaise ZIS-110B, in the folded position is covered by a decorative leather cover, and additional seating - straponteny - had double back with equal halves. Special gray convertible ZIL-111V changed carriages at parades ZIS-110B. Convertibles "111V" issued three years before putting on stream next modification ZIL-111G.
There is a version that the next change in the appearance of the vehicle was conducted at the request of Khrushchev, who noticed that the car is head of state (ZIL-111) does not differ from machine chairman executive committee (GAZ-13 "The Seagull"). In 1961 he was a prototype car, which is similar in form to the "Cadillac", but for unknown reasons, the series did not go. In the same year the car has undergone yet another facelift, and took its final form. The car went into production in 1962 and was called ZIL-111G. In fact, this is the same, "111A" with air conditioning, but with modified external forms. Starting with the ZIL-111G, air-conditioning became standard equipment and is not designated as a separate model of the plant. Externally, ZIL-111G is not copied any particular car, and was fully established factory designers, albeit with an eye to the American automotive industry trends. At the "111G" was used chetyrehfarnaya lighting system front and rear. And two round rear lights have been borrowed from the ZIL-118, "Youth". The front and rear of the car have been completely changed. The central part is the same, except for the outer door panels, stylized in accordance with other external changes. The sidewall of the machine reappeared sagittal molding that goes from the big corrugated lining behind the rear wheel arches. Uppercase words "one hundred and eleven Zeal" on the rear wing gave way to a laconic "ZIL-111." On the radiator grille has disappeared with bas-relief image of a seagull Yuri Dolgoruky, but instead of a shield, stylized medieval tower with an inscription at the top - "ZIL", and at the bottom - "111" there was a simple inscription "111" with diverging rays. In the back of the emblem in the form of the same shield with radiating been replaced individually mounted letters "W", "U", "L". Due to the changes required a new bumper jack: the old captured the special eyelets in the bumper, the new well was placed under the vehicle frame. Instead of manually screw jack ZIL-111 was designed and built pedal mechanical folding type jack 2E111G jack "Cadillac" of 1961. The same jack, with minor modifications, all future manned cars ZIL.
ZIL-111D appeared in 1964 as a modification of the ZIL-111V with the forms of ZIL-111G. The first automobile ZIL-111D chassis number 82 was collected in July 1964. It was installed upgraded brakes. The awning was a soft top ply fabric stretched over the arches and lateral levels of the framework. Each tent is individually adjustable frame units to ensure trouble-free operation. Fabric awning was attached with nails to the cardboard inserts front bar, rear arches and rear side belt body. To shape and further stretch an awning had padded jackets side. Inside the transverse arch were closed to them suspended upholstery, has a longitudinal rubber bands, which protects the fabric from sagging during raising and lowering the canopy. In the back of the tent was provided a window of a flexible plastic film, which was attached to an awning on three sides with zips. The window could detach and drop down. Tent rose and fell with elektrogidravliche-ray drive. The whole process of raising and lowering the canopy occupied 7-7.5 seconds. To fix the canopy in the raised position had lever locks and latches. Lever locks your brackets to the front awning bar and catch on the corresponding recesses in the bracket is fastened to the top of the wind frame. On rack locks were locking pins, which when lifting the tent included in the special slot in the bracket, fixed to the wind frame. Pins, clips were used to prevent lateral displacement of the tent. When folded tent fit into the slot and the closed cover, which is fastened to the outside of the body with the buttons, and the inside of the pawned between the awning and the rear seat and fasten to the inner sidewalls buttons. To shape the bags under his tent folded stacked lightweight bag, made of porous plastic. In the raised position canopy cover was removed and stacked in a special envelope, and the pillow and contracts evolved a special belt. Pillows and envelope stored in the trunk.
In electrical ZIL-111D match predecessor, ZIL-111V. The differences could be traced, perhaps, only in radio. On ZIL-111, 111G and 111V was a radio-13M, kabrioletny version of which was different from the basic lack of remote control, instead using the volume control the rear speakers. Was different device antennas. On ZIL-111V was two antennas, two telescopic, located on the hind wings. They were nominated by hand, and the reception was possible only if nominated by the antennas, which caused some discomfort. At buggy ZIL-111D designers installed a new radio AR-61-2-A and improved antenna, leaving one with the electric lift telescopic. It was situated in the rear left wing and worked in both the raised and lowered in the state, but with a smaller number of programs adopted and the sound volume.
Cars ZIL-111D was carried out in 1964-1967, respectively. During this period, was made about eight cars. Three of them were used for the parade and had a complete set of additional radio equipment, special handles and a set of flagpoles. Others were used as a government gigs for special trips. Compare convertible ZIL-111D with any foreign counterparts is difficult, because the ZIL was the only plant that as the base car did notchback limousine, sedan and wagon were made based on it. Seven-seater convertible, which is stored in the Club cabriolets and roadsters in Moscow, is made as a whole, that is not longer "stretch" as the wedding in Lincoln, a model for a whole frame of its own configuration. Similarly, a car with a big stretch to be called "Lincoln Continental" 1961 model year. Based on this gig with the swinging doors of specialized bodywork company was established long gig. Unfortunately, this car after the murder of President Kennedy got him notorious, and the release of the model was discontinued. However, here we compare ZIL-111D with a "Lincoln" would be incorrect, as "Lincoln" also "stretch" to the same unit, built by special order.
ZIL-111D, owned by the Club now cabriolets and roadsters, was once presented to the General Secretary of the CPSU Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev, leader Eric Honecker of East Germany - everyone remembers the "political kiss" between the two politicians, who was depicted on the Berlin Wall. It is on this car in 1974, met with Fidel Castro and Brezhnev, who came to East Germany with a visit of friendship, love a fast ride in a convertible with Comrade Honecker. Typically, the ZIL-111D softly and gravely walked in a motorcade escorted by motorcyclists and "thirteen", "Gull". After German unification and the removal from power Honecker some of its cars sold under the hammer. At the international exhibition in Brussels car was awarded the honorary diploma. Subsequent cars: ZIL-114-117 (1967-1976 years)
ZIL-111 all models was unquestionably reliable, stable on the road, with a great resource units, but the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, he prepared a replacement - a new limousine ZIL-114. Drawn as a ruler, this machine represented the rational plane style of the late 60s. Engine with aluminum cylinder block was lighter and more compact than the ZIL-111, with a working volume increased from 6 to 7 liters, and power - from 200 to 300 liters. with. And the device ZIL-114 was a lot of unusual for the then Soviet vehicles: all-wheel disc brakes, height-adjustable steering column, front suspension besshkvornevaya on torsion bars. Equipment cabin was selected individually to taste this or that leader. In the early 70's at ZIL-114 appeared modification - Five sedan ZIL-117, along with almost the same, "Chaika" GAZ-13. Long ZIL-114 was the basis for universal emergency medical care, and "short" ZIL-117 - for a two-door convertible parade.
[Text from Blog "Russioan Traditions" - ZiL 111 - A Government Car]
russki-ya.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/history-of-base-zil-111...
This Lego miniland scale ZiL-111 Limousine (1958) has been created for Flickr LUGNuts' 96th Build Challenge - The 8th Birthday, titled - 'Happy Crazy Eight Birthday, LUGNuts' - where all previous build challenges are available to build to. This model is built to the LUGNuts 66th Build Challenge, - "Behind the Iron Curtain" - a challenge to build a vehicle from countries with Communist Governements.
I bought this little engine on Ebay this evening. (seller's photos) I really like the running characteristics of the Broadway Limited "Hybrid" models, so for the price I couldn't pass it up.
The BLI imported models are brass and die cast construction, the boiler and tender structures are fabricated sheet brass, while the frame of, both, the engine and tender is die cast metal. They come factory painted and equipped with a can motor with flywheel drive, sound, smoke and complete lighting and run on DC and DCC systems. They are excellent models for the cost.
Scale: HO
Category: Steam
Type: STREAMLINED
Road: New York Central (NYC)
Whyte: 4-6-4
Description: DREYFUSS HUDSON J-3A
Importer: BLI (Hybrid Series)
Catalog: 1146
Year(s): 2014
A streamlined locomotive for the Chessie train set at the B&O Museum in Baltimore on April 5, 1977. Built by ALCO in 1926 as a F-19 Pacific (4-6-2), it was rebuilt in 1947 as an L-11 Hudson (4-6-4).
"T.V." Tommy Ivo's streamlined Top Fuel dragster
During qualifying, an engine explosion sent Ivo's car barrel rolling across the finish line, virtually destroying it, though Ivo walked away.
"I was running 240 (MPH) upside down, backwards," Ivo told Hemmings Muscle Machines for a Hot Rod Hero profile on him. "I hit the guardrail, and the car came apart like a two-dollar watch. It was worth the price of admission. I thought it was curtains, and when I felt that, I became euphoric - the scare went away. I was mad at myself because I'd closed my eyes and missed the show."
Norfolk Southern operated N&W streamlined J-class 4-8-4 Northern coal burning steam locomotive # 611 with a cab view of back-head boiler plate indicating the steam pressure at Chattanooga, Tennessee, October 1989. You can see that this was a modern at the time (1950 when built) 300 psi fire tube boiler. At this time the steam locomotive was being prepared, maintained and serviced for its next day assignment to a Railfan Excursion Train.
Forthcoming! Art Deco and British Car Design - The Airline Cars of the 1930s by Barrie Down. Published by Veloce Publishing.
A unique account of a radical era in automotive design. The Art Deco movement influenced design and marketing in many different industries in the 1930s, and the British motor industry was no exception.
The book is divided into two parts: the first explains and illustrates the Art Deco styling elements that link these streamlined car designs, describing their development, their commonality, and how aeronautical names were used, and is liberally illustrated with contemporary images. The second part goes on to portray British streamlined production cars made between 1933 and 1936, illustrated with colour photographs of surviving cars.
In 1931, Airstream trailers began with Baker City, Oregon–born Wally Byam’s dream: to build a travel trailer that would move like a stream of air, be light enough to be towed by a car, and create first-class accommodations anywhere.
Not too long after, Leland James, president of Portland-based trucking company Consolidated Freightways, approached manufacturers with his idea of building trucks with lightweight aluminum instead of traditional steel and eventually founded Freightliner.
Join us for a festive day of vehicle streamlining Oregon-style with a chance to see new and vintage travel trailers on display courtesy of the Oregon Airstream Club along with a very special restored vintage Freightliner truck.
SCHEDULE
10-4 p.m.
Oregon Airstream Club–Trailer Viewings
Park Avenue
Stop by to chat with members of the Oregon Airstream Club and peek inside a selection of vintage and contemporary trailers that were designed to “move like a stream of air.”
Portland Art Museum
portlandartmuseum.org/events-programs/calendar/action~age...
Sava Railways Hudson class (4-6-4) streamlined locomotive #7244 (stickers forthcoming)
#7244 is based off of the iconic streamlining of the New York Central's 20th Century Limited designed by Henry Dreyfuss. While it's relatively true to the design, the color scheme is not.
Mergansers are streamlined ducks that float gracefully down small rivers or shallow shorelines. Mergus is the genus of the typical mergansers, fish-eating ducks. They are "divers" because they go completely under-water in looking for food.
Of the three species of mergansers occurring in North America, the hooded merganser is the only one restricted to the continent.
Michael Ferner
"For 1948, Culp had the car rebuilt with a new streamlined body, completely changing the appearance of the car for the first time in its existence. Mattson drove the car again, as the blue and white #2 “Culp Offy”, until mid-season when his own car was ready for him to use, with Buster Warke taking over the Culp entry, now in yellow and black. Warke continued to drive the car, as #14 and still yellow and black, in 1949, and perhaps into the 1950 season until a new Hillegass was ready. Culp kept the engine for the new car, and sold the rolling chassis to a man named Carl Meyers in Texas, who ran it for about eight years with an Oldsmobile V8 engine, mainly as #98 in IMCA events it seems, drivers including one Jud Larson."
Two more owners ran the car for two years each, Earl Kuba and Tom van Swearinger (or Vanswearinger), both from Colorado, but the glory days were certainly over for the old warhorse. It was reputedly acquired by racing car builder Don Edmunds (Autoresearch), and put into storage at his California facilities for 17 years (!), before Marlin and Sally Heller of Dover (PA) bought it via Jim Etters in 1980 to start restoration with the help of Buster Warke. Thankfully, the car was only restored to its 1948 specification, i.e. with the streamlined body, as anything else would have to be seen as a recreation, rather than restoration, considering the changes made to the car. However, the new owners chose to paint the car in the yellow and black livery it acquired later that year, not its original blue and white, presumably on the basis of it being more attractive that way. It was displayed at the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing in York Springs (PA), for a time at least, until it was bought by Paul Weisel of Weisel Racing Equipment, Inc. in 2008, who is said to display it in the showroom of the Eastern Auto Racing Historical Society in Orefield (PA).
Addendum: Joe Heisler advises that the car was converted to a cross spring at the front after the fatal Billy Winn accident. He also has info that shows that Hank Rogers and Bill Holland competed in the car during the 1947 season."
From historian Michael Ferner:
"This car was apparently built by Gus Schrader in 1932, and debuted shortly after his one and only Indy 500 start. It had parallel leaf springs at the front, a cross spring with radius rods in the rear, and a Miller 220 four-cylinder engine. It also had a number of very distinctive bodywork features which make it particularly easy to track through the photographic record of the period before WW2. Well, sort of easy anyway!
Schrader ran it initially in AAA events, winning a 20-miler at Bloomsburg (PA) on July 9, and then qualifying second for a 50-miler at Langhorne in August. He didn’t start the feature, however, due to an injury sustained while running the fast heat, and Mauri Rose took over the car, winning the main event in record time. Later that month, Gus joined the IMCA circuit at the Iowa State Fair, and except for a brief return to AAA in late 1933 (winning a 20-miler at Lakewood Speedway in Atlanta) he remained an “outlaw” for the rest of his life.
As an aside, though Schrader’s stature in racing history is perhaps a bit tainted by his running “show biz” events for much of his later career, these and other results in AAA and “open comp” events show that he was a very strong competitor in level playing fields also. It should, however, be remembered that he was pushing almost 40 years by then, and obviously felt that he would not much longer be able to resist the challenge of such formidable (and much younger) opposition such as Bill Cummings, Wilbur Shaw, Bob Carey or Ernie Triplett, for example. In fact, judging by his results in straight competition alone, he can hardly be considered as one of the best US drivers of his time, and it would even be difficult to argue the case for his inclusion in, say, the top ten drivers for any given year! Yet, the IMCA promotional engine was a powerful weapon, and today Gus Schrader is remembered as the racing icon that he was, thanks to the Sloan organisation, showing that he made the right decision in the first place!
Apparently, Gus ran the car as a red #5 “Miller” through 1935, and then as the #5 “Montgomery Ward” in 1936. He was the undefeated IMCA “World’s Dirt Track Auto Race Champion” four years in a row before selling the car at the end of 1936, and continued on for four more titles of the same with the car he built in 1937 at Curly Wetteroth’s shop in California. It has been stated that he won more than a hundred main events with his 1932 car, and that may well be true since the IMCA usually staged between fifty and one hundred events a year, and Schrader had hardly any competition at all in these “shows”, apart from five or six “major events” when the several seperate “circuits” of IMCA promoters met each year. By 1936, however, Schrader’s big rival Emory Collins had a 318 cubic inch Offy, and Gus had to have something beefier to retain his crown.
The man who bought the car was none other than Bob Sall, the 1933 AAA Eastern Circuit Champion, who sought to rejuvenate his career – this was Bob’s first regular ride in a Miller-powered car, and he celebrated the fact by winning no less than eleven races in 1937 alone, finishing second to Frankie Beeder in Eastern Circuit points, and apparently winning the somewhat obscure AAA Southern Circuit Championship for a third time. The car was the #4 “Miller” early in the year, and then later the #4 “Lion Oil”. In 1938, it was the blue #2 “Lion Oil” (sometimes also #12 or #10) and Sall continued winning, until he was injured on July 25 in a Midget race on Long Island. While recuperating, the car was driven by Frankie Bailey, Billy Winn (who crashed fatally with it at Springfield on August 20), Floyd Davis, Jack Moon and, apparently, Tommy Hinnershitz.
In 1939, Sall was back behind the wheel of his #5 “Miller”, and the car was also driven by Walt Brown, Len Duncan and Buster Warke before its owner decided to defect to IMCA competition late in the year, managing to finish fourth in points despite a limited schedule. Before returning to the AAA fold in 1940, he appears to have sold the car to Ted Horn, but I haven’t been able to determine whether the car was used at all during that year, as Sall himself drove a number of different cars for other owners, and I cannot find any evidence of Horn running a multi-car team yet. Be that as it may, by 1941 the car was back in circulation, as the maroon #7 “Ted Horn Racing Team” (nicknamed “Old Scurvy”), sporting a transverse front spring with radius rods and probably an Offenhauser engine, and with Sall back in the driving seat!
For the short 1942 season, Dave Randolph drove the #6 “Horn Racing” (though it only said “Old Scurvy” on the car itself!), and after the war the car apparently sat idle in Horn’s shop until it was bought by George “Dutch” Culp in late 1946. It is quite possible that Tommy Mattson and/or Hank Rodgers drove the car for Culp during the latter part of the 1946 season already, however it can only be stated safely that Mattson drove it as a cream and maroon #3 in 1947, finishing a superb second in AAA Eastern points, ahead of Hinnershitz, Hank Rogers, Mark Light, Joie Chitwood, Bill Holland, Walt Brown, Lee Wallard etc. – not bad for a 15-year-old car, with an unheralded driver!
For 1948, Culp had the car rebuilt with a new streamlined body, completely changing the appearance of the car for the first time in its existence. Mattson drove the car again, as the blue and white #2 “Culp Offy”, until mid-season when his own car was ready for him to use, with Buster Warke taking over the Culp entry, now in yellow and black. Warke continued to drive the car, as #14 and still yellow and black, in 1949, and perhaps into the 1950 season until a new Hillegass was ready. Culp kept the engine for the new car, and sold the rolling chassis to a man named Carl Meyers in Texas, who ran it for about eight years with an Oldsmobile V8 engine, mainly as #98 in IMCA events it seems, drivers including one Jud Larson.
Two more owners ran the car for two years each, Earl Kuba and Tom van Swearinger (or Vanswearinger), both from Colorado, but the glory days were certainly over for the old warhorse. It was reputedly acquired by racing car builder Don Edmunds (Autoresearch), and put into storage at his California facilities for 17 years (!), before Marlin and Sally Heller of Dover (PA) bought it via Jim Etters in 1980 to start restoration with the help of Buster Warke. Thankfully, the car was only restored to its 1948 specification, i.e. with the streamlined body, as anything else would have to be seen as a recreation, rather than restoration, considering the changes made to the car. However, the new owners chose to paint the car in the yellow and black livery it acquired later that year, not its original blue and white, presumably on the basis of it being more attractive that way. It was displayed at the Eastern Museum of Motor Racing in York Springs (PA), for a time at least, until it was bought by Paul Weisel of Weisel Racing Equipment, Inc. in 2008, who is said to display it in the showroom of the Eastern Auto Racing Historical Society in Orefield (PA).
Addendum: Joe Heisler advises that the car was converted to a cross spring at the front after the fatal Billy Winn accident. He also has info that shows that Hank Rogers and Bill Holland competed in the car during the 1947 season."
At first glance, this could pass for a US scene of the late 1930s, but it is anything but. The South Manchuria Railway was Imperial Japan's foothold into mainland China, as the country gained the concession to operate the line from Tsarist Russia in the aftermath of the Russo-Japanese War of 1903-04. After Japan annexed Manchuria in 1932 and created the puppet state of Manchukuo, the South Manchuria Railway became key to the territory's rapid industrialisation and colonisation. To convey Manchukuo's technocrats, civil servants and army personnel, the Asia Express was launched in November 1934, connecting the 943 km (586 miles) between Dalian and Harbin in around 13 hours, at speeds of up to 75 mph. Not only only was this the fastest train in Asia, but few American or European railways could match its speed or modernity.
The train was a huge source of national pride in Japan, representing the ultimate in steam railway technology. The coaching stock was built from lightweight steel and fully air-conditioned, with full dining and cocktail bar facilities, plus an observation car at the rear. The on-board waitresses were drawn mainly from Manchukuo's White Russian community.
Haulage was provided by a dozen Pashina-class 4-6-2 Pacific locomotives, designed by the Mantetsu's precocious engineer, Nobutaro Yoshino. The first three locos were built in Mantetsu's own workshops, the rest by Kawasaki in Japan. As an aircraft manufacturer, Kawasaki made available its wind tunnel to enhance the effectiveness of the streamlined casing.
It is worth reflecting that Japan had imported all of its locomotive requirements until 1915, but made rapid strides once it began its indigenous railway industry, drawing on the best technologies of the United States and Europe.
Fast forward to today, and now US passenger railroads as well as the UK's leading franchise operators are relying on Japanese companies to meet their latest rolling stock needs. While Japan was ejected from its Manchurian colony after 1945, the experience of high-speed rail technology was not wasted, its pioneering Shinkansen trains astonishing the rest of the world when launched in 1964.
Norfolk Southern operated N&W streamlined J-class 4-8-4 Northern steam locomotive # 611, view of its nearly empty tender interior coal pocket as seen in Chattanooga, Tennessee, October 1989. This view wasn't available for long because next to the tender was spotted gondolas and hopper cars filled with coal along with a bucket crane on standby for loading. In this view you can see a portion of the tender side sheeting with its braces. The steam locomotive, tender and auxiliary water tender were being prepared, maintained and serviced for their next day assignment to a Railfan Excursion Train.
Until the nineteen-fifties Calcutta trams were imported from Britain. The controller of Streamlined Train no. 124 proudly declares itself to be a product of English Electric Co. Ltd., London although the hub shows it to have been manufactured in Preston, Lanc (sic).
Fish, any of approximately 34,000 species of vertebrate animals (phylum Chordata) found in the fresh and salt waters of the world. Living species range from the primitive jawless lampreys and hagfishes through the cartilaginous sharks, skates, and rays to the abundant and diverse bony fishes. Most fish species are cold-blooded; however, one species, the opah (Lampris guttatus), is warm-blooded.
The term fish is applied to a variety of vertebrates of several evolutionary lines. It describes a life-form rather than a taxonomic group. As members of the phylum Chordata, fish share certain features with other vertebrates. These features are gill slits at some point in the life cycle, a notochord, or skeletal supporting rod, a dorsal hollow nerve cord, and a tail. Living fishes represent some five classes, which are as distinct from one another as are the four classes of familiar air-breathing animals—amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. For example, the jawless fishes (Agnatha) have gills in pouches and lack limb girdles. Extant agnathans are the lampreys and the hagfishes. As the name implies, the skeletons of fishes of the class Chondrichthyes (from chondr, “cartilage,” and ichthyes, “fish”) are made entirely of cartilage. Modern fish of this class lack a swim bladder, and their scales and teeth are made up of the same placoid material. Sharks, skates, and rays are examples of cartilaginous fishes. The bony fishes are by far the largest class. Examples range from the tiny seahorse to the 450-kg (1,000-pound) blue marlin, from the flattened soles and flounders to the boxy puffers and ocean sunfishes. Unlike the scales of the cartilaginous fishes, those of bony fishes, when present, grow throughout life and are made up of thin overlapping plates of bone. Bony fishes also have an operculum that covers the gill slits.
The study of fishes, the science of ichthyology, is of broad importance. Fishes are of interest to humans for many reasons, the most important being their relationship with and dependence on the environment. A more obvious reason for interest in fishes is their role as a moderate but important part of the world’s food supply. This resource, once thought unlimited, is now realized to be finite and in delicate balance with the biological, chemical, and physical factors of the aquatic environment. Overfishing, pollution, and alteration of the environment are the chief enemies of proper fisheries management, both in fresh waters and in the ocean. (For a detailed discussion of the technology and economics of fisheries, see commercial fishing.) Another practical reason for studying fishes is their use in disease control. As predators on mosquito larvae, they help curb malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases.
Fishes are valuable laboratory animals in many aspects of medical and biological research. For example, the readiness of many fishes to acclimate to captivity has allowed biologists to study behaviour, physiology, and even ecology under relatively natural conditions. Fishes have been especially important in the study of animal behaviour, where research on fishes has provided a broad base for the understanding of the more flexible behaviour of the higher vertebrates. The zebra fish is used as a model in studies of gene expression.
There are aesthetic and recreational reasons for an interest in fishes. Millions of people keep live fishes in home aquariums for the simple pleasure of observing the beauty and behaviour of animals otherwise unfamiliar to them. Aquarium fishes provide a personal challenge to many aquarists, allowing them to test their ability to keep a small section of the natural environment in their homes. Sportfishing is another way of enjoying the natural environment, also indulged in by millions of people every year. Interest in aquarium fishes and sportfishing supports multimillion-dollar industries throughout the world.
Fishes have been in existence for more than 450 million years, during which time they have evolved repeatedly to fit into almost every conceivable type of aquatic habitat. In a sense, land vertebrates are simply highly modified fishes: when fishes colonized the land habitat, they became tetrapod (four-legged) land vertebrates. The popular conception of a fish as a slippery, streamlined aquatic animal that possesses fins and breathes by gills applies to many fishes, but far more fishes deviate from that conception than conform to it. For example, the body is elongate in many forms and greatly shortened in others; the body is flattened in some (principally in bottom-dwelling fishes) and laterally compressed in many others; the fins may be elaborately extended, forming intricate shapes, or they may be reduced or even lost; and the positions of the mouth, eyes, nostrils, and gill openings vary widely. Air breathers have appeared in several evolutionary lines.
Many fishes are cryptically coloured and shaped, closely matching their respective environments; others are among the most brilliantly coloured of all organisms, with a wide range of hues, often of striking intensity, on a single individual. The brilliance of pigments may be enhanced by the surface structure of the fish, so that it almost seems to glow. A number of unrelated fishes have actual light-producing organs. Many fishes are able to alter their coloration—some for the purpose of camouflage, others for the enhancement of behavioral signals.
Fishes range in adult length from less than 10 mm (0.4 inch) to more than 20 metres (60 feet) and in weight from about 1.5 grams (less than 0.06 ounce) to many thousands of kilograms. Some live in shallow thermal springs at temperatures slightly above 42 °C (100 °F), others in cold Arctic seas a few degrees below 0 °C (32 °F) or in cold deep waters more than 4,000 metres (13,100 feet) beneath the ocean surface. The structural and, especially, the physiological adaptations for life at such extremes are relatively poorly known and provide the scientifically curious with great incentive for study.
Almost all natural bodies of water bear fish life, the exceptions being very hot thermal ponds and extremely salt-alkaline lakes, such as the Dead Sea in Asia and the Great Salt Lake in North America. The present distribution of fishes is a result of the geological history and development of Earth as well as the ability of fishes to undergo evolutionary change and to adapt to the available habitats. Fishes may be seen to be distributed according to habitat and according to geographical area. Major habitat differences are marine and freshwater. For the most part, the fishes in a marine habitat differ from those in a freshwater habitat, even in adjacent areas, but some, such as the salmon, migrate from one to the other. The freshwater habitats may be seen to be of many kinds. Fishes found in mountain torrents, Arctic lakes, tropical lakes, temperate streams, and tropical rivers will all differ from each other, both in obvious gross structure and in physiological attributes. Even in closely adjacent habitats where, for example, a tropical mountain torrent enters a lowland stream, the fish fauna will differ. The marine habitats can be divided into deep ocean floors (benthic), mid-water oceanic (bathypelagic), surface oceanic (pelagic), rocky coast, sandy coast, muddy shores, bays, estuaries, and others. Also, for example, rocky coastal shores in tropical and temperate regions will have different fish faunas, even when such habitats occur along the same coastline.
Although much is known about the present geographical distribution of fishes, far less is known about how that distribution came about. Many parts of the fish fauna of the fresh waters of North America and Eurasia are related and undoubtedly have a common origin. The faunas of Africa and South America are related, extremely old, and probably an expression of the drifting apart of the two continents. The fauna of southern Asia is related to that of Central Asia, and some of it appears to have entered Africa. The extremely large shore-fish faunas of the Indian and tropical Pacific oceans comprise a related complex, but the tropical shore fauna of the Atlantic, although containing Indo-Pacific components, is relatively limited and probably younger. The Arctic and Antarctic marine faunas are quite different from each other. The shore fauna of the North Pacific is quite distinct, and that of the North Atlantic more limited and probably younger. Pelagic oceanic fishes, especially those in deep waters, are similar the world over, showing little geographical isolation in terms of family groups. The deep oceanic habitat is very much the same throughout the world, but species differences do exist, showing geographical areas determined by oceanic currents and water masses.
All aspects of the life of a fish are closely correlated with adaptation to the total environment, physical, chemical, and biological. In studies, all the interdependent aspects of fish, such as behaviour, locomotion, reproduction, and physical and physiological characteristics, must be taken into account.
Correlated with their adaptation to an extremely wide variety of habitats is the extremely wide variety of life cycles that fishes display. The great majority hatch from relatively small eggs a few days to several weeks or more after the eggs are scattered in the water. Newly hatched young are still partially undeveloped and are called larvae until body structures such as fins, skeleton, and some organs are fully formed. Larval life is often very short, usually less than a few weeks, but it can be very long, some lampreys continuing as larvae for at least five years. Young and larval fishes, before reaching sexual maturity, must grow considerably, and their small size and other factors often dictate that they live in a habitat different than that of the adults. For example, most tropical marine shore fishes have pelagic larvae. Larval food also is different, and larval fishes often live in shallow waters, where they may be less exposed to predators.
After a fish reaches adult size, the length of its life is subject to many factors, such as innate rates of aging, predation pressure, and the nature of the local climate. The longevity of a species in the protected environment of an aquarium may have nothing to do with how long members of that species live in the wild. Many small fishes live only one to three years at the most. In some species, however, individuals may live as long as 10 or 20 or even 100 years.
Fish behaviour is a complicated and varied subject. As in almost all animals with a central nervous system, the nature of a response of an individual fish to stimuli from its environment depends upon the inherited characteristics of its nervous system, on what it has learned from past experience, and on the nature of the stimuli. Compared with the variety of human responses, however, that of a fish is stereotyped, not subject to much modification by “thought” or learning, and investigators must guard against anthropomorphic interpretations of fish behaviour.
Fishes perceive the world around them by the usual senses of sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste and by special lateral line water-current detectors. In the few fishes that generate electric fields, a process that might best be called electrolocation aids in perception. One or another of these senses often is emphasized at the expense of others, depending upon the fish’s other adaptations. In fishes with large eyes, the sense of smell may be reduced; others, with small eyes, hunt and feed primarily by smell (such as some eels).
Specialized behaviour is primarily concerned with the three most important activities in the fish’s life: feeding, reproduction, and escape from enemies. Schooling behaviour of sardines on the high seas, for instance, is largely a protective device to avoid enemies, but it is also associated with and modified by their breeding and feeding requirements. Predatory fishes are often solitary, lying in wait to dart suddenly after their prey, a kind of locomotion impossible for beaked parrot fishes, which feed on coral, swimming in small groups from one coral head to the next. In addition, some predatory fishes that inhabit pelagic environments, such as tunas, often school.
Sleep in fishes, all of which lack true eyelids, consists of a seemingly listless state in which the fish maintains its balance but moves slowly. If attacked or disturbed, most can dart away. A few kinds of fishes lie on the bottom to sleep. Most catfishes, some loaches, and some eels and electric fishes are strictly nocturnal, being active and hunting for food during the night and retiring during the day to holes, thick vegetation, or other protective parts of the environment.
Communication between members of a species or between members of two or more species often is extremely important, especially in breeding behaviour (see below Reproduction). The mode of communication may be visual, as between the small so-called cleaner fish and a large fish of a very different species. The larger fish often allows the cleaner to enter its mouth to remove gill parasites. The cleaner is recognized by its distinctive colour and actions and therefore is not eaten, even if the larger fish is normally a predator. Communication is often chemical, signals being sent by specific chemicals called pheromones.
Many fishes have a streamlined body and swim freely in open water. Fish locomotion is closely correlated with habitat and ecological niche (the general position of the animal to its environment).
Many fishes in both marine and fresh waters swim at the surface and have mouths adapted to feed best (and sometimes only) at the surface. Often such fishes are long and slender, able to dart at surface insects or at other surface fishes and in turn to dart away from predators; needlefishes, halfbeaks, and topminnows (such as killifish and mosquito fish) are good examples. Oceanic flying fishes escape their predators by gathering speed above the water surface, with the lower lobe of the tail providing thrust in the water. They then glide hundreds of yards on enlarged, winglike pectoral and pelvic fins. South American freshwater flying fishes escape their enemies by jumping and propelling their strongly keeled bodies out of the water.
So-called mid-water swimmers, the most common type of fish, are of many kinds and live in many habitats. The powerful fusiform tunas and the trouts, for example, are adapted for strong, fast swimming, the tunas to capture prey speedily in the open ocean and the trouts to cope with the swift currents of streams and rivers. The trout body form is well adapted to many habitats. Fishes that live in relatively quiet waters such as bays or lake shores or slow rivers usually are not strong, fast swimmers but are capable of short, quick bursts of speed to escape a predator. Many of these fishes have their sides flattened, examples being the sunfish and the freshwater angelfish of aquarists. Fish associated with the bottom or substrate usually are slow swimmers. Open-water plankton-feeding fishes almost always remain fusiform and are capable of rapid, strong movement (for example, sardines and herrings of the open ocean and also many small minnows of streams and lakes).
Bottom-living fishes are of many kinds and have undergone many types of modification of their body shape and swimming habits. Rays, which evolved from strong-swimming mid-water sharks, usually stay close to the bottom and move by undulating their large pectoral fins. Flounders live in a similar habitat and move over the bottom by undulating the entire body. Many bottom fishes dart from place to place, resting on the bottom between movements, a motion common in gobies. One goby relative, the mudskipper, has taken to living at the edge of pools along the shore of muddy mangrove swamps. It escapes its enemies by flipping rapidly over the mud, out of the water. Some catfishes, synbranchid eels, the so-called climbing perch, and a few other fishes venture out over damp ground to find more promising waters than those that they left. They move by wriggling their bodies, sometimes using strong pectoral fins; most have accessory air-breathing organs. Many bottom-dwelling fishes live in mud holes or rocky crevices. Marine eels and gobies commonly are found in such habitats and for the most part venture far beyond their cavelike homes. Some bottom dwellers, such as the clingfishes (Gobiesocidae), have developed powerful adhesive disks that enable them to remain in place on the substrate in areas such as rocky coasts, where the action of the waves is great.
The methods of reproduction in fishes are varied, but most fishes lay a large number of small eggs, fertilized and scattered outside of the body. The eggs of pelagic fishes usually remain suspended in the open water. Many shore and freshwater fishes lay eggs on the bottom or among plants. Some have adhesive eggs. The mortality of the young and especially of the eggs is very high, and often only a few individuals grow to maturity out of hundreds, thousands, and in some cases millions of eggs laid.
Males produce sperm, usually as a milky white substance called milt, in two (sometimes one) testes within the body cavity. In bony fishes a sperm duct leads from each testis to a urogenital opening behind the vent or anus. In sharks and rays and in cyclostomes the duct leads to a cloaca. Sometimes the pelvic fins are modified to help transmit the milt to the eggs at the female’s vent or on the substrate where the female has placed them. Sometimes accessory organs are used to fertilize females internally—for example, the claspers of many sharks and rays.
In the females the eggs are formed in two ovaries (sometimes only one) and pass through the ovaries to the urogenital opening and to the outside. In some fishes the eggs are fertilized internally but are shed before development takes place. Members of about a dozen families each of bony fishes (teleosts) and sharks bear live young. Many skates and rays also bear live young. In some bony fishes the eggs simply develop within the female, the young emerging when the eggs hatch (ovoviviparous). Others develop within the ovary and are nourished by ovarian tissues after hatching (viviparous). There are also other methods utilized by fishes to nourish young within the female. In all live-bearers the young are born at a relatively large size and are few in number. In one family of primarily marine fishes, the surfperches from the Pacific coast of North America, Japan, and Korea, the males of at least one species are born sexually mature, although they are not fully grown.
Some fishes are hermaphroditic—an individual producing both sperm and eggs, usually at different stages of its life. Self-fertilization, however, is probably rare.
Successful reproduction and, in many cases, defense of the eggs and the young are assured by rather stereotypical but often elaborate courtship and parental behaviour, either by the male or the female or both. Some fishes prepare nests by hollowing out depressions in the sand bottom (cichlids, for example), build nests with plant materials and sticky threads excreted by the kidneys (sticklebacks), or blow a cluster of mucus-covered bubbles at the water surface (gouramis). The eggs are laid in these structures. Some varieties of cichlids and catfishes incubate eggs in their mouths.
Some fishes, such as salmon, undergo long migrations from the ocean and up large rivers to spawn in the gravel beds where they themselves hatched (anadromous fishes). Some, such as the freshwater eels (family Anguillidae), live and grow to maturity in fresh water and migrate to the sea to spawn (catadromous fishes). Other fishes undertake shorter migrations from lakes into streams, within the ocean, or enter spawning habitats that they do not ordinarily occupy in other ways.
The basic structure and function of the fish body are similar to those of all other vertebrates. The usual four types of tissues are present: surface or epithelial, connective (bone, cartilage, and fibrous tissues, as well as their derivative, blood), nerve, and muscle tissues. In addition, the fish’s organs and organ systems parallel those of other vertebrates.
The typical fish body is streamlined and spindle-shaped, with an anterior head, a gill apparatus, and a heart, the latter lying in the midline just below the gill chamber. The body cavity, containing the vital organs, is situated behind the head in the lower anterior part of the body. The anus usually marks the posterior termination of the body cavity and most often occurs just in front of the base of the anal fin. The spinal cord and vertebral column continue from the posterior part of the head to the base of the tail fin, passing dorsal to the body cavity and through the caudal (tail) region behind the body cavity. Most of the body is of muscular tissue, a high proportion of which is necessitated by swimming. In the course of evolution this basic body plan has been modified repeatedly into the many varieties of fish shapes that exist today.
The skeleton forms an integral part of the fish’s locomotion system, as well as serving to protect vital parts. The internal skeleton consists of the skull bones (except for the roofing bones of the head, which are really part of the external skeleton), the vertebral column, and the fin supports (fin rays). The fin supports are derived from the external skeleton but will be treated here because of their close functional relationship to the internal skeleton. The internal skeleton of cyclostomes, sharks, and rays is of cartilage; that of many fossil groups and some primitive living fishes is mostly of cartilage but may include some bone. In place of the vertebral column, the earliest vertebrates had a fully developed notochord, a flexible stiff rod of viscous cells surrounded by a strong fibrous sheath. During the evolution of modern fishes the rod was replaced in part by cartilage and then by ossified cartilage. Sharks and rays retain a cartilaginous vertebral column; bony fishes have spool-shaped vertebrae that in the more primitive living forms only partially replace the notochord. The skull, including the gill arches and jaws of bony fishes, is fully, or at least partially, ossified. That of sharks and rays remains cartilaginous, at times partially replaced by calcium deposits but never by true bone.
The supportive elements of the fins (basal or radial bones or both) have changed greatly during fish evolution. Some of these changes are described in the section below (Evolution and paleontology). Most fishes possess a single dorsal fin on the midline of the back. Many have two and a few have three dorsal fins. The other fins are the single tail and anal fins and paired pelvic and pectoral fins. A small fin, the adipose fin, with hairlike fin rays, occurs in many of the relatively primitive teleosts (such as trout) on the back near the base of the caudal fin.
The skin of a fish must serve many functions. It aids in maintaining the osmotic balance, provides physical protection for the body, is the site of coloration, contains sensory receptors, and, in some fishes, functions in respiration. Mucous glands, which aid in maintaining the water balance and offer protection from bacteria, are extremely numerous in fish skin, especially in cyclostomes and teleosts. Since mucous glands are present in the modern lampreys, it is reasonable to assume that they were present in primitive fishes, such as the ancient Silurian and Devonian agnathans. Protection from abrasion and predation is another function of the fish skin, and dermal (skin) bone arose early in fish evolution in response to this need. It is thought that bone first evolved in skin and only later invaded the cartilaginous areas of the fish’s body, to provide additional support and protection. There is some argument as to which came first, cartilage or bone, and fossil evidence does not settle the question. In any event, dermal bone has played an important part in fish evolution and has different characteristics in different groups of fishes. Several groups are characterized at least in part by the kind of bony scales they possess.
Scales have played an important part in the evolution of fishes. Primitive fishes usually had thick bony plates or thick scales in several layers of bone, enamel, and related substances. Modern teleost fishes have scales of bone, which, while still protective, allow much more freedom of motion in the body. A few modern teleosts (some catfishes, sticklebacks, and others) have secondarily acquired bony plates in the skin. Modern and early sharks possessed placoid scales, a relatively primitive type of scale with a toothlike structure, consisting of an outside layer of enamel-like substance (vitrodentine), an inner layer of dentine, and a pulp cavity containing nerves and blood vessels. Primitive bony fishes had thick scales of either the ganoid or the cosmoid type. Cosmoid scales have a hard, enamel-like outer layer, an inner layer of cosmine (a form of dentine), and then a layer of vascular bone (isopedine). In ganoid scales the hard outer layer is different chemically and is called ganoin. Under this is a cosminelike layer and then a vascular bony layer. The thin, translucent bony scales of modern fishes, called cycloid and ctenoid (the latter distinguished by serrations at the edges), lack enameloid and dentine layers.
Skin has several other functions in fishes. It is well supplied with nerve endings and presumably receives tactile, thermal, and pain stimuli. Skin is also well supplied with blood vessels. Some fishes breathe in part through the skin, by the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between the surrounding water and numerous small blood vessels near the skin surface.
Skin serves as protection through the control of coloration. Fishes exhibit an almost limitless range of colours. The colours often blend closely with the surroundings, effectively hiding the animal. Many fishes use bright colours for territorial advertisement or as recognition marks for other members of their own species, or sometimes for members of other species. Many fishes can change their colour to a greater or lesser degree, by movement of pigment within the pigment cells (chromatophores). Black pigment cells (melanophores), of almost universal occurrence in fishes, are often juxtaposed with other pigment cells. When placed beneath iridocytes or leucophores (bearing the silvery or white pigment guanine), melanophores produce structural colours of blue and green. These colours are often extremely intense, because they are formed by refraction of light through the needlelike crystals of guanine. The blue and green refracted colours are often relatively pure, lacking the red and yellow rays, which have been absorbed by the black pigment (melanin) of the melanophores. Yellow, orange, and red colours are produced by erythrophores, cells containing the appropriate carotenoid pigments. Other colours are produced by combinations of melanophores, erythrophores, and iridocytes.
The major portion of the body of most fishes consists of muscles. Most of the mass is trunk musculature, the fin muscles usually being relatively small. The caudal fin is usually the most powerful fin, being moved by the trunk musculature. The body musculature is usually arranged in rows of chevron-shaped segments on each side. Contractions of these segments, each attached to adjacent vertebrae and vertebral processes, bends the body on the vertebral joint, producing successive undulations of the body, passing from the head to the tail, and producing driving strokes of the tail. It is the latter that provides the strong forward movement for most fishes.
The digestive system, in a functional sense, starts at the mouth, with the teeth used to capture prey or collect plant foods. Mouth shape and tooth structure vary greatly in fishes, depending on the kind of food normally eaten. Most fishes are predacious, feeding on small invertebrates or other fishes and have simple conical teeth on the jaws, on at least some of the bones of the roof of the mouth, and on special gill arch structures just in front of the esophagus. The latter are throat teeth. Most predacious fishes swallow their prey whole, and the teeth are used for grasping and holding prey, for orienting prey to be swallowed (head first) and for working the prey toward the esophagus. There are a variety of tooth types in fishes. Some fishes, such as sharks and piranhas, have cutting teeth for biting chunks out of their victims. A shark’s tooth, although superficially like that of a piranha, appears in many respects to be a modified scale, while that of the piranha is like that of other bony fishes, consisting of dentine and enamel. Parrot fishes have beaklike mouths with short incisor-like teeth for breaking off coral and have heavy pavementlike throat teeth for crushing the coral. Some catfishes have small brushlike teeth, arranged in rows on the jaws, for scraping plant and animal growth from rocks. Many fishes (such as the Cyprinidae or minnows) have no jaw teeth at all but have very strong throat teeth.
Some fishes gather planktonic food by straining it from their gill cavities with numerous elongate stiff rods (gill rakers) anchored by one end to the gill bars. The food collected on these rods is passed to the throat, where it is swallowed. Most fishes have only short gill rakers that help keep food particles from escaping out the mouth cavity into the gill chamber.
Once reaching the throat, food enters a short, often greatly distensible esophagus, a simple tube with a muscular wall leading into a stomach. The stomach varies greatly in fishes, depending upon the diet. In most predacious fishes it is a simple straight or curved tube or pouch with a muscular wall and a glandular lining. Food is largely digested there and leaves the stomach in liquid form.
Between the stomach and the intestine, ducts enter the digestive tube from the liver and pancreas. The liver is a large, clearly defined organ. The pancreas may be embedded in it, diffused through it, or broken into small parts spread along some of the intestine. The junction between the stomach and the intestine is marked by a muscular valve. Pyloric ceca (blind sacs) occur in some fishes at this junction and have a digestive or absorptive function or both.
The intestine itself is quite variable in length, depending upon the fish’s diet. It is short in predacious forms, sometimes no longer than the body cavity, but long in herbivorous forms, being coiled and several times longer than the entire length of the fish in some species of South American catfishes. The intestine is primarily an organ for absorbing nutrients into the bloodstream. The larger its internal surface, the greater its absorptive efficiency, and a spiral valve is one method of increasing its absorption surface.
Sharks, rays, chimaeras, lungfishes, surviving chondrosteans, holosteans, and even a few of the more primitive teleosts have a spiral valve or at least traces of it in the intestine. Most modern teleosts have increased the area of the intestinal walls by having numerous folds and villi (fingerlike projections) somewhat like those in humans. Undigested substances are passed to the exterior through the anus in most teleost fishes. In lungfishes, sharks, and rays, it is first passed through the cloaca, a common cavity receiving the intestinal opening and the ducts from the urogenital system.
Oxygen and carbon dioxide dissolve in water, and most fishes exchange dissolved oxygen and carbon dioxide in water by means of the gills. The gills lie behind and to the side of the mouth cavity and consist of fleshy filaments supported by the gill arches and filled with blood vessels, which give gills a bright red colour. Water taken in continuously through the mouth passes backward between the gill bars and over the gill filaments, where the exchange of gases takes place. The gills are protected by a gill cover in teleosts and many other fishes but by flaps of skin in sharks, rays, and some of the older fossil fish groups. The blood capillaries in the gill filaments are close to the gill surface to take up oxygen from the water and to give up excess carbon dioxide to the water.
Most modern fishes have a hydrostatic (ballast) organ, called the swim bladder, that lies in the body cavity just below the kidney and above the stomach and intestine. It originated as a diverticulum of the digestive canal. In advanced teleosts, especially the acanthopterygians, the bladder has lost its connection with the digestive tract, a condition called physoclistic. The connection has been retained (physostomous) by many relatively primitive teleosts. In several unrelated lines of fishes, the bladder has become specialized as a lung or, at least, as a highly vascularized accessory breathing organ. Some fishes with such accessory organs are obligate air breathers and will drown if denied access to the surface, even in well-oxygenated water. Fishes with a hydrostatic form of swim bladder can control their depth by regulating the amount of gas in the bladder. The gas, mostly oxygen, is secreted into the bladder by special glands, rendering the fish more buoyant; the gas is absorbed into the bloodstream by another special organ, reducing the overall buoyancy and allowing the fish to sink. Some deep-sea fishes may have oils, rather than gas, in the bladder. Other deep-sea and some bottom-living forms have much-reduced swim bladders or have lost the organ entirely.
The swim bladder of fishes follows the same developmental pattern as the lungs of land vertebrates. There is no doubt that the two structures have the same historical origin in primitive fishes. More or less intermediate forms still survive among the more primitive types of fishes, such as the lungfishes Lepidosiren and Protopterus.
The circulatory, or blood vascular, system consists of the heart, the arteries, the capillaries, and the veins. It is in the capillaries that the interchange of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nutrients, and other substances such as hormones and waste products takes place. The capillaries lead to the veins, which return the venous blood with its waste products to the heart, kidneys, and gills. There are two kinds of capillary beds: those in the gills and those in the rest of the body. The heart, a folded continuous muscular tube with three or four saclike enlargements, undergoes rhythmic contractions and receives venous blood in a sinus venosus. It passes the blood to an auricle and then into a thick muscular pump, the ventricle. From the ventricle the blood goes to a bulbous structure at the base of a ventral aorta just below the gills. The blood passes to the afferent (receiving) arteries of the gill arches and then to the gill capillaries. There waste gases are given off to the environment, and oxygen is absorbed. The oxygenated blood enters efferent (exuant) arteries of the gill arches and then flows into the dorsal aorta. From there blood is distributed to the tissues and organs of the body. One-way valves prevent backflow. The circulation of fishes thus differs from that of the reptiles, birds, and mammals in that oxygenated blood is not returned to the heart prior to distribution to the other parts of the body.
The primary excretory organ in fishes, as in other vertebrates, is the kidney. In fishes some excretion also takes place in the digestive tract, skin, and especially the gills (where ammonia is given off). Compared with land vertebrates, fishes have a special problem in maintaining their internal environment at a constant concentration of water and dissolved substances, such as salts. Proper balance of the internal environment (homeostasis) of a fish is in a great part maintained by the excretory system, especially the kidney.
The kidney, gills, and skin play an important role in maintaining a fish’s internal environment and checking the effects of osmosis. Marine fishes live in an environment in which the water around them has a greater concentration of salts than they can have inside their body and still maintain life. Freshwater fishes, on the other hand, live in water with a much lower concentration of salts than they require inside their bodies. Osmosis tends to promote the loss of water from the body of a marine fish and absorption of water by that of a freshwater fish. Mucus in the skin tends to slow the process but is not a sufficient barrier to prevent the movement of fluids through the permeable skin. When solutions on two sides of a permeable membrane have different concentrations of dissolved substances, water will pass through the membrane into the more concentrated solution, while the dissolved chemicals move into the area of lower concentration (diffusion).
The kidney of freshwater fishes is often larger in relation to body weight than that of marine fishes. In both groups the kidney excretes wastes from the body, but the kidney of freshwater fishes also excretes large amounts of water, counteracting the water absorbed through the skin. Freshwater fishes tend to lose salt to the environment and must replace it. They get some salt from their food, but the gills and skin inside the mouth actively absorb salt from water passed through the mouth. This absorption is performed by special cells capable of moving salts against the diffusion gradient. Freshwater fishes drink very little water and take in little water with their food.
Marine fishes must conserve water, and therefore their kidneys excrete little water. To maintain their water balance, marine fishes drink large quantities of seawater, retaining most of the water and excreting the salt. Most nitrogenous waste in marine fishes appears to be secreted by the gills as ammonia. Marine fishes can excrete salt by clusters of special cells (chloride cells) in the gills.
There are several teleosts—for example, the salmon—that travel between fresh water and seawater and must adjust to the reversal of osmotic gradients. They adjust their physiological processes by spending time (often surprisingly little time) in the intermediate brackish environment.
Marine hagfishes, sharks, and rays have osmotic concentrations in their blood about equal to that of seawater and so do not have to drink water nor perform much physiological work to maintain their osmotic balance. In sharks and rays the osmotic concentration is kept high by retention of urea in the blood. Freshwater sharks have a lowered concentration of urea in the blood.
Endocrine glands secrete their products into the bloodstream and body tissues and, along with the central nervous system, control and regulate many kinds of body functions. Cyclostomes have a well-developed endocrine system, and presumably it was well developed in the early Agnatha, ancestral to modern fishes. Although the endocrine system in fishes is similar to that of higher vertebrates, there are numerous differences in detail. The pituitary, the thyroid, the suprarenals, the adrenals, the pancreatic islets, the sex glands (ovaries and testes), the inner wall of the intestine, and the bodies of the ultimobranchial gland make up the endocrine system in fishes. There are some others whose function is not well understood. These organs regulate sexual activity and reproduction, growth, osmotic pressure, general metabolic activities such as the storage of fat and the utilization of foodstuffs, blood pressure, and certain aspects of skin colour. Many of these activities are also controlled in part by the central nervous system, which works with the endocrine system in maintaining the life of a fish. Some parts of the endocrine system are developmentally, and undoubtedly evolutionarily, derived from the nervous system.
As in all vertebrates, the nervous system of fishes is the primary mechanism coordinating body activities, as well as integrating these activities in the appropriate manner with stimuli from the environment. The central nervous system, consisting of the brain and spinal cord, is the primary integrating mechanism. The peripheral nervous system, consisting of nerves that connect the brain and spinal cord to various body organs, carries sensory information from special receptor organs such as the eyes, internal ears, nares (sense of smell), taste glands, and others to the integrating centres of the brain and spinal cord. The peripheral nervous system also carries information via different nerve cells from the integrating centres of the brain and spinal cord. This coded information is carried to the various organs and body systems, such as the skeletal muscular system, for appropriate action in response to the original external or internal stimulus. Another branch of the nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, helps to coordinate the activities of many glands and organs and is itself closely connected to the integrating centres of the brain.
The brain of the fish is divided into several anatomical and functional parts, all closely interconnected but each serving as the primary centre of integrating particular kinds of responses and activities. Several of these centres or parts are primarily associated with one type of sensory perception, such as sight, hearing, or smell (olfaction).
The sense of smell is important in almost all fishes. Certain eels with tiny eyes depend mostly on smell for location of food. The olfactory, or nasal, organ of fishes is located on the dorsal surface of the snout. The lining of the nasal organ has special sensory cells that perceive chemicals dissolved in the water, such as substances from food material, and send sensory information to the brain by way of the first cranial nerve. Odour also serves as an alarm system. Many fishes, especially various species of freshwater minnows, react with alarm to a chemical released from the skin of an injured member of their own species.
Many fishes have a well-developed sense of taste, and tiny pitlike taste buds or organs are located not only within their mouth cavities but also over their heads and parts of their body. Catfishes, which often have poor vision, have barbels (“whiskers”) that serve as supplementary taste organs, those around the mouth being actively used to search out food on the bottom. Some species of naturally blind cave fishes are especially well supplied with taste buds, which often cover most of their body surface.
Sight is extremely important in most fishes. The eye of a fish is basically like that of all other vertebrates, but the eyes of fishes are extremely varied in structure and adaptation. In general, fishes living in dark and dim water habitats have large eyes, unless they have specialized in some compensatory way so that another sense (such as smell) is dominant, in which case the eyes will often be reduced. Fishes living in brightly lighted shallow waters often will have relatively small but efficient eyes. Cyclostomes have somewhat less elaborate eyes than other fishes, with skin stretched over the eyeball perhaps making their vision somewhat less effective. Most fishes have a spherical lens and accommodate their vision to far or near subjects by moving the lens within the eyeball. A few sharks accommodate by changing the shape of the lens, as in land vertebrates. Those fishes that are heavily dependent upon the eyes have especially strong muscles for accommodation. Most fishes see well, despite the restrictions imposed by frequent turbidity of the water and by light refraction.
Fossil evidence suggests that colour vision evolved in fishes more than 300 million years ago, but not all living fishes have retained this ability. Experimental evidence indicates that many shallow-water fishes, if not all, have colour vision and see some colours especially well, but some bottom-dwelling shore fishes live in areas where the water is sufficiently deep to filter out most if not all colours, and these fishes apparently never see colours. When tested in shallow water, they apparently are unable to respond to colour differences.
Sound perception and balance are intimately associated senses in a fish. The organs of hearing are entirely internal, located within the skull, on each side of the brain and somewhat behind the eyes. Sound waves, especially those of low frequencies, travel readily through water and impinge directly upon the bones and fluids of the head and body, to be transmitted to the hearing organs. Fishes readily respond to sound; for example, a trout conditioned to escape by the approach of fishermen will take flight upon perceiving footsteps on a stream bank even if it cannot see a fisherman. Compared with humans, however, the range of sound frequencies heard by fishes is greatly restricted. Many fishes communicate with each other by producing sounds in their swim bladders, in their throats by rasping their teeth, and in other ways.
A fish or other vertebrate seldom has to rely on a single type of sensory information to determine the nature of the environment around it. A catfish uses taste and touch when examining a food object with its oral barbels. Like most other animals, fishes have many touch receptors over their body surface. Pain and temperature receptors also are present in fishes and presumably produce the same kind of information to a fish as to humans. Fishes react in a negative fashion to stimuli that would be painful to human beings, suggesting that they feel a sensation of pain.
An important sensory system in fishes that is absent in other vertebrates (except some amphibians) is the lateral line system. This consists of a series of heavily innervated small canals located in the skin and bone around the eyes, along the lower jaw, over the head, and down the mid-side of the body, where it is associated with the scales. Intermittently along these canals are located tiny sensory organs (pit organs) that apparently detect changes in pressure. The system allows a fish to sense changes in water currents and pressure, thereby helping the fish to orient itself to the various changes that occur in the physical environment.
Wabash EMD E8A # 1009, streamlined fire ladder truck & PCC are seen at the railroad museum in Roanoke, Virginia, August 1985. The Wabash E-8 at this time was possibly 35 years old and not so long out of service. The old streamlined fire truck was probably buitl by Ward LaFrance or American LaFrance, don't really know. The PCC street car was probably the best and most reliable of all the street cars produced during its day.
The National Paint, Varnish and Lacquer Assn, used this painting for the ad in the March 1949 Country Gentleman.
These are a few Streamlined and Semi-streamlined steam locomotives in HO scale. All are brass, except the two British LNER locomotives. Reading RR 4-6-2 - Reading Crusader - by Ajin (Korea) for MTS in 1993
A SANTA FE STREAMLINED TRAIN
Date: 1951
Source Type: Postcard
Publisher, Printer, Photographer: Curt Teich (#H-4583, #1C-H227)
Postmark: None
Collection: Steven R. Shook
Remark: SANTA FE TRANSCONTINENTAL TRAIN -- with its streamlined cars in gleaming stainless steel, and 6,000 H. P. Diesel-locomotive.
Copyright 2010. Some rights reserved. The associated text may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of Steven R. Shook.
This beautifully streamlined car was designed by Guillem Tachó, Manresa, Spain and built by his brothers Josep and Antoni. This second model - the first Ballena had three wheels - participated in several country races. Only one car was built.
In 1953 the Tachó brothers manufactured the 'Coca'. A very simple car which was the forerunner of the succesfull PTV 250.
Two b&w photos (same car) stitched together and colorized.
Norfolk Southern operated N&W streamlined J-class 4-8-4 Northern steam locomotive # 611 has led its Railfan Excursion Train to its destination at Oneida, Tennessee, October 1989. On the left side of the train is the park area where the food vendors and novelty sales tents were set up for the passengers. This area of the railroad was in a portion of the former Southern Railway Rathole Division.
A Hanomag 1,3 Liter at the Vintage VW Meet in Hessisch Oldendorf.
Nicknamed "Autobahn Hanomag", or "Stahlhelm".
© Dennis Matthies
My photographs are copyrighted and may not be altered, printed, published in any media and/or format, or re-posted in other websites/blogs.
Creator: Sneyd.
Location: Sandgate, Queensland.
Description: This motorhome was delivered by Moran Motors to a resident in Sandgate. It has three bunks, a stove, wardrobe, sink and two ? dressing rooms. (Description supplied with photograph.)
View the original image at the State Library of Queensland: hdl.handle.net/10462/deriv/116884.
Information about State Library of Queensland’s collection: www.slq.qld.gov.au/research-collections.
You are free to use this image without permission. Please attribute State Library of Queensland.