Vintage Memories

[Hornspieler]

I'm going to start with means of travel, beginning with aircraft:


A Westland Lysander.

I saw a lot of these. My father's job was moved from London to Porton Down in 1942, so the family moved down to Salisbury.

What could be more natural for my brother and I to spend hours up on the ancient British earthworks at Old Sarum (Salisbury's other name is also known as New Sarum)

There, we could watch the Lysanders arriving and departing from the aerodrome at RAF Old Sarum.

Little did we know that their job was to transport secret agents to and from France and the Low Countries.
At the time, we did not realise how large these single-engined monoplanes were. It was only when I visited Duxford Museum and took this photograph that I saw the difference between the Lizzie and the American Piper Cub, which can be seen beyond and below the Lysander's high wing structure.

I have a couple more vintage aircraft to show and then I will move on to other less warlike old forms of transport.

HS

[robk]

Essex Oyster Smack Katie built in 1885 probably by Aldous at Brightlingsea. Seen here drifting into Ipswich on a dreary October morning in 1987

[Hornspieler]

Essex Oyster Smack Katie built in 1885 probably by Aldous at Brightlingsea. Seen here drifting into Ipswich on a dreary October morning in 1987

Nice picture robk! Keep them coming.

.... continuing the aircraft story:

From monoplane to Biplane.

This is the de Haviland Rapide. A ten passenger carrier which served the small islands around our coast in the 1930s.
In fact, there was still one of them operating around the Channel Islands as recently as the early 1950s ...

... which leads me from biplane to Triplane ...

Scourge of the Royal Flying Corps, this is the Fokker Triplane flown by the dreaded "Red Baron" for the Kaiser's army in the Great War.

This is probably the only one still existing.* (and it is still in flying condition.)

HS

* No. That's not the Red Baron standing in front of the aircraft. That is Frau Hornspieler.

[Hornspieler]

... to conclude my aircraft selection .....

From the Red Baron's Triplane to the Red Arrows Nine Planes:





These three photos were taken over Bournemouth Bay in 2010, before the tragic accident which caused the death of a brave pilot who sacrificed his life to save a village in 2011.

HS

[robk]

I was interested to see the Lysander having just read The Girl who fell from the Sky by Simon Mawer. My next offering is of Thames Barges lying at anchor on the River Swale before the Swale Smack and Barge match.

[Hornspieler]

Off across the Pond now.

Imagine this heading straight at you!



The Grand Canyon Railway runs from the town of Williams, Arizona on the famous Route 76 to the Grand Canyon National Park. These huge locomotives are more than 150 years old, but are now powered by a steam generator, towed behind the engine.

And now to Canada and the Canadian Pacific Railway:



Rail transport has always been of vital importance in Canada. I was told that those huge freight trains seen alongside the highway can be as long as 2 kilometers with two locomotives at the front and one pushing at the rear. It takes about three days to assemble one of these freightliners.

Off to Vancouver now, for some more local transport:



You can still buy a ticket to ride one of these in Vancouver.

HS

[salymap]

Lovely pix, robk and HS to brighten up a very wet day here



What's next?

[Stillhomewardbound]

Love your Red Arrows shots, HS. I saw the Lysander you posted earlier but it seems not to be displaying.

They never fail to provide a thrill. Got this at the 2009 Trooping the Colour in 2009.



Also, just disappearing out of the shot at the day's flypast was this VC10 RAF tanker. All too sadly now no longer in service. Shame. Still, as a passenger just, one of the fastest aircraft built.

[mercia]

it may just be my computer but the photos in #6 have not appeared - "the image you are requesting does not exist"

[vinteuil]

it may just be my computer but the photos in #6 have not appeared - "the image you are requesting does not exist"

... they seem ok on my pc here...

EDIT - altho' curiously unavailable on Mme V's pc....




.

[mangerton]

... they seem ok on my pc here...

EDIT - altho' curiously unavailable on Mme V's pc....




.

I can't see them either, and I could this morning. I think they may have been moved from the host site (imgur.com)

[salymap]

Fingers crossed, I can still see #6, if that's the problem.

Hope all will be restored - sounds a difficult thing to get pictures on here.

[Hornspieler]

Here's a picture to please Caliban.



1938 Citroen Light Fifteen (The Maigret Car)

I saw this one in a display at my old stomping ground in Vale do Lobo Golf Club

This is the first car I ever owned. Bought it in 1956 in Dublin for £60.
Cornered like a bedstead and although two of its tyres were bald down to the canvas, I never had a puncture, even on Dublin's cobbled, tramlined streets.

A wheel at each corner and my first experience of front wheel drive. (No prop shaft tunnel and masses of room in the back seat!)

The next model from that veteran car display will be a 1947 Alvis TA 14 Drophead Coupé.

HS

[Stillhomewardbound]

Here's a beautiful car I pictured a few years back in Dean's Yard, Westminster. I believe it's a 1958 Bentley S1 Continental. Anyway, when my big lottery win comes along I've promised myself one, along with a handsome young man to drive it for me as I can't drive. *



* My excuse, and I'm sticking to it

[Hornspieler]

Here's a beautiful car I pictured a few years back in Dean's Yard, Westminster. I believe it's a 1958 Bentley S1 Continental. Anyway, when my big lottery win comes along I've promised myself one, along with a handsome young man to drive it for me as I can't drive. *

* My excuse, and I'm sticking to it

Yum Yum

Here's that Alvis TA 14 which I promised:



In 1947, everything was for export. There was at least a three year waiting list if you wanted to buy a new car - even a Ford Anglia, so when I saw an advert for a new Alvis TA Drophead Coupé for immediate delivery, I badgered my father to buy it. No such luck!

I didn't see another one until about 1957, when a violinist who was the leader of the "National Symphony Orchestra" (Decca's name for a freelance outfit making budget priced recordings) turned up in one.

"What's it drive like?" I asked him.
"Just like any other fourteen horsepower car" he replied "and just as prone to rust and breakdowns"

... so how the example illustrated above survived, I have no idea.

Next post will be a BMW Isetta

HS