Trips in Trains

 See Ir On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt for August will be Travelling, this week, on trains

1980: 150th Anniv of Liverpool and Manch ester Railway (Designer - David Gentleman)

 

A full train of day trippers, some are in the 1st class carriage and others in 2nd class

All together on the Ravenglass and Eskdale narrow gauge railway enjoying a day out in the Eskdale valley.  Just in case you were thinking about the Lake District's proclivity to rain they also run covered carriages.

Strasburg Rail Road, Strasburg, Pennsylvania

In contrast, a big country needs a big train. Great Western  #90 built in 1924 originally pulled sugar beet in Colorado. Purchased in 1967 by the Strasburg Rail Road who needed a more powerful locomotive to pull the  increasing numbers of tourists. The card says "Ride the train and experience the Amish farm country for yourself". 

Aviation

 

1987: Airmail - Aviation

1st test airmail flight, Villacoublay to Pauilac in France in 1913. . The Morane Soulnier Type H was a single seat monoplane primarily used for racing and sporting purposes.

1980: World Cup Aerobatics, Oshkosh, Wisconsin, USA

An acrobatic sport aircraft,

2016: Royal Aeronautical Society 150 Years - Innovation in Aerospace

Two, at the time, cutting edge airplanes. 93p) The Harrier Jump Jet, its Pegasus engine permitting vertical or horizontal flight according to the vector of the exhaust flow. 93p) The supersonic airplane Concorde whose first passenger scheduled flight was in 1976

1987: Helicopters

20₮) The behemoth that was the Soviet designed airliner B-12, a rotary winged vehicle able to carry 200 passengers. Although technologically brilliant it never made it to full scale as it was too expensive and complicated to manufacture. 30₮) Westland WG-30 Lynx  . Originally envisioned as a military vehicle for tactical transport and air ambulances instead it  became a useful civilian helicopter including transport to and from offshore oil and gas fields. The prototype was built in 1979 followed by manufacture. The last of the Lynx class were sold to India in 1988.

Sunday Stamps theme - Aviation - at  See It On A Postcard 

Shelters

 See It On a Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - Shelters

Charcoal Burning

A charcoal burners hut. A charcoal burn requires constant day and night supervision to watch the smoke colour and seal any cracks in the earth mound and control the air flow. The huts are simple structures consisting of a stone base, wooden poles, turf and branches.  At the height of the industrial revolution there must have been hundreds. The remains can still be seen in the woods today, here is an example.

Barn in Winter. (2016: Finnish Barns Maximum Card 112)

 I presume this what the Finns call a Lato (Hay Barn). A good thing to take shelter in if you were caught in a snow storm.

But let our thoughts turn to summer and the 3-12 August 1951 Scout Jamboree in Bad Jschl, Austria. This card has both a hut and tents. The card comes with a

postmark and a scouts message home as he sets out in that direction. It says "At the moment I am not sure who is going to wait for who at Dieppe but I believe it is equal. Otherwise alive and I am not broke yet. Today it is sun again"

Stories

 

1997: Europa - Tales and Legends

The Fisherman and his Wife - a fairy story collected by the Brothers Grimm

Rubezahl, a mountain dweller and  subject of many legends in Germany and Eastern Europe

2006: Animal Tales

Favourite children's book animals:- Roald Dahl;s 'The Enormous Crocodile'; Michael Bond's Paddington Bear. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle, where a very tiny Caterpillar  consumes many types of foods before eventually turning into a butterfly. It seems it has taken two circular chunks out of the stamp on the journey. Lastly learn the alphabet with Maisy Mouse's ABC here she is dressing up as a Queen but her adventures include balancing on an Elephant's trunk and flying a Kite. The interactive book is by Lucy Cousins.

Sunday Stamps theme - Children's Books - See It On A Postcard 

Past Stations

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - Architecture - Stations (train, bus or airport) 

Liverpool Exchange opened in May 1850. it had five platforms with an overall roof for "the comfort of passengers"  By the 1870s traffic had increased so much it was eventually expanded in 1888 and opened in its new form. Exchange consisted of this grand hotel frontage behind which was a covered cab road, further buildings provided offices, booking and waiting facilities. It now had 10 platform faces protected by gabled roofs. The station closed in 1977 and trains were diverted to the new underground link line. The card was sent in 1903.

In contrast - Redmire Station in the snow.  Once the terminus of the Wensleydale Railway, unfortunately the track has deteriorated and at the moment the platform and car park are being used as en engineering base to re-lay the line The station building (once the station masters house, booking hall and waiting room) has been owned by the 2nd Acomb Scouts Group since 1988 taking the name of Redmire Station House Activity Centre, a hostel for use by families and youth groups with cycling and walking routes straight from the door into the Yorkshire Dales. 

Broad Gauge engine in Bristol's old Temple Meads Station. Brunel's Great Western Railway was built using broad gauge which would lead to the Gauge Wars as the rest of Britain largely adopted standard gauge. The tracks at Temple Mead were then converted to mixed gauge. The postcard artist John G Norris shows Post Office Station Staff transferring mail at Bristol Old Temple Mead Station around 1892.

 

As an added bonus there is a special cancel for the departure of the Orient Express from Temple Meads Station in 1985 as part of the Great Western Railway's 150th anniversary celebrations

Lighthouses

 

1998: Lighthouses (Design - Dick Davis)

The original Eddystone Lighthouse of  1698 built on a small rock in dangerous seas (first of four). This was a wooden structure built by Henry Winstanley it experienced many storms in the next few years and was showing wear and tear.. A great storm five years after being built was its last and killed  Winstanley who had gone out to make repairs on the structure. Ironically it fulfilled his wish to be in it during "the greatest storm there ever was"

1978: Lighthouses of the Bailiwick

Views of calm seas but dangerous rocks and tides in the Baliwick of Guernsey

2002: 100th Anniversary of ICES (Council for the Exploration of the Sea)

A joint issue of  the same miniature sheet by Greenland, Faroe Islands and Denmark. Each country had two stamps. I have a Danish stamp which was used for postage but it is the one with the ship and fish without the attached lighthouse so post the full expanse with a lighthouse showing the way. I like to think that is the Skagen Lighthouse in the far north of Jutland, once Denmark's tallest lighthouse which today also houses a migratory bird center.

Sunday Stamps theme of  - Lighthouses - follow the light to See It On A Postcard  

Palaces

 See It On A Postcard's Thursday Postcard Hunt - Architecture - Palaces

The monumental Winter Palace in St Petersburg, the former main residence of the Russian royal family on the south bank of the Neva River. Today of course it is part of the Hermitage Museum complex.

 

The Royal Palace of Aranjuez one of the official residences of the Spanish royal family. It looks a wonderful entrance into the square for high stepping horses. There is a museum on the ground floor and the rooms and gardens are open to the public.