Planes, Train, Automobiles, and Boats: the Gearhead thread

[Torchwood]

[Sennacherib]

A quick look ahead:



China and Spain lead in new construction



...and a look back:

Portrait of 71000 Duke of Gloucester at WSR Spring Gala 2010



A very loud Duke of Gloucester!

[Colonel Sun]

[Colonel Sun]

[Colonel Sun]

[1930 | 225 kph = 140 mph]

[CgDs]

[~]

Slap on those Sennheisers, put the volume on 11, and take a lap around the Nürburgring at a couple hundred MPH+ with Hans Stuck...

[Sennacherib]

First Flight of the Avro Arrow



CF-105 Arrow 1 RL-201, 25 March 1958

[Torchwood]

Tasteless bling - the strip sidelights on Audis.

Perhaps why the Rolex wearing gangsta class have switched to them from BMWs.

[Torchwood]

Tilting trains are cool, and one way to go faster if you don't build high speed lines. Richard Branson's Italian designed "Pendolinos" on the London-Birmingham - Glasgow main line. These 140mph Virgin Trains run on a line built by Robert Stephenson in the 1840s, the first major main line in the world. It curves a bit too much to avoid the estates of gentlemen who would not allow the newfangled iron horse to disturb their rural peace.

[Colonel Sun]

[Sennacherib]

[Sennacherib]

[AzariLoveIran]

[Colonel Sun]

Why not post it in the "Auto" thread . . .

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=181

[Tinker]

Selling better in China than the US eh?

[YMix]

[Colonel Sun]

[Torchwood]

It's certainly the case that if you book ahead, the train is now often cheaper than driving even for two people, let alone one, with petrol at £6 a gallon. People still own cars, but drive less.

Interesting that the trend predates current high oil prices however. More homeworking due to the internet, congestion, rising car insurance premiums and tougher drink driving laws seem to be factors as well. It is almost impossible for a man under 25 to get insurance at reasonable rates any more.

[Hans Bulvai]

[Colonel Sun]

[Colonel Sun]

[Sennacherib]

"FIFI" is the only flying B-29 in the world.

[Torchwood]

The last cross-channel commercial hovercraft was in 2000, killed by its gas guzzling, the Channel tunnel, and the more efficient and reliable catamaran ferries which replaced them. They were fun and fast, though - 60 mph across the sea, Dover-Calais in 25 minutes, but massively bumpy as they chopped through the swell instead of riding it - like driving fast over cobbles. In the days before the chunnel and low cost airlines, I did the quick and cheap way several times from London to Paris, which was to take a Dover-Boulogne hoverflight with train connections at each end. Still, it took 5 hours end to end which cannot compare with 2 hours on the high speed train today.

You can still get a hovercraft from Portsmouth to the Isle of Wight.

The French hoverports were fun - the beasts would come in over the beach in a flurry of sand. The landing pad of the abandoned hoverport at Boulogne is still clearly visible from the air.

[Colonel Sun]

Beijing - Shanghai high speed rail service launched: