Various articles, mainly about railways
Given the outbreaks of anti-photography paranoia which have occurred in Britain in recent years, I was amused to stumble across this 1938 Railway Gazette article “Amateur railway photography in Germany”, reporting that the Reichsbahn had recently clarified that railway photography was permitted from public areas.
The report was published on 15 April 1938 – the week in which you-know-who’s party won more than 99% of the votes in the final “election” before the war.
Unlikely as it sounds, my website has proved so popular that a couple of weeks ago it got shut down by the hosting provider for exceeding its monthly data limit.
As of September 1 it has been relaunched with a new host, so hopefully the problem shouldn’t reoccur. It is possible that a few things might have got mangled during the transition, so let me know if anything is too badly broken.
Normal service is now resumed, hopefully.
Andrew
The Grade II listed splash boat in Kingston upon Hull’s East Park was supplied by Charles Wicksteed & Co in 1929 at a cost of £1400. The city engineer’s department built the tower for £474 2s 5d. The drop is 22 feet, in a run of around 100 feet.
The ride’s rail support structure was rebuilt around 1961.
The splash boat was closed for almost two years following an accident during maintenance on 6 August 2010. An inspection was undertaken by NPS Humber, and their condition report was presented to the city council in May 2011.
Happily the splash boat underwent a £35 000 restoration undertaken by Hull firm DB Engineering from November 2011, and it reopened on 2 June 2012. The video is from 5 June 2012.
Great fun, well worth the 80p for a ride. And yes, you do get wet.
The other surviving splash boats are the original 1926 waterchute at Wicksteed Park near Kettering, and a 1932 one to a different or rebuilt design in Scarborough. This was part of the Kinderland park until its closure, but in 2008 the waterchute reopened under the management of the North Bay Railway.
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An old mooring block for airships, on a former airship station which is now a golf course to the north of Howden in Yorkshire.
There are historical details on the town council website.
The staff at the golf course were happy to let us walk over to see the block, and seemed rather proud to have it on their site.
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