Tag Archives: transportation

Heavy Lifter

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In a visit we made to Seattle in the mid 2000s, we took a boat tour around Elliott Bay.  One of the more impressive ships in the harbor was one that is designed to lift heavy loads and carry them long distances.  It will sink to allow the load to be floated on to the hull and then it will lift back up and leave the load on the deck.  You can see the markings for sinking the hull on the superstructure.

The most impressive view of the ship was from the front as we passed ahead of it.  The beam was something special to see.  It had a very muscular look to it.  These are the sort of ships that have been used to moved smaller ships when they have suffered damage.  The Royal Navy had a destroyer that hit a reef in the South Pacific once that was moved this way.  Quite an impressive capability.

Cruising Out Under Lion’s Gate Bridge

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Cruise ships are a regular feature of Vancouver Harbour.  Pacific Place has a terminal where two ships can be berthed at any one time.  One evening, as I was hanging out on Stanley Park, one of the ships set sail – presumably for a trip up to Alaska.  I watched it pass close by where I was and took a look at what I could see happening on the decks facing the shore (including one chap in a bathrobe on a rear balcony who probably didn’t think he was visible.  Then the ship headed out under the Lions Gate bridge as the sun was beginning to go down.

The Original Doctor Yellow

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The Tokaido Shinkansen service requires regular inspection of the track to ensure it is up to the high standards required of high speed service.  JRC operates an inspection train called Doctor Yellow.  It is a highly instrumented version of the current trains.  I have seen the current Doctor Yellow when I was at one of JRC’s maintenance facilities.  However, the original Doctor Yellow was based on the Series 0 trains.  It is now preserved in the SC Maglev museum in Nagoya along with many of the other Shinkansen designs.

Ferries and Freighters from Above

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Our aerial adventure with Kenmore Air included a lot of time over the waters of Puget Sound.  Very little time was spent over land.  The waters were not very busy but there was enough boat traffic to see as we soared overhead.  We weren’t always close, though, so sometimes things were watched from a distance.  We did have a pretty close pass on a freighter though.  It was making good speed heading into the sound.

Ferry traffic is a regular thing to see with the Washington State Ferries heading to and fro across the waters.  As we were closing in on Friday Harbor, we saw one ferry.  It was a smaller one that was running between the islands and it was a bit hard to get a good view of.  The ferries between Edmonds and Kingston are a lot more heavily used and so are a lot bigger.  They were passing each other mid crossing as we ran south so I managed to get a few shots of them from above as we headed overhead.

A Little Hovercraft Video

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I got a few stills of the hovercraft but I also decided to film some video.  For those that haven’t seen hovercraft in action, stills probably do not give a suitable impression of how they rise up above the surface yet still leave a wake.  Quite a cool form of transportation and I do enjoy seeing them.  Hope you enjoy the video.

Island Flyer

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Regular readers know I like the hovercraft.  I didn’t make a specific visit to Ryde on our last trip to see them but I did get to see them on our two ferry crossings and we also stopped at Southsea where I got to see a couple of arrivals and departures.  The new hovercraft have not had a trouble free introduction but I suspect they have had a few fixes embodied.  The memory of introduction problems will probably last far longer than the actual problems but I don’t know for sure whether they are doing fine now or not.  All I know is that the service was running while we were there.

I was rather pleased that one of the crossings ended up getting very close to the ferry as we headed in to Portsmouth.  It provided a far more interesting angle on the hovercraft than I would normally get.  Combine that with some shots from the beach at Southsea and I was happy with having got some shots of the new craft which I hadn’t really seen before.  During the departure, I was conscious of the potential for spray sideways as they lifted off.  What I hadn’t considered properly – pretty annoying given how I know to deal with jetwash when on a ramp – is that the departing craft got quite far offshore before you got blasted with their propwash.  That was mixed with seawater – an ideal combination for electronic equipment!  No permanent damage though.

SC Maglev Museum

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Nagoya is home to a museum of Japanese rolling stock.  The museum name focuses on Maglev technology and there is a Maglev prototype in the museum.  However, the exhibits are really a cross section of the Japanese rail industry over the years.  I will probably post some more from the museum as there were quite a few interesting exhibits.  Most of it was inside – most welcome on such a hot day – but the N700 prototype was outside.  I did have a look at that briefly along with an old steam locomotive but I was soon driven back inside by the temperatures.

When I first got there, you are directed into a hall with three significant exhibits.  It was so dark, I was wondering whether there would be any decent photo opportunities.  However, this was just the initial introduction and there were periodic videos and light shows to allow you to see these exhibits more clearly.  A little patience was required.  The main hall had the majority of the exhibits and they were lit normally.  There were plenty of people in the museum taking pictures with small children that didn’t seem to be enjoying it as much as the parents would have liked!  Maybe they wanted to be at Legoland across the street?

South Coast Trains

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There are a few readers of the blog that like trains so this is a quick view of some UK passenger trains.  We stayed in Chichester for a while and were very close to the station.  We had to walk past it in to the town.  There were tons of trains running along this coast route so I saw several as we were finding out where things were.  Here are two of the trains.  They are both EMUs, one of which is relatively recent while the other is a pretty old vintage of train that I didn’t even realize operated in this part of the world.

Quite a Locomotive

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I know a few of the regular readers of the blog are in to trains so I hope this one pleases them.  The Henry Ford Museum covers all sorts of engineering endeavors including a selection of rail vehicles.  This was one of the last things we saw before we left so I didn’t explore very much.  However, there was one rather large steam locomotive on display.  This thing was a beast and I imagine it was quite the sight when it was in regular usage.  Our visit coincided with the running of Big Boy after restoration so something similar to this can been seen for real once again!