the Olympian Hiawatha railroad observation cars

the above is from http://www.coffeedrome.com/dayhi.html and they have a couple more interior photos

Above image via http://cruiselinehistory.com/?p=233

Above image via http://dummidumbwit.wordpress.com/2010/04/01/twin-cities-olympian-hiawathas-milwaukee-road/

not exactly the interior view of the top two photos, but close enough

The 10 Skytops, created by industrial designer Brooks Stevens http://wisconsinology.blogspot.com/2009/02/brooks-stevensthe-designer-of-20.html in 1948, were probably the most distinctive cars ever built. Milwaukee Road built the 4 parlor cars in their own shops (1 drawing room and 24 parlor seats) and had Pullman Standard build 6 sleepers, each with 8 bedrooms and a lounge. The observation ends on the Milwaukee built cars are more of a bullet than the Pullman built cars, with the rear couch about 4 inches narrower.

The lounges served on the Chicago - Minneapolis "Hiawatha Service" until 1970, and the sleepers were on the "Olympian Hiawatha" until 1964, then were sold to CN.

CN renamed them "Skyview" cars, and used them mainly on their Halifax-Montreal trains, the 'Ocean Limited' and the 'Scotian', from 1965 to 1969. They saw brief service on Montreal-Toronto corridor trains in 1969, then moved to the Gaspé-Montreal and Jasper-Prince Rupert routes until their withdrawal from service in September 1971.
Due to fire regulations (no rear door - only one access), the cars found no further use and 2 were scrapped in Canada and the other 4 sold back into the US.

One is on display in Glenview Illinois, another is permanent display at the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, Fla. http://moas.org/collections.html

Train - plane, art of Jeff de Boer

It doesn't have to make sense when it combines two cool things, old trains and old airplanes
Found at http://mhsteampunk.tumblr.com

restored tourist attraction steam locomotive was heavily damaged by derailing and falling on it's side because thieves removed the railroad ties

The locomotive – which dedicated volunteers spent many years restoring to working order – was substantially damaged.

The railroad ties are wood planks about 8 inches tall by 12 inches wide and “tie” the rails to the trackbed. Without sleepers, the rails would spread and topple under the weight of a train – which is what happened (interesting to me for the breadth of information about the variety of railroad ties: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Railroad_tie and for an intriguing photo and information about railroad ties being baked in creosote http://www.shorpy.com/node/7900?size=_original )

The stolen ties were made from hard Australian yarra wood, and are highly prized for making furniture – and sometimes for firewood – and in recent years, railway lines all over South Africa have been targeted by sleeper thieves. Some lines have lost so many sleepers that they have been closed since the cost of replacement has been deemed uneconomic.

Yesterday’s derailment happened on a line that sees many tourist trains during the year. The thieves don’t really care about the consequences, either for innocent passengers or for tourism as a whole. The cost of repairing the locomotive will be a heavy burden for the club which receives no funding other than what it earns from running tourist trains. The cost of repairing the damaged track will run into many thousands of rand – and Transnet is not keen to spend money looking after lines that are not part of its core network.

http://blogs.timeslive.co.za/wanderer/2010/06/21/thieves-derail-train-and-give-sa-tourism-a-kick-in-the-head/
via http://tukkers.blogspot.com/ which is NSFW (not safe for work)

Some people have great Flikr sets, but don't post to Tumbler or Blog.. damn shame. These are from a good photographer's Flikr pool

via: http://www.flickr.com/photos/citroen250/collections/72157615057986546/

Bad train wreck, great photo

I don't know the source

The beauty of the streamlined locomotive train

photo by Arkady Shaikhet 1939

The above is via: http://fantomatik75.blogspot.com/ and is a poor copy of the Metzger photo, for a better copy: http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2009/12/beauty-of-curve.html

Been a long time since I posted a train

Via: http://vintagecottagefrench.tumblr.com/

only the greatest photographers have a portfolio of magazine covers

from http://www.art-dept.com/artists/mccurry/ and http://www.stevemccurry.com/main.php The portfolio of Steve McCurry is awesome and amazing. He is or was a photographer for National Geographic Magazine I requested permission twice by email to both websites, and haven't heard a thing from them...

Bizarre variety of photos from 5window tumbler, a lot of cool stuff though

For another shot of this Cobra, and a write up, see http://magneticbrain.blogspot.com/2010/03/bit-player.html

more at http://5window.tumblr.com/

Black and white and cool all over

Sophia Loren on the hood of a 300sl

Nixon in Paris 1957

Bumper cars at a British carnival

The concept car Ford Seattle

Dizzy Dean trying to start a 2nd career

Daytona Beach racing 1953

Train wreck Palatine Illinois 1950

Cincinatti 1950

Looks like James Dean's Porsche

Brooklyn 1955, maybe a Packard taxi

From "If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger,There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats" a blog about all pre-1970 American culture via photography http://tsutpen.blogspot.com/

Harbor Springs, Michigan, circa 1906. "Excursion logging train." The smallest train I can recall seeing

via: http://www.shorpy.com/node/7786 from finding it http://roughingitblog.tumblr.com/page/5

I don't see how a propeller is going to push along a train

1931 Schienenzeppelin

Full write up at: http://phreddy.tumblr.com/post/408535916/schienenzeppelin-frame

In a lonesome railroad yard in Michigan

these just put follish notions in my head of getting one and making a summer place out of it, or making it railroad safe, and paying a railroad company to link up and see America by rail in my own car.... not that I have a nickel to my name, but you have to start with a dream, a hope, and if everything works out, you may see it all happen. Just look at how this blog started as things I posted so I could email a link to friends instead of emailing them all the cool and fun stuff I come across!

Lots of cool photos over at the HAMB, here's a couple from a thread about the history of Los Angeles

That is one great photo.

Very cool socket wrench holder! That's clever!

Craig Breedlove built the Spirit of America in his garage!

This is how many oil derricks there were all over Los Angeles, above in Brea, below in Huntington Beach, 1958

The first the time I have seen a delivery truck in use to deliver when new

Drive by banking?

Big 'ol ambulance

Via: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?p=4927350