Vilnius is using its Railway Station and the adjacent Lithuanian Railway Museum to host an ‘Independent Christmas Village’, and the city is making a statement about the hyper-consumerism that tends to take over the holiday season, encouraging a more local and authentic approach to Christmas instead. Their...
Picture this. East v. West relations have deteriorated to the point where somebody in the Soviet Union launches a flurry of nuclear Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) at the USA. Suddenly, as they begin to re-enter the atmosphere over northern Canada, a set of steel hatches behind a...
South Africa’s famous Blue Train has some new rolling stock. The Blue Train is actually two trains. Train Set 1 was shorter than its sibling and had no Observation Car, but it has now been extended to 15 carriages with the addition of a new observation car...
Air Astana, the national carrier of Kazakhstan, has taken delivery of its first Embraer E190-E2 aircraft, and used the opportunity to promote the cause of an endangered species – the Snow Leopard. The aircraft, which arrived today at Nursultan Nazarbayev International Airport in Astana after a series...
Nearly one in five motorcycle owners is now female, compared with one in 10 less than a decade ago, and the data suggests that women could soon make up one quarter of owners, which would be a major shift in motorcycling demographics, according to the latest national...
Any nautical engineers or ship designers out there, who know the answer? We’ve all been enjoying the sight of Celebrity Edge being delivered and now embarking on her first cruises. Her stand-out (literally) feature is the ‘Magic Carpet’ – “the world’s first cantilevered, floating platform” that rises...
It’s been a few years since I last visited the Royal Air Force Museum in Hendon, North London, and I certainly haven’t visited since the recent Lottery Heritage funded re-development for the 100th Anniversary of the RAF this year. Ridiculous really, since I live in North London!...
London North Eastern Railway (LNER) has installed a system called Seat Sensor on all its trains. The new technology, which has just gone ‘live’, can tell which seats are free and, by referencing LNER’s booking data, whether a seat is reserved. Passengers can now see the status...
I know just how astonishingly efficient shipyards are these day. I’ve seen it. As soon as one, assembled-but-not-kitted-out, ship is floated out of the Meyer Werft (Germany) dock, the first blocks for the next ship are already being laid, and at Fincantieri (Italy) there are several ships...
The TASS news agency is reporting comments made today by Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Colonel-General Andrei Kartapolov about the 19th-century armored gunboat The Strelets. The Strelets was a 200ft (61m) Uragan class, armoured monitor. She joined the Baltic Fleet in 1865, and was taken out of active...
The Canadian War Museum in Ottawa will conclude its commemoration of the First World War Centenary with a special exhibition opening today. Victory 1918 – The Last 100 Days, explores the critical role the Canadian Corps played in the series of battles that led to the Allied...
The Stena Jutlandica, which runs between Frederikshavn and Gothenburg¹, has now completed its first month of operation as a battery hybrid vessel, using both generators and batteries to power the ship’s electrical propulsion. Sten’s battery project is being trialled in steps so that the technology can be...
The Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge is a massive piece of civil engineering comprising a 29.6 kilometre bridge and tunnel crossing of the Pearl River Delta in Southern China. After eight years of construction, the bridge is finally due to open on Tuesday 23rd October, and it is expected...
The Chinese city of Chengdu has announced plans to replace street lighting with the ‘light of a silvery moon’¹ reflected down from a satellite with a large mirror. According to People’s Daily Online, the Chairman of the Chengdu Aerospace Science and Technology Microelectronics System Research Institute Co,...
This is a niche blog about technically-minded travel. It reflects my own interests in the mechanical, technical, historical, engineering, transport and military world.
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