The Dutch Mining Museum (Nederlands Mijnmuseum) re-opened in May this year (2022) in the old Kneepkens department store in Heerlen, south Netherlands. Heerlen is in that panhandle that extends south to Maastricht along the Meuse between Belgium and Germany, and includes the Limburg region, famous for its...
Croatia’s long-awaited Peljesac Bridge was opened yesterday by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. The stunning piece of engineering is a cable-stayed road bridge, supported by six pylons stretching 2.4km (1.5 mile) from the Croatian mainland to the Peljesac peninsula. The significance of the bridge is that it ends...
The clock museum, or ‘Musée de l’Horlogerie’, in Saint-Nicolas-d’Aliermont presents a really interesting social and industrial account of the rise and partial decline of a town focused on a single technology. Back in the 1950/60s, Saint-Nicolas-d’Aliermont was renowned in France as a centre of light engineering, particularly...
The Norfolk Southern Corporation is donating its complete collection of historical documents and archives from predecessor company Norfolk and Western Railway to the Virginia Museum of History & Culture (VMHC). The collection dates from the 1840s and includes thousands of photographs and glass plate negatives, as well...
The Cukrownia Żnin (“Znin Sugar Factory”) in Poland is an industrial heritage project, repurposing an old sugar factory and preserving its magnificent 19th century buildings. Up until 2004, it produced sugar from beets. Now it is a hotel complex. If you like industrial design and architecture, this...
The long-awaited new sea lock at IJmuiden opens on Weds (26 Jan). This massive marine engineering project at the gateway to the North Sea Canal (Noordzeekanaal) which leads to Amsterdam, got underway back in 2016. Now, finally* the new lock, which replaces the old North Lock (Noordersluis)**...
The luxury hotel brand Kempinski is to open a floating hotel in Dubai in 2023. The Kempinski Floating Palace will be anchored next to one of the most exclusive beach stretches in Dubai on Jumeirah Beach Road. The main hotel building will be surrounded by 12 floating...
The Rotonde Ferroviaire (‘railway roundhouse’) at Montabon in La Vallée du Loir* is very much a ‘work in progress’ and it is going to be fabulous in a few years. The roundhouse and turntable were originally built in 1891 on the edge of the village of Montabon...
This is an interesting and timely piece of engineering design. This modular hospital is the winner of the ‘Health’ category in this year’s World Architecture Festival. It is currently under construction in a park on Mincheng Road, Minhang District, Shanghai. The modular hospital is designed by Professor...
Norway’s long-awaited Stad Ship Tunnel has been given a green light. The world’s first ship tunnel will allow large ships to avoid the notoriously exposed and treacherous piece of sea at the tip of the 27 km Stad Peninsula in Vestland, on the southwest coast of Norway....
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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