The Fontinettes Boat Lift (Ascenseur à bateaux des Fontinettes) in Arques, Pas-de-Calais. is a magnificent piece of 19th century engineering and architecture. It was built in the late 19th century at Fontinettes* to replace a set of five locks on the Neuffossé canal which linked/s the canalised...
Motorsports fans can start filling in their 2025 event diary now that Goodwood has announced (yesterday) the dates for its 2025 headline motorsport events. The 82nd Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport will be held on Saturday 12 and Sunday 14 April 2025 The Festival of Speed...
If all is going as planned, the giant Iowa-class battleship USS New Jersey (BB-62) is on her way back down the Delaware River today, returning to her permanent mooring on the Camden waterfront after a 91 day visit to the Philadelphia Navy Yard for maintenance and repair....
The Omaha Beach Memorial Museum (Musée Mémorial d’Omaha Beach), focuses on the D-Day landings at Omaha and Pointe du Hoc. It’s not a particularly large museum (1400m²) but it is well laid out and has some interesting artefacts, documents and photos. It’s location, halfway up the Les...
Lightweight sports car manufacturer, Caterham, has opened its new factory. Still located in Dartford, Kent, the new state-of-the-art building will be home to Caterham’s production, engineering, motorsport and commercial teams. A multi-million-pound investment from owners VT Holdings – one of Japan’s largest retailer groups – will see...
For those who have been wondering what will happen to the 1,475 silhouettes of World War 2 military personnel currently standing on the slope in front of the British Normandy Memorial, Normandy*; the answer is, they will move to the National Trust’s Stowe Gardens in Bedfordshire. It’s...
It’s proper name, in French, is La Musée de la Percée du Bocage, which they themselves translate into the ‘British Breakout from Normandy Museum’. In our guidebook, we call it the ‘Bocage Breakout Museum’, which I think is a simpler name. The museum, which celebrates its 30th...
A new tourist steam train, the Revolution Express, is expected to start operating day trips in central Vietnam in late 2024 or early 2025. Two original steam locomotives from the 1960s have been lovingly restored to working condition. The locomotives will pull two fully appointed retro-styled carriages...
The Musée des Arts et Métiers (Museum of Arts and Crafts) in Paris is almost the French equivalent of the Science Museum in London, and it is absolutely packed with the most fascinating historic, scientific, mechanical, experimental and industrial exhibits. Be prepared to allocate plenty of time...
Welsh Culture Secretary Lesley Griffiths visited the National Slate Museum in Llanberis this week to see how redevelopment work is progressing. Welsh Government funding of more than £1m has already helped progress the redevelopment, including maximising museum space for collections and activities and ensuring there is appropriate...
Zipline, a company specialising in autonomous drone delivery systems, announced on Friday that it had just completed one million paid commercial drone deliveries to customers. The company, headquartered San Francisco, has developed and operates its own autonomous drones which have now flown more than 70 million commercial...
World of Volvo, the Swedish vehicle manufacturer’s new cultural experience centre, opens in Gothenburg on Sunday (14th April). The centrepiece of World of Volvo is 4,500 square metres of exhibition space, carefully designed to showcase Volvo’s innovations and commitment to “omtanke” – consideration – emphasising safety and...
Everybody, especially grown-up and young kids, loves scale models. That’s everything from large radio-controlled model aircraft and ships – through detailed model cars, trucks, Armoured Fighting Vehicles (AFV), figures, space & sci-fi, scenes & dioramas – to elaborate model railways in all gauges down to tiny z-scale....
The D-Day Omaha Museum is a small private museum packed with military items, uniforms and equipment that were gathered over a 50 year period by Michel Brissard, an enthusiastic military history collector who was born in 1945, the year WW2 ended. Now, the museum is run by...
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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