I have just returned from a trip to Genoa (Italy) and Vienna (Austria). In the latter, I spotted this building on my travels.
Google translates the wording at the top of the building as “Insurance of the Austrian railways”.
A port cochere is defined as a covered entrance large enough for vehicles to pass through. They were a regular enough feature for public buildings of scale in the 19th century, allowing horse drawn traffic to enter a covered area for unloading.
There is one at Heuston Station, which is a rather squat affair:
compared to that at the train station in Palermo, Sicily. The Italians must have had higher carriages.
I was recently in Rome for the first time (a stopover before getting the train from Rome to Sicily) and noticed that many of the manhole covers in the streets had the initials SPQR cast into them.
For the uninitiated, this stands for “Senatus PopulusQue Romanus” in Latin, or “the Senate and the People of Rome” in English.
It is interesting to see the use of Latin in modern era infrastructure.
Anyone who has been to Paris is likely to have come across the Art Nouveau entrances to the Paris Metro.
The Smithsonian has an article about the designer of these, which also take a look at other work he carried out.
The decommissioned hydro electric power station on the Canadian side of Niagra Falls looks like the sort of place that would be interesting to visit in its own right.
The operators of the site have recently added a new attraction to the site – a walk through the former outflow tunnel culminating in a balcony below the Falls. CBC News have an article about it.
One of the few items where Irish Rail and I see eye to eye is the belief that level crossings are dangerous.
As an example (albeit overseas), this video (trigger warning – not for the sensitive) on Independent.ie shows a police car being hit by a train in the USA.
Colorado’s finest police officers had parked their car on the crossing during a traffic stop, in the dark and had placed a suspect in the car before it was hit by a train.
Not for the first time, I link to a YouTube video by Tom Scott – in this case, he is demonstrating the use of a replica treadmill crane, which is believed to have been in use in Continental Europe in the early part of the 2nd millennium.
I was in Cambridge last Saturday, for the express purpose of taking a ride on the town’s guided busway.
Always a believer in the concept of don’t knock it until you’ve tried it, I went there to see the guided busway (one of two in England) and was greatly underwhelmed.
Whilst seeing the bus driver drive handsfree on the guided busway section (majority of the guided sections north and south of Cambridge are on former railway alignments) was interesting, I haven’t changed my view of guided busways. They are a poor man’s LRT and a full light rail system would be better.
The Texas Railroad Commission regulates things – just not railroads (railways in proper parlence). From their website:
The Railroad Commission of Texas (Commission) is the state agency with primary regulatory jurisdiction over the oil and natural gas industry, pipeline transporters, natural gas and hazardous liquid pipeline industry, natural gas utilities, the LP-gas industry, and coal and uranium surface mining operations. The Commission exists under provisions of the Texas Constitution and exercises its statutory responsibilities under state and federal laws for regulation and enforcement of the state’s energy industries. The Commission also has regulatory and enforcement responsibilities under federal law including the Surface Coal Mining Control and Reclamation Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Pipeline Safety Acts, Resource Conservation Recovery Act, and Clean Water Act.
https://www.rrc.texas.gov/about-us/
What has them in the news is the interesting campaign launched by a prospective candidate, Sarah Stogner, for the forthcoming election for the post of commissioner.
Using the tagline “I have other assets”, this 37 y.o. lady stripped down to her underwear and donned cowboy boots and hat and had a photoshoot conducted with her atop an oil well.
They said I needed money. 🤣 I have other assets. pic.twitter.com/OI9z9EDRRG
— Sarah Stogner (@Sarah4RRC) February 14, 2022
you can buy anyone.
The BBC reports that a bridge in Rotterdam will be “temporarily” dismantled to allow a yacht built for Jeff Bezos’ to pass through.
Funny how they didn’t consider the height of the yacht before building it.