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The Australian luxury day express train SPIRIT OF PROGRESS was the most important express train of VICTORIAN RAILWAYS , a state corporation of Victoria , and one of the most important trains in Down Under. The train is a masterpiece of ART DÉCO design from Down Under. The widely unknown train was in service from 1937 till 1986. First the SPIRIT OF PROGRESS did run from Melbourne to Albury , because of the broad gauge of VICTORIA RAILWAYS (1,600 mm). At the boarder between Victoria and New South Wales the passengers had to leave the SPIRIT OF PROGRESS and go on with their trip to Sidney on the standard gauged (1, 435 mm) train of the New South Wales Railway system. In 1962 the SPIRIT OF PROGRESS could run straight to Sydney. But was withdrawn in 1986, caused by the lack of paying passengers. by Earl of Cruise VICTORIAN RAILWAYS S Class steam locomotive 302 EDWARD HENTY trajecting the SPIRIT OF PROGRESS - courtesy © Weston Langford The late 1930's saw a new era in ...

OLYMPIC VOYAGER took me for a cruise that became an Aegean dream to me.  A historic review from an experience in 2001 ... OLYMPIC VOYAGER, formerly named OLYMPIA VOYAGER, renamed as the Olympic Comittee arrogantly "wished", was built in Hamburg by BLOHM+VOSS . The hull design is based on the BUNDESMARINE MEKO frigates which had been developed by the shipbuilder. Originally the two vessels, the sister is OLYMPIC EXPLORER, should have become fast ferries for a SUN LINES subsidiary. But the design was totally altered to fast cruise vessels, when the two rivalling families (Keusoglou and Potamianos) did overcome their differences. ROYAL OLYMPIC CRUISES, a merger from EPIROTIKI LINES and SUN LINES, intended with the two speed cruisers a 7 day/night 3 continent cruises experience - a novelty. Athina (Athens) Αθήνα [ aˈθina ]- Istambul - Alexandria. by Earl of Cruise OLYMPIC VOYAGER at speed - promotional picture of defunct ROYAL OLYMPIC CRUISES It did not ha...

For liners and the shipping companies movies and films had been a top marketing tool Movies or Films and liners at sea, had been intriguing me since I have read about in my youth in LUXUSLINER - BILDER EINER GROSSEN ZEIT by Lee Server ( THE GOLDEN AGE OF OCEAN LINERS ). But earlier, mot only since my first crossing, I was keen watching movies with liners in it, and disapointed, which was an understatement, when I realized the films have been made in a set ashore in some movie "factory". That was after my first crossing.   by Earl of Cruise an essay in progress `Sabrina´, Humphrey Bogart in the office, while LIBERTÉ is sailing out of New York harbor - screenshot Ocean liners, especially those of the luxury category, had been the location of dramas, love stories, thrillers, suspense and catastrophies sinde film was born, or nearly. In this list, the most descriptions are taken from Wikipedia, as I guess no one can expect having seen all these films ... otherwise I w...

Over years, in my early youth, the QUEEN ELIZABETH was shaping my mind for the perfect ocean liner, despite having made my first experiences with a liner onboard the HANSEATIC (1), ex EMPRESS OF SCOTLAND, ex EMPRESS OF JAPAN. When leaning at the rail of HANSEATIC entering the port, my eyes where every where and I wished to by a camera, I took all in. And when seeing the QUEEN ELIZABETH with my own eyes, the nice behaving young boy turned into a tomboy, that my grandmére was no longer able to tame ... I did draw quite a lot of looks, back then. I found, while on research, this article and thought it interesting publishing in my blog: written and published by John Sheperd at liverpoolships.org editing and comments by Earl of Cruise I ( John Shepard ) joined the CUNARD LINE in March 1962 as an Assistant Purser and sailed the QUEEN ELIZABETH throughout that year, before transferring to the Liverpool-based CARINTHIA in November, where I remained as Crew Purser for the next five...

Not many know about the Austro-Hungary shipping line, AUSTRO AMERICANA , which sailed out of Trieste to the Americas. Austro-Hungary and shipping? You may ask ... you may have heard about Vienna Walz, coffe house culture, Hotel Sacher and its famous chocolate cake, the Prater, chateau Schönbrunn, the Fiakers - the famous horse carriages and such things. But passenger shipping lines? There has been AUSTRO AMERICANA and ÖSTERREICHISCHER LLOYD , renamed in LLOYD TRIESTINO after 1918 and after purchased by EVERGREEN renamed in Italia Marittima. The actual company ÖSTERREICHISCHER LLOYD is a new formed management company situated in Austria.   by Earl of Cruise KAISER FRANZ JOSEH I. the biggest liner of AUSTRO AMERICANA - own collextion Parts of my family lived for a long time in the Austro-Hungary empire, which can be qualified as a "United Nations of the Balkan". Having traces into Austria-Hungay, the realm of Hungary in special, it is a pleasure for me making thes...

HAMBURG-AMERIKANISCHEPACKETFAHRT ACTIEN GESELLSCHAFT - HAPAG or HAMBURG AMERICA LINE is reflecting, as Germany, the LLOYD of Bremen, two times of rsing and two times of devasting downfall and a third rise. BORUSSIA , 1856, First Day Cover 1956 of Deutsche Bundespost - own collection Once Germany´s biggest shipping line HAPAG / HAMBURG-AMERIKANISCHE PACKETFAHRT ACTIEN GESELLSCHAFT-LLOYD, merged with it former old Hanseatic rival NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD in 1970, to now HAPAG-LLOYD, had its peaks and downs, but rose each time on its own to new hights, without any state subsidies. As German mail subsidiaries did never cover the costs for purchasing or mainting the vessels ordered for the specific German mail lines.   by Earl of Cruise In this article I used most German Wikipedia links, as they proved to be mostly of better research quality, and surprisinf to me, some English lines and liners have only German written articles, for the others, English Wiki links are to ...

The real airliner LZ 129 HINDENBURG enabled the most luxurious airtravel for decades. Imagine, gliding through the air while the landscape or the sea below can be seen ... LZ 129 HINDENBURG marks the climax of airship construction. On May 6, 1937, the story of civilian airship ended in a tragedy. In Lakehurst, New Jersey, the largest flying object and has been with the similar sized LZ 130 GRAF ZEPPELIN II the most luxurious of all time. How this came about can be reconstructed logically, a series of fatal physics concatenations . The airship LZ 129 HINDENBURG marks the climax of airship construction. It was in its time the fastest and most exclusive traveling object between Europe and America. The challenges of the construction of the giant of the heaven were immense. by Earl of Cruise LZ 129 HINDENBURG, 1936, in Lakehurst - digital copy of a coloured cover photo, originally by Bill Schneider, published in Dan Grossman´s book ` ZEPPELIN HINDENBURG: AN ILLUSTRATED HI...

Germany’s two luxury liners, BREMEN and EUROPA , have not only played an important part in their country’s mercantile revival, but have added also an immortal chapter to the history of transatlantic travel. Copy from Shipping Wonders of the World   From part 6 , published 17 March 1936 editing by Earl of Cruise ss / ts BREMEN in her early years - Source: Shipping Wonders of the World/Bundespresse Archiv The PRIDE OF A NATION - the NORDDEUTSCHER LLOYD quadruple-screw turbine express liner BREMEN . The keel of this ship was laid in June 1927. Her launch took place in August, 1928. In less than a year later, the Bremen made her first voyage to America, when she crossed the Atlantic from Cherbourg to New York in four days seventeen hours forty-two minutes, thus setting up a new record and gaining the coveted “Blue Riband”. During the passage the Bremen attained an average speed of 27.83 knots. ss / ts BREMEN in her early years - Source: W ikipedia For the pop...

NORMANDIE -   Whom the gods love, they punishment them NORMANDIE was loved by many and hated by only some, NORMANDIE was the peak of chic, which some could never accept, NORMANDIE was the man made Deesse de la Mer. February 9th 2017 while writing I taste and smell the smoke over Manhattan which coloured the sky brown 75 years ago. by Earl of Cruise After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December  22nd 1941, NORMANDIE  was seized and transferred to the US Navy Department, under the name of USS  LAFAYETTE , listed as AP53. To all who knew NORMANDIE , however, NORMANDIE would always be NORMANDIE  nothing more, nothing less! NORMANDIE burning, like a fanal - own collection And being historian, the name should have been correct spelling with LA FAYETTE, as the ship was renamed after Marie-Joseph-Paul-Yves-Roch-Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette ... a French general, politician and member of the intellectual movement of the Lumières. A man acco...

The Panama Papers focus again dubios Caribbean Billions by Earl of Cruise The new GENTING purchase NORDIC YARDS, source wikipedia Panama Papers and a German Shipbuilder Not since the publication of the Panama Papers, a German yard group got dubios money transfers - the WADAN YARDS and his former owner the Russian Billionaire Andrei Burlakow got into sight of the German tax police. Burlakow, with connections to the Russian Maffia died by the bullets of a hitman. Prior to his shooting Bulakow sold his German entity, the WADAN GROUP, in 2009 to Igor Yusufov - his investment company FLC West.  Vitaly Yusufov, courtsey from ex NORDIC YARDS Jussufow is an e x minister and GASPROM board member. WADAN became NORDIC YARDS and would be run by the son Vitaly Yusufov . It had been haggled, money shifted and cashed ... employees had the dead end - unemploy ment. in June 2015, the HypoVereinsbank reported in a money laundering display flashy money flows in favor of NORDIC...