All Articles Tagged '1950s' (143)

Swiss vehicles are far less famous than Swiss watches, Swiss cheese and Swiss pocket knives. Let's give some Dieselpunk love to Helvetic omnibuses!

In Switzerland, dozens of Saurer, FBW and Berna buses, as good as new, are the stars of numerous automotive events. Thanks to…

A bright star of the immediate post-war period, the Cisitalia (pronounced Cheese-Italia) was small, modern and gorgeous.

As a successful businessman and experienced amateur driver, Piero Dusio started Cisitalia, officially known as Consorzio Industriale Sportive Italia*. The company employed a wealth of talent to develop limited production sports cars that…

If we're in forgotten car makes already, what about another one?

Richard Lea and Graham Francis entered into partnership in August 1895 to make advanced and relatively expensive cycles of quality in Lower Ford Street, Coventry, which soon gained a high reputation*. Less successful was their first experiment with cars in…

New times, new rules, smaller engines...

Sport in general and motorsport in particular was a popular method of displaying a country's abilities without taking up the arms*. With the rise of nationalistic governments in the 1930s, the desire to prove the country's worth on the track also increased. Especially in Germany and Italy…

A little-known family of streamliners from the Netherlands - Gatford/Gatso.

The forerunner of the postwar Gatford and Gatso sports cars was built in 1938 and called Kwik (Mercury). Two-seater, with luxurious red…

A comment on an earlier thread that I posted inspired me to do some internet digging for advertising cars. What I found was quite interesting. Some forms, such as bottles are easily adapted to automotive form, others need a little persuading.

Here's an English fruit vendors truck with apple shaped cab. Ford model AA (truck) chassis.…

Hello again, you crazy Cats and cool Chicks!  Ready to join the Cabaret on an exciting flight across the Americas?

With travel arrangements on board a luxurious TWA Constellation ("Connie"), the largest and fastest land-based passenger airliner yet built, we'll tour the lower latitudes of our western continents with stops in tropical Yucatan in Mexico, spicy Trinidad in the Caribbean,…

A company once known as "world's greatest travel system" had a lot to advertise.

Established in 1881, the Canadian Pacific Railway quickly evolved into a business empire. Their activities stretched far beyond the railroads: the CPR operated steamships and hotels, telegraph services and radio stations, and, quite naturally, an…

When I read that one of these locomotives was pressed into service in 1965, I could hardly believe my eyes.

But it's true. The WP class Pacifics were built for Indian Railways from 1947 through 1967. If we agree to call them 'streamliners' (in India, they prefer another definition - 'bullet nose'), here is the largest steam streamliner class…

Today, on my 50th birthday, I'd like to show you some beautiful bodies. Car bodies created by Joseph Figoni.

I have a confession to make - 15 years ago, a few photographs and color drawings of his work ignited ny passion for streamline design. And this passion only grew ever since. I owe much to…

Today, I'd like to present an artist who was lucky enough to catch the Jazz Age spirit and talented enough to preserve it in his prints and sketches.

A number of French poster artists have been already featured here: A.M. Cassandre,…

You know that postwar cars are not this garage's specialty. But this two-door Austin is here as a close cousin of prewar streamliners.

Nothing revolutionary in its layout, although: no front drive or rear engine. Everything's conventional - save the appearance, quite revolutionary for a 1940s British automobile.

Would you believe that the…

The Garage is proud to present: the MG T-Series!

The MG TA Midget appeared in the spring of 1936 as a replacement for the MG PB. It featured many components borrowed from Morris. Channel sections replaced the tubular cross-members making the vehicles ride more comfortable. The suspension was provided by leaf springs and beam-axle in the front and rear. The brakes…

Long before the terms "SUV" and "crossover" were coined, Volvo started to build off-road vehicles.

The TPV (Terrängpersonvagn m/43, i.e. Off-road Passenger Vehicle, M1943) was a crossbreed between a light truck and a taxicab. The platform and some mechanical parts were…

Edward McKnight Kauffer was one of Britain’s most highly influential 20th Century poster artists and graphic designers.

Beginning his professional life as a painter, Kauffer soon embraced poster art as a form of visual communication, enabling the public to view Modern Art through the display of his posters on the streets.

In the early 1900s, Kauffer…

Last Saturday, my favorite photographer turned 100 years old.

His birthday was celebrated worldwide. The celebrations were led by Google, sticking a one-day doodle on their main page. Better later than never - let's celebrate too.

You can read Robert Doisneau's biography…

There are two trains on a photograph taken at the old Ankara depot and published in 1955: one (left) has got a distinctive postwar look, the other (right) is more rounded, surely coming from Diesel Era.

Looks are deceptive. The "postwar" train was designed and built during WWII, and its streamlined brother was introduced in early 1950s. Both were based on prewar concepts, as we…

One of the most important Interbellum car designs, the Citroën Traction Avant was both innovative and trend-setting.

Making it a habit to be at the forefront of the newest technological inventions, Automobiles Citroën has always tried to be the leader in this arena. Citroën needed a totally new revolutionary model in 1933, despite all of its financial problems. The desired features…

Where do I begin?..  Should we take a narrow gauge or a broad 'Indian' one? There are five main gauges in Argentina, you know.

At least two of these gauges - 1000mm and 1676mm (5 ft. 8 in.) once had streamliners running on them. In 1934, Buenos Aires Western Railway received one British-built diesel electric 48-seat railbus, powered by an Armstrong-Saurer 6BXD 122hp engine. The…

Ladies and gentlemen! Omnibuses, coaches and lorries from Glasgow, Scotland!

Albion Motors, founded in 1899, were amongst the great survivors of the British vehicle industry and, especially, of the indigenous Scottish motor industry - many early companies failed and it was only in the 1960s that there was a vain attempt to re-introduce mass vehicle production…