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Showing posts from September, 2009

No teeth, still smiling

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   This is a 1952 Chevrolet Styleline. Sometime in the last 57 years, it has lost the five ridges or teeth that were added that year to the centre horizontal member of the Chevy grille. Buyers in 1952 could choose from 26 exterior colours (single shades and two-tone combinations). Dunno if this light green was one of those original colours, but you have to admit, it's nice.

The busman’s paradise

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    That famous occupational holidayer would want to make Cuba a stop. On an island with spotty train service, limited in-country flights and low private car ownership, the bus is a transportation mainstay – so there are plenty to see.     But, as with Cuba’s automobile fleet, it’s the range of vintage and origin that really pulls the cord. In a day’s travel, our busman might come across a modern articulated urban carrier, an old GM Silverside, a repurposed Quebec yelllow bus still bearing its “Ecoliers” markings ... even a venerable Leyland Olympic. Apart from Havana’s municipal Yutongs, the new and shiny stuff is usually reserved for tourists and their convertible pesos. Cubans get the older machines.     These three veterans carry resort workers. Above is a Cuba-assembled   Girón , bu ilt under licence from Hungary’s Ikarus company. The yellow bus is a DAF from the Netherlands, which has sent many decommissioned buses to Cuba. Some still bear original destination boards such as