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THE DOMINION MONARCH

Cruise History: The Dominion Monarch was a luxurious all first class passenger-cargo liner and the largest of her type ever built. At the time of her introduction she was also the most powerful motor liner in the world.

Design and Construction (1938 – 1939):

At the time of her building, the QSMV (Quadruple Screw Motor Vessel) Dominion Monarch was the most powerful motor liner in the world and the largest ship operating full time on the Australasian trade. Shaw Savill already had a great deal of experience in operating all first class only passenger services and was able to assure their guests a unique luxury voyage. Dominion Monarch with 525 passengers, combined with her crew passenger ratio, offered a service that is unequalled to this day.

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American trains were once the safest in the world. In Los Angeles METROLINK gives new meaning to DEATH TRAIN!

Cruising the Past: American trains were once the safest in the world. In Los Angeles METROLINK gives new meaning to DEATH TRAIN!

The greatest joke about METROLINK… when you email them with a comment you receive the following message:

Thank you for contacting Metrolink.  For your reference, your feedback has been assigned case number 00008189.  Due to the volume of comments we receive regading complaints and accidents about Metrolink, it may take up to two weeks to investigate and respond back to you.

Sincerely,
Metrolink Passenger Services


The way it was aboard the Pullman Company in the 1930s through the 1960s.  This ad boast on the safety of traveling by Pullman.  It was the safest form of travel in America and transported over a 100,000 passengers each night in safety and comfort aboard their sleeping cars.

Metrolink – Death trains in Los Angeles.

Victims of the third rate and totally incompetently run Metrolink.

Where do they find these incompetent bureaucrats?  David R. Solow, the five-county Metrolink agency’s chief executive for more than a decade, was moved to a new position overseeing deployment of a safety system intended to prevent a repeat of last year’s crash, which left 25 dead and 135 injured.  Talk about failing upward.  Solow is representative of one of the most dangerous rail systems in the world.  Who does he screw to keep his job?


The way it is today with Metrolink – the Los Angeles commuter rail service.  This horrifying photos is from a recent collision last year with a Metrolink train and freight train northwest of Los Angeles, killing 25 passengers and injured 100s.  The train driver was texting on cell phone and ignore a stop signal.

The Pullman Company use to have the greatest safety record and so did such venerable companies such as the Santa Fe Railway.

The Pullman Company, founded by George M. Pullman, built, operated, and maintained a fleet of first class passenger rail cars by contract on most railroads across the United States. George Pullman is credited with the creation of the first modern, comfortable, sleeping car for railroad travel in 1858.

From a small beginning, Mr. Pullman created an empire, which during its peak in the 1930′s was responsible for the construction, ownership, and operation of a fleet of over eight-thousand sleeper, parlor, club, and cafe cars. Pullman’s well deserved slogan was “Travel and Sleep in Pullman Safety and Comfort.”

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Crystal Cruises carries on the tradition of the great luxury cruise ships such as the SS Rotterdam, RMS Caronia and MS Kungsholm.

Crystal Symphony

Crystal Cruises carries on the tradition of the great luxury cruise ships such as the SS Rotterdam, RMS Caronia and MS Kungsholm.

Famous cruise ships of the last century : RMS CARONIA, MS KUNGSHOLM and the SS ROTTERDAM.

Crystal Cruises carries on the tradition of the great luxury cruise ships such as the SS Rotterdam, RMS Caronia and MS Kungsholm. Celebrating a new mark in travel histroy, the elegant cruise company has once again been voted the “Best Large-Ship Cruise Line” for 2009 by the readers of the prestigious Conde Nast Traveler magazine (U.S.). Crystal’s overall score of 92.7 is one of its highest in the survey’s history. The luxury line’s 16 “wins” is unprecedented by any cruise line or hotel in the world.

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MS Balmoral cruise ship to trace RMS Titanic route

Cruise Ship History: SS Balmoral cruise ship to trace RMS Titanic route.

RMS Titanic.

Let’s do a little cruising in the past aboard the SS Balmoral.

The MS Balmoral in heavy seas.  For most, the notion of a bad time on a luxurious vacation aboard a cruise ship would be eating some bad shellfish at a local port.  For the unlucky passengers aboard the British cruise ship Balmoral, their 10 days of basking in the lap of luxury went awry when the ship encountered 50 ft. seas and 60 mph gale force nine winds.  The Balmoral encountered the rough seas when attempting to transit the Bay of Biscay during a storm.  According to reports, two passengers had to be taken to a hospital in Spain with broken bones.

Have you ever dreamed of taking an adventure vacation steeped in maritime history? Consider this unique opportunity:  The Titanic Memorial Cruise on Balmoral, a 1,350 passenger cruise ship leaving Southampton, England on April 8, 2012.

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LONDON IN 1913 – CROSSING THE POND ON THE RMS AQUITANIA AND STAYING AT THE LONDON RITZ

CRUISING THE PAST: LONDON IN 1913 – CROSSING THE POND ON THE RMS AQUITANIA AND STAYING AT THE LONDON RITZ

Cruise History: If you were doing the European Grand Tour in 1913 – this terrific Youtube video chronicles what England was like during that year. Trans-Atlantic passengers, sailing from New York to Europe, might have crossed the pond on the RMS Aquitania and stayed at the London Ritz.

THE LONDON RITZ

Famed Swiss hotelier César Ritz opened the London Ritz Hotel on May 24, 1906. The building is neoclassical in the Louis XVI manner, built during the Belle Époque to resemble a stylish Parisian block of flats, over arcades that consciously evoked the Rue de Rivoli.

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The SS CAP NORTE – the German liner captured by the HMS BELFAST at the beginning of WW 2

SS Cap Norte – the German liner captured by the HMS BELFAST at the beginning of WW 2.

Cruising the Past – Cruise History – 70 years ago this week, during the first weeks of World War 2, the HMS Belfast captured the Hamburg South America liner SS Cap Norte.

SS Cap Norte

The above is the front and back of a postcard sent from South America to Germany in September 1939, from the CAP NORTE just days before the war started.

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HITLER ON A CRUISE – GERMANS BUILT FIRST CRUISE SHIPS JUST BEFORE WW 2

Hitler on a Cruise, 1939 – Adolf Hitler chats with several young women on a promenade of the German cruise ship Robert Ley (named after a prominant Nazi labor leader) on its maiden voyage in April, 1939.

Cruise History: The Germans (Nazis) developed the VW and built the first ships designed exclusively for cruising.

The SS Robert Ley

The Swimming Pool aboard the SS Robert Ley

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THE FRENCH LINE – SS LIBERTE – 1950s

Cruising the past: The SS Europa was the pride of Norddeutscher Lloyd Line in the 1930s. She was the sister ship of the SS Bremen.

Sadly the Second World War caused an end to her years in German hands and she was handed to the French as war reparations.

As SS Liberte, the ship became the stop gap flagship for CGT French Line as a replacement for the legendary SS Normandie that had been lost during the Second World War.

She was transformed into the pride of France and finally was retired in 1961 after serving two great nations.

THE FRENCH LINE – SS LIBERTE – 1950s – Here are some wonderful vintage home movies shot aboard a crossing on the Liberte. The photographer even tried to shoot a few poorly lit interiors.

The French Line’s Liberte.

Snaphots of two women passengers aboard the Liberte.

SS LIBERTE (formerly the German liner EUROPE)

If the time before the Second World War is indexed within the annals of history for its aspirations of achievement and advancement of technology and design, then, the period following the great turmoil should be looked upon as a testament to the longevity of that vision and drive.

In the frenzy and misery which is war, the great passenger fleets of the Atlantic trade were reduced to a mere ghostlike representation of life before the War. The superliners of the decade before, the Normandie, the Rex, and their brethren lay in ruin. The few great ships which survived for the duration found themselves sorely lacking in competition and silently alone on the vast expanses of the Atlantic seas.

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PASADENA SANTA FE STATION – GATEWAY TO HOLLYWOOD

The Santa Fe Station in Pasadena is now La Grande Orange Café.  This was the depot’s main waiting room.

Click here to visit the La Grande Orange Café website.

The depot’s waiting room just after it closed as the Santa Fe/Amtrak Station.

The orignal Santa Fe Station in Pasadena.

The Santa Fe Station in Pasadena was home to the Super Chief, the Chief, El Capitan and other major streamliners.

The Super Chief leaving Pasadena in the early 1940s.

The Metro Gold Line Del Mar Station was originally the Santa Fe Depot of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway.

(Left) The original Pasadena Santa Fe Depot. (Right) The La Grande Orange Cafe.

Santa Fe Chief passes Los Angeles streetcar just south of the Pasadena Station.

The Santa Fe Railway’s Mission Revival-style passenger station on Raymond Ave. in Pasadena, CA, opened in 1935.

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Airlines History – The Stewardess – During the 1960s – The period of the AMC award winning MAD MEN TV Series


Airline History – The Stewardess – MAD MEN: Set in 1960s New York, the sexy, stylized and provocative AMC drama Mad Men follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising, an ego-driven world where key players make an art of the sell.

Stewardesses play apart in the MAD MEN TV series and our a part of the social history of the JFK to Johnson decade. Here’s a look at the women flight attendants who flew Pan Am, TWA and PSA – vanished American institutions and airlines. The period of MAD MEN.

BACKGROUND

The role of a flight attendant ultimately derives from that of similar positions on passenger ships or passenger trains, but it has more direct involvement with passengers because of the confined quarters and often shorter travel times on aircraft. Additionally, the job of a flight attendant revolves around safety to a much greater extent than those of similar staff on other forms of transportation. Flight attendants on board a flight collectively form a cabin crew, as distinguished from pilots and engineers in the cockpit.

The first flight attendant, a steward, was reportedly a man on the German Zeppelin LZ10 Schwaben in 1911.

Origins of the word “steward” in transportation are reflected in the term “steward” as used in maritime transport terminology. The term purser and chief steward are often used interchangeably describing personnel with similar duties among seafaring occupations. This lingual derivation results from the international British maritime tradition dating back to the 14th century and the civilian United States Merchant Marine which US aviation is somewhat modeled. Due to international conventions and agreements, in which all ships’ personnel who sail internationally are similarly documented by their respective countries, the U.S. Merchant Marine assigns such duties to the chief steward in the overall rank and command structure of which pursers are not positionally represented or rostered.

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