Uploads from Gordon Calder, tagged lookingintothepast

Lord Howe's Bugatti Type T59 at Brooklands Circuit - Looking Into The Past

nobody@flickr.com (Gordon Calder) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 14:52:58 -0700

Original Picture - around 1929.
New Picture - 7th April 2010

Brooklands was the world’s first purpose-built motor racing circuit, constructed at Weybridge, Surrey, England in 1907. It was the birthplace of British motorsport and also of British aviation, home of Concorde and the site of many engineering and technological achievements throughout the last eighty years of the 20th century. The track closed in 1939.

The Brooklands circuit was the brainchild of Hugh Locke-King, and was opened on 17 June 1907 as the first purpose-built banked motor race circuit in the world. Following the Motor Car Act 1903, Britain was subject to a blanket 20 mph (32 km/h) speed limit on public roads: at a time when nearly 50% of the planet's new cars were produced in France, there was a concern that Britain's infant auto-industry would be hampered by the inability to undertake sustained high speed testing.
Apparently drawing inspiration from the development at Brooklands, the Indianapolis Speedway was built soon afterwards and held its inaugural race in August 1909.
Requirements of speed and spectator visibility led to the Brooklands track being built as a 100 ft (30 m) wide, 2.75 miles (4.43 km) long, banked oval. The banking was nearly 30 feet (9 m) high in places. In addition to the oval, a bisecting "Finishing Straight" was built, increasing the track length to 3.25 miles (5.23 km), of which 1.25 miles (2.01 km) was banked. It could host up to 287,000 spectators in its heyday.
Owing to the complications of laying tarmacadam on banking, and the expense of laying asphalt, the track was built in uncoated concrete. This led in later years to a somewhat bumpy ride, as the surface suffered differential settlement over time, as can be witnessed in the car in the picture in mid-air after hitting the infamous dip in the track. (Wikipedia)

The car is not in the absolutely correct position, but it's as close as I could get as a lot of the track has disappeared to make way for new construction, or is inaccessible. I wanted to take my picture from the top of the banking but it is steeper than it looks from the bottom at about 40 deg, and with moss around and a damp day, I didn't want myself and my camera to become victims of the track!

The Brooklands Museum is well worth a visit, with displays of cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and aircraft:-

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooklands_Museum

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Adolf Hitler at the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin - August 1st 1936 - Opening of the Summer Olympic Games - Looking Into The Past

nobody@flickr.com (Gordon Calder) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:11:28 -0700

Gordon Calder posted a photo:

I must confess that it felt just a bit eerie as I stood on the street yesterday and tried to line up the old pic in preparation to take the new image!

The Brandenburg Gate (German: Brandenburger Tor) is a former city gate and one of the main symbols of Berlin and Germany. It is located west of the city center at the junction of Unter den Linden and Ebertstraße, immediately west of the Pariser Platz. It is the only remaining gate of a series through which one formerly entered Berlin. One block to the north stands the Reichstag building. The gate is the monumental entry to Unter den Linden, the renowned boulevard of linden trees which formerly led directly to the city palace of the Prussian monarchs. It was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia as a sign of peace and built by Carl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791. The Brandenburg Gate was restored from 2000 to 2002 by the Stiftung Denkmalschutz Berlin (Berlin Monument Conservation Foundation). Today, it is considered one of Europe's most famous landmarks.

Old Pic August 1st 1936 - New Pic March 15th 2010.

Looking Into The Past - Sands Marina Bay Resort - Singapore

nobody@flickr.com (Gordon Calder) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:10:29 -0700

Gordon Calder posted a photo:

I promised I would try to get a LITP pic for Singapore, but I didn't have time to visit a museum to find an old pic.

This is the best I could do - it is a pic of an illustration showing the new Sands Marina Bay Resort Casino and 2,500 bed hotel taken at the trade show I was visiting with a pic of the construction taken from the balcony of a restaurant where I had lunch. It is being constructed by the US Sands Hotel Group (The Venetian Las Vegas) at a cost of US $5 Billion dollars, and will create employment for 10,000 people. The resort will be completed sometime in 2010 and this pic will then change from "Looking Into The Future" to "Looking Into The Past".

Looking into the Past - London, Westminster

nobody@flickr.com (Gordon Calder) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 17:20:39 -0700

Gordon Calder posted a photo:

This is more of a "Looking into the Future" pic, as it worked better this way round. I took the "new" pic a few months ago and I came across this old pic (Looks mid 1960's) that was taken at exactly the same viewpoint. The Houses of Parliament are directly behind the viewer. This seems to be the first in the "Looking Into The Past" Pool from London, and I hope to add lots more when I locate more old pics.

Looking Into The Past - Our Garden

nobody@flickr.com (Gordon Calder) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:57:37 -0700

Gordon Calder posted a photo:

August 1995 - July 2009

First pic was taken a few weeks after we bought our new house. I actually did the garden design before we moved in and eventually started work about 6 months (and one baby) later, as looking at a desolate square of dust was too much to take. It was nice when the birds eventually moved in, but now my son can't sleep in the morning because of the wood-pigeons calling!

I stumbled across the "Looking Into The Past" Group a couple of weeks ago, and this is my first attempt to see how it worked out. I tried taking an actual pic of a print of the original, but it is harder than it looks to line the images up nicely, so this is a montage of three pics - the old and new garden, and my arm all Photoshopped together.

I have gathered lots of old pictures of my local area, and I'll get out and work on those when I get some time.

Looking Into The Past - Largs, Scotland

nobody@flickr.com (Gordon Calder) — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 16:47:52 -0700

Gordon Calder posted a photo:

Gallowgate Street on the left , looking up Main Street on the right.
Left side - Google Street View
Right Side - Old Postcard