IDJ: This article comes from Flight magazine 8th Feb 1952 Hugh Farmer: The article states that HAEC was formed by the “pooling of British shipping and air interests”. The HAECO group website says that the company was established in 1950 following a merger between Swire’s Pacific Air Maintenance Services (established in 1947) and Jardine Air Maintenance Company. I wonder what […]
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IDJ has sent the following newspaper article which was published in the Hong Kong Sunday Herald in a 1930s long series entitled Hong Kong Personalities. HF: I have retyped the original article to aid clarity and searches. Hong Kong Personalities MR. R.D. WALKER This is the fifty-eighth of the exclusive series of sketches of leading Colony residents by Mr A.S. […]
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HF: This Pathé film shows the opening of the new one million pound Kai Tak terminal building on the 2nd November 1962. The film includes an aerial view of the new runway extending out into Kowloon bay. A Comet Four aircraft coming in across the Bay to land on the runway. The plane as it is taxiing along the runway and […]
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IDJ has sent a fairly detailed account of The Hongkong Electric Tramway which appears in a book published in 1908 linked below. This includes details of: – the construction of the Tramway, the consulting engineers being Alfred Dickinson & Co of Birmingham, UK, and the contractors Dick, Kerr & Co of London – the track dimensions and length, along with […]
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Tymon Mellor has sent a long and detailed account of the Fanling – Sha Tau Kok branch railway which operated from 1911 to 1928. HF adds: The report, written by RJ Phillips, and published in 1986 (?), obviously required a tremendous amount of research and perseverance and contains a large amount of information plus several, sometimes rather blurry, images including […]
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HF and Elizabeth Ride (ER) New information in red. The article 1941 Report – Future Control and Development of the Port Of Hong Kong mentions the Socony-Vacuum Oil Company. The first Hong Kong mention I can find is about the Vacuum Oil Company from The Hongkong Government Gazette of 23rd May 1896. Then this from the Hongkong Government Gazette of […]
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Hugh Farmer with thanks to IDJ for the following report: This extract from a report in the Modern Tramway Journal c1988, mentions several proposals, none of which came to fruition.’ Namely: a) building a second line to the Peak in 1908 c) 1948-1958 extending the existing Peak Tram line further down into Central b) constructing a funicular railway at Lion […]
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In Search of an Improved Industrial Design – The Hong Kong Rickshaw over Time By Fung Chi Ming The rickshaw, as westerners pronounce it, originated in Japan where it is known as jinrikisha – jin (man) riki (power) sha (carriage). Its basic design includes a carriage resting on two large-diameter wheels, a pair of long parallel poles joined by a […]
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“With its outstanding record of safety and continuity, the Peak Tramways Company has always been conscious of the requirement to keep the Tramway’s operational heart in top shape. Surprisingly, since the beginning, the haulage plant has seen only one complete change – in 1926 when the original boilers and steam engine were replaced with an electrically-powered system.” Many thanks to […]
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IDJ: When Hong Kong was liberated in September 1945, one of the military groups diverted to assist restoring the city’s electricity, gas and water utilities and railway was the Royal Air Force’s No. 5358 Airfield Construction Wing that was part of Shield Force. This fleet of Royal Navy Cruisers and Aircraft Carriers plus their support ships were transporting 3000 airman […]
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