York Lo: Metro Cars (新英華汽車) and Austin automobiles in HK (1953-1970) Left: Metro Cars building in Tsuen Wan in the 1960s; Right: ad for Austin’s A40 model in 1959 (WKYP, 1959-4-14) Before the onslaught of Japanese automobiles in the 1970s, British cars dominated the roads of Hong Kong and Austin was a particularly popular brand in the 1950s and 1960s, represented […]
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‘Maverick’ has kindly sent this film of the Wo Hop Shek Spur Line. It has moments of great charm and nostalgia for those old enough to remember single line branches – children running at the station along side the train as it pulls in, the safety system of passing a token (what was the particular system with a large loop […]
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This article about Dorabjee Naorojee Mithaiwala was written by Sooni Shroff-Gander and first published in the Dictionary of Hong Kong Biography, edited by May Holdsworth and Christopher Munn. The publisher, HK University Press, has kindly granted permission for it to be posted here, but retains copyright over this material from 2012. HF: Regrettably I have been unable to find any image of […]
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HF: Yates and Thom, (formerly W and J Yates), 9 Canal Ironworks, Blackburn, UK, were makers of engines for mills, collieries and waterworks. And the original engine for the Peak Tram which was opened for public service on 28 May 1888. Construction had begun іn September 1885. Initially a static steam engine was used to power the haulage cable “built […]
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by Duncan G. Crewe and Richard A. Whittington This article was published by The Hong Kong Study Circle in its Journal 371/2 in October 2014. For more about this group see the information and link below. On 27 March 1936 the DH-86 aircraft RMA Dorado departed from Kai Tak with the first air mails by Imperial Airway’s direct service from […]
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HF: This Michael Rogge film from 1962 is of interest as it begins with the Peak Tram and views of HK harbour showing how much has been reclaimed in the last half century. 0.13-0.50 Peak Tram and views from the Peak 0.51-1.20 Views of HK Harbour 1.21-2.07 Views of and from the Peak 2.08- 2.38 Repulse Bay […]
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HF: Chavalier R Pescio was a man with vision. Especially when it came to trams and tunnels in Hong Kong. The Singapore Free Press and Mercantile Advertiser, 11 August 1909 contains this article which notes “rents in the Colony of Hongkong are abnormally so, more than in any part of the world in proportion to the accomodation offered”. Even then […]
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IDJ: After the war the school was re-established catering for up to two-hundred pupils at a time. In 1952, the school was absorbed into the Wheelock Marden group of companies. One result of Typhoon Wanda in 1962 was that the school’s hangars housing its training facilities were destroyed, along with a number of its aircraft. Flying instruction then ceased to […]
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IDJ: Probably ‘the first’ formal engineering training school in Hong Kong was the Far East Flying Training School Ltd established as a private venture in November 1933 at Kai Tak Airport. Pupils from Hong Kong, China, Macao and many countries in Asia attended class-room courses on aeroplane structures, engine technology, as well as the use of hand-tools and workshop machine […]
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IDJ has sent these extracts from a 1908 book which describe the company and show photographs of its operations. The company was founded in 1862, The Hong Kong and China Gas Company Limited (now known as Towngas) was Hong Kong’s first public utility and its original generating plant, the first in Asia, stood on the waterfront at West Point near Whitty Street. […]
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