Jon Searles' photos

The Skoda Felicia nameplate has been revived many times by Skoda, but the original production run was in 1959 to 1964. Rather than being a direct predecessor to the 1000MB sedan, the original Felicia was effectively a sports car, something very unusual in the Communist Bloc. It isn't so much that it was fast, of course, as there have been a number of "fake" sports cars made over the years that were slower than normal cars. The 1959 Skoda Felicia (it wasn't clear whether this one was a real 1959, or a later one) originally came with only a 1.1L I-4, with a front-rear layout and water cooling (in contrast to Skodas made from 1964 to 1987, which were largely air-cooled with a rear/rear layout). The 1.1L engine produced only 50 horsepower (although a 1.2L was introduced in 1961), which resulted in a 24.5 second 0-60 time, very slow, but faster than some Western economy cars of the time, like the Citroen 2CV or the Morris Minor. Whether a Volkswagen Beetle would be faster would depend on the year and engine, but it's clear that a Karmann Ghia would be much faster than a Felicia. Sports cars are often an image thing, although I'm not sure if I would have wanted to make my only car under Communism a fake sports car without a real, metal roof. On the other hand, public transportation was free in Communist Czechoslovakia, and more extensive than today, so it may not have been for "transportation" to have a sports car, or any car at all. These cars, like other Communist-era Skodas, have survived very well over the years, although many Felicias have ended up serving in the fleets of antique cars used for tours in Prague, being among the newest cars used. Many 1920's-era Skodas, Tatras, and Fords (mostly Model A's rather than Model T's) make up the bulk of the real antique cars (many of the cars used in the Prague tours are easily-identified fakes), so this makes the Felicias into outliers.

Skoda built the 1000MB from 1964 to 1969 as their main sedan sold to Czechoslovak workers (orders had to be arranged through the Communist Party, as with most things). It usually came as a four-door, but from 1966 onward a two-door model was also available. Like the Fiat shown earlier, the original design specification demanded a car that weighed less than 700 kilograms (a very low weight) to achieve maximum fuel economy, but the 1000MB was much larger than most cars considered compact at the time. This goal was actually achieved, as a Skoda 1000MB can achieve about 33-38 mpg, which is generally comparable to the Volkswagen Beetle, for example, which is a considerably smaller car (but heavier than the 1000MB, at 800-840 kilograms). The Skoda 1000MB was also rear/rear layout, an arrangement that was inspired more by the Chevy Corvair than the Volkswagen Beetle or the Fiat 500. You can see the resemblence to the Corvair in both the 1000MB, and even more so in the later Skoda 100 (built 1969-1977). However, unlike the Beetle and the Corvair, the 1000MB used an inline four-cylinder engine, rather than a flat four, initially in 1.0L displacement, but later offered in 1.1L displacement for the 1100MB model. In spite of some Czechs and Poles saying that the MB stands for "little pains" for "1000 little pains" in Polish and Czech, these cars actually had such a long service life that when I arrived in the Czech Republic in 2005, they were still in general use. It's a similar story to the Lada 1200, which was introduced in the Soviet Union in 1970. The Lada 1200 (as with Ladas generally) has drawn negative reviews ever since it was new, in spite of remaining common on Eastern European streets up to the present day, 35 years after the end of Lada 1200/1300 production. Today, Skoda 1000MB's are less common outside of preservation, but this is as much due to heavier taxation (on cars without modern emissions controls) than age.

When I first saw this car, I assumed it was a Fiat 500, but Fiat, in fact, also built a Fiat 600, which looked very similar, as this one does. The 600 actually predated the second generation of the 500 (which is the one everyone knows) by 2 years. The 500 was actually a scaled-down 600 intended as one of the world's first "city cars" designed to be as small as possible. The Fiat 600, like the 500, always came with an air-cooled I-4 engine, in a rear/rear layout. The engine was longitudinally mounted behind the rear axle, showing the influence of the Volkswagen Beetle in the design process. Displacement of the engine varied, but was always less than a liter, being available, in various years, at 633cc, 767cc, and 843cc displacement. Predictably, it was a very slow car for 1955, with a top speed of only 95Km/h (59 m.p.h.), much slower than every variant of the Volkswagen Beetle, as well as most other economy cars at the time. For that matter, it was slower than a Ford Model A. Its other numbers are similarly bad, except for that its small size does make it ideal of a city. As this photo illustrates, the Fiat 600 does have enough of a fan following to be found in preservation, possibly being due to it's somewhat unusual design (although, as I said, the better-known Fiat 500 is based on it).

Here's a much better look at the grilless front end of the Tatra 57. Although this design was changed for the 1937 model year (Tatra 57's stayed in production until 1949), the initial omission was probably down to the 1932-1936 Tatra 57's 1155cc flat-4 engine, that like many flat or "boxer" engines, was air cooled. Presumably, the grille was added from 1937 onwards because air-cooled engines can still benefit from the improved airflow that a grille provides, even if there isn't a radiator. For a comparison, think of a laptop, and the need to provide adequate airflow. Generally, laptops with a lot of grilles should cool better than ones that don't have any ventilation (and we all know which manufacturers I'm referring to).

I took this photo on the way to a car show in Josefuv Dul. We spotted the first antique car ahead of us on a local street. This is a Tatra 57, which would mean the model year would be between 1932 and 1936, but I wasn't able to learn the precise year. It would be an early production model (1937 or earlier), as it doesn't have the grille that later Tatra 57's had (not visible in this photo).

Originally, I had planned on using my first Blender project for Trainz as an assignment at Prague College. To my surprise, it was too long when presented live, and of questionable relevance to many students (who were my audience) who (surprisingly) were unfamiliar with some of the concepts such as UV mapping. My professor recommended that I do a presentation UV mapping instead, which while broader, can be explained in less time. Therefore, this is a video version of that live presentation, using most of the same content. Some of the content used in this presentation is from Wikimedia, some of the slides were developed in Microsoft Powerpoint, and the other applications used are available here: www.blender.org www.gimp.org www.sketchup.com unity3d.com

I recently learned how to export Blender models to Auran Trainz, and built my first Trainz model, of a generic (and semi-fictional) Phillips refrigerator box. This instructional video explains how to export Blender models to Trainz. Blender is available here: www.blender.org The model exporter for Trainz is available here: sourceforge.net/projects/blenderextrainz Gimp, the image editor used in this video, is available here: www.gimp.org

Although I have enjoyed Microsoft Flight Simulator for years, not all of my enjoyment has been from flying the planes. I have also made numerous repaints, and added literally thousands of new AI traffic routes. I've also modified all of the built-in ones, although not always with precision. This video summarizes how to build AI Traffic files using TTools and Notepad. TTools can be acquired here: flyawaysimulation.com/downloads/files/1231/traffic-tools-v202

I made this playthrough on the same day, and in the same studio, as the Street Rod 1 playthrough. As such, it has some of the same bugs. As with Street Rod 1, Street Rod 2 was previously a California Dreams product, but is now being developed by Marco Kleijer: streetrodonline.com

This is one of my favorite games of the 8-bit era, so this was actually my first-ever playthrough video (although not the first one that I uploaded). You can hear some voices in the background because the recording studio I used had a thin door. It was actually a post-production studio rather than a proper recording studio. I was also using a borrowed digital audio recorder, which I wasn't familiar with. There are also other bugs like the image not being centered. At the time, I was still learning how to use Open Broadcaster. obsproject.com Although it was originally developed by California Dreams, actually a Polish company, the rights are now owned by Marco Kleijer, who subsequently developed Street Rod SE, based on the car disks produced for Street Rod 1, and who is currently developing Street Rod Online. His website is here: streetrodonline.com

The team over at Trainz.cz, headed allegedly by Asrajer, produced this Trainz 2006 route between Prague and Brno, based on the real mainline (Linky 011-230-250). The route is so long that I have used the freecam to explore between Klanovice and Velim, rather than driving the route. I already love it, but my copy is missing a bunch of assets. This is because they are missing both from the Trainz Download Station and Trainz.cz. They are: kuid:109628:25036 kuid:143730:2510220 kuid:193885:40001 kuid:193885:40003 kuid:193885:40007 kuid:193885:40008 kuid:193885:40009 kuid:193885:40010 kuid:75263:27313 Any assistance in finding these would be welcome, as would advice on how to join Trainz.cz website (I've tried to answer the security question with basic Czech, and failed repeatedly). The specific download page for the route is: www.trainz.cz/download/mapy/realne/1575-praha-brno

Railsim is one of the oldest train simulators I own, and it looks even older. However, it is still one of my favorites. In this playthrough, I try out the fictional Redwood-Blacktown commuter route (in the USA/CAN version of the simulator) with a freight train headed by 4 SD40-2 diesels. Railsim can still be downloaded from: www.dmg-berlin.info/page/lok/lok.php Jens Schubert has since developed a sequel known as ZUSI available here: www.zusi.de/zusi-3-hobby.html

This is an excerpt of the video I took on the last day of the NRHS Convention, during the Father's Day excursion on the Green Mountain Railroad. This is a brutal cut from the original, as I needed it to be under 10 minutes, and under 30MB, so it's less than a fifth of the original cut, with the original MOD files being much longer.

Here's Green Mountain #405. This actually wasn't my first time riding behind this unit, as I had also ridden the entire length of the Green Mountain Railroad behind it in 1990.

This was on the final day of the 2015 NRHS Convention, which happened to fall on Father's Day. As a result, a special Father's Day excursion was run on the Green Mountain Railroad to Ludlow, Vermont from Rutland. The only motive power was Green Mountain #405, an Alco RS-1, which was behind me when I shot this. The coaching stock was the same that had been used for the previous excursions that I had been on.

This was the excursion to Hoosic Junction mentioned in my earlier photo from North Bennington. My camera battery started to die when we got to North Bennington, so footage beyond that point is not included. To reiterate, this excursion included Vermont Railway #301, an EMD GP40, and #311, a GP40-2LW, for motive power, and Green Mountain Railroad coaching stock. You can see Amtrak's Ethan Allen Express at the beginning.

This was at North Bennington on the second to last day of the 2015 NRHS National Convention, the first such convention when I didn't have a working conventional camera. This was not deliberate, as I had brough the Pentax MZ-10 out of retirement, only to see it die on the 19th of June, which was the third to last day of the Convention. I still had the cameraphone, which I shot this with, but I mostly compensated by shooting video, something I had never done at an NRHS Convention before. This was at the North Bennington end of an excursion operated by Vermont Railway diesels, both of them GP40's, which are now so old as to be almost heritage units. The lead unit is #301, which looks roughly like any other GP40, but the trailing unit is a GP40-2LW, which has a safety cab and other modifications for service on the Canadian National. www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=465198 Another spotting feature that it has is a lowered center radiator fan, making it look a bit like a GP35, which had me confused at first. In general, EMD diesels sold in Canada had a number of special features, both from the factory and through later rebuilds, including some of the earlier safety cabs. Today, these features are less noticeable, as during the 1990's most of the Canadian features were adopted by American railroads. In addition, many Canadian variants have ended up in service in the U.S., as here. The passenger stock was the same mix as that used for the Omya excursion on the previous day, being a mix of heavyweight and streamline stock, but all of it being owned (operated?) by the Green Mountain Railroad. As one final aside, this excursion was technically to Hoosic Junction, but North Bennington was the last station on the route, and it was here that this photo runby was done. My video camera battery also died at about this point.

This was about where I discovered that the Pentax MZ-10 wouldn't be working for the convention, so this video starts as we arrive in Florence, Vermont, where Omya have a Limestone quarry and slurry plant. This excursion was operated by Vermont Railway EMD GP40 #301, and GP40-2LW #311, using Green Mountain Railroad passenger stock.