https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2021-02-05_IBSF_World_Championships_Bobsleigh_and_Skeleton_Altenberg_1DX_0111_by_Stepro.jpg

Description:

Margot Boch and Carla Sénéchal during the 2021 IBSF World Championships

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:View_west_along_Duomo_roof,_Milan.jpg

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Roof of the Milan Cathedral, Milan, Italy.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leopard_(Panthera_pardus_pardus)_young_female_Kruger_2.jpg

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Leopard (Panthera pardus pardus) young female in Kruger National Park, South Africa.

This area looks completely different today, the old station building was replaced in 1932 by a multistory building complex.

This is where the modern day Roslagsbanan terminates in the city, current plans are to close the station completely and move the line a different route under the city, which I find sad, I like the isolated nature of the railroad, it has always made me feel just ever so slightly safer late at night...

I can't really give that much more backstory of this photo, as I have had trouble finding more info about it.

The photo belongs to a collection at the Stockholm Public Transport museum, but the photographer is unknown, the photo is licensed as CC-BY-NC

I did mention that I would post a modern comparison from roughly the same view, and this is a Street View from roughly the same direction:

https://maps.app.goo.gl/qHgP46ph2WDvhhzo8

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:30th_St._Moritz_Polo_World_Cup_on_Snow_-_20140202_-_Cartier_vs_Ralph_Lauren_9.jpg

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30th St. Moritz Polo World Cup on Snow

Stockholm has a long history of illuminated signs and ads, for obvious reasons, we have long dark nights in the autumn/winter.

It is interesting to see a picture like this from Stockholm the year WWII ended, it is not what you would expect from a European capital at the end of a devastating war involving almost all of Europe.

It can be seen in three ways.

1. Artistically, it is a beautiful photo, the neon, the mist and the still not completely darkened sky, it all makes the photo quite beautiful.
2. It shows that the Swedish government had the skill to avoid being drawn into the conflict.
3. It makes one question about how the Swedish government actually managed it, and that my friends is a much darker story than most people want to hear about....

So let's talk about the big dark reason why we were spared, what made us special.

Nazi trade and cooperation.

It is no secret that we were far from neutral during WWII, we collaborated with both sides as the war developed.

We sold iron to the Nazis, we sold a lot of iron to the Nazis, the Nazis bought so much iron from Sweden that the UK made plans to seize the port of Narvik in Norway through which most iron was exported.

We were paid in gold, and the wealth we were paid made it possible to ride out the war in relative comfort.

The truly bad shit we did was however, was to let the Nazis send troop replacements on our railways, we alsoffacilitated Hitler's sending troops for leave and new fresh troops were sent up through Sweden to the the front.

Thai photo is in the public domain

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chiesa_di_Santa_Maria_della_Pace_altare_Presentazione_al_tempio_Batoni_Brescia.jpg

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The main altar of Santa Maria della Pace church in Brescia features the altarpiece Presentation at Temple by Pompeo Batoni. The tympanum sculptures are by Antonio Calegari. Celebrated as Candlemas in some places, this event in the life of Jesus is observed today in much of Eastern and Western Christianity.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Catacumbas,_Par%C3%ADs,_Francia,_2022-11-01,_DD_111-113_HDR.jpg

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Catacombs of Paris, France

As I Lay Dying is now in the public domain in the US. The link goes to a high-quality copy of the book that's now freely available. If you like reading and haven't seen Standard Ebooks before, it's a great resource for "Free and liberated ebooks, carefully produced for the true book lover."

I thought it'd be good to read some of the classics that entered the public domain this year. I'll post periodically what I'm reading, and anyone is free to join in or post what they're reading as well. Commentary about the book is much appreciated, either from reading it again or having read it previously.

Here's the description of the book from the link:

As I Lay Dying is William Faulkner’s fifth novel, on which he began to work at the end of October 1929, just a few weeks after the publication of The Sound and the Fury. At that time Faulkner had taken a job at the University of Mississippi power plant and wrote the novel during his night shifts there, over a period of only forty-seven days. Though not initially a bestseller, the book was well received by critics. It has since come to be viewed as a cornerstone of both his oeuvre and American modernism, and is consistently listed as one of the best novels of the 20th century.

According to the critic Julia K. W. Baker, As I Lay Dying is a companion piece but also “in construction and technique, an advance beyond” The Sound and the Fury. Both novels concern dysfunctional families in the fictional Mississippi county of Yoknapatawpha. The title of the novel is again a literary allusion, this time to a speech of the ghost of Agamemnon in Book XI of Homer’s Odyssey. Through fifty-nine interior monologues delivered by fifteen narrators, As I Lay Dying recounts the death of a mother of five, Addie Bundren, and the journey of her husband and children as they convey her coffin to her hometown. Apart from death, the novel’s themes include religion, infidelity, and family secrets.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Robert_Howlett_(Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel_Standing_Before_the_Launching_Chains_of_the_Great_Eastern),_The_Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art_-_restoration1.jpg

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Isambard Kingdom Brunel standing before the launching chains of the SS Great Eastern. The ship was launched on this day in 1858.

Earlier I posted an illustration of this gas holder as I find the architecture gorgeous, I wanted to share a photo but I wanted it to be historical as I am used to posting in the historicalphoto community as well.

I finally found it in one source I often forget in favor of Digital Museum, Stockholmskällan.

The photographer of this photo is unknown, but it is owned by the Stockholm city archives, and licensed as CC-BY.

The photo itself shows the gas works in Värtahamnen in the 1910s.

Right front and center we have the beautiful gas holder I spoke about in my other post, designed by one of my favourite architectures, Ferdinand Boberg.

There is another brick gas holder in the same style, now that the gas work area is being redeveloped, one is converted into a hotel, the other is converted into a concert hall.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Baikal_ice_on_sunset.jpg

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Lake Baikal in winter. Ice ridges near Olkhon island in Pribaikalsky National Park.

I have in my past posts spoken about the famous Swedish architect Fredrinand Boberg, who designed many iconic buildings for modern industry in and around Stockholm.

One of his most famous works was the two brick gas holders in the Värtahamnen gasworks in the north eastern part of the city.

Here is an original drawing from what I can find was when the design was proposed.

I just absolutely love this kind of design, I love how the use the bricks not only for strength, but for art as well.

Look at the top row of windows, every window is arched!

Look at the very top of the brick structure, there is a complex pattern of white and dark bricks making it look like a crown!

The circular thing above the door is a dial to show how full the gas holder is.

I just absolutely love it!

The area is being redeveloped, and both brick gas holders are being preserved, one will be turned into a hotel (I live just 30 km from it, but I will absolutely stay there at some point), the other is being turned into a performance art scene, with the Stockholm Opera being one of the first tenants.

I will post more Boberg goodness over time!

This illustration is in the public domain.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phalacrocorax_carbo,_Egretta_garzetta_and_Mareca_strepera_in_Taudha_Lake.jpg

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Great Cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo), Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) and Gadwall (Mareca strepera) in misty Taudaha Lake during winter, near Kathmandu, Nepal.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sunset_over_the_ice_of_Brofjorden_1.jpg

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Sunset over the ice of Brofjorden in Sandvik, Lysekil Municipality, Sweden

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Selection_on_the_ramp_at_Auschwitz-Birkenau,_1944_(Auschwitz_Album)_1b.jpg

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“Selection” of Hungarian Jews on the ramp at Auschwitz-II-Birkenau in German-occupied Poland, May/June 1944, during the final phase of the Holocaust. Jews were sent either to forced labor or the gas chambers. 81 years ago today, on January 27, 1945, Auschwitz was liberated by the Red Army. Today is also International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Orchards_in_snow,_Sangla,_Himachal_Pradesh,_India.jpg

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Apple orchards after snowfall in Sangla in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. India has the second largest area under apple cultivation in the world and is the fifth largest producer of the fruit globally. More than 90% of India's apple production comes from just two of its northern Himalayan states: Jammu and Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh. Today is Republic Day in India.

This is an old lock in Åkers kanal, an old waterway in the Stockholm suburb Åkersberga.

It was built in 1825 and the land raising of the area had made the old river impassable.

Land raising?

Yes, during the ice age Sweden was covered by a kilometers thick layer of ice, which pushed the crust of the planet at that point down into the core. The land raising is just the process of the plates slowly resetting.

It has been found that at about 10 300 years ago, the local area was 150 below the current sea level.

As the ice melted the land rose up very fast at first, in some places at 250m/year.

In the last several centuries, the land raising have only really been at a few mm per year, yet it still continues to this day.

There are som interesting examples of this phenomenon, Åkers kanal is one, another is that the city of Stockholm had to lower the docks in parts of the city by half a meter to get them back to the same height above the water as they had when they had 100 years ago.

Now, back to Åkers kanal, there used to be passenger and cargo traffic on the canal, but over time the local railroad, Roslagsbanan, and even later, cars took over that business.

These days the canal is maintained for leisure use, but no commercial traffic passes along it.

The lock is still maintained, and in use, I mainly use it to walk a cross the canal and get to the bus to get to work.

This photo was taken in 1951 and is in the public domain.

Slussen is one of the most complex infrastructure challenges in Stockholm.

It manages several levels of cars/busses going in every direction, a metro interchange station, a bus terminus for many bus lines, a terminus of a commuter railroad, pedestrian walkways, a big lift, and a lock for boats.

Everything in one small spot.

It is also one of the main roads through the city...

The form of Slussen that is shown here is the one that was opened in 1935, it was patched haphazardly through the decades, in 2004 a new design was announced, in 2009 a geologic survey was performed, in 2013 an archeological dig was started.

The new design of the area is planned to be completed in 2027 or so.

Now, back to the old design, it has dealt with a lot over the years, just one major example is when Sweden changed from driving on the left to driving on the right in 1967, which means that if you look on this photo you can see that cars are driving on the left.

If we turn our attention to the background of the photo, you can see some of the neon advertisment signs that Stockholm was famous for in this time, we even preserved some of the more iconic signs and they are now considered works of art and are kept lit, even if the brand they are advertising went out of business decades ago.

Finally, I just want to commend the photographer of capturing that gorgeous sunset!

Photographer is K W Gullers, it is owned by the Nordic museum in Stockholm and licensed as CC-BY-NC-ND

I have noticed that sometimes when I post pictures this way, they seem to be limited in resolution, so here is a link to the photo article on Digitaltmuseum where you can expand the photo in a better way:

https://digitaltmuseum.se/021016954715/vinterbild-en-natt-i-februari-over-trafikkarusellen-vid-slussen-upplyst

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Beilstein_-_Billensbach_-_Stocksberger_Str._14_-_Werkstatt_-_Fenster_mit_Hopfenranken_(1).jpg

Description:

Window in a former joinery workshop in Beilstein, Germany. Hop has grown into the workshop and has draped its tendrils before this window.

I have posted pictures from my old home train station from way before I stomped around there, and here is another.

The train station can be seen on the right side of the picture, you can see that the waiting hall extension I mentioned in my last post has not been built yet.

I just noticed something interesting, there is a garden with trees in neat rows just to the left of the station, my mom used to mention that there was abandoned apple trees in that area and there must have been a garden there, turns out she was right! I gotta show her this...

The lake in the background is Rönningesjön, a lake where I learned to swim.

I can see the road where my parents house is located, though not the actual house.

Edit:

I forgot to add info about the license, here it is:

This photo was taken by Ahrenbergsflyg, and is licensed as CC-BY

The earlier picture was taken in the 1920s, this is the same station in 1940.

You can see that the station house have been expanded, and the railroad has been electrified.

Both these buildings exist and are in use today, the large house is a successful toy shop and the old station house hosts a café.

I find pictures of Sweden from this time to be interesting as they look so peaceful while WWII was raging not only with Germany's neighbors, but our neighbors as well, Finland fought the Soviet Union, Germany fought Norway and Denmark and we sat in the middle, escaping the horrors of war.

The photographer is unkown, but the photo belongs to Spårvägsmuseet (the Stockholm Public Transport museum) and is licensed as CC-BY-NC

I have posted pictures of Roslagsbanan before, but this station means a lot to me.

This is my home station, where I grew up between 1993 or so until I moved out from the area in 2014.

Roslagsbanan itself means a lot to me and my dad, we are both interested in trains, my dad worked on Roslagsbanan at the start of his career which turned him into a highly technical sales man for railroad systems.

I took a different path with my career and work in IT instead, but I commuted on the railroad and both me and my dad have been active in the heritage railroad society in Uppsala that uses part of the old Roslagsbanan network.

I have written about the railroad in older posts, so I won't go into details here, but I can tell you about the station.

The station has been rebuilt several times, changing track and plattform layouts as needed.

The station house was expanded since this photo was taken, at one point it was a classic waiting room for trains, then i was closed for many years, and have for a decade plus now been a nice café, the top floor is a private domicile.

The mast thing you can see in the background is a railway semafor signal.

I will post more stuff as I find it.

The photographer is unkown, but the license is CC-BY-NC-BY