Paddle Steamer, G. Zanardelli

It's more accurate to say MPV (Motor Paddle Vessel) these days because it was converted to diesel engines.

I just fell in love with this beautiful ferry boat during our holiday. Built in 1902 it was launched the following year as Giuseppe Zanardelli. He was Italy's 16th Prime Minister. At some point the name of the boat was shortened.

She has spent her working life on Lake Garda, though not always on the same route.

The front saloon. It retains the oil lamps from earlier days.

However it does not operate after dark - at least during the summer months. It currently operates between Riva at the northern end of the lake and Malcesine, calling at Limone along the way. Its first voyage of the day leaves at 9:00am during the summer and this made it a convenient boat for us to catch.

The space at midships with toilets - these have been refurbished and looked modern and spacious. A wide staircase leads to the top deck and saloon.

A later addition, this is the rear saloon. Again it is fitted with oil lamps.

Staircase to the top deck. This used to be open but was enclosed only in 1960.

The side paddles that provide the thrust are made of metal and the paddles themselves are offset at an angle for efficiency. They are not simply an extension of spokes of the wheel.

She has had her periods of being laid up for repairs, once after running aground and once after being strafed by Allied aircraft during World War two. An incident that left 11 people dead including her captain.

It is a tribute to her operators during the years that such a venerable old craft is still in public service.

We arrive at Limone - our topic for the next article in this series.

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Blackpool Steam and Transport Day 1991

In October 1991 Blackpool put on a steam and transport rally and rounded off the experience with an old-fashioned fairground, with the rides being powered by steam showmen's engines.

Blackpool Airport was the venue. It hosted a number of this type of events during the 1980s and very early nineties - though I think this may have been the penultimate one with 1992 being the last one before the airport started to expand its operations.

I'm just old enough to remember steam rollers being used to compact and smooth tarmac on the roads. Real tar too - on hot days you would find the road melting and sticky lumps of tar stuck to the bottom of your shoes. On such days you had to take your shoes off at the back door when you came in the house or risk your mother's wrath as you ruined the carpet! Small boys of course couldn't resist it... We used to poke at tar by the kerbside with a pencil until we could work a lump free and then it went - along with bits of string, a penknife and perhaps a white mouse - in the pocket!

Penknives, I hasten to add, were used for sharpening pencils in the innocent days of my boyhood. Using a knife you could sharpen a pencil lead into either a point or a squared-off oblong. Lost skills...

A Foden steam lorry. These were often dangerously quiet. Once the lorry had accelerated and the steam was shut off, the only sound they gave was the occasional clanking of the chain drive.

A final look at the fairground. In the background to the right is an old-fashioned "haunted swing" sideshow where people sit on a "swing" which is fixed and then the "room" about them rotates throught 360 degrees to make you feel as though you are tipping out of the seat. The room in this case was rotated by hand, the chap who took the money, once he had enough customers, shut the door, went to the back of the set and heaved to turn the wooden room.

There were a number of cars on display too and the British Leyland-built Pope-Mobile that had been built for the Pope's visit in 1982.

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The Blackpool Belle

Ah, the Blackpool Belle! An illuminated tram, one of several built in the first half of the 1960s, this was a paddle steamer with the lights in the paddle wheels simulating movement.

For some reason it was sold off to America in the later 1970s, leaving Blackpool with a rocket, a ship, the hovertram and the wild west train as its illuminated fleet. Prior to these there had been a couple of standard trams, trimmed up with sets of external lights. One of these could be found at the transport museum at Carlton Colville near Lowestoft in Norfolk, where I last saw and rode on it in 1995.