harder watzit - beach buggy

I wish!!

me too
Is it possible to register a Tuk Tuk here I wonder.
Does anybody Know ?
Cheers
Dieter

Twould th@ Last pic
B a Vespa
az in vespa scooterz We all know who asked that.

The Steering/Gearchange Gadget looks like it is.

I am just back from 5 weeks in China & Tibet.
China abounds in three-wheel vehicles. I photographed lots, and tended to ignore conventional trucks and buses.

These two were photographed in Beijing. The city has lots of motorways, lots of wide roads and lots of conventional traffic. This is a major change since 1983, when there were more pushbikes than motorcars. It also has lots of small three-wheelers, capable of negotiating the narrow lanes in the surviving houtong pockets of traditional housing.

The taxi differs from a south-east Asia tuk tuk: the front is pure motorbike, but with a cabin (China gets cold in winter). The double seat faces rearwards, entered through a rear doorway. I saw the type in lots of other major cities.

The truck is probably electrically powered, with pedal assistance. There are lots of small electric vehicles and bikes in China now.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Smitty
Gudday M8

Gr8 pix
keep m Cummin

Spose th@ top pic of the streamline silver jiggr
could B classed as there V: of a Greyhound Bus

LOL



KwikAsAir




Full of air

Cya
[ch9786]

The first shows a rear view of one of the silver streamlined Beijing three-wheel taxis. I had just alighted, having travelled with my camera bag and laptop on the seat beside me, and my suitcase upright on the floor beside my feet.

The other shows an increasingly-common electric vehicle.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Roderick.....going by the number plate on the little van in the background, it looks like you visited Shenyang (a small city of about 6 million) located about 400km north-east of Beijing. You should have dropped into my place for a cold can or two of tasty Tsingtao Chinese Fizz. (TSINGTAO acronym.....this stuff is no good try another one).

How can I resist an invitation like that? I have just got back from my agent, and booked a ticket to Shenyang & Dandong for Mar.12.

On this occasion, I was not in Shenyang: the vehicle was photographed in Lanzhou. I did get to Fuxin.
I did pass through Shenyang and Dandong on an overnight train from Beijing to Pyongyang in Dec.93.

My next trip is a bit vague: I will be with a group in south-west China, but will be continuing privately for 2 weeks to pockets of industrial steam, mostly north of Beijing. That program is being planned by my travelling companion; I am simply tagging along. I have asked to include Changchun and Dalian for the tramway coverage (a mutual interest), so I might drop by, but not for a Tsingtao. It really is horrible, but every other beer in China was worse (Snow was the worst, and barely had enough alcohol to be called a beer). I was living off supermarket red wine. Great Wall was the best (which isn't saying much); local reds were sweet, with no proper characteristics.

In this selection, I am placing only three-wheelers, leading to the false impression that that is the only style in China. Far from it, but proper buses and trucks will go to a different thread.

I forgot to type the captions for the recent pair, and it is now too late to edit the post. Here they are:

111003M-P1010638-Beijing-trike_taxi-RSmith

110914W-P1000368-Lanzhou-electric_trike-truck-RSmith

If you have any photos of trams in Changchun or Dalian, I would love to see them: either in the leftovers thread in HCVC (and I can send links to TramsPacificRim), or email direct to rodsmith @ werple.net.au, hopefully with approval to forward them to TPR (with a credit to you).

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Two more.
The small one may be private, not commercial. I guess that the passenger rides facing rearwards, with feet on the ledge.

The larger one is cruder than the version posted by 'Swishy': no cab. It has a slow-revving putt-putt style of motor, and moves quite slowly. In UK three wheelers were popular because they were in a lower tax bracket. I don't know why they are so popular in China: they can't be very much cheaper than four wheelers, and would suffer from the problem of the single wheel not tracking well on rutted rural dirt roads.

110915Th-P1000454-Baiyin-tricycle-RSmith
110915Th-P1000473-Baiyin-threewheel-truck-RSmith

Baiyin serves copper and zinc mines and smelting, about 60 km west of Lanzhou.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

I took took this one in Cloncurry (Qld) in 1968.

680119F-04-Cloncurry-triwheel-RSmith

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

This one in the "Curry" is like the ones Mount Isa Mines were using on site in the early 60's, they had a fleet of them then.

That was a very interesting reply.
For what was the fleet used?
Surface or underground?
Why get small three wheelers instead of conventional utes or small tray trucks?
Were the squeezing up the aisles in warehouses or workshops?

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor