Taxis

The hearses and ambulances threads went way beyond my kick-start photos. I have been accumulating photos of taxis for a third thematic, and the time seems right to make a start. I do have taxis sprinkled in threads on Chinese commercial vehicles, Indonesian commercial vehicles, horse-drawn vehicles and the lengthy one on three-wheel vehicles (all those tuktuks).
Unfortunately, lots of modern ones look the same as a family car, and are generic white or yellow, but hopefully with some chequerboard for effect. Hopefully, people will have photos of 1950s taxis in classic traditional schemes (eg Silvertop).
Here is a thoughtful article which may yet bear fruit, and not just kite flying to save Ford.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Here be an old favorite Roderick.
May just be not what you were looking for but I'll kick the first ball. ( I have not a connection with Mattel)

What you say?

I liked Tijuana Taxi (I have even ridden in a real one in Tijuana). One of the good things about hcvc is the variety.

Here is my next: A Holden taxi in Baghdad (Iraq) with another behind it. When I posted this to another forum, somebody commented that the drive was changed to the left, but the wipers weren't changed to match. Perhaps it never rains there? I may even have ridden this one: we had about four taxi rides, linking the new station to a hotel, hotel to old station, and hotel to bus terminal. The through train to Turkey via Syria wasn't running; we had to bus further east, and bypass Syria.

Which model is this one? I had an 1968 HK for several years, but that body went through about three models.
The five characters top right are the Arabic numberals for 22170.

780102M Baghdad Holden taxi. R Smith

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Interesting picture, Roderick.
I reckon that taxi is a HK Holden, which debuted in 1968. The next model was HT and they had the word 'HOLDEN' spelt out on the bonnet. The final in that body shape was the HG (1970) which had a different grille (recessed).

Here are some in Carson City, Nevada, USA. The design seems to be purpose built, not a conversion of anything. I have no idea of the layout: I wasn't hiring one. I went by bus from Reno, singing 'I'm going to...Carson City, Carson City here I come...'.

Here is some material on hybrid taxis for New York:
usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-07-16-taxi-cab_N.htm
Nissan has committed to making available 200 of its Nissan Altima hybrids per month, General Motors is providing 50 of its Chevrolet Malibus and Ford is offering 50 Ford Escape hybrids, the city said.
My memory is that the Carson City ones are hybrids (I was chatting with a driver), but the body does not match Nissan Altima, or Chevrolet Malibu, or Ford Escape. The badge on the grille must be a clue, but I don't recognise it.

That leads to MetroKing, the first USA-made purpose-designed taxi since Checker filed for bankruptcy.
www.autoblog.com/2009/01/30/metroking-am...e-taxi-since-checker

However, these are not MetroKings, unless the company has moved into a more-stylish and more-compact model.

Further progress: I cropped to the badge: it is a Scion, which makes it a Toyota Scion, and here is an article on its popularity as a taxi:
www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4f0da184-0235-11e0-aa...0.html#axzz2iuWAZus3

this narrows it to an xD model:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scion_(automobile)

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Those taxis in you picture are a Toyota you can buy in Australia. I think the model is Rukus. Nissan and some of the other Japanese, Korean or other Asian manufacturers have their versions.
They are popular with modifiers in Japan.

Thanks for that. I had hoped that this group would have someone with the knowledge, and it does.
Rukus is the Australian name, and I got to
www.toyota.com.au/rukus#dont-blend-in
which shows why it is popular as a taxi: the spacious interior.

This isn't my photo, so have only the link. It possible that only facebook members will get to see it. It is a Checker which is now resident in Australia. This photo was taken at a display at Southbank (Melbourne). It would look good at Sandown.

www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151944...80683&type=1&theater

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

This is a crop from a photo which my father took to show the illuminated Olympic torch, suspended above the Swanston St & Flinders St intersection.
There are three Holden FJ taxis showing.
I can't recall if they are Silvertop, Black & White, or one other, which used that pattern in red & cream.

This is not scanned from the original (in a box somewhere); this is from a printed version, accompanying an article which I wrote on the logistics supporting the 1956 Olympic Games.

561125Su Flinders St (Melbourne, Vic.). Olympics. N Smith

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

Here is a kite-flying plan to create an 'iconic Australian' taxi.
I did the original as a pdf, which introduced the unwanted white bars, but I won't be able to find the original again, so have the pdf converted to jpg.

120922Sa Melbourne Herald Sun, taxi designs.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor

This isn't purpose modified: just a 'yank tank' in a country where the price of fuel is irrelevant. We couldn't find a bus to the Iraq border: most of the country was closed because of the death of a sheik. On this tour, we were a trio, so the price of the taxi wasn't outrageous.

771231Sa Kuwait, taxi to Iraq border. R Smith
The four large Arabic numerals lower right are '4969'.

I can't guess the make or model or year for the vehicle.

Roderick B Smith
Rail News Victoria Editor