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The theme for the December photo competition is "Retired means of travel". This covers any object that was once used by people for traveling, but is no longer in commission today (e.g. a retired passenger ship, car, bus, or plane, or a demolished airport/train station/bus station). (If anyone has any better ideas on how to word the title of the competition, please comment.)

You may make your submission as an answer to this post. The standard rules for photo contests apply:

  • Only one photo per answer.
  • You can make up to three posts (attempts).
  • Do not delete posts if you don't get votes: you posted it, stand by it. (You have two more attempts if your first one doesn't work out.)
  • All submissions should have a line with when and where the photo was taken.
  • The photo has to be taken by the person who posted it, or by a travel partner (needs to be named).
  • Keep it nice, non-offensive, and non-NSFW.
  • If you disagree with a photo, please consider leaving a comment on it or bringing it up in chat. For the purposes of judging, only upvotes will be considered; downvotes will not affect the score of the photo.
  • The photo may have been taken any time.
  • The photo competition will begin December 1, 2020, 0:00 UTC, and continue until the end of the month (again in UTC). If there is no tie for the highest number of upvotes at the end of the month, the winner will be announced then; if there is, the voting period may extend beyond the month.

If you'd like to suggest a theme for a future photo competition, please add it to the list of possible photo competition topics. Also, you can join us in chat to help us make the decision on which topic to choose.


Results

Zach Lipton wins the bragging rights for the most voted photo, featuring three "retired means of travel": a Space Shuttle on top of a Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, flying over Hangar One, an abandoned hangar for airships.

PeterM wins the virtual prize for their photo of an abandoned van with graffiti appearing to "integrate" with its surroundings.

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  • At first glance, I was about to post a pic of me and my bicycle: my primary transportation for my first five years of retirement (and five prior).
    – WGroleau
    Dec 10, 2020 at 7:30

28 Answers 28

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took this photo of an abandoned van near The Truman Brewery Markets in London (31st Dec 2019) - I wonder if it's still there....

took this photo of an abandoned van near The Truman Brewery Markets in London (31st Dec 2019) - I wonder if it's still there...

edit: it's London, UK, as mentioned in the comments

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    Congratulations! I really like this photo's composition and how the van "integrates" with the background, so I've decided to award it the virtual prize.
    – gparyani
    Dec 31, 2020 at 23:59
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Three retired means of travel in one here.

Space Shuttle on top of Shuttle Carrier Aircraft above a latticework of metal

Space Shuttle Endeavour atop the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft does a flyby over the skeletal remains of Hanger One (built in the 1930s to hold rigid airships).

September 21, 2012; NASA Ames Research Center/Moffett Federal Airfield, Mountain View, California, USA: photo by me.

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  • Now you are just showing off. :-) +1 For capturing a unique moment. Dec 17, 2020 at 16:53
  • Congratulations! Your photo was the most voted for at the end of the competition period, so you win the bragging rights this month.
    – gparyani
    Dec 31, 2020 at 23:59
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One of my favourite aircraft - the SR-71 Blackbird at Duxford, Cambridge we took on a visit in 2006 with our 3-month-old daughter. It's one of those rare museums that lets you touch the exhibits, and the Blackbird feels very weird!

Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

This is the official record holder as the fastest jet-powered, piloted aircraft of all time, with a top speed of 2200 mph (over Mach 3) at altitudes over 85,000 feet.

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The Concorde at the Le Bourget museum in Paris, 2016:

enter image description here

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The RTV 31 Tracked Hovercraft

This is all that remains of an experimental high speed train which was under development in the United Kingdom during the 1960s.

enter image description here

It combined two British inventions, the hovercraft and linear induction motor, in an effort to produce a train system that would provide a 250 mph (400 km/h) inter-city service. The project was cancelled, and never went into service.

Taken by me in Peterborough, UK in June 2006.

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An old bicycle transformed to a fully functioning human-powered blender. I saw it when using Couchsurfing in Curitiba and staying with a group of a very earth-friendly people :)

Curitiba, January 2017

bicycle blender

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Several Viking ships retired from use around 1070 and sunk in the Roskilde fjord, excavated in 1962. Now on show in the Roskilde Viking ship museum.

Reconstruction of a boat in which some of the wood is still there.
Photo taken by me on 28 September 2010 In Roskilde, Denmark, as that is where the museum is.

The workshop of the museum has made reconstructions to row and sail with of all the vessels out of this group. In my photo you can see 4 of the 5 boats in this group, if most not clearly.

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train graveyard

At the train cemetery in Uyuni, Bolivia, everything degrades quickly due to the salt in the air and the apparent fun of graffiti, but that doesn't prevent everybody from stopping by on the way to the salt flats. I took this photo on February 8, 2019.

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    I visited this as a last stop on my San Pedro-Uyuni tour and it is the only part of the trip that didn't live up to the expectations.
    – Bernhard
    Dec 22, 2020 at 18:00
  • 1
    @Bernhard +1, disappointed too, not worth stopping imho, the rest is much more interesting. Dec 25, 2020 at 5:14
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This bike isn't going anywhere anymore, but it's doing the useful job of keeping cars out of the main tourist street in downtown Reykjavík, where I spotted it on August 3, 2015.

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Saturn V rocket (mostly only the 1st stage visible) at Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA on 1 Nov 2010.

NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D80
Æ’/3.51/4018 mmISO250

As used in the Apollo moon landings to transport astronauts to lunar orbit.

Saturn V

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U.S.S. Bowfin, submarine at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, USA.

USS Bowfin (SS/AGSS-287), is a Balao-class submarine of the United States Navy named for the bowfin fish. Since 1981, she has been open to public tours at the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, next to the USS Arizona Memorial Visitor Center. It was built in 1942, and decommissioned THREE TIMES - finally in 1971.

NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D80
Æ’/9 1/320 31mm ISO100

enter image description here

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heart of gold

The Heart of Gold rocketship is the mascot of the Chaos Computer Club. It's hard to say if it's retired, exactly, but I've not yet met anyone who's been offered a ride on it. Maybe one day.

This photo was taken on December 26, 2013, when it landed outside the 30C3 in Hamburg, Earth.

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    Didn't expect to see fairydust here, but it's a welcome addition regardless!
    – ave
    Dec 15, 2020 at 22:14
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Mercedes-Benz T 80, a car that would be the world's fastest (well at least in 1940). Technically it was never used for travelling, but well, it's a mean of transport...

Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart August 2019

Mercedes-Benz Museum

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18th C coach

Prince Francisco Coach (18th C, French). The coach belonged to Prince Francisco, Duke of Beja (brother of King João V).

The coach is in the Museu Nacional dos Coches in Lisbon.

Photo taken September, 2009

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SpaceShipOne - with the Bell X-1 in the background, was an experimental air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with sub-orbital spaceflight capability. SpaceShipOne completed the first crewed private spaceflight in 2004. It's now in the National Air and Space Museum, where I saw it in Washington, DC, on 23 April 2013.

NIKON CORPORATION NIKON D80
Æ’/51/10048 mmISO800

enter image description here

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In Gaspésie (a maritime region of Quebec, Canada on the St-Lawrence gulf), L'Amiral used to be a tourist train. It is now just seating in Gaspé, showing off its nice face.

L'Amiral, former Gaspésie train

Photo taken by me in June 2015

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The Golden Hinde

This replica of the original Golden Hind also circumnavigated the globe. Launched in 1974, the ship has been retired since 1996 and is now a museum.

enter image description here

Taken by me at St Mary Overie Dock, London in September 2018.

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The warship Vasa that sank on her maiden voyage in 1628.

Stockholm, Sweden
April 2010

Vasa Warship

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British Airways Negus 747 G-CIVB

A British Airways Boeing 747-400 in heritage "Negus" livery, a throwback to the 1970s and early 1980s as part of BA's 100th anniversary celebration in 2019.

This plane also briefly flew for their subsidiary airline British Asia Airways, which was formed to operate flights to Taipei as the government of China (PRC) had a rule at the time prohibiting some airlines who fly there from flying to Taiwan.

Sadly, British Airways retired their entire 747 fleet in the summer of 2020, so this plane is no longer in service.

Taken in June 2019 on Kodak Portra 160 film, in Austin, Texas, USA.

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This Hawker Harrier can be found in the car park of the main Dyson office in Malmesbury, Wiltshire. It was purchased for display after it crashed into the Mediterranean Sea.

Harrier in Dyson

Photo taken 2012, by my wife.

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This T-54 Russian tank was captured from Syria in 1967 by Iraq.

It was bought by the owner of K-W Surplus and is now permanently located in their parking lot in Kitchener, ON, Canada.

Russian T-54 Tank in parking lot.

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Old museum locomotive, Czech Republic, 2009:

enter image description here

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The Soviet B-39 Foxtrot-class submarine, also known as "Black Widow" or "Cobra". Now a permanent fixture at the San Diego Maritime Museum. Photo by me, May 2018.

enter image description here

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Competing with some other originally recycled bicycles above here, this one that I caught in Adamantas (Milos, Cyclades, Greece) in September 2019.

bicycle

Source (me)

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This is a former railway line with the left over bit of a station (or just a stop) called the 'Black Dog Halt' and the photo is taken over a gate which is in the shape of a train between two dogs. (I posted it here.) The plume of smoke is the handle to open the gate.

There are two retired 'means of travel' here, the railway line and the platform.

A lane behind the top of a steam train gate.

This photo was taken by me, 13 May 2017, near Bowood house, between Chippenham and Calne, Wiltshire, UK.

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Jet Airways 777-300ER

A Boeing 777-300ER belonging to Jet Airways, then the largest private Indian airline by international flights.

Jet Airways ceased operations in April 2019, and the entire long-haul fleet was retired at that time.

Taken in January 2018 on my smartphone, at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.

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Aircraft Carrier USS Midway - now a museum in San Diego, CA.

Photo take by me in 2008.

enter image description here

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Battleship USS Iowa, San Pedro, CA.

Excuse the grainy photo - The best angle I could get was of the screen showing the live video. From the deck (of the cruise ship) there were too many obstacles! Photo by me, Oct 2019.

enter image description here

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    I do not know why someone gave a down vote. If they do not agree with the 'taken photo from screen' they should leave a note. I think it is acceptable, as OP was there and could see the scene, if not from the same angle.
    – Willeke Mod
    Dec 4, 2020 at 16:25

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