Manila, Philippines

A great train card sent by Cenezo!

The card in particularly shows the LRT in Manila, or the Light Rail  Transit System. It is a metropolitan rail system serving the Metro Manila area in the Philippines. Although referred to as a light rail system because it originally used light rail vehicles, it has many characteristics of a rapid transit (metro) system, such as high passenger throughput and exclusive right-of-way.
The LRT has at its disposal 31 stations along over 31 kilometers of mostly elevated track form two lines, and around 579,000 passengers are served each day.
There are two lines, Line 1, also known as the Yellow Line, opened in 1984 and travels a north–south route, while Line 2, the Purple Line, was completed in 2004 and runs east–west.

and the card arrived with two lovely train stamps! they come from a set of 4 stamps issued in 2010, featuring the Manila City Railway...perfectly matching the card! 

Moscow Metro Stations, Russia

Some of you know it rather well, some dont...for those who didnt know by now...I have a soft spot for several kinds of cards...and the Metro Stations in Moscow are very high on the list...but im talking here about the older cards, as the ones you can see here, with the yellow/golden touch....ive seen some new ones and they just dont have the charm of these older ones....
I have some posts about some of the metro stations....here is part 1 and here is part 2...guess this one could be considered as part 3....and eventually one day part 4 and part 5 will follow...and maybe 6 and 7 and 8 etc...depending on how this collection of mine grows...

RU-68282

well, for starters today, here is the map plan of the Moscow metro...there are 11 lines shown, plus one is said to be under construction...the lines are: Sokolnicheskaya, Zamoskvoretskaya, Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya, Filovskaya, Koltsevaya, Kaluzhsko-Rizhskaya, Tagansko-Krasnopresnenskaya, Serpukhovsko-Timiriazevskaya, Kalininskaya, Liublinskaya and Kakhovskaya. If im right, the one here referred to as Under Construction is supposed to be Butovskaya....in total there are 180 stations.

and of course, i wont forget the stamps...here is a stamp from a set of 4 definitives issued in 2003 representing Sculpture art.

First station for today is Aviamotornaya. It is a station on the Kalininskaya line and was opened on 30 December 1979.The station is built in a three-vault configuration 53 metres (173 feet) underground. The central hallway contains a sculpture made out of anodised gold pyramids and tetrahedra.The theme of Aviamotornaya is aviation and flying. The columns holding up the ceiling are glazed in a light marble tone. The floor is made up of granite plates coloured in different shades of grey. The wall at the end of the central hallway is faced in a metal sculpture. There are decorations mentioning and detailing the main constellations.

some great stamps....well, they were put both above and below the address, so hence the two parts....starting from the ones above...the first one is from a set of 15 definitives issued in 2008, portraying animals. This one shows a hare. The one next to it was issued in 2001 and it is from the EUROPA series, from the Water-theme. The stamp below is from 2007 from a set of 3 showing Russian first native trucks. This one is ZIS-5V, 1942.

Next is the Kropotkinskaya station which is on the Sokolnicheskaya (or the red) line.

It was opened  in 1935 as part of the original Metro line.The station was originally planned to serve the enormous Palace of the Soviets, which was to rise nearby on the former site of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Kropotkinskaya was therefore designed to be the largest and grandest station on the first line. However, the Palace project was cancelled by Nikita Khrushchev in 1953, leaving the Metro station as the only part of the complex that was actually built.

Since it was to serve as the gateway to the Palace of Soviets, great care was taken to make Kropotkinskaya suitably elegant and impressive. The station has flared columns faced with white marble which are said to have been inspired by the Temple of Amon at Karnak. Contrary to popular opinion, the marble used in the station did not come from the demolished Cathedral. The spacious platform is covered with squares of gray and red granite and the walls, originally tiled, are now faced with white Koyelga marble. The station is illuminated by concealed lamps set into the tops of the columns.

and here is an interesting "stamp"....which has remained a mistery to me until today...I really dont understand the meaning of this and why was it used, and the most confusing part for me is that the card was mailed from Russia..so why is there Return to Budapest? Anyone knows?

The last one shows the vestibule of the Park Pobedy station. (or the Victory Park)

It is a station on the Arbatsko-Pokrovskaya Line of the Metro. At 84 metres underground, it is the deepest station in Moscow. It also contains the longest escalators in Europe, each one is 126 metres long and has 740 steps. The ride to the surface takes approximately three minutes.
Park Pobedy is actually a cross-platform complex with two separate, parallel platforms, though only the inner pair of tracks is presently used.

Trains arriving from Kievskaya stop at the northern platform to drop off passengers before going into reversal sidings and coming back to the southern platform to pick up passengers for the trip back. This is the only Metro station where all passengers board and exit trains in different locations. A further complication: only the southern (inbound) platform has an entrance vestibule, so passengers arriving at the outbound platform must change platforms before exiting. (confusing indeed)

The two platforms work of architects Nataliya Shurygina and Nikolay Shumakov are of identical design but have opposite colour schemes, which creates a striking effect. The pylons of the outbound platform are faced with red marble on the transverse faces and pale grey marble on the longitudinal faces. The inbound platform is exactly the reverse. The station is adorned with two large enameled panels by Zurab Tsereteli depicting the Patriotic War of 1812 (at the end of the inbound platform) and the Great Patriotic War (on the outbound platform).

Some more great stamps. The one in the middle is from 2007 from a set of  4 showing Native horse breeds. This one shows the Vladimir breed. The one on the left is from 2008 from a set of 3 representing the World Natural Heritage - Central Sikhote, Alijn. And the last stamp is from 2002 from a set of 5 definitives, showing architecture, with this one showing Kuskovo Palace.

I LOVE the metro stations. I have a few others in stock, but if you have some for trade, let me know...you might have something im missing :)

Paris, France

Metro maps always seem just sooo complicated! But the metro concept itself is actually more than easy...you just need time to get used to it and become familiar with the stations and routes and trains...its even fun, trying to follow the right colour on the right line and all :)

When i look at this map, i DO question myself how i had managed to go through Paris on a subway....I have no idea which stations i had used to get on/off....but it didnt seem problematic at all....from this point of view, seems like the most complicated thing ever :)
Apart from Paris, ive also used the subway system in London, Budapest and Vienna....and as long as you have a map card with you, they are all more than a piece of cake to use...
I sometimes wish we had a subway here as well..but when i think about it, this town is far from big enough for a subway....unless the subway goes to two or three nearest towns...coz that would be exactly like going from one to the other part of London...but when i think of all the chaos on the streets here...a subway would be a great solution...which will never happen...when i was like 5 years old, there was a project about building a tram...im 28...we are still tram-less....so getting a subway is equal to science fiction...

Well...sorry for the lack of updates lately...and for the short entry today...its just...life...but know that i do miss posting here when i dont do it...

Moscow, Russia

When i did the update about the republics from ex- Yugoslavia, i told you that i had another one on my mind, and here it comes to day...its about the former USSR republics.

Now, i dont have cards from exactly all of them (and if i had, actually that would have been a several-pages-update which would have somehow lost its sense plus it would  have been way too time consuming) and unlike the former Yugoslavia, here i cant really put my personal experiences or views and all, coz ive never lived in any of these republics, so i think i ll basically stick to the postcards-facts...and maybe something else at random...but either way, i hope youll like it :)

I think ive always been amazed by the vastness of Russia...and i sometimes find it hard to comprehend that it actually stretches out over two continents and that it borders both Finland and China...it feels really amazing.
I would like to travel by the Trans-Siberian railway one day...
And this card may be not of a railway, but i surely love it! I have a soft spot for the postcards of the Moscow metro stations...i dont know why, but there is something absolutely lovely in them. Ive already posted 3 cards like this, so this is my 4th Moscow metro station...and hopefully one is on its way too ;)

Taganskaya is a station on the Koltsevaya line of the Moscow Metro. Opened on 1 January 1950 it was part of the first segment of the fourth stage of the system. The station is named after the Taganka square which is a major junction of the Sadovoje Koltso.
The station is a standard pylon-trivault layout that was built with the post-war flamboyance in mind, the overall design is based on the Traditional Russian motives  in decorations.
The central feature of the station are 48 Maiolica panels located on each face of the pylon. These contain apart from floral elements, profile bas-reliefs of various World War II Red Army and Navy servicemen each dedicated to a group such as pilots, tankists, sailors etc.

Now apart from having a great card, the card itself even has stamps related to it, i.e metro stamps...i find this really neat, and beautiful...having a postcard with matching stamp (s)  

thanks a lot to Tatiana P. for sending me this one :)

Moscow Metro Station, Russia

I got these 3 cards in a lottery...they show the interrior of the subway in Moscow....I cant say anything else except that the interior is way too beautiful...

The Subway in Moscow is the world's second most-heavily used rapid transit system. Opened in 1935, it is well known for the ornate design of many of its stations which contain outstanding examples of socialist realist art.

This is the vestibule of the metro station "Mayakovskaya", 1938
This station is on the Zamoskovretskaya Line and is considered to be one of the most beautiful in the system.It is one of the finest examples of pre-World War II Stalinist Architecture making it one of the most famous Metro stations in the world.

 

 This is the vestibule of the metro station "Novoslobodskaya", 1952. It is a station on the Koltesvaya line. Opened on 30 January, 1952 as part of the second stage of the line, it is one of the most famous stations on the system for its unique stained glass decoration.

I think that out of the three, I love this station the most :)

 

The last of the cards shows the vestibule of the station "Komsomolskaya-Koltsevaya" (in the circular line), 1952.
The Komsomolskaya station is the is the most famous of all those on the Koltesvaya line and of the whole system, and an icon of Moscow itself, partly due to it being located on Moscow's busiest transport hub Komsomolskaya square which serves three railway terminals. As such the station's connotation is of a gateway to Moscow and to the rest of Russia, and its theme is of the patriotic history and inspiring future of the nation. It was opened on 30 January, 1952, as part of the second stage of the Ring line.

In my PC i have an entire folder of pictures from the Moscow subway....all of them magnificent...its soooo great to have some postcards as well, and actually get to know the name of the stations on the pictures and read something more about them.