WORTH A SECOND GLANCE
SWISS SCENERY & SCRAP
With the
virtual disappearance of the Airport postcard we lose a lot of unexpected and
unintended card content. Here we have
three cards from the Swiss airport of Sion in Valais Canton.
The airport lies in a typical alpine glacial valley. The top card, of a CL44 on take off , is produced by Editions Jubin but also carries titles and contact
details for cargo carrier Transvalair, the owners of HB-IEN. This CL-44 was one
of two owned and had previously been with Flying Tiger, Seaboard World and the
British Transmeridian. It was with Transvalair 1974-81 and then passed to
various African carriers. It was still in existence recently in Congo (Ex Zaire)
The oddity about this card is that it
breaks one of the rules of card publishing, especially airline issue, which is
not to show wrecked aircraft. But
to the left of the runway is the remains of a red DC-8 being broken up, or in
more recent usage, parted out.
The same
DC-8 appears intact in two views on another Sion card from the same publisher
which also features the CL44. If it looks
like ex-Air Canada that is correct. DC-8-41 CF-TJB was one of the first
delivered to then Trans Canada Airlines in 1959 and stayed with them until 1977
when sold to Transvalair who never used it but broke it up starting December –
which all dates the card quite precisely. It
is not clear why Transvalair got involved in breaking up a type that they never
operated.
There is
a third Sion/Transvalair from Jubin featuring
HB-IEN, this time with local views and Swiss Air Force Vampires. This one exists
with both Transvalair back titles and Sion/Valais topographical
.
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