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Military Engineering Establishment in Christchurch, Hampshire


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This is a short Pathe film from 1965 showing the activities of Military Engineering Establishment in Christchurch, Hampshire, since closed and now a retail park?

 

Did the trench digger ever enter service?

 

http://www.britishpathe.com/video/army-innovations/query/Christchurch

Yes the trench digger entered service as the Light Mobile Digger (LMD) now long gone...........

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Most of it became a retail park, but QinetiQ ran a small area of the site for bridge test and wet gap crossing until a few years ago. It now has, or is about to become a supermarket and housing estate: http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/9320528.Multi_million_pound_plans_to_transform_derelict_Christchurch_riverside_site/

 

The pub/restaurant on the retail park is called The Bailey Bridge, so at least some history remains.

 

Andy

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Did the trench digger ever enter service?

 

Definate yes.

But fitted with a cab.

I used to operate one for a year or two around 1980 - 1

Very thirsty for petrol when operating about 15 gallon an hour at working revs and a large flame out of the exhaust.

Just what you want when trying to dig a hole at night in the open.

Edited by ploughman
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A lot of the LMDs came out through Aston Down in the early '90s. Can't have been well liked as they only made a few hundred each.

 

I went to the auctions when MEXE / MVEE / DRA / DERA Christchurch closed. Shame, really. Unfortunately I think a lot of the more interesting odds & ends that were still there went in the bin. Bought a Sentinel office trailer and some odds & ends - in fact, I'm still using some hand tools I bought there.

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A lot of the LMDs came out through Aston Down in the early '90s. Can't have been well liked as they only made a few hundred each.

 

.

 

I overhauled a good few of these and being involved with a lot of Engineers plant at the time, thought they were a fascinating piece of kit despite a few shortcomings. The whole digging frame could be offset left or right, spoil conveyor would go either way, and a hydraulic drive on the transfer box would drive the vehicle at digging speed. As has already been said, the choice of a B81 to power it was not good and a diesel would have been better. Driving it had the feel of a WW2 British truck and was actually based on the old Thornycroft Nubian 4x4. I can quite understand why they would not have sold well at auction as their use commercially would have been limited, with a set digging depth for trenches and gun pits as I recall. Always enjoyed testing them after repairs, but operating them all day might have been a chore! :-)

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Like you I thought they were brilliant things, very clever but I suspect they went for breaking money - a B81, the hydraulics and what they weighed. Shame really. Again, it's one of those thing I nearly bought just because they were so cheap, but I couldn't see a use for it and didn't want to buy and break them, so I didn't.

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Like you I thought they were brilliant things, very clever but I suspect they went for breaking money - a B81, the hydraulics and what they weighed. Shame really. Again, it's one of those thing I nearly bought just because they were so cheap, but I couldn't see a use for it and didn't want to buy and break them, so I didn't.

 

I purchased two of these from Aston Down, one cost £380+VAT. This would be the late 1990's so even at todays money quite cheap

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From an operators point of view my biggest complaint was the changeover switch from Creep Drive to Normal by the Air changeover switch. Could often take 10 - 20 attempts all the while getting abuse from some irate infantry man.

 

Close behind that in popularity came changing the digging teeth.

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