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I should have stayed in bed!


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Looking through my pictures, I reckon that I have come across a piece of plant that must be even rarer than Richard's Clark Ranger forklift. The value of any piece of equipment usually lies somewhere along a scale running from "The Dogs Bollocks" through to a "Piece of **** that is no good to man nor beast". This particular vehicle lies so far to the right of the scale that it must surely be extinct in the wild. I speak of a Lansing Henley Sideloader. Lest you should think that such an item would be a boon in a timber yard, or for a purveyor of plastic pipes or even for the handling of super dooper long snooker cues - read on!

T'was a normal morning at Rhu when the MTO gets a call from the RCT Movements cell at HQ Army Scotland. There is a small side loader being railed up from Ashchurch to Dumbarton - it needs to be collected, taken to Rhu and put on to the next available LCT sailing to the RA Ranges Hebrides. He has no further details. The MTO, being a man who knows when to talk to the engineer rather than the oil rag, calls Issues at Ashchurch. Can it be driven on the road? No - it does not meet the requirements of the road traffic act. How did you load it, what is the weight, size etc.? It turns out that they loaded it onto a Warflat using a crane. The size and the weight is roughly the same as our Bray and we used to move that around on a 10 ton Tasker drawbar trailer (picture 1) so no need for a low loader.

MTO assembles a team - Scammell Explorer pulling a Carriemore 10 Ton drawbar trailer, Ransome Rapier 6/12 mobile crane and enough guys to make sure that the public don't get in the way.

Sounded like an easy job - unchain the side loader from the Warflat, easy lift with a set of "fours" onto our trailer, tie it down and we're off - job's a good 'un. Anyway - a forty minute drive and we are at the station. Unhook the trailer from the rear and put it on to the front hook for shunting into the goods yard (access was designed for a Scammell Scarab three wheeler not for a big Explorer). Then - first problem - it starts snowing - heavily!

Rest of the story in part two!

 

Regards - David

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Continued from part one.......

 

Anyway - despite the snow we got the Explorer, trailer and crane into the goods yard. Problem number two - good old British Rail have shunted the war flat into the wrong siding. Why does that matter? The line is electrified and there is power cables running over the track - crane is now a useless ornament sitting on the platform! Contact the station master - he can't get a loco to move the war flat till the following morning.

OK - job's a bust with the crane - move to plan B - it's brand new so it should be easy to start, drive it off the war flat and into a position where we an safely lift it without getting fried.

Looking at the side loader it's easy to see why we can't just drive it down the road - no lights or indicators. So - climb into the cab and look for the ignition - weird thing this, no electrics, wiper is hand operated, no ignition that I can find and then it hit me - there's no damned starter motor! The plate on the front gives the game away - Cat A Zone 2 - we are used to Cat C - phosphor bronze forks and Pyroban modified electrics for no sparks but this one is new on me. Turns out it is for handling lance missiles which are powered by a crazy-dangerous two part fuel system. Its bad enough being hit on the head by the pointed end of one of these but it turns out that the back end is equally as dangerous and needs a fork lift with no possibility of setting light to the blue touchpaper!

So - how do we start it up. Its brand new with all the docs in the cab, so as the youngsters say nowadays RTFM. Turns out it starts with an air compressor - and - you've guessed it, the gauge reads zero. There is a hand pump at the side of the cab to manually charge the air system (and before you ask, nothing clever like an air line that we could charge with the Explorer's air tanks). Taking it in turns we pump like mad in the snow to build it the pressure and it takes forever. Get to abut 50 psi - lets give it a go. The engine turns over a slowly a couple of times, sounding like an asthmatic gasping on a fag and dies. At that point if Basil Fawlty had been there, he would have pulled a branch off the nearest tree and given it a right good thrashing! We tried again - building up to 80 psi - same result. Tired out and frozen we gave up and went home.

We go up the following day when the war flat has been shunted into the correct siding. The lift goes to plan and we get it back. However - the damned thing had the last laugh - the wheels on the counterweight side busted through the trailer's planking. Did we get it started - yes we did, but the people in the next village were choking with the Ether fumes of half a can of easy start that was rammed into the intake before we dared pull that damned starter lever!

Would anyone save this piece of kit at the end of it's working life - I personally doubt it but it could find a place in a museum dedicated to cold war madness. Anyone seen one lying around waiting for some mug to pump it into life?

 

Regards - David

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Ah, Zone 2 diesels, my favourite. Air-operated starter, flame trap, spark arrestor, Chalwyn valve air-velocity overspeed cutout, plus exhaust and oil pressure sensors that were pilot trips, and if there were any electrics they are EXd rated.

 

I used to do a load of mobilisation inspections, and investigate failures returned by hirers. Nearly every time we had one returned it was because they had just run them till the flame traps blocked up and they stalled.

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I did not know they were an air start but now you explain it all it makes sense.

 

I suppose they would be ridiculously cheap at time of sale because of that and might have been worth converting to a conventional starter system?

 

Who knows if one languishes in the tall grass storage somewhere just waiting to be found.

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If the air starter was anything like the one on the Meadows 27.5 Kva gen set, it had to be up around 300psi if I recall, otherwise it would chew up the brass starter pinion. But they relied on the tank being charged before you stopped the engine. Later generators had a hydraulic starter which you could pump up by hand.

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The air start system works really well, the Americans use it on trucks with a small compressor for black starts. Hydraulic start is fine too - as long as you aren't the one pumping.

 

The Zone 2 mounted equipment is a significant cost, probably a decent percentage of the power pack total, but if you keep the Zone 2 certification up you can use in on refinery, mine and processing sites where internal combustion engines are not normally allowed.

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The air start system works really well, the Americans use it on trucks with a small compressor for black starts. Hydraulic start is fine too - as long as you aren't the one pumping.

 

The Zone 2 mounted equipment is a significant cost, probably a decent percentage of the power pack total, but if you keep the Zone 2 certification up you can use in on refinery, mine and processing sites where internal combustion engines are not normally allowed.

 

Then you also have the spring starter like the old Simms. Just found out the company who took over the rights for these is making them locally.

Edited by Richard Farrant
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What year did this happen ? Looks like early 70s ?

 

It was around 77 - 79 or thereabouts. I scanned in my collection of slides and negatives a few years ago (the QM's dept had a very good Nikon film scanner at the time). These pics were on Kodachromes with the dates marked on them, so if you were interested in an exact date, I could trawl through my slides and have a look.

 

Regards - David

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Then you also have the spring starter like the old Simms. Just found out the company who took over the rights for these is making them locally.

 

In the late 90's I worked for Lucas at what used to be Simms Group R&D in Park Royal, the spring starters used to turn up (out of forgotten cupboards) every so often but I was never allowed to play with them as the H&S police would destroy them ASAP. They were still being fitted for cold weather applications where a dead battery meant you froze or the polar bears got you.

There is still some gold in them thar cupboards as a six cylinder Simms magneto turned up recently.

It was being used to spark up the gas welding kit, itself a casualty of H&S.

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  • 4 months later...
The air start system works really well, the Americans use it on trucks with a small compressor for black starts. Hydraulic start is fine too - as long as you aren't the one pumping.

 

The Zone 2 mounted equipment is a significant cost, probably a decent percentage of the power pack total, but if you keep the Zone 2 certification up you can use in on refinery, mine and processing sites where internal combustion engines are not normally allowed.

 

Aye, all the Zone 2 rated diesel power packs used offshore on drilling rigs and production platforms have air starts - getting air isn't normally a problem as you plug in to the platform or rig supplies ;) Most power/hand tools used on these facilities are air operated so they come with a couple of large air compressors and recievers so starting power packs is not normally an issue.

 

Similarly underground theres normally a fixed/hardpiped compressed air supply. Where there isnt an explosion risk i.e. outwith coal mines (or the risk of methane) you generally find plant with diesel powerpacks. What has to be taken into account is the configuration of the ventilation system in the areas vehicles are allowed to access.

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