SimonBrown

Hi Doug - a Centurion AVRE? Yes, absolutely - please pass on his email address. Knowing its an AVRE might mean a visit in person rather than relying on post - depending on location.

For longer than I can remember a Centurion main engine temperature gauge and sender has been in the garage "just in case". Its the bourdon tube type with its malleable pipe coiled. Best bit - it still works when I tested it at the weekend. This is new old stock and is free to anyone who a) owns a Cent and b) needs it. Happy to see it go to a good home than languish in my garage (the chances of me owning a Cent are...nil) and would prefer to see it operational or a ready spare for a resto or runner. Having fitted a replacement one of these a long time ago I can attest to the amount of work needed...

Not that we are aware of.

Guilty as charged! Yes, its my work. To say it was a bit of a surprise to hear of the win is an understatement.

A winterised version too, if I am not mistaken?

Regulars will have seen and remember the orthophotos of the cargo decks and their array of vehicles and motorbikes I shared a while back. At 1mm per pixel the level of detail was within my own boundaries of what was acceptable. But the main site, including the debris field of Hold No. 4, couldn't be processed at such fine detail. Computer hardware limitations restricted it to 10mm per pixel, which for a 5 acre site isn't too bad...but I felt things could improve. And now they have. Following the arrival of some new and beefy hardware I can process the site at 2mm per pixel. Online viewer for Thistlegorm Main Site at 2mm per pixel Hold No.4 is an interesting place to wander around. There are three Universal Carriers in the wreckage plus numerous vehicle parts. On the starboard side there is the remains of a 4 x 2 vehicle of some sort - just the axles and engine revealing its position. The two locomotives are a real treat too - be sure to check out the coal tenders next to Hold No.2 where you can find the driving rods that were removed before transporting. Hold No.5 is crammed with ammo and more vehicle parts and some trailers. There is a fourth Universal Carrier pinned under the rudder at the stern. You cannot see it in the orthophoto but it does reveal a chain of events...explosion, debris scatter...sinking. It's easy sometimes to overlook the events and that Universal Carrier for me is a poignant reminder of what happened that fateful night. Do enjoy a look around. If you spot anything you recognise do please get in touch - there is still much to find and document.

The 3D model will always be good for measuring and looking around to get a sense of scale and place. These ortho photos have always been possible but their online viewing is only just coming of age - the file size for the lower cargo deck view is 2.79Gb. The online viewer takes these massive images and breaks them into tiles - smaller areas we can view one at a time - so we never have to pull that amount of data down from a server. Other things would work too. Let me run a little test...

It's just an incredible time capsule. Never occurred to me there was contemporary air in the cargo too.

The diameter of the circular "bell housing" bit is 683mm/26.88in and the square section is 540mm/21.25in. Overall length is 820mm/32.28in. No. Hold No2 has Fordson, Crossley Q and Leyland Retrievers plus the Nortons. Bedford OYC bowsers are in the deck above - the Upper Deck.

A few years ago I posted a thread about some mystery objects on the lower cargo deck of the SS Thistlegorm. If you don't know this wreck, its a scuba diver/military/aviation/locomotive enthusiast's dream dive with the cargo holds full of BSA M20, Norton 16H, Albions, Crossleys, Bristol Blenheim spares...Stanier 8F locos. Fellow diver Alex Mustard started researching the cargo several years ago and following the 3D survey I did we added to the work and published an iBook. To cut a long story short...when I posted the thread about mystery objects it was not possible to view the ortho photos - 2D photographic site plans that are scaled and georeferenced - online. Typical file sizes are measured in gigabytes (thats big) and even fibre broadband won't help there. But things have changed and its now possible to view them online, to zoom in and see the detail. Here's a link to the lower cargo deck. The image is orientated as the ship lies and the bow is towards the top of the screen. At the bow there are a series of mystery objects - over 60 of them - that look like bell housing/gearboxes of some form...but they have a square section at one end and no sign of an input/output shaft: SS Thistlegorm Lower Cargo Deck 1mm per pixel You can also find Lee Enfield rifles and RAF accumulator trollies amongst the wreckage. The Norton 16H motorcycles are stacked in Fordson WOT3 trucks and can be found towards the stern (lower end of the image). If anyone has any idea what the mystery objects are...we would love to hear from you. If that has piqued your interest the upper cargo deck can be seen here: SS Thistlegorm upper cargo deck 1mm per pixel Which has BSA M20, various Albions, Bedford and Morris Commercial vehicles...and bed frames. Finally, the main site of the wreck itself. The area covered is 5 acres and is at a lower resolution of 10mm per pixel: SS Thistlegorm Main Site 10mm per pixel The two Stanier locomotives can be seen on the port and starboard side and in the remains of Hold No 4 there are several Universal Carriers, unidentified vehicle remains and lots of munitions - mainly 4in shells but some 15in examples too. The stern has two deck guns mounted and on the port side are two divers digitally preserved to give a sense of scale. The other areas of the ship have been scanned...including the captain's quarters and radio room - should anyone be interested to see them just let me know. Warning: Scrolling around these images is addictive!

Out for a bit of mountain biking R&R on the common today and what do I see? A Jackal on its side...missing engine and gearbox: Jackal in 3D I couldn't help myself but stop and shoot a few hundred images and turn it into a 3D model. Looks like its used for casualty egress training or something like that?

Finally I got a little spare time to start thinking and tinkering with the torpedo engine. The barrels will be going for some light soda blasting at some point, mainly to remove a little surface corrosion. One nagging thought; the bolts that hold the barrels onto the crank case are (like most things) somewhat unusual. Normally I would expect to see studs, but not here. What we have are pan head bolts with a tiny pip on the underside of the pan head. As far as I can tell the pip is intended to stop the screw rotating on assembly...the slot is a nightmare to get to when reassembling and to be quite frank the pip is too small to be really effective. It all serves as a reminder this engine is most likely a prototype and a proof of concept. No one in their right mind would want to put this thing into series production. Anyway, I am contemplating using a modern Loctite to secure the pan heads in place. This goes against the grain a little, but it will make it easier to reassemble. There does appear to be some black adhesive of some form in the holes, but quite what it might be is beyond me. So...What are the collective thoughts of the forum on this idea? I am open to struggling, or taking a short cut. Should I be that precious or make life easy? Is modern Loctite an act of heresy? Or just common sense?

Another "Maybe needed one day..." document...this time an operators manual for a T-62.

Like many I am having a tidy up...and finding many precious things. Many years ago I acquired a manual for the Continental R-975EC-2 radial tank engine. There remains a hope one day I will get my hands on an engine (preferably with the rest of the tank attached). In the meantime, I just enjoy the photos, illustrations and technical descriptions. However, if anyone has one of these bad boys for real and needs pages scanning please let me know.

Oh yes, very much so - much appreciated.

No problem - thanks for looking. I agree; a die nut would be best, for many reasons. This is just one reason - the opportunity for cockup being extremely high - I have put the project down. Time to think about how to solve it rather than rush... I think the idea of a spigot to follow the bore might be sound...I need to have a look at them. Square or hex drive would be required too. I will post up some more photos.

That would be great - its 1 5/8" Whitworth fine 20tpi.

Duplicate post...

I will have to check - as of now I am probably one of the few who a) work at home a lot so nothing much changes and b) engaged in something that is seen as important enough to keep going, for now at least and c) I'm looking ahead & planning for a time when I too have more time on my hands. But its a good point. Some of the threads need more TLC than others. The other factor is how these were originally made - the threads were cut prior to assembly/welding onto the barrel...so there is limited room and there is no way a standard die wrench will work...like everything else, the torpedo engine is unique in that respect and never intended for overhaul.

I have no idea how I missed that... Thank you very much for sharing the link. Tomorrow - if they are open - I will order one.

NE Hampshire Maurice. Would be nice to see it return to something more in-context than just sat in my garage. Drop me a PM and lets see.

I have been very much lurking for a while...drooling over the restorations of others etc whilst biding my time. Its steel and nickel plated to boot. Indeed it does. Time to revert to the shed for solo tinkering...in normal times that would be seen as self-indulgent. Now its called self-isolating.

I have had this in the garage or home since I was a kid. Not sure if its military - no crows foot or other markings I can see - but it looks military enough. Rather than have it gathering dust, does anyone have a use for it? Bit heavy to post...personal collection (from the end of the drive at the moment!) welcome. No battery inside, but otherwise complete I think.

Well its looking like some enforced leisure time is coming...so...its time to think about dusting off the torpedo motor restoration. I put things on hold for a while as life and work got in the way. Its quite reassuring to know I will have something to keep me busy if needed. One nagging issue has been kicking around for a while. Some of the inlet manifold threads are fine, some are less so. When undoing them some of the plating peeled off, and being nickel (I think its nickel) it galled up the threads badly, leaving some a bit rough you could say. Here's what they should look like: And here are what a few look like: Sub-optimum, that one. The thread is 1 5/8" Whitworth fine - 20tpi. A rare thread if there was one. Finding a die nut has proved difficult - I set up an Ebay alert to see if anyone offered one for sale...not a sniff...there was/is one in Australia and I might just have to bite down and buy it if a local one cannot be sourced.

Well I suppose anyone with an L60 or K60 Multi Fuel (sic) engine might be on to something and more future proof than the rest of us? I'll get my coat...