Richard Peskett

Bit of further info., the gap in the head of the press is for access with a block and tackle. When installed properly inside there would have been a runway girder with monkey , block and tackle etc. to lift the wheel on and off the press table. One must appreciate that a complete rear wheel assembly with tyres was a considerable weight. Richard Peskett.

Sorry, I ommited to answer fully. The press does now have a cover which goes over it, the pictures were taken about 1989. Its a bit like an iceberg - there is almost as much below ground because of the ram which comes up from below. It does dismantle but is still heavy ! . My friend missed the original opportunity to purchase it but days later received a call re offering same as the first intended purchaser came to grief when the crane lowered it onto his lorry and destroyed the lorry, not realising the gross weight. I measured it and cubed it up to get the weight and remember that we were only a few cwt out ( over) on the crane weight reading. Richard Peskett.

Well spotted !, they are both new but the one we were pressing off had a serious fault in it which became apparent after a few miles. Sometimes in manufacture , and without getting too technical , when heated in the autoclave an air pocket can form with the consequence that when the tyre is on the vehicle it naturally heats up quite quickly, the air expands and part of the tyre blows out. I can assure you it is quite impressive but a fairly rare occurance. The quoted Dunlop warrantee was 16 k/m ( 10 mph) and the legal speed for most solid tyred vehicles 12 mph. Richard Peskett.

Thought this may be of interest, attached photograoph of a solid tyre press in use. This one has probably pressed on/off more solids than any other in recent years, it belongs to Barry Weatherhead at Woburn Sands and had previously be used as such as a Dunlop depot in Bedford. I was involved in moving it and the dead weight is the best part of 14 tons. Worked by hand operated water hydraulics, much safer than mechanical pumping as you need complete control over what you are doing and on a zero option with a wood spoke wheel best part of 90 years old. Shown here it is pressing on / off a rear from the IWM Thornycroft 'J' anti - aircraft gun lorry. The new tyre is being used to press the old off but you can use the stool blocks . The press table comes up from below and presses against the head, the string in the picture is only holding the temporary weather protection on not the press head !. The London General took great interest into tyre mileages and I believe they were looking at a return of at least 54000 miles for a tyre. I will check this in the next few days and comment further on some of the problems with solids. Richard Peskett.

Well done chaps, pleased to see you have not been wasting time this weekend !!. Yes I agree that it is most probably a Belsize, quite a rare survivor. The front wheels, dumb irons especially the two bolts to the upper face, king pin covers all match up with the attached photo. Rear spring hangers would seem to differ but looking at this one I am not surprised they were changed. I will try to find out from LTM its whereabouts etc. As an aside our local bus company the Aldershot and District bought several in late 1914 /15 as replacements for Daimlers taken by the WD, some recieved the bodywork from the Daimlers and others were lorries used on WD contract work in the area. Richard Peskett.

And still they turn up !. These images were forwarded to me by London's Transport Museum recently for possible identification, which they have so far defied. Very unusual feature is the curved front cross member which would also possibly form part of a flexible three point engine mounting. I think other cross members are missing but the rear axle looks complete and is crown wheel and pinion or shaft and bevel rather than worm drive. Am I missing the obvious ?. It is not necessarily an ex. WD chassis but of the period of general interest. Richard Peskett.

Tom, the 1966 Brighton run pictures, there is a twist in the tail !, the lower picture is the 1915 Seldon truck beloging to Charlie Russett, later owner of the Crossley tender. When Charlie bought it in the late 1950s it had spent most of its life on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour, and again a very original truck. I believe some Seldons were used by the US but with many British vehicles being requistioned in 1914 American manufactures found an immediate new market hence for a short time many previously unheard of makes appeared here in civillian use. The top picture is the Foden which later passed to Hardwicks and is basically very similar mechanically to many used by the WD in WW1. Richard Peskett.

Have been involved with 'Historic' commercial vehicles since the early 1960s. Own and run a restoration business at Hindhead, Surrey where in the past we have specialised in the restoration of solid tyred commercial vehicles , many from the WW1 period incuding Thornycroft, Vulcan, Pierce-Arrow, Liberty, Daimler, FWD, Fiat, Jeffery-Quad etc. Always taken particular interest in the development of motor lorries, collect contemporary literature and photographs . Fortunate enough when first being interested there were still a few people about to talk with who had contemporary experience and user knowledge of motor lorries from this period. Always pleased to try and help. Richard Peskett.

Recently acquired by a West Midlands collector is this Tilling-Stevens petrol electric complete, chassis no. 832 new in January 1916 to the WD. It would seem that these vehicles rarely managed to get photographed ?. Numbers purchased by the WD run into at least 300. Tilling-Stevens ran a serries of adverts at the time depicting lorries looking to be on home front duty carrying the 'O.H.M.S.' lettering. Many by 1920 had found their way into 'bus company use , Midland Red being one of the largest purchasers. More common in photographs would be the Dennis-Stevens used for search-light work. The radiator of one of these possibly still survives at the winter quarters of a Hampshire fairground proprietor. Richard Peskett.

The handbrake is of course the service brake on all these early vehicles, the foot ( transmission) brake should be effective providing in good working order, cast iron shoes and a cast steel drum. Only for use in an emergency or bringing the vehicle to a final stand. There would be a problem with overheating if use continuously hence the water cooling, my Fiat 15 TER was fitted with such facilities, I always thought for use on the Italian passes where it no doubt would be use as a retarder. Also remember the speeds the vehicles were travelling at required very little use of the brakes anyway except on long downgrades and even then if the gears are used properly brakes are virtually not required. As an aside, all these Fiats were right hand drive, again for use on the passes so the driver was nearest the edge all the time. Richard Peskett.

Tired out, worn out !. Seriously though the logistical problem of tyres instantly became yet another nightmare of the early days of WW 1. Manufacturers despite the subsidy scheme to help with standardisation were fitting any size they thought of. In July 1915, hastily convened the Engineering Standards Committee and the S.M.M.T produced what became probably one of the first British Standards to be all metric complete with kite mark. Originally there were some 173 rim sizes in use but the B.S. reduced this down to 6 and even two of these were non preferred and it was recommended these be discontinued as soon as possible ( one of these were the fronts on LGOC 'B' type buses !. ). See Commercial Motor,July 1915 for more detail. Problem solved, well not so really, with many US built truck being purchaed by the British and Allied forces good old imperial sizes appeared although they seemed to have got their act together with a very small range of sizes. Nevertheless the French still did their own thing, several years ago we restored in my workshops a 1915 Pierce-Arrow R5 formerly of French army origin, this had by then acquired some most odd sized metric tyres . Richard Peskett.

This Commer engine has had quite a chequered military vehicle history. Back in 1963 Thornycrofts at Basingstoke were mind to dispose of their WW1 'J' type mobile anti-aircraft gun lorry. This had originally after the Great War been on display at the Crytstal Palace along with several other motor vehicle including two FWD 'B' types etc. Unfortunately when the collection was moved to Imperial College in 1924 there was no room for the larger items, the German tank was cut up on site by scrap metal merchants Thomas Ward and I assume the FWDs met a similar fate ( one was an early model with brass case radiator and balloon winch body) . The 'J' type was somewhat luckier and was handed back to Thornycrofts in exchange for a model of it. It joined the 1896 steam van along with a couple of other early vehicles at the Basingstoke works. All was well untill September 1939 when it seemed a good idea to put the old 'J' out of doors to act as a possible deterent to German aerial raiders . Never retuning to undercover accommodation, the engine was reputedly sold in the mid 1950s to a South African customer. Bought in 1963 by Tom Redburn of Enfield to keep his WWI FWD company the problem was the missing engine. About this time the mortal remains of a WWI Commer 'RC' turned up at West Drayton, duely acquired it provided a much needed power unit for the 'J'. Most of Tom Reburns collection passed to Hardwicks of West Ewell in the 1970s, about this time I had acquired a M4 engine when clearing a Sussex scrapyard, this I sold to George Hardwick and it was put with the 'J' . later the 'J' went to an owner at Leighton Buzzard who finally sold it to the IWM. In the late 1980s it was totally restored in my workshops where we removed the Commer engine and fitted the correct Thornycroft M4 engine. At this time the serial numbers were checked only to find that it was the same lorry that had been in the collection some 60 years previous. The Commer engine was returned to the IWM and obviously has been disposed of by them in more recent times. Richard Peskett.

Some additional info. on two of the vehicles illustrated. The FWD originally came out of a yard at Canning Town in about 1961. Wynns Heavy Haulage at Newport had it for awhile and it took part in their 100 years celebrations about 1965 , later it passed to Jack Hardwick & Sons at West Ewell , I bought it from them when thay had decided to retire and clear the yard in 1984, It was always a good runner and I sold it to the IWM in about 1987. The other lorry is the Fiat 15TER, this I bought from Melton Mowbary in 1976 where it had been stored in a shed for many years and still comp[lete with originally g.s. bodywork etc.. It was completely restored in my workshops ,took part in many events and promotions for Iveco Truck being at two Commercial Motor Shows and at their 25 years celebrations at Turin. I sold it to the IWM in the late 1990s. Again a good strong runner and easy to drive, must have been a great advantage over many other vehicles in WW1. Regards, Richard Peskett.

I hope this will be of interest, Jack Sparshatt was a great friend of mine, he was a pioneer in the collecting of early commercial vehicles. Being in the commercial vehicle trade in a big way his salesmen were always out and about and through a network of contacts came up with some amazing finds in this early period 1955 - 64. I walked into his office one Saturday morning at Hilsea ,Portsmouth, probably 1963/4 to immediately taken through to the workshop to be shown the laterst acquistion, the RFC Crossley tender. I am sure he told me it came from a small garage around Basingstoke and was painted red/ yellow, very original except for the small Harvy Frost crane in the back. Jack was very pleased with it. It was subsequently restored , painted all over grey,and as you say appeared at Brighton. Somewhere I have a picture of it there. Jack by now had a large collection mostly on solids or of Dennis manufacture. A business amalgamation with Wadham Stringer didn't agree with him ! and after a great falling out almost overnight he sold the collection so it did not fall into other hands.The Crossley went to Charlie Russett at Southampton, another dealer in lorries and old friend. I last saw it when I went to see Charlie to try and buy it, must be 20 years ago, after Charlies death it passed to his son and I assume it is from whom you have bought it. Regards, Richard Peskett