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I've been spending again! My '43 GPW


Jessie The Jeep

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Mid afternoon, one of the dragonflys from the pond, landed on the GPW spare wheel, and stayed long enough to get a nice close up picture. We had a little light rain on the way home, but it had stayed dry for the show, with plenty of public wandering around.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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  • 1 month later...

Blackfell Primary School - October 12th

The Year 6 class at Blackfell Primary school have been learning about World War 2. While my daughter is only in year 1, the Head Mistress found out about my collection ( I may not have been the most subtle in this area ), and asked if I would bring something along to the school for the Year 6 class. So before work this morning, the school run was made with both Jeeps, Lynne driving 'Jessie' while I took 'Hope'. Lynne then went off to work while I was left to bring them both home on my own after the talk. Since we live only 4 minutes walk from the school, driving home and walking back wasn't a problem.

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While the weather forecast had initially been ok, Monday morning turned out showery. I had planned to display some gear outside with the Jeeps, but as the soaking wet tables show in the pictures, this was less than practical. Instead, I started off taking the gear into the class room to talk about it, while the class also told me what they had already learned. It did stop raining after a little while, at which time we all went outside for pictures with the Jeeps.

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I shot these before the kids came out to see, but the school are intending to send me a few that they took which only have backs of heads. Following a chat and look at the Jeeps, I then took 'Hope' onto the school field for a blast around, after which I let their teacher have a go.

Hopefully this can be a regular event, and possibly go for something bigger and warmer in the Summer term.

'Hope' was covered in wet grass clippings when I got home, so before the Jeeps were put to bed, out came the hose to wash off the gardening I'd done. The total round trip for each Jeep was one mile!

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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  • 3 months later...
  • 4 months later...

Afternoon at Fishburn Airfield - June 4th

What to do on a quiet day with nothing planned? Take the Jeep out for a drive to visit the local airfield of course! So we took 'Hope' for the 23 mile run down the A167 to Fishburn airfield for coffee and to watch a little aviation. The mileage now stands at 328 since rebuild.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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  • 2 weeks later...

Frontline - Sedgefield - June 11th

The weekend of June 11/12th saw two events taking place locally. I was interested in both, so opted to do a day at each. Saturday saw us taking both Jeeps to a new event called 'Frontline', located in Sedgefield. It was a multi-period event featuring re-enactors including WW2, American Civil War, Tudor, Roman and several other periods in history.

It was a huge site with a large arena for demonstrations and battles. The poor forecast probably kept some people away, but there was also another large non-military event locally the same weekend to split the public. While the weather was dull, it stayed fairly dry throughout the day. The show has huge potential, so hopefully it at least breaks even to return for another year.

I'm updating my M201 and GPW threads with the same report, but ading diffferent pictures in each.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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Tanfield Railway Legends of Industry - June 12th

This was the second year of attending the Legends of Industry event at Tanfield Railway. Once again, we took both Jeeps on display at East Tanfield Station, and in return were given free tickets to ride the trains. As with last year, there were two guest locomotives, "Sir Berkley" and a US Transportation Corps S100 0-6-0 Tank engine. A number of these locos were shipped to the UK in 1943 and used after the war. The guest loco was remarked for the event as NCB No 35. There were only a small number of other cars on display as there was also a big car show in Sunderland the same day.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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  • 4 weeks later...

Yorkshire Wartime Experience - July 9/10th

In 2012, I took my Dodge to the YWE. My daughter wasn't at school, so we had plenty of time to get there - just as well as it took five hours! Now she is at school, we had to wait until 15:10hrs for school chuck out time before we could leave. As a result, I decided to take my Ford GPW, as I could have this on the flatbed trailer ready to go as soon as she was out, and towing would allow us to get there and set up camp before it got too late. It was a calm clear evening on Friday with a nice sun set, belying what was to come the following day.

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Having suffered the heavy rain of the 2012 Yorkshire 'Water' Experience, I started having flashbacks when the rain set in on Saturday morning! With no sides on my Jeep, I left it covered up with the Dodge canvas for the day.

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Fortunately it stopped in time for the armour parade and the battle. It didn't make a great day for photography, but I wandered around with my waterproofs on, trying to keep the rain off the lens while capturing the excellent array of displays.

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Due to the heavy rain, didn't get any photos in the WW1 or Post War fields. It's a shame that the people with the Spitfire don't seem to have a clue about aeroplanes; having assembled it with two of the propeller blades positioned with negative pitch, and two with positive pitch.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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Sunday was much better, with plenty of sunny intervals and much better lighting for photography. I didn't wander around as much on Sunday, spending more of the day with my photo-recon and analysis display. There seemed to be plenty of public there both days, but with such a large site, it is difficult to tell.

Here's a selection of the German armour, taken on Saturday. I shot around 360 photos, so it has been quite hard to thin them out for the forum.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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  • 3 weeks later...

July 31st - Wiper Repair.

At the Yorkshire Wartime Experience, the passenger side wiper rubber perished and sheared off at the metal blade holder. I had forgotten about it until starting to prepare for the Croft show this coming weekend. Fortunately I had two spares. The metal blade holder is attached to the arm via a crimped bracket, with the blade holder riveted to this crimped bracket.

The old rivet was drilled and filed until it pulled out, and the new rivet ( a slightly different design ) was fitted and the legs split apart to attach the new blade holder. The bracket was then crimped back onto the wiper arm, with a little smear of epoxy, just to make sure it stayed on. The first picture shows the torn blade on the right and the replacement and new rivet on the left.

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All three of my vehicles will be attending the Croft Nostalgia event.

Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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  • 2 weeks later...

Croft Nostalgia - August 4th ~ 8th

For the 2016 show, I decided to take all three vehicles on display, M201, GPW and WC51. I've put a larger write up on my Dodge thread, so will just add a few pictures here. For more pictures and a longer report, see my website page of the event - http://www.sacarr.co.uk/mymvs/events/2016/croft.htm

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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  • 2 weeks later...

Durham Gala Theatre - August 20th

The display at Durham, next to the Gala Theatre, was part of the City's "Spirit of the 1940's" event. Our vehicle display was part of a number of 1940's themed displays around Durham City. Despite the predicted heavy rain all day, it stayed dry until about 2pm. 'Jessie' was parked closer to the entrance to the pedestrian area to draw the attention of passers by. We were eventually cleared to leave around 3:30pm, and had a wet run all the way home. Within about a mile of home, 'Hope' clocked up 500 miles since completion of the restoration.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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  • 2 months later...

Beamish Museum "Dig for Victory" - September 3rd

The "Dig for Victory" event was in its second year at Beamish. The event was on for four days, 'though we could only attend one day. We took both Jeeps along, and were joined by another half dozen MV's, stopping at the 1940's farm for a free bacon breakfast before heading to the show field. The weather forecast was for heavy rain most of the day, and while it did start at 11am, it got lighter and stopped mid afternoon.

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Blackfell Primary School - November 4th

I had all three of my vehicles out again on November 4th for a school history lesson visit. I posted the full story on my Dodge thread, so won't repeat it all, but needed to update the M201 and GPW threads with what is probably their last event of the year. Here's a montage of the pics from the morning which saw four vehicles and four lectures for the kids to enjoy. The head and class teachers also had a go driving the Ford GPW. It was a great morning and the kids have still been talking about all they learned this week.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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  • 6 months later...

It's been all quiet on the Ford front since the school visit last year. All the events I've attended so far in 2017 have been in the other Jeep, and with the weather being less than pleasant, it's taken until the start of June for a nice day when I was free to give the GPW its service.

It was a hot sunny day, perhaps a bit too hot for hard work! The service and checks went ok. Checking the gearbox oil on an early, right hand fill gearbox, isn't an easy task, as the fill plug isn't very accessible. While it takes a bit more work, removing the top of the gearbox is the easier way to check the level. The only issue found was a faulty contact on one brake light. After the service, the Jeep was given a good wash with the assistance of my little mechanic.

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My next show, a multi-period living history event will be in the GPW in a couple of weeks time.

Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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  • 3 weeks later...

Sedgefield Frontline Multi-Period Living History Event - June 17th

Sedgefield Frontline was the first event for 'Hope' in 2017. Fantastic Summer weather was already warming the air as I brought the GPW out of the garage for the 25 mile trip. This event covers many periods of history, from Normans and Saxons, Romans, The British Empire, American Civil War and World War Two. There were displays and combat performed by the various groups in the arena across the day, as well as smaller displays of artifacts and one on one combat around the displays of each living history group.

Lynne was away at a concert in Glasgow, being a Girl Guides leader, so it was just little legs and myself out on Saturday. Here she is, perched on the bumper just after we arrived.

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Many of the living history groups had equipment for the public to try out.

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There were a number of battles and demonstrations in the arena across the day. Here are the Saxons verses Normans.

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The Rebels from the Americal Civil War.

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The North East Aircraft Museum Moraine replica is making good progress.

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Days of the British Empire!

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The show ended with a WW2 battle, followed by a marching parade of the re-enactors across all eras in date order.

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This was a three day event, with Friday being open for schools, while Saturday and Sunday were for the general public. My daughter and I were just attending Saturday, because the same weekend was the Tanfield Railway Steam Gala. That report is still to come, once I've sorted the pictures.

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Tanfield Railway Legends of Industry Steam Gala - June 18th

Day two of the weekend, and our second event. Tanfield Railway is the oldest railway in the world, and will be celebrating its 300th anniversary in 2025. The weekend of June 17/18th was their main event of the year, the Legends of Industry Steam Gala. They had two visiting locos, but unfortunately, on Saturday, one started running two hot axel boxes, and was restricted to slow speed shunting. One of the railway's diesels stood in as a replacement.

On Sunday when we attended, things went from bad to worse, when their main diesel failed first thing in the morning, delaying getting the passenger coaches out of the shed, putting the whole time table back! Their secondary diesel, covered in dust, dirt and bird droppings was called into service to replace the replacement! With the hot weather and lots of visitors, I'm sure they still had a successful weekend. Our Jeeps were on show with a number of classic vehicles at East Tanfield Station.

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Edited by Jessie The Jeep
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