Jump to content

Matador Gallery


Recommended Posts

Is that the one that was used to rescue skip lorries from the Betchworth land fill site?

I saw it many years ago, land fill site is now one of our nature reserves.

 

Not to my knowledge. This one is in a yard in the West Midlands.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IMG_0072_zps9o80g3o8.jpg

IMG_0064_zps3wx3bmn7.jpg

IMG_0061_zpsqk2q5l9o.jpg

 

The Shopland Sawmills Timber Tractor.

Built 1942 as a gun tractor, then almost immediately converted into a workshop truck to service the lorries taking prefabricated houses down to Portsmouth/Southampton.

Bought by E H Shopland from the Army in 1946, rebuilt 1947 by Automower and 1949 by Douglas, when the chassis was chopped and shortened. The workshop body was removed and used as a garage.

Worked for the sawmills until the late 1970s, by which time it was rather battered. Parked up in the shed and not dragged out again until the late 2000s, when it was given a bit of love and serves as one of the fleet again (albeit no more winching tree stumps!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Mate,

 

Those pictures are better than the ones on our web site! :)

 

IMG_0072_zps9o80g3o8.jpg

IMG_0064_zps3wx3bmn7.jpg

IMG_0061_zpsqk2q5l9o.jpg

 

The Shopland Sawmills Timber Tractor.

Built 1942 as a gun tractor, then almost immediately converted into a workshop truck to service the lorries taking prefabricated houses down to Portsmouth/Southampton.

Bought by E H Shopland from the Army in 1946, rebuilt 1947 by Automower and 1949 by Douglas, when the chassis was chopped and shortened. The workshop body was removed and used as a garage.

Worked for the sawmills until the late 1970s, by which time it was rather battered. Parked up in the shed and not dragged out again until the late 2000s, when it was given a bit of love and serves as one of the fleet again (albeit no more winching tree stumps!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...
  • 7 months later...
  • 1 month later...
that looks quiet origanle if you put that on the timber tractor page on face book that will sell . does it run and drive . what year is it .

Thanks for the advice! I will give it a list on there.

 

Details:

08538553 (Navy M.A.T) Built for the Army as a Medium Artillery Tractor (Tropical). Part of contract S4264 date probably 8.44 - 4.45. Original War Dept No H5471653, post war Ministry of Supply No 75RN26.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 years later...
On 2/9/2012 at 8:29 PM, matadormike said:

Hi,

 

This is a pic of my 1950 Timber Tractor, it needs a fair bit of work in a few places but runs and drives, its even moved a couple of fallen trees, great fun

 

 

 

 

Cheers

 

Mike

PA290070b.jpg

 

Oh my God! I have just stumbled across this! This was my father’s matador - Warstones Timber Service was his company and I grew up with this vehicle. How on earth did it wind up on Yorkshire? My dad passed away in 2007 and his company dissolved - we were Wolverhampton based. I’d love to know where it is now.  I have some photos of it in it’s hey day somewhere ....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...
  • 8 months later...
On 4 August 2019 at 9:03 PM, Zero-Five-Two said:

Snapped these 4 at the Weald of Kent Steam Rally this weekend.  Not military I know but a Matador is a Matador.

20190804_123451.thumb.jpg.85682cd91cd045fb6867523e5848a272.jpg

20190804_123629.thumb.jpg.f406d01bce8b1d9783a47ffd626b8f4a.jpg

20190803_175533.thumb.jpg.95884ff4b8a8c37b102aa46d8f21a2ba.jpg

20190804_123738.thumb.jpg.e1e798f215f9b4361d1d9faf1d2adacc.jpg

 

Great to see my old mat out on show in Kent,spent hours restoring it from a wreck including fitting hydraulic crane.used it foR twenty years moving tOns of timber, but probably its finest hour was when teamed up with my other mat they winched a submerged excavator minus its track from a ditch near Cardiff for a renowned Wild Irish man who had hired it on self drive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


×
×
  • Create New...