Great War truck

I like the WC54 on the Paris Dakkar rally. That would have been fun. Tim

Yes i do! How much money have you got to spend? Tim

While we are talking about Napiers i found this photo. I have scanned it as two:

Took you for a burn up did he?

You dont see WW1 stuff very often. I had a hell of a shock when i fell over this: There is only one person in the world who wants this and he knows all about it. I wonder if it will be there again next year?

The machining of the eight Valve Caps has now been mainly completed – the only job left to do on them is to machine the flanges back to leave securing “tabs” on them.

The Battle (Afghanistan) was quite entertaining and very loud: Insert funny comment here:

I went down yesterday and had a briliant time. Here are a few of my faourites:

Yes it has. Dont mention it again though unless you know a really good lawyer.

Anybody know what happened to this one? I see a newly retored A10 just made its first public appearance. Was it this one? Tim

Quite right And for those still in two minds. does this help: Well, thats what my wife said (followed by a "and if you do then dont bother to come back" - or something like that.

Awesome! Olaf must be over the moon. I am packing my bags, i am on my way. Someone save me a patch of mud before Olaf uses it all up. Tim

Nice clear image of the Thornycroft. Thanks Tim

They are either the lorry number or the ASC Company emblem. I have seen both on albions. Tim

Great photos. It looks like a pair of Albion's. i can imagine lots of fun and games in getting that lorry back on its wheels. Tim

A very interesting and informed report that you wrote on Enfield. The American Expeditionary Force also made use of a great deal of British trucks such as AEC, Dennis and Foden as well as employing US built trucks which had been supplied to the British such as Peerless and FWD. Good read. Tim

I am sure i parked mine around here somewhere.

Oh no. i am sorry. You are making me feel bad. I promise i will do better. Tim

These are all great photos so thanks for sharing them. The lorry with the RN on the side looks like a Seabrook. Not seen a picture of one outside the UK before. Tim

didnt Ingersol make really expensive watches and compressors (although those were not pound for pound as expensive as the watches),

The four replacement valve guides were completed today and they are now ready to fit. The cylinder blocks are with a friend at the moment who has a big CNC Mill and he has kindly agreed to machine the liner rebates in the bottom of the blocks for us – rather too much for our modest machinery! Steve is on the point now of ordering the four liners after deciding the final measurements, checking them and then checking them again to make sure that we have them correctly. At something like £130 each before the “add-ons”, we do not want any mistakes! All four cylinders, thankfully, have come out at an identical size after being re-bored. I will post pictures of the Blocks as soon as we get them back so that you can see what has been done. So onto the next job. We started to machine the Valve Caps a few weeks ago but they were temporarily put to one side where there were other more pressing matters. The Caps for the Inlet Valves are quite different from the Exhaust Valves – the inlet ones were virtually finished but the flange on each of them has to be machined back to leave two “tabs” remaining on each which will lock into the tops of the cylinders. Only one Exhaust Valve Cap was started and now we get on with the remaining three – all to be machined from cast iron bar. Again, similar machining is to be done to the flange to leave two tabs on each of these so that they can be locked into the cylinder top.

Ian. I have got to say that looks top class work. Now who was the daft person who signed of the design in the first place.

When we took the engine to pieces, we knocked out the eight valve guides – we found that those for the four Inlet Valves were still in good order and would live to fight another day. But the four Exhaust Valves were badly worn so that the valves were running very sloppily within them and that they must be be replaced. It was interesting to note that one of the four Exhaust Valve guides was quite non original – it was much shorter and had obviously been cleverly repaired at some time as it appeared to have split long ways and was brazed up along the length of it and filed round so that it would fit in the cylinder block again. The replacements are being turned from 50mm cast iron bar – a fairly straight forward turning exercise again. The outside diameter of the part which push-fits into the cylinder block is 3/4” plus one thou – and the replacements are being machined to an identical diameter. The other various measurements and diameters are being copied from the originals. The valve stems are 3/8” in diameter – new valves will be required and the new guide was drilled in the lathe to 1/32” under 3/8” and then reamed through with a 3/8” reamer. After that was done, the embryo guide was turned around in the chuck so that the other end could be machined to its finished size and shape. Three more to do!

Finished! Well that bit anyway.

Does it say anything on the back of the photo? Were you just studying the photo and thought "hey, i wonder what that is"?