Ivor Ramsden

I use an "Epson Perfection 2400 Photo" scanner which has given excellent service with photos, negatives and slides for several years. I suppose it's no longer available but maybe this info helps. You could always ship your slides to me and I'll scan them for you once I've finished drooling over the Blackpool Morrises. I've been neglecting the LRSOC forum recently, mainly because I'm always on here.

I'm sure some of them were 4WD, so they'd be C8s or C9s. Please dig out your slides, Jolly Jeeper, and make us all very happy!

I think it might have been true because I remember watching one sliding down the road on its side. I seem to recall it went an awfully long way before it stopped. Being horrible scoolkids at the time me and my mates thought it was hysterically funny. At the risk of being hammered by the PC brigade I shall now confess that we used to call them Spaz Chariots ... As I say, we were horrible schoolkids then. Now we are pillars of society. Maybe.

There's a WW1 Albion here. I don't know what model. It's in civvie colours but it's definitely ex-WD.

Excellent, although I'm pleased to say we don't need these things here yet! But don't your UK scum-protecting laws make you put a notice up so the poor misunderstood darlings don't get a nasty fright when they realise they've been filmed?

Hmmm. As far as I know pump technology hasn't moved on much from where it was 20 years ago. The old air eliminator design worked well - it actually removed air - something that a mass flow rate meter can't do. I'm 3 years out of date now (God, I love being retired) but I'd be surprised if there was much additional electronic sh*te in fuel pumps. Most if not all of the meters are still piston displacement types which are old tech but very effective. The outer casings and digital displays look modern but most of the works inside are much the same as they were ages ago. In more than a few years in Trading Standards I never came across a situation where somebody had fiddled a fuel pump. All the meter adjustments are, or were, sealed with bits of wire and lead seals so they were pretty much tamperproof. Good news for the buyer is that, as meters wear, they give a bigger measure. One of the joys of joining the EC was that the tolerances allowed on all weighing and measuring equipment were changed. In the old days if they were giving short they were condemned. Now they can give a bit short because they are allowed a small negative error as well as a positive one. Combined with the fact that meters can be very accurately set, this means that the bloody things can be, and are, deliberately set to give short measure. Not a lot of people know that, as they say. This doesn't happen in the Isle of Man for two reasons - first we're not in the EC and second, I updated the weights & measures regulations here and, being a tight *rse, I wasn't going to allow myself to be legally screwed whilst buying fuel. And you can still buy a pound of sausages here! None of Napoleon's metric b*llox here! End of Ramsden's daily rant!

First, let's set your mind at rest about your final point - frothy fuel. Diesel can be a sod for frothing but it only froths as it comes out of the nozzle. When it's passing through the pump and the meter it's un-frothy. It doesn't have air mixed with it in the storage tank and it can't get air added to it whilst it's passing through the pipes and the pump because they are all sealed from the atmosphere. Consequently all that's being measured and charged for is fuel. So, if the pump appears to be measuring air, where's the air coming from? The fuel pick-up pipe is immersed in the fuel in the underground storage tank until the level drops so low as to expose the end. At that time - and only at that time - the pump will suck air/fuel but it is fitted with an air separator which should, if it is working correctly, bleed off the air. The air separator is in the line before the meter so only fuel should be metered. When this is happening the delivery from the nozzle will be so slow as to make it obvious that something is amiss. It is possible to fiddle the air separator by blocking its air vent, which is why there's a couple of "shoulds" above. Normally the pump is sucking up unaerated fuel so the only time that this fiddle would work is when the tank is almost empty and it surely isn't worth the hassle. The other circumstance when the meter might measure fuel without you actually receiving it is if the pump nozzles haven't been locked overnight and some thieving git has drained the hoses, which are normally full right to the squeezy handle on the pump nozzle. This is like the scenario that Ruxy mentions. I'm not sure if this can actually be done (there might be an anti-drain valve in the nozzle but I'm fairly sure there isn't) but if it can, it could be only be done whilst the pumps are switched off, otherwise the pump will be activated when the nozzle is removed from the pump casing. If the hose has been emptied, when the first customer goes to fill his tank the first bit of fuel will go to fill the empty rubber hose - a litre or so depending on the length of the hose. Another thing that might just happen if the hose can actually be drained (and I've only just thought of this) is that some bright spark might have realised that if they deliver fuel into their tank then turn the pump off, they can drain the hose and nick a hose-worth of fuel without the pump being turned back on by the attendant. The pump won't reactivate until the attendant clears it. Your £1.28 delivery sounds like the pump was filling the empty rubber hose, a scenario which could happen if the site had run out of fuel and yours was the first delivery of new fuel through the pump. I'm a retard - sorry - retired Trading Standards Officer so I know a bit about fuel pumps - but this thread has made me realise I don't know as much as I thought! I must ask my former colleagues to experiment with draining hoses. This has reminded me about the daft prats that you sometimes see who, after finishing a delivery of fuel, let go of the nozzle whilst it's still in their car's tank and lift the rubber hose up, thinking that they are emptying it into their tank. Tee hee. That's worn me out - beer time ... Argh, back again - if you think you've been made to pay for filling an empty hose, contact your trading standards bods. If the garage has run out of fuel they should bleed the pumps before letting the public use them otherwise they are selling short measure. In my day they'd have been prosecuted .... Eeh, when I were a lad ...

The bit is definitely a sleeve for the Bofors. It's now polished and in place on our spare barrel. Thanks again, Chindit, and well done, HMVF!

Aye, it seems that it's one of the parts that I'm wanting. What a result, and all thanks to this forum! And Chindit, of course! Thanks.

Does it look like the bit in this sectional drawing? If it does it's a Bofors recuperator sleeve. And the number AN1604 is very close to another bit of the recuperator spring fittings which I've got, AN1606, so I'm pretty sure that's what it is. The 41 in NM41 will be the year of manufacture. If it's a Bofors bit, can I have it? I need one for a spare barrel that we've just got for the museum's C9/B. PLEEEEEASE! PLEEEEEEEEEEEASE!

Some nice clear markings here on a recently donated Bofors barrel.

Even though the C9/B restoration was completed a while ago, I'm still improving it as and when I can. A very nice man has recently given us this Bofors barrel which will replace the replica spare barrel which is on the vehicle. I never realised that wartime artillery carried the royal cipher! I thought it only appeared on antique stuff. I've spent the day wire brushing it and painting it and it's now ready to fit. We're short of a recuperator spring, the brass sleeve at its muzzle end and the collar that screws onto the barrel to hold them in place. Can anybody help? Condition doesn't matter.

And don't forget the Shackleton!

Have a look here: http://www.aircrewremembrancesociety.com/alliedlosses/alliedlosses1944.html There are 4 Lancasters listed between 6 and 9 June.

These are from the maintenance manual 101/ML1A. My copy is dated March 1944. Any help?

Darn! I've spoken to my former colleague but he can't have been with me when I visited the place because he has no recollection of the tank. He's keen on military vehicles and he would definitely have remembered it if he'd been there. Sorry I can't shed any more light on this. I'm SURE it was recovered and at least tarted up and made to look complete cosmetically if not properly restored. This would have been in the 70s. Surely it wouldn't have been scrapped again, so where is it now?

I used to test the weighing scales at that printing works back in the 80s. I enjoyed doing that visit because they had pictures of the Sherman in their reception area. Despite what it says in the links above I'm certain that one photo showed it AFTER it had been recovered and refitted with a turret and there was also a photo of it turret-less in the hole. There was also a story with it. I can't remember where it went - Lincolnshire and a hotel or restaurant rings a vague bell. It's a long time ago but I'm sure this is right. Shermans weren't exactly run of the mill when you were doing weights & measures inspections so it made a lasting impression. I'll call one of the lads I used to work with. He might remember.

Our two Morris vehicles have got brass plates with lubrication instructions and gearbox instructions etc riveted onto the gearbox cover. What would their original finish have been? Plain brass? Plated? The chassis number plates under the bonnet were both zinc(?) plated originally but would the others be the same?

I haven't tried it myself but somebody once told me that pitted bits like this can be repaired by thoroughly de-rusting and then filling with epoxy resin and smoothing off. It might be worth a try.

That's an MoD issue handbook sure enough but it's not contemporary with the Mark 2. They were first issued in 1955 or thereabouts and reissued with amendments for many years, eventually covering all Series 1s. The MoD handbook is a good read, and covers everything that you'll need, but if you search long enough you should find a 1952 original for around the same price. I think most of the Series 1 parts suppliers have these MoD handbooks. I guess they might be reproductions now but it's not that long since they were available NOS.

Have a look for holes on the top face of the left hand dumb iron. Some plates were fitted there. I'm not sure that there was a military edition of the driver's handbook for Mk2s. I've never seen one and I've played with Series Ones for more years than I like to remember. It's possible that the standard issue civvy handbook was used, maybe with some MoD overstamping but again I've not seen one like this.

Regione Marche is on the east coast of Italy. To get technical, if you look at a map it's about three quarters of the way up on the right... As to era, somebody else will have an exact answer but I'd say it will be very late 1944 and 1945. There are only a few of what you might call "action" photos so I'd guess the majority might be just post-war.

I don't have much experience with wartime MV paint but I've seen a lot of WW2 RAF aircraft paint on bits of crashed aircraft. Weathering has an effect without a doubt but on sections that have received more than one coat of paint during their service life there are considerable variations in colour, particularly with Dark Earth paint and interior green. Dark Green paint doesn't seem to vary as widely but it does still vary. Also I've done a fair bit with ex-WD Series 1 Land Rovers which appear to have been repainted about once every month (to keep the National Service boys busy, I guess). On top of their original Deep Bronze Green gloss there are as many different shades of Olive Drab as there are coats of paint - this is pre-NATO Green days. This might be due partly to lack of mixing of the paint. Today, even with computer matching of paint, vehicle body shops STILL don't always get it right. You only have to look at cars on the road to see absolutely crap colour matches. I agree with Antarmike that it's possible that the paint you've got might not be correct. I guess that paint variation was fairly normal back in wartime so we don't need to be too pedantic about having the "right" colour, within reason.

Les's office bodied CDS is fairly late, judging by the split-rim wheels.

Awesome identification! :bow::bow: