ajmac

After seeing the old early war Cruiser tanks (A9, A10) tucked up the corner of the Tank Museum the other day this question came to mind. The ubiquitous Sherman stands alone in its popularity, quantity of survivors and restored running machines but what about other British used tracked vehicles? Are there any possible restoration projects to bring any BEF era machines back to running condition?

This may have been a good parts source for many years, but I'll be honest that it hasn't come to my attention before. On Milweb this past year there has been a lot of good wartime parts popping up, sadly when ever I call they have already been sold...missed out on a rare Loyd speedo :-(. What's going on? Has the government had a final purge of warehouses or has an older surplus dealer sold his stock? Some new supply must have come on line....or is it just a number of dealers sourcing wide and routing through Italy?

At yesterday's TigerDay at Bovington, I attended one of the lectures, an audience member asked about the prospects of the Tiger II Henschel being restored back to running condition and the response was that it was actively being discussed at the museum as the next project. Would be an interesting project to follow.

Great day out with and old friend and the weather held off. Bumped into JB too:D

Its coming along well Pete, will have to pop over and review the progress before you finish it all in next to no time! What colour were the wartime Bedford engines painted, I presume that orange / red is not original? Is that a road draft tube at the front right of the engine?

All carriers seem to be slow to sell, cheaper projects being the exception, I've a friend who has been activly trying to sell his concourse condition example of over two years!

Hopefully see you around....though I expect you guys will be in one of the executive areas

Is anyone going at the weekend? I shall attend, probably the only event I'll go to this year so fingers crossed for reasonable weather.

True Adrian, I recall seeing an item on the news at the time which showed rows of T34s which had had the final drives gas axed from the back, said chunks were on the floor where they had fallen. PS. I had lunch a couple of months ago with a chap who does what Bob F does (or did) but in a different market segment, a real eye opener.

It has always surprised me that when the M36's and M18's were brought out of one of the ex-Yugoslavian states ten to fifteen years ago that no Shermans came with them, one would have thought that the state had more Shermans than M36s and M18s. Perhaps they were pensioned off before the others and are on the ranges or as monuments.

I have to disagree, Samur is a museum stuck in the past as far as customer interface goes; great exhibits, but naff all context. It's kind of like Cosford before the revamp! As someone with a detailed interest in the exhibits the old way if fine by me, as the Tank Museum used to be....for the general public its a boring as can be.

I peeled some potatoes in 2012, or could have been 2010, any how, I did a little bit to help out.

That bottom photo is Clive's wreck, small world. Thanks for keeping your eyes open for fabricated ones...

It may be just a small addition, but it all counts towards the goal. A set of four NOS Bogie linings, these will be installed in the 1944 British fabricated bogie that is the type originally fitted to my Loyd. The other three are cast so if any one knows of a savable bogie frame which is fabricated rather than case please drop me a line. British Fabricated Bogie on a Loyd recovered last year (not mine, sadly)

I am still digging through boxes following the house move, which was over six months ago, it takes ages! Today I cleared some more space for the Loyd in the workshop and found this old cap badge (see photo). My Great Aunt (who died last year) gave it to me in about 2000 having found it when clearing out some of her husbands things, she thought it belonged to her father in law. What is the history behind it? I was surprised to find an armoured car on a badge from the navy.

Adrian B said to me years ago now.....you never know what people already have stashed away, this little lot may be all a collector needs to tip his tiger lower hull plates into a viable project. Did anyone ever reveal the destination of the other Tiger hull being fabricated in the photos of the Munster Tiger 1 a couple years ago?

Should be a great project, it's the only armour project I would ever take on. Is it a Vc or a Ic? If it's a Ic then you can go with the original radial. Speak to Maurice Donkers, he is part way through a 1c restoration.

All very interesting stuff; would I be right in thinking that all the Charioteers were created from Cromwells in one batch in the UK and the Jordanian mods were some form of life extension in the late 50s or 60s to the ones they had purchased from the UK during our disposal of demobed Charioteers? On the other hand, did the Jordanians purchase brand new Charioteers fresh from the conversion program at the same time that they went into British Army use?

These look to match, V-A Light Tank MKII: From a Carrier development point of view they are interesting as they are a throwback to the initial suspension design that ended up on all the carriers...and to link posts....copied by the Germans to use on the Maultier, in solid disc design.

Kevin, 1929 Vickers-Armstrong Scout Vehicle Prototype in NWs volume one, page 14. Dead ringer, I guess having no TL code would suggest very early items. It says they were based on the 6 ton light tank, so I would presume they could be from one of those too.

The original colour found on top of the primer on my 1944 Loyd was very similar to BS298 Olive Drab, to make life simple I'd go with that. In photos from Normandy you see both single colour Loyds and ones with a black wavy pattern, however I've only seen that on the photos from Villiers Bocage.

There isn't much of it left, but this is an interesting little video from last year, its great to see the turbine blades come out the ground like the day they were made! Something went wrong...

True Ben, really all I can say from the photos is that looks like leather and as such could be vinyl, I didn't know synthetics like that were around in the 40s so I presumed it was leather. They are at least 100% not canvas :-)

Does anyone have any photos of original or NOS wartime british armour seat squabs? I've some wartime photos of a Loyd interior and the seats are leather covered, but what colour? I was hoping there was a standard that all british open vehicles had to follow. I have seen green leather NOS carrier seats but that may have been Canadian. Sadly I doubt there are any original Loyd seat squabs in existence. I'd love to be proved wrong. ps. Finished the bedrooms and kitchen, so half the workshop is now clear, board the loft to clear the other half and the Loyd can move in....the rebuild phase will begin.

You always get the impression that the Charioteer was head and shoulders above a Cromwell but it doesn't look that striking in the garage photo.