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Charawacky

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    For Sale

    in Pre WW2 vehicles

    Posted · Edited by Charawacky

    Thanks. That one has been knocking around for a while. It is a mish mash of trucks. After restoring it he attempted to sell it for E40K. He then took the engine out and sold that for a Stutz Bearcat restoration for a good profit. Doesn't leave much chance of selling the truck I would think.

     

    On the previous topic, I didn't realise that the Crossley had gone to New Zealand as well. I wonder if that will be turned into a WW1 vehicle as well? A good chunk of it is post war I understand.

     

    I had the chance to look over the Crossley at the Banfield sale and there are two defining factors which showed it to be generally a post war design, but may well have many wartime parts as these vehicles were built up immediately post war for general haulage.

    Steering fixed to engine up to 1918 and to chassis from 1918

    Rear springing over the axle up to 1918 and under the axle from 1918

    The exact dates are not known but it would be fair to say these changes were made for re-entry into the post war civilian market, additionally the military would not be pleased to see an unnecessary design change during the war.

     

    Below is the 1909 design at about 1912 with the springs over the axle as the wartime vehicles

     

    1912 cat 0231.jpg

     

    Below is the later 1918 design, you will notice I have reversed the drawing to ease comparison and you can see the chassis mounted steering box.

     

    20-25 chassis.jpg

    Crossley RFC Tender

    in Pre WW2 vehicles

    Posted

    I now have been contacted by a member of the Crossley Register who's sister in law typed this letter in 1954!

    Hopefully the original owner may be identified soon!

    And it tentatively looks like a very well known Basingstoke personality.

    If confirmed, I will advise.

     

    Tom

    Crossley RFC Tender

    in Pre WW2 vehicles

    Posted

    I hope this will be of interest, Jack Sparshatt was a great friend of mine, he was a pioneer in the collecting of early commercial vehicles. Being in the commercial vehicle trade in a big way his salesmen were always out and about and through a network of contacts came up with some amazing finds in this early period 1955 - 64. I walked into his office one Saturday morning at Hilsea ,Portsmouth, probably 1963/4 to immediately taken through to the workshop to be shown the laterst acquistion, the RFC Crossley tender. I am sure he told me it came from a small garage around Basingstoke and was painted red/ yellow, very original except for the small Harvy Frost crane in the back. Jack was very pleased with it. It was subsequently restored , painted all over grey,and as you say appeared at Brighton. Somewhere I have a picture of it there. Jack by now had a large collection mostly on solids or of Dennis manufacture. A business amalgamation with Wadham Stringer didn't agree with him ! and after a great falling out almost overnight he sold the collection so it did not fall into other hands.The Crossley went to Charlie Russett at Southampton, another dealer in lorries and old friend. I last saw it when I went to see Charlie to try and buy it, must be 20 years ago, after Charlies death it passed to his son and I assume it is from whom you have bought it.

    Regards,

    Richard Peskett

     

     

    Amazing things happen!

    A letter was received in the post today which confirms the above and predates the purchase by Jack by a decade!

    It would seem I will be the fourth owner in 100 years.

    But which garage was the original purchaser?

     

    Tender History 001.jpg

    Crossley RFC Tender

    in Pre WW2 vehicles

    Posted

    Not seen this image before, It is without doubt a Crossley 20/25 RFC Staff Car and looks like it is on single rear tyres, probably as a result of the economy drive after the war as often seen in Ireland.

     

    If you look behind the spare you will see a bracket which held the spare self-generating headlamp, earlier cars had this in front of the spare.

     

    Here are a couple of images for comparison

     

    1914 Staff car Ex India.jpg

    Staff car.jpg

    Crossley RFC Tender

    in Pre WW2 vehicles

    Posted · Edited by Charawacky

    I thought I would put this up although not a military vehicle it shows the origins of the 20/25 Crossley Tender and Staff Car.

     

    In 1909 Crossley brought out the 20 Hp car which was preeminent in hill climb competition before the introduction of the new Vauxhall 30/98 in 1913.

    1912 was a very successful year in motor sport for Crossley, the 20 hp held the Brooklands test hill, recording 24 mph at the top, along with Caerphilly and Aston hill climb records amongst many others.

     

    The 20 hp design was little changed throughout its life from 1909 through to 1926 and a variant of the bi-block engine was produced in serious numbers throughout WW2 for RAF lorries.

     

    Here is the sole existing 20 hp 1912 Crossley in the course of restoration.

     

    IMG_0036 (2).jpg

    Front - Copy.jpg

    WW1 finds and discoveries

    in Pre WW2 vehicles

    Posted

    No idea about these

    perhaps someone can enlighten me?

     

    [TABLE=width: 100%]

    [TR]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=width: 41%, bgcolor: #FFFFFF]

    X12. Wheels: a pair of heavy, robust steel disc wheels with solid rubber tyres. No idea what they are from but they appear to be the sort of thing seen on World War 1 lorries, etc., so, seem to belong to vintage commercial vehicle (?)

    Dimensions: 30" over wheel, 36" over tyres. Tyres are 4" wide across the top, 5 1/2" where attached to the steel. Plain bearing centre, 2 1/2" bore x 7" long. Heavy: about 1 cwt each at a guess.

    £40 the pair

    [/TD]

    [TD=width: 22%, bgcolor: #FFFFFF]for%20sale%20X12.jpg

    [/TD]

    [TD=width: 15%, bgcolor: #FFFFFF][/TD]

    [/TR]

    [TR]

    [TD=width: 22%][/TD]

    [TD=width: 41%, bgcolor: #FFFFFF][/TD]

    [/TR]

    [/TABLE]

    http://www.therobeytrust.co.uk/for%20sale%20page.htm

    RFC Tender Trailer

    in Pre WW2 vehicles

    Posted · Edited by Charawacky

    Although none military, here is a lovely panoramic image of an early very unusual lorry recovering a Bleriot aircraft.

     

    This is Drexel's aircraft which was attending the Scottish International Aviation Meeting at Lanark on the 12th of August 1910 when after setting the world altitude record of 6,750 feet in his Bleroit monoplane fitted with a 7 cylinder 50 hp Gnome engine.

    He was forced to land at Cobbinshaw some distance from Lanark having run out of fuel.

     

    The recovery lorry is very interesting as the manufacturer went out of business in 1914 so they probbly did not supply the military.

     

    Any Suggestions?

     

    [ATTACH=CONFIG]99673[/ATTACH]

    RFC Tender Trailer

    in Pre WW2 vehicles

    Posted

    I make no apologies for posting this none military vehicle, I just had to share it, any one with engineering at heart cannot fail to be amazed at the proportions. FIAT were a formidable force in the European motor industry up and during WW1.

     

    Duncan Pitaway starting his 28 litre 4 cylinder 130 mph FIAT for the first time on Friday.

     

    https://polklemmeblogs.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/nice-sound-fiat-s-76/

     

    I hope you enjoy it.

    Tom

    RFC Tender Trailer

    in Pre WW2 vehicles

    Posted · Edited by Charawacky

    Thank your for your kind comments

     

    I have just read the thread to remind me of what was required to get to this point and realise it has spread over two and half years plus, to research, scale, develop the design, draw, redraw and build the trailer, in fact equivalent to about half the duration of the Great War. This really makes me think how much was done in such a short time for the war effort.

     

    The design has been developed from a dozen or so useful photographs out of a total of 61 where a trailer could be seen somewhere on the image, each of the dozen giving more confirmation of an idea I though I could see. Thanks to all those from who I begged an image and who gave me some direction.

     

    The last change in design was a result of image from October this year - post no 77 which showed detail of a feature which had been perplexing me for some time which I now think could be to hold Lewis gun transit chests.

     

    There are a few things to complete such as hub etching and trailer marks which I may get round to some day, however the most pressing item now is to secure a fuselage to the trailer.

    I think this is going to be possible and if so I could replicate the Querrieu image below (by pretending to be a heavy tender) especially as I am based only 13 minutes away at Gilsy Aerodrome later in August / September for http://www.centenaire-aerien-somme14-18.fr/.

    The location of most images is unknown see if you agree with my matching.

     

    Tom

     

    [ATTACH=CONFIG]85631[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]85632[/ATTACH]

    https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=querrieu&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x47e788e266541ead:0x40af13e8161fbc0,Querrieu,+France&gl=uk&ei=qd3FUqfHOIfS0QWNrYDADw&ved=0CKwBELYD

     

    Visited Querrieu this September and took the opportunity to photograph:

     

    E02341--1-.jpg

    2014-09-12 16.15.03.jpg

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