XS650

3 hours ago, Radek said:

more info? Where and when?

Radek you will have to ask the flickr poster 'Jim'.

Often people are quite secretive about these scrapyard locations.

Craig

Great  photos, think it may be a Guy Quad.

Craig

Another two Scammells, I bet they saw further use.

Craig

On flickr , click on photo for Album of a very interesting scrapyard-

Never knew these trial wreckers made it to Aden-

Runour is the Wehrmacht had more Morris-Commercial trucks than the British Army after French campaign. !

Craig

Curious as to Ltwbarmy's comment about Lot 306 in this auction , here it is .

Assume a 200 gal tank from a Bedford MWC water bowser but I am no expert !

Craig

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Suppose you know Pre war military vehicles carried civilian registration plates, usually Middlesex registrations.

Discussed this  IWM pic on another forum a few years ago (WW2 Talk) and the Humber has an embarkation number of 0015 on the wing which reveals it is is from BEF Public Relations staff which is why we have such a nice photo I would guess 😃

''picture shows a badly damaged Humber Station Wagon with a Crossley IGL8 3 Ton 6X4 in background with AOS12 white bar over and 1st Corps spear indicating 5 Medium Regiment Royal Artillery. at first I thought it was captured but looking closely the motley crew are all Brits , perhaps the Humber was on the wrong side of the road.''

Craig

Talking of RLs what can you wind up their top speed to on the flat?

I remember two GS trucks seemingly overtaking us at great speed on the M1 in the 70s but we were in a LWB diesel Land Rover station wagon towing a 17 ft caravan !

What a disappointing tow vehicle this was to my father as the puny diesel could barely pull itself about.

Craig

It is just after the bible page where young people are saying how useless old people are with new technology!

BTW Pete this is  a superb  and skilful restoration .

Craig

I don't think there is much anyone can do really as it is the mortal coil, classic vehicle interest will continue  but it is almost always the older generation that are into classic vehicles and as the elderly  people  (and vehicles) fall off the perch more 40 plus people will come through but they will be  (mainly) interested in the vehicles of their youth or near.

Has any classic vehicle club of any time had a large amount of twenty something members.

Hence there is not a great deal of interest  now in flat tanker bikes or pre 1930 trucks and cars  but massive interest in 1970's, 80's and even 90's vehicles.

Always exceptions of course , my mate born late 1970s has massive interest in 1950s bikes.

Craig

AEC rescuing AEC  looks right.   😀

The Scammell 4x4 appeared in the 1955 film '' The Woman for Joe' in fictional livery and reg. number.

Craig

Thanks for info.

Scammell ( Pioneer ? ) 4x4 RMG627 in showmans use and an in service pic from an earlier post.

I find it interesting that this still holds its original registration number from military service , unusual ?  .

Yes guesstimated by looking at the heavy artillery/AA gun numbers left in France.

May be out but it must have been in the many hundred s.

The Wehrmacht soon had them up and running.

I believe around 700 Pioneers were left in France .

Very useful kit for the Germans and pop up in many soldiers photos.

WIth five makers of Gardners under licence in Continental Europe spares not too hard either.

Not in wartime , post war the Perkins was a factory  option.

Yes my father and his brother ( right  in the photo ) had their own boat and did not fish in the winter.

Craig

Well here is the story -

On the 28th October 1955 at 3.20am the good ship Karmas was due to enter the  river Tees with a cargo of high grade Swedish iron ore. In the second picture above the Tees is on the other side of the lighthouse and breakwater.

Somehow the Karmas in fine weather managed to pass to the left of the lighthouse instead of the right and ran aground on a 'beach'. This 'beach' was made up of hard boulders of slag from the local  steelworks and is very difficult to traverse by any means.

To refloat the ship  around 3000 tons of  iron ore was jettisoned over the side and she was towed off by tugs.

Major Percy H Morrell  REME  a garage owner from Leeds  (who had been awarded an MBE  for creating the Churchill tank fitted with 75mm gun from Shermans in his 'wrecking ' yard during the North African campaign and after the war had bought 1000 carriers to scrap.) went into partnership with a salvage engineer from Leeds Bert Bowers  to 'have a crack' at recovering the cargo.

He had already scrapped most of the carriers  but had kept a few of the good ones and decided to try to  use two of them  to recover the cargo. They were stripped down and fitted with a flat back.

Five fishermen were employed as well as a full time fitter on the job.

At low tide  iron ore which was extremely heavy  ( one galvanised bucket full was all a man could lift ) was loaded by hand onto the back of the carriers which could carry around two ton. This was then dumped next to the breakwater and  picked up by lorry and took to the steelworks. This must have been very hard work and as fishermen could earn a good living back then they were either well paid or it was mid winter .

My uncle said the carriers often broke tracks around the drive sprockets on the slag beach but no doubt Mr Morrell had plenty of spares!

Whether Percy Morrell made any money is not recorded.  He said .'' well it worked and they  ( the  carriers) stood up to the job exceptionally well''.

The good ship Karmas carried on for another 25 years not being scrapped until 1980.

Craig

On 7/31/2011 at 8:19 PM, eddy8men said:

carriers could still be useful for many tasks after the war ended, there was a major morrell of the reme who settled in yorkshire after the war and ran a garage, when the surplus carriers came up for disposal he bought a 1000 with the intention of stripping them and selling the parts but he also used a few on other tasks like the salvage of 3000 tons of iron ore from a ship wreck that was only accessable at high tide. it just goes to show how versitile these little machines were.

if the name major morrell rings a bell with some of you it's because he's the same fella that designed the churchill na75.

 

rick

I have been reading through this thread of a great restoration  and came across this post.

My father was involved in this  salvage operation at Redcar  and the photo below is of the two ' carriers'  used .

He is the chap  seated in carrier on far right  . His brother is perched on top of the carrier. All the men were Redcar fishermen.

Major Morrell is stood in the middle , I have a lot more info on  operation this if  of any interest.

I would be interested to know exactly what type  carriers they were.

Craig

Yes, it is a good thing they still have tbis old stuff really as many trucks have been bought and restored from there and also parts obtained to keep other oldies going.

Video of the famous Rush Green Motors Scrapyard in UK, appears fairly recent . 

I believe they have just had a big tidy up.

Lots of nice classic stuff and a few WW2 trucks , some of the wheels on piles may be WW1 !

No but it adds to the risks.

Perhaps my original statement was a little blunt but I was genuinely shocked when I saw the  photographs.

I worked in the construction industry for many years and if a HSE Inpector saw an unsupported excavation like that he would issue a Prohibition Notice.

The man in the picture above holding  the ranging rod in photo above is in real danger if the ground next to him collapsed.

By all means excavate the AFV's but a lot more attention should be given to shoring.

On 5/2/2021 at 10:06 AM, ltwtbarmy said:

Care to qualify that statement?