Big ray

The North Staffs Area, MVT. are going as a group, staying in Carentan, "Commander" Chris will be doing all of the planning as per usual, we always have a great time.

Sad news indeed, always sad to lose members and friends, may he R.I.P. At times like this family and friends need all the support that they can get.

Its fine Hans, welcome to the friendly forum.

Welcome in Paul............ Fire away, lots of knowledge on here.

Thank you for the info, dates noted and marked.

Now I have been informed that this one is a non starter, seems that the only show will be the one taking place on the 25/26 and poss 27th May 2013. I am afraid that I can only pass on the information as I receive it, but I am now making a point of keeping in touch on a daily basis, again I will pass on all info when I get it.

I am very disappointed that this event as been cancelled since many of us from this area had booked in.......... however, thank you for posting this information.

I welcome to the forum, our son has a 1944 BSA M20, he finds it a little difficult to start when hot, we wonder if its because it does not have the spacer between the carb and the cylinder to help to keep the carb cooler........ how do you cope with yours when hot??

Hi Brian, welcome in, you will not need to join any more forums, you will find it all on this one........ I have a GMC 353 Rag top.

Very well put, the reality is that at the end of the day we are subjected to a good deal of indoctrination, so it really depends on which side of the fence that you live. I like to think that what I know about the subject will fill a book, unfortunately what I do not know would fill a library.

I have received a phone call today from a different organiser (different event actually,Halfpenny at war.) This gentleman is organising the show on 30-31st March 1st April, Easter weekend. It appears that these dates are going ahead, they will be providing a Bar-B-Q on the Saturday evening for the exhibitors. ( The other dates that I have posted are still only a proposal, I will keep you updated on that one.) I am afraid that I forgot to ask about post war military vehicles, I will rectify that error as soon as possible.

Poling, when you have several parties to choose from its perfectly possible to elect one party with a small percentage of the popular vote. If you get 40% of the vote and the rest of the votes are divided between the rest of the parties thats not representative of the nation as a whole. ( I am not suggesting that the nazi party only got 40%) The second world war was really a continuation of the first world war. The French, British and U.S. governments imposed severe reperations onto the German government, reperations that they were never going to met. Indeed all of this became very evident to the British and U.S. governments, who wanted to reduce the reperations on Germany to a manageable level, the french were intransigent and refused to even consider such a move. This was a major contributary factor in the rise of the Nazi party. Its almost impossible for people to understand today, that even the promise of a loaf of bread on the table each day was a vote winner.

You have to say that its very easy to be judgemental in hindsight, its foresight where we find ouselves very wanting. Its a fact that many Germans were not supporters of the Nazi party, otherwise why were there so many attempts on Hitlers life. Many Germans were imprisoned for their opposition to the Nazi`s................. it has to be said, there is good and bad in all peoples.............. and none of this takes into account indoctrination, a very powerful tool.

We have purchased a nice new (Old stock) white halftrack engine............. pics to follow.

All wartime vehicles are basically 1930s technology, so they are never going to be like modern vehicles, but then thats part of the fun, being competent, crash boxes, in some cases relatively poor braking, and heavy or sloppy steering.... not all vehicles have all of these deficiency........... but I love it, I was weened on these motors when they were new.

I forgot to say, I really do like the advert, thanks for posting.

Amongst the vehicles that I drove back in the 1950s and 60s. A Morriss Commercial truck (van body) it was a 1928 model, it was about the size of a modern 7.5 tonner, I seem to remember that it carried about 1.5 tonnes max. It was fitted with a brakes on the back axle only !!!, I dont remember ever having any problems with thr braking, perhaps we did not take it out in the ice and snow?. I do remember that it was a real sit up and beg driving position with a bench seat. The fuel tank ran under the bulkhead with a motorcycle fuel tap under the dash. Another moter was a Commer TS3 with a drawbar trailer, I drove that one for quite a long time. The four wheel drawbar trailer had no brakes on the front axle (Turntable) only braked on the rear axle. When I first started to drive it I loaded a split delivery, I should have put half and half onto the truck and trailer so that my second delivery would have been with some equalibrium on truck and trailer. Instead I emptied the first delivery from the trailer. Traveling to my second delivery, on wet roads , I descended a hill, applied my brakes lightly and on looking in my mirrors, I was horrified to see that the brakes had locked up on the trailer rear axle and the trailer was beginning to slide out of line.......... I had only a few miles further to go, so I uncoupled the air line (You could not do that today) and drove steadilly to my destination. Other than that one experience, I dont recall having any more problems with stopping................. of course I have to say that the volume of traffic was considerably lighter than on todays roads.

My understanding is that people were having close shaves all the time during WW2, so whats new ??

He was a man of his word, he never failed me, in fact I did many projects for him, perhaps I can relate some, some quite funny........ of course, being his nephew did`nt do me any harm.

It was not just a straight railway line, most of what I did was in a marshalling yard, thats why he nearly passed out when he got out of his Merc, in a matter of hours we had the place looking like a ww1 battleground. hundreds of sleepers all over the place. Once that he had calmed down, and I told him that I was only applying the Henry Ford principal of the production line, and that he could not move them on until they were on his trucks........ it was just that he had worked out that in terms of time, (Man hours) I had a better profit margin than I think that he did!!!!

My uncle was a big player in the war surplus business, he was very good to me in the late nineteen fifties and early sixties. he would ring me out of the blue and ask how I was doing with my fledgling business. I would tell him that like most businesses it was full of ups and downs, he would always encourage me by saying, keep knocking on their doors, they will get fed up of you knocking and give you some work. he was correct, he said, you will be pushing the job, one day you will awake to find that the job is pushing you. He would ring to see if I was busy, if not, he would offer me some work to do for him. He rang me one day in the early 1960s and asked, are you busy? He went on to tell me that he had a job for me if I wanted to do it. In the 1960s Beeching had axed many of the railway lines, my uncle had won the tender to remove many miles of redundent railways. He took me along to look at the works that he wanted doing, he had removed all of the railway lines, leaving the wooden sleepers to be removed. He took me to the site in his Merc to view the works. When we arrived on site he took a steel bar from his boot and illustrated to me how I should "dig up" these sleepers from the ground in readiness for removal by his trucks. These sleepers were buried in the ballast up to the top of the sleeper, he stuck the steel bar down the side of the sleeper and proceeded to lever the sleeper out of the ballast. It was quite a considerable task liberating each sleeper from its fixation in the ballast. He said, can you do this job, and then gave me a price per sleeper, I replied, yes that seems fine. When he had gone I told one of my guys, go and get the tractor with the bulldozer blade and bring it on site. It had taken some considerable effort by him to extracate one of the sleepers using the steel bar. Once that the tractor arrived on site, I angled the blade and told the driver to travel along the former railway at walking speed. The corner of the blade flipped each sleeper as it passed, effectively removing the sleepers like one every few seconds. The following day my uncle turned up on site unanounced, he alighted from his Merc, and exclaimed, Jesus, how much am I paying you per sleeper, I replied, not enough. He not only paid me for the work, he also asked me if I would like to work for him, I declined.

Its likely to be mine if fuel prices keep rising like they are here in the U.K.

Not at all, you make very valid points, I have however been in contact with the organiser for this coming event, he assures me that he is going to propose to the site owners that we should have post war involvement, it will, I suspect, be suggested that the two groups should occupy different areas. That seems both reasonable and acceptable to me, its being there that matters. As a long time member of the MVT I have always believed very strongly that there should be no distinction between ww2 and post war vehicles, they were all built for the same purpose and all are of equal interest to the genuine military vehicle enthusiast. ( I do understand the need for ww2 stuff for a specific event, for example a tour through a town depicting a liberation event, but even that should not exclude post war vehicles from doing a static display) We are all like minded people, pursuing a hobby that we all love. I will stay in close contact with the organiser, and convey any relevent information as I receive it.......... I hope to see EVERYONE there,

I am sure that all will be made welcome, but I will check with thje organisers and come back.