Adrian Barrell

If you were worried about the planet, you probably wouldn't run a large fleet of old diesels pumping out all their carcinogenic particulates. Hypothetically speaking of course....

Hi Perry, good to see you here too.

Calling them ''eyties'' is likely to make permission impossible!

That's an M4, they are relatively common.

Richard was right, they are a nice little machine but then I was Ipswich born too! The picture reminded me of Henham Steam rally a few years ago. A chap had a Corgi on display with the stationary engines and his display board told a wonderful tale of how his machine had been dropped into Arnhem in 1944.....

I'm sure that one was dropped just behind Utah with some Brockhouse Corgis......

It's just over 4 tons. Not hard to remove, just remember if you do make a trolley, you need to be able to lift it a little as the hull will rise on the suspension when it's out.

Most of the traverse system units are made from bronze, not surprisingly, they are long gone!

Thanks Matt.

Speaking of which, when is the P38 coming out Matt?

Most of it is the same. Pump, recuperator, filter, relief valve and hand control valve are the same. Charioteer uses a much bigger box but your Centaur has the correct box in it though it is missing a lid, the handwheel assembly and most of its innards!

The hull roof plates have just been modified as Eddy says, the ring mounting face is machined though so it is not so easy just to weld new bits back in. There are also lots of holes to fill too! The turret traverse box on Charioteer is not a Cromwell one, it has no hull machine gun mount and the rear plate is also modified. In reality, there are a host of mods, it just depends how far you want to go. Welding the tracks will likely result in cracking, ask Bob how he knows......

PM sent.

The Budge Cromwell was on standard 14" track which has a flat, wide spud with a greater surface area than a new 15 1/2" track. Perfect for easy steering on roads!

I found it at a link Lee had posted http://www.rainertech.net/hughes/cur1986.html

Here it is. 28. Tracks (1) Every part of every track of a track-laying vehicle which comes into contact with the road shall be flat and have a width of not less than 12.5 mm. (2) The area of the track which is in contact with the road shall not at any time be less than 225 cm2 in respect of every 1000 kg of the total weight which is transferred to the road by the tracks. (3) The tracks of a vehicle shall not have any defect which might damage the road or cause danger to any person on or in the vehicle or using the road, and shall be properly adjusted and maintained in good and efficient working order. I've just measured a 15.5" Cromwell link and it has 12.5 sq inches of hard surface contact area. There are 34 links per side in contact (I think, hard to count mine as it's behind a stack of stillages!) This gives a total ground contact area of 850 sq inches or 5484 sq cm. At 225 sq cm per 1000 kg, you can weigh just over 24 tons, I would expect an empty Cromwell to be about that. If your track is worn below the centre groove, it will be well within.

I'll try to find it, I've seen it in the regs on the net somewhere......! I would be surprised if yours is over the maximum GP as the spuds are quite wide.

There is also a maximum ground pressure for which my Sherman is just too heavy to run on steel chevron track.

Don't worry about 40+ mph Eddy, it will only do 32 but I agree with Alastair, it would look crap on anything but the correct track, though it is of course on late track so not correct for 1944 anyway but lets ignore that! There should be a large off road area to play in at A&E so, though it would be disappointing not to road run her, would you take it anyway if it proved impossible?

As he was obviously invited to attend and presumably did so at his own expense, he is probably a little peeved that everybody now claims they knew nothing about it ..... Notwithstanding his judgement on site, I doubt he would want to go next year or any other.

Still there for me...... Vehicle parts and accessories Other vehicle parts and accessories Military vehicle parts

I wouldn't rely on anything a Chief Test examiner said as being law, they are in no position to interpret it. When I did my test, the examiner had to ask me what the vehicle was capable of as he had never conducted a test before, there was certainly no standard questions then. Mind you, that was 1992.....

Eddy, don't underestimate the science involved. Sprockets are not just a bit of plate cut out. The forces involved are enormous and 432 track is not designed to suit a vehicle of that weight or power.

Thanks Lee. I wonder if 'rim' refers to the wheel disc itself as in a wheel rim for a normal pneumatic tyre. Most tanks have a rubber tyre between the wheel and the track. The phrase 'between it's weight carrying rollers and the surface of the road' suggests it means track but is obviously written for plant type tracklayers that do not have rubber tyred rollers. As it does not specifically mention steel or rubber tracks, that would be for a court to decide!

There are some glaring factual errors too such a Black Prince serving in Korea!