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FRAFM

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  • Location
    N London
  • Interests
    Aircraft, vehicles and other mechanical things that move!
  • Occupation
    retired

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  1. We have now re-registered the K2 as XBV 445 from the beginning of this month. Now it is road legal the Museum is able to run it around the car park and hopefully at some external events in the future. We are planning to take it to the City of London for the annual "Cart marking" ceremony in the summer. We displayed the Museum's Ford Model T tender and it's Crossley tender there in the last 3 years. The Sotheby's catalogue entry says it was used on Rochester airfield prior to it's sale. After we completed the registration process we were given a photo of what we believe may be it with a registration number of 3263D or 3283D - the photo is small and the number isn't that clear. However such a number would be consistent with being registered in Kent in summer 1964. Has anyone any recollections of seeing it at Rochester?
  2. Found a copy, but apparently the vehicle in the photo isn't the vehicle in the sale.
  3. I am tracing the history of the RAF Museum's K2 Ambulance. I believe it was bought by the museum at the Southeby King and Chasemore Auction at the Warnham War Museum on the 25th April 1980. Does anyone have a copy of the original catalogue from which they could scan the entry for the K2? For some reason any information that came with the vehicle in 1980 has been lost and we are now trying to fill in as much history of the vehicle as we can. We contacted Sotheby's but they no longer keep back copies of their catalogues, they are actually archived by the V&A museum. Unfortunately as this sale was through a subsidiary it has not been archived with the main Sothebys catalogues. Thanks Ian C
  4. Well done Tom. A fitting convoy for the occasion.
  5. Re: Crossley RFC Tender And a certain Mr Simpson didn't come up and tell me until I was going home :mad: I feel left out :-( I Hope this doesn't cause any grief then ..... http://vid766.photobucket.com/albums/xx308/iwvc/RAFVehicles.mp4
  6. I'll get hold of some more photos later but this is one of arriving at the cart marking to get Branded (!) confirming we'd paid our Tax for the year (5/-)
  7. You know he had a ride in it didn't you .....?
  8. The RAF Museum's Crossley tender now runs! After a year of work, including the repair of severely cracked and damaged cylinder blocks we finally started and ran the tender around the Museum car park today. Hopefully I'll be able to post some videos soon. I can't thank Tom enough for the loan of his spare mag which enabled us to get it running while our mag is being rewound and refurbished. No one expects to see old vehicles at the RAF Museum so many were surprised to see both our Ford Model T and Crossley Tenders being driven around the car park this afternoon!
  9. Thanks I'm hoping we can arrange to have both of your Crossleys and the Museum's one together one day. 3 running on the same site will be worth a look! Just hope I'm fit enough to start the Crossley when it is finally back together. The Ford Model T is bad enough and that has a smaller displacement engine.:red: Ian C
  10. Some of you may be aware that the Volunteers at the RAF Museum have been working to get their Crossley Tender back into running order. Although the vehicle is complete there were a number of bits that needed repair or replacement due to the lack of use for 40 years. The water pump, itself a modification from the original 20/25 spec which would have been fitted to the timing housing, needed freeing and the timing chain needed to be replaced. due to wear. All the suspension greasers had been peened in place (presumably to prevent theft) and had to be carefully removed straightened and re-tapped before refitting. Oils which appeared to be clean and new on the surface had congealed into a grease like substance in the sumps of the engine and gearbox and took a lot of effort to clean out. However all these were minor issues compared with the state of the engine cylinder blocks. The museum records state that the tender was driven from Cecil Bendall's premises in Hitchin to RAF Henlow – about 5-10 miles. From there it was transported to RAF St Athan in S Wales where it was refurbished and the current replica RFC body fabricated and fitted. Because of this we didn't expect to find major mechanical problems after resolving the congealed oil, water pump and timing chain. There were signs of successful weld repairs to the tops of both blocks but that was all. Unfortunately this wasn't the case. When we filled the cooling system with water to check the rebuilt water pump we noticed a drip from the rear block, over the valve chest. As there is no join in this area we looked more closely and discovered a crack from an attempted weld repair. Further investigation uncovered many more cracks, unsuccessful weld repairs and several applications of “JB Weld” or similar. Nothing prepared us for the biggest problem though when we discovered that both blocks had been cut open. The rear had been unsuccessfully welded back and the front had had the excised plate refitted with caulk or similar. It was clear that the engine would not run, or would only run for a very short time, with these problems. At this stage it seemed that it would not be possible to restore the Crossley to running condition as major repairs had not been included in the Museum's project budget. However with the aid of an extremely generous donation from one of the Friends of the RAF Museum (himself a volunteer) the blocks were recently repaired using a cold, metal stitching procedure. The engine has now been substantially rebuilt and is on course to be run before the end of the month. If there are no more insurmountable problems we plan to run it at the Worshipful Company of Carmen's cart Marking Ceremony at the Guildhall, City of London in July. After that it will join the Museum's Ford Model T Tender, which is already running, and the Triumph H motorcycle (another rebuild to running condition project) supporting the Museum's major 1914 – 1918 exhibition in the Grahame White Factory due to open at the end of this year.
  11. The Museum have taken on a lot! I'm not directly involved in this project but will be helping out as and when asked. The chassis are currently at the back of the Bomber Hall but the mechanical components are elsewhere and not readily available for photos. I understand the plan is to restore two chassis, one hopefully a runner and the other for display only. I'll try to find out what bits are missing and keep everyone posted. Ian C
  12. If I was up there I'd definitely need the toilet - disabled or otherwise. About 6 minutes in there is a comment about checking possible lightning as "..there is no quick way down." Oh yes there is ..............:shocked: Ian C
  13. Sorry I hadn't seen that this one had been posted. Yes the Crossley is being brought back to running condition. We had to move it out of the Grahame White Factory as there wasn't sufficient space to work on it once the RE8 and Albatross DV arrived. As you may see from the photo above the rad is out while we replace the timing chain and clean up the couple of valves which are corroded from 30 odd years of being left open while it was on display without the engine being turned over. The Model T Tender has been restored to running condition but at the moment is not insured to operate in the public areas (car park) of the Museum. It has been run around the back though and there are a few clips on You Tube (search using RAF Museum Model T) It's back in GWF now for "winter hibernation" but we should be able to get it back out again on working display in the Spring. Although not present when Rlangham's photo wa taken there are now a couple of Leyland 3 ton Subsidy chassis behind the Crossley which the Museum intend to restore. Ian C
  14. I checked with the RAF Museum but, unfortunately, they don't have a copy of the original. Ian C
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