Old Git

Rick, you might also want to have a look here... http://www.qsl.net/ve3bdb/technical.htm and here... http://www.vmars.org.uk/wsn19.html I'm sitting here with the service manual for the Cromwell I in front of me and under the service section for the WS 19 set it gives two paragraphs and 1 wiring diagrams for the wireless and intercom and another larger wiring diagram which appears to be for the whole electrical system and seems to show the wireless system within that overll system. I can scan them and email to you if you like? Although I must warn you that overall electrical schematic is bigger than my A4 scanner so will probably come in two parts. I've just quickly scanned the wiring schematic for the Cromwell I, I doubt it changed much over the various Mks of Cromwell but if it did I'm pretty sure Adrian will be along in just a mo to give you the fully skinny on that.

Toadman's pics are here mate.. http://www.toadmanstankpictures.com/cromwell.htm I'll got through my refs in a minute to see if I have more info for you.

Rick, are you familiar with this image below? Also, I think Toadman has posted some internal shots of the Cromwell at the Jacques Littlefield collection some of which show pics of the various parts of this schematic. I'll have a shufti's and see if I can't find a link to them.

Hi Kevin, just wondering how it's going with this project? Have you made any progress since your last update? I also wanted to ask a question about your 2nd picture showing the Final Drive housing. I've been looking for a long time and this is one of the best pictures I've seen showing the FD Housing and it clears up a couple of questions I had from looking at the drawings as it shows those parts of the FD Housing that the Outer Side Plate sits on and which are not shown on the drawings (or at least not on the drawings I have). By any chance did you also take pictures of the FD cover for this housing and the gear wheels that go inside, or did you not have those when you received the tank? Looking forward to more updates mate, I can't get enough of restoration shots of classic British Armour. Oh, and the bigger the pictures the better so we can zoom in on the detail:cheesy: Best Regards Pete

I'm always finding new stuff on this site to drool over and Adrian your Sherman is a thing of beauty. I loved all those shots when the graft is over and and OD goes on. There's just something sexy about a fresh coat of green paint on a big ol tank! Pete

Lee, thanks for the heads up on the poll I must confess I had not noticed it mate. It's most probably due to the very bad head cold I've been nursing these last few days...a real old-fashioned stinker of a head cold. It feels like I'm trying to push treacle uphill on a cold day, if you know what I mean! Apologies also if I've offended in any way. It's not my intention (as I say I have a very bad cold so I'm probably being more obtuse than is normal for me). In many ways I'm a bit of an outsider to both HMVF and the Fotm thing, I'm a vehicle enthusiast who doesn't own any vehicles and doesn't really go to any of the shows and I'm a fotm member that rarely visits Bovi. As such I have absolutley no idea of what goes on in terms of politics or behind the scenes machinations in either arena, as I said earlier my own real connection to Bovi and Fotm is primarily the Tracklinks mag. I didn't even know that there was a previous forum for FotM so it's no surprise that I wasn't aware of this area either. I get the sense I'm bumbling in areas where I ought not to be, but in my own defence I simply thought I was responding to a technical query about how doable something was. As someone with some experience of the forum software I thought I might be able to contribute. Obviously there's more to this than just technical issues and as such is way beyond my ken! So, again I apologise for blundering in areas I know nowt about, I'll make no further comment on it. I'm here for the research only!

No, I get all that and I wasn't at all suggesting that you register every single member of FotTM on to HMVF, or even that you allow them automatic registration. What I meant was that pre-existing members of HMVF, who are also 'Friends', who wish to join a separate, private grouping of FotTM could, by simply entering their full name and currrent membership number, get automatically approved for inclusion in that group. This group would then have exclusive and private access to a hidden forum specifically for FotTM business! I'm simply offering an opinion on how doa-ble it is in relation to the queries raised earlier in the thread wrt that point. I maybe should have made that clearer! How you moderate membership to HMVF is soley the preserve of the board Admin and one would need to be approved for HMVF before you could even hope to get access to the FotTM area! As a board Admin myself I'd never dream of sugesting anything else! Just as an FYI, private groups are available in the feature set of VB4 and can be found in the AdminCP, as a moderator you may not have access to that function but only to the moderators CP so you perhaps are unaware of the feature. It takes a little bit of reading about to understand but it isn't too onerous. As I indicated I also run a VB4 based forum, with the CMS and blogs features enabled, so know a little bit about this stuff. Oh, and we manually approve all memberships also, (I'm right there with you on that one) and I don't mind the extra work that that generates (especially in terms of checking against various on-line databases etc.) as long as it keeps out the malcontents and undesirables!

Just found this thread, quite by accident I might add, and have to confess that although I've been trawling around here for a bit now I never knew that you hosted a forum for the Friends of the Tank Museum. All the more disconcerting as I'm a life member of the friends! If memory serves every 'Friend' has a membership number and it should be possible to obtain a list containing only membership number and full name. A full name (i.e. first name and surname) and a simple membership numbers does breech the Data Protection act and can therefore be freely exchanged between HMVF and the FotTM. It is only when you combine names with other identifying information such as DoB, postal address, email address, phone numbers, places of work, occupation etc. that you begin to breech Data Protection rules. That said, the 'Friends' ought to have some Data Protection policy in place and one would assume that it indicates that it can share information with it's 'partners' which HMVF would be if it is hosting the forum. But, going back to our original list of simple name and number, if we had sucha list then it would require some jigging of the 'groups' function in VB4 to allow people to self-join the FotTM group by entering their name and membership number for verification purposes. An updated list each year would contain a third column which indicated if renewal had taken place or not and when run against the FotTM group it would automatically 'drop' those HMVF members from the FotTM group if they have not renewed their membership. I'm pretty certain you'll be able to find a mod over on Vborg to allow you to do something like this and I'm quite happy to offer any assistance I can in this matter. As to the nature of the Friends organisation I should say that I've probably visited the Tank Museum about three times, twice since I became a member of the Friends. As I live in Oxfordshire it's not a easy journey to make elsewise I'd be there everyday offering assistance. And whilst I am aging, I'm not that aged...but I will be 50 soon (bloody hell, groan!). I also have three boys (eldest is in his schools CCF contingent and the others are likely to follow suit) and they are picking up their Dad's fascination for all things armoured! So, right there you have a future membership if it's handled well! For me friends means that I can contact the Library at Bovi (which I try to do as sparinly as possible and only after I've exhausted all other avenues) and know that I'll get dealt with in a reasonably prompt manner. Althought to be fair to the chaps and chapesses in the Library they probably treat all members of the general public with the same calm, speedy efficiency and my membership number at the bottom of the email makes not that much impression upon them. I also like reading Tracklinks as it is pretty much the main contact I have with the museum and the Friends although it would be nice if it could be produced for a much cheaper version. I for one would be more than happy to receive PDF copies in my email and indeed I'd find them a lot easier to store! As the Ipad and Ipod become more and more popular so too has the tools, to make magazines available via these devices, become cheaper and easier to use. Perhaps a poll of members asking who would be happier to receive an electronic copy of track links as opposed to a paper copy! Finally, I did win a free family ticket in last years raffle which we made use of on the way back from our Easter holiday in Cornwall. The boys had a fantastic time (as did my little girl) and one of the museum staff, on hearing that we had won the ticket in the Friends raffle, opened up a tank and put the children inside with helmets and gave them the full introduction to the vehicle. They were still talking about it weeks later! I love the Tank Museum, that's why I became a life member!!! I am surprised though that so little of the subs makes their way to the Tank Museum but on the other hand you can't put a price on the goodwill generated by an organisation such as the FotTM. I for one never miss an opportunity to sing the praises of the tank museum and recommend it to everyone I meet...irrespective of the topic of conversation:red:

Ah, all becomes clear. I was racking my brains to try to figure out what esoteric magic was at work for the Youtube tags. I thought it must be particularly clever as I couldn't figure it out, LOL! Just goes to show that my old Dad's advice still holds true..."don't over-think the problem, boy!"

Thank you Adrian, you're a star mate! PS mate, I've just sent you a PM with some images attached of progress to date which should give you an indication of where I'm at!

Just a quick question. Why are these youtube tags better than the standard video tags that already existed on the toolbar? Is there some limitation on the video tags that prevent then being used with YouTube?

Hi Rick, thanks for the offer mate but going by your pics it would apepar that there a substantial difference in style between the 14" track links and the 15.5" track links. The 15.5" appear to look similar to the 18" on the Comet! If Adrian could see his way clear to snapping a few pics of his unused 14" ttack links with a ruler in place then that would be a great help. Across the underside of the track (the bit that bites the road), from the underside to the top of the horn and across the width on the front and rear profiles. Rgds Pete

Hi Adrian, I am getting CAD files made up for modelling purposes but once they're in CAD form (and hopefully accurate) they can then be scaled up or down depending upon requirements. But what I need is to see some pictures of the real thing (unused is perfect) with a ruler strategically placed so I can deduce accurate measurements of the real item. If you could help in anyway I'd be most grateful! Re the engine, the best drawings I've got so far are the ones in the service manual. They're good enough for me to guess dimensions from however, I think I may have solved that problem and I have some dimensioned diagrams for the Merlin winging their way to me in the next few day!

Hi all, I'm on the hunt for some close-up pictures of the Cromwell 14" individual Track links, with measurements. I'm trying to get some CAD files made up to allow me to have some made. Has anyone got some track links to hand that they can photograph with a tape measure in the picture for reference? Has anyone got any technical drawings, with measurements, other than the ones that appear in the service manual? Finally, does anyone know of any technical drawings for the Meteor engine, or a book containing drawings of the various parts? A fews years back I suggested to Haynes that they consider releasing a manual for the Merlin/Meteor engines and they were very enthusiastic about the idea (no sign of the book yet). I even suggested they get together with someone like DML to manuacture a 1/6th scale Merlin/Meteor, with a sound chip, to sell with the book. Now that would be a super cool desk ornament! I don't think I'd be able to stop myself from pressing the button every other minute though!

Thanks for the reply Rick. I had often wondered if there was any discernible difference between the 14" tracks and the 15.5" tracks and from the picture above it would appeat to be so!

Hi Rick, can you give me a bit of info on the track links, on your vehicle. Are these Comet track links or are they the 15.5 inch tracks that were fitted to later Mk's of the Cromwell?

Anybody mention the MkIII Turtle shell helmet for 68-ish with the riot visor attached by 69?

Thanks Pete, fascinating stuff mate. Some nice pics on that thread that didn't seem to make it over here...and bigger!

Thanks for the prompt reply, I was sure you chaps would be well genned up on these. They do seem odd just sitting there...it looks like they're sitting on a roundabout in the middle of the road, although that may just be the way the pic is taken! Personally speaking, I'd prefer a Cromwell...you just can't get airborne in a Sherman, LOL!

Spotted this online, quite by accident, and wondered if anyone could tell me more. Are they still there, who owns them etc. http://en.tracesofwar.com/article/19608/Dump-Yard-Knocked-Out-American-Tanks-Le-Canton.htm

I look forward to seeing those...can never get enough pics of the internal gubbins!

Just wondering how it's all going with this Rick, did Santa bring you a QF 75 for Christmas? I may has asked this before, but in case I haven't, I was wondering if you had any pictures of the assembly for the Final Drive as it was built up on the outside of the hull? Happy new Year mate! Rgds Pete

I have thoroughly enjoyed watching this come together and in a way I'll be a bit sad when it's completed as there'll be no more wonderful pics. But, on the other hand, I can't wait to see the video of it moving under it's own power! A fantastic job!!!

Actually, I didn't say that Paget was wearing the Denim Tank Suit. But I'm pretty certain he's wearing the 1942 Overalls (the ones with the rescue harness and the pistol pocket). Eden is definitely wearing the a full denim BD, most probably over his suit and shirt! But Paget looks to be wearing the 1942 Overalls with a Denim BD blouse over the top. See pic below. 42ND ARMOURED DIVISION EXERCISE, NEAR MALTON IN YORKSHIRE, 29 SEPTEMBER 1942. © IWM (TR 159)IWM Non Commercial Licence And here's that picture of Eden and Paget together. The difference is obvious! 42ND ARMOURED DIVISION EXERCISE, NEAR MALTON IN YORKSHIRE, 29 SEPTEMBER 1942. © IWM (TR 168)IWM Non Commercial Licence

I found this in the National Archives yesterday, proof that both the denim suit and the oversuit were supplied to the RAC in 1943 and of course in David Gordon's book on WWII Uniforms he does show a Pixie suit with a 1943 label! So, I think we can safely say that the items were in production in 1943 and that they were indeed with RAC stores. The 1942 overalls (the one's with the internal rescue harness and the pistol pocket) were produced in June 1942 and by September we see (colour pics at the IWM) Paget wearing one when observing a Tank Corp training exercise with Anthony Eden. That being the case it's conceivable that the Pixie suit made its way to certain senior officers by the 1943/44 winter. If it made its way to senior officer then it's likely that it also started to make its way down to some leading elements within the Tank Corps, perhaps the favoured 7th Armoured did indeed have them (ala the Bill Bellamy quote earlier) by the Normandy time frame. Hardly definite proof that they were indeed used in Normandy but enough to give one pause for thought, at least! I have yet to track down the files covering the design of these suits (denim, pixie and jungle) but I am closing in on them. I have already identified the material used on the Oversuit and the company who made it. Incidentally, I also found an oblique reference to the withdrawal of the 1942 overalls (again, the one's with the internal rescue harness and the pistol pocket)as being dangerous to the wearers health, especially if worn when doing heavy work or in hot climates. Presumably this is a reference to the lack of air-permeability in the suit although (and it's the use of the word dangerous that makes me think this) it may also hint at something more sinister such as leeching chemicals from the suit (I've seen something similiar on chrome poisoning from leather items of wear). For the time being I'm inclined to lean to the fomer, i.e. air permeability, but I'll keep my eyes open.