ANDYC

Crouch's S26 at the NEC recently

hi all, going through some photos this weekend i found these i took in the mid eighties at horseshoe green garage at cowden near edenbridge kent, the owner also had an explorer the crane of which ended up on the constructor. the constructor had the meadows petrol replaced with a leyland 680 power plus, it was in beautiful condition and on the inside drivers door was a hand painted figure of robin hood, presumably the truck belonged to the sherwood foresters. not long after i took the pictures the constructor was sold and disappeared and the explorer was cut up, perhaps someone out there knows of its whereabouts, i believe the owner retired and the garage closed, hope of interest, tony g.

I have spoken to Geoff Rhodes, this is indeed the vehicle he owned. He bought it from Horseshoe Garage and drove it home to Market Harborough, quite a journy at the time with no M25. He ran it for a number of years used mostly on heavy winching work. He later sold it on and rad an RAF type Constructor for a while.

Andy C

HI, I don't have a vehicle at Yeldham, but I dont live that far away, I intend to have one of my Crusaders at the open day on 19th May, perhapps I will see you there?

Hi Diamond t 1, I alos live near Cambridge and up to a year or so ago had a Diamond T 969, I now have a couple of Crusaders. I still have some DT parts, let me know if you are interested.

the driver of the blackpool one used to come in my dads shop , he loved driving it , he said one arm was shorter than the other on the back not sure if correct tho

I had a friend (Bill Dalton) who lived near Oldham and at one time drove the Blackpool Diamond T, this wouldn't be the same person would it? One arm is longer than the other, not sure the reason though

Thanks everyone for your replies, I look forward to meeting some of you in the future!

Regards

ANDY

Hi Andy see to recognise the name did you once come to my assistance on the A14

Hi Cosrec, no it wasn't me, but you never know I may be able to help in the future!, thanks for the reply.

ANDY

Hi I am Andy Crockett from Cambridge, I have spent almost 40 years repairing commercial vehicles, when I was made redundant just over a year ago I started on my own doing Heavy Recovery and some repair work. I currently run an ex Army Scammell Crusader Eka and a Bedford MJ Light recovery (Boughton crane & winch) that I use for commercial recovery work. I have always had a great interest in Military vehicles, and until very recently had a Diamond T 969 wrecker. My particular interest is in recovery vehicles (all types not just military) and the heavier British military vehicles, Scammells, Fodens etc.

When I went to look at Withams tender the other week I spotted one of these on civi plates parked in the back yard - Trials vehicle? I can't remember the reg, and unfortunately I did not get a picture, but it was in mint condition.

Steve,

 

Yes that is your cab, I took the photo outside BATUS workshops last July, as you can probably make out it was in the process of being stripped for parts. A fellow Recy mech mate of mine went back a few times to take bits off it to keep his Foden on the road last year, his was the last Foden to be used on the Prairie (all SVR now).

There was a sand coloured one with the top half of the cab painted red in Withams sale last week, it looked like a BATUS vehicle, was this the last one?