Richard Farrant

For those that do not remember the long winter of 1963, here is something to watch ; ..........backing music is good too :-)

Tony, the only thing on the lawn is 4 inches of snow, just dumped on us this morning :-|. But I did hear a car outside later, trying to burn its way through to the tarmac, incredible how people thing the more revs you have, the more likely you are to move on snow and ice

Snowing heavily down here in Kent........and just heard a crash of thunder !!!!!!!

They are remarkable vehicles, well ahead in transmission design, forerunner of Ferret, Saracen Fox, etc. , all using the same basic layout. I have been involved in working on them for many years and restored a number of them. One bit of advice, keep all the oil levels up, as their one failing was poor sealing on the tractas. This was something that vastly improved when Ferret was introduced.

Spot on !

Clive, If you pick up a manual and find a particular section, well thumbed and covered in oil stains, it may well signify a common problem on that vehicle it covers. Always worth checking out manuals before buying a vehicle

Still working for me, have been on it several times today without a problem.

The lettering is a bit puzzling, but I do note a Pyrene fire extinguisher bracket and a glimpse of bradied steel cable conduit, so think it could be something armoured....Tank Museum perhaps? Just noticed the aerial mount, quite a late one and British, so getting warmer.

Hi Fluf, That is Noddy ! Don't know the other guy though. Noddy used to bring out a Scammell Medium to the rallies, it had a large air vent on the cab roof, as it was last in service in Kenya. He looked on it as his own, so I felt very priviliged to be allowed to take it out to a rally near Petersfield once. I think this was when an AEC Medium came into the collection, and Noddy took that under his wing :-). I have lots of photos of the vehicle collection, but usually out and about, not in the shed, these would date from the mid-1980's.

Hi Fluf, If it is who I think, he was a civilian Recovery Instructer at Bordon, but had served as a Recy Mech in REME. A very knowledgable and entertaining guy, not sure about the S.African bit though. He had a lot to do with the Historic Vehicle Collection in the early days, when he and Rog, along with other helpers, used to bring out large numbers of vehicles from the collection to rallies around the South of England, notably MVT Southsea, Rushmoor Steam Rally, Beltring, etc. Those were the days !

Robin, If you look at the socket on the vehicle, with the protection cap removed, the outer sleeve is a contact surface, if this were live it could easily be shorted out, live (+POS) being the internal contact. I would have used these leads many hundreds of times over the years! If in doubt, just do a continuity test with a meter and you will see.

Hi Fluf, Is that the infamous Noddy in this photo?

I recollect being involved in fitting the Winterisation to a Lightweight which had to be on board QE2 the following day, so it seems it was not a tall story. Don't ask me what the VRN was, too long ago :embarrassed:

Obvious really, as the systems are Negative Earth, then the outer part of the socket is Negative, the centre being the live Positive.

You ask and you shall have :-) If you need a scan of the relevant page in the manual, just say.

It looks, as Nick said earlier, like an American "step van", probably used by voluntary organistions for servicemens welfare, although in one photo the lettering on the side says "Film Unit". Is it the same van in all the photos, because lettering looks different? Doubt that it is a military supplied vehicle, and my feeling is that it could be something like a Ford, Chev or International, with a Metro, or Metropolitan body.

Thanks Cosrec, The REME workshops, where I worked, had one issued to us on their introduction into service, replacing an AEC Medium, (not known as Militants in service). We were to have it for about 20 years, I was involved in winch and crane repairs and testing amongst other work, so got to do a fair bit to it in its time, although to be fair, the only major issues in the EKA side of it, that I recollect, was renewing a telescopic ram for lifting the boom and the bogie blocking power unit. Also heavily into Foden EKA as we had quite number in our dependant units, the electro hydraulics system started to give problems as life wore on with them, and were occasionally challenging !

hi, I would say that it owes its success to British Army, as EKA developed the first generation of underlifts for them on the Scammell Crusader chassis in 1975, after trialing one on a Volvo 4-wheel chassis.

Clive, I have tried to send you a PM but your message box is full, apparantly.

Reading the website that the photo was taken from and seeing the pump engine unit, I would say it was built in Italy ( where it resides in the museum), as the engine is a Folkmotor, which in turn was a copy of the Condor engine, made in Milano. Folkmotor company started up after WW2.

War Illustrated, which came out during WW2 in weekly format. I have seen them bound into volumes.

Hi Clive, No problems here with BT emails, thought you were a bit quiet ! Call centres in India...........ask my brother about them, just heard from him today on the problems he had with a call centre, re. internet, they kept cutting the call off so he had to go through it all again. Got so annoyed he told them to put him through to someone in the UK.

I doubt it would be a problem to remove the landfill rubbish as a similar thing happened in Sussex. The Bluebell Railway wanted to extend their line and a cutting had been used as a refuse tip for years, the railway have permission to reinstigated the line and I believe the rubbish removal is taking place, not kept up with the latest details. Biggest problem is finding another landfill site.

Mike, It is the Merc OM603 engine, similar to those fitted in some Merc cars from mid 80's to late 90's.

Hanno, That is Preston Isaacs' C9B, from the Cobbaton Museum