N.O.S.

I know someone who just got 6 brand new ones in a parcel from Witham. Have Pm'd you.

Mike - are that many parts different? My (admittedly somewhat skimpy) understanding is that the block was designed so that it could be built up using the same components to drive from either end, thus making it easy to configure as RH or LH :???

Welcome Andy, 1,000 posts and not all of them mentioned Scammell - well done!!

Or he could have been the ploughing tractor driver....?? On a farm near to work, the regular ploughing driver drove a Standard Fordson with underswept exhaust. He wore a WW1 trench coat and used to stick a piece of rubber pipe on the end of the exhaust and up the back of his coat. He kept nice and warm, but went home with a very black neck!!

I think you must have mis-read that text, Jack - she was muttering something about demanding a large sum of money. Yes, a fantastic resource for high quality period photographs. For example, I've ust discovered that 401st BG used the same trailer with U-7144T soft tops, so not so uncommon a combination as I first thought. The written archives must be of immense value to researchers too. Good call!

Oh Wow, Jack. Within just 5 minutes I have answered 2 need to know questions about my tanker. Unfortunately I fear you have messed up Mrs. N.O.S.'s Christmas big time, you can expect a call from her..............

The name does not appear to have been registered at Companies House. Doubtful if the MOD would have sourced a trailer from other than a registered company....

Err, umm, well, dohh, look, hmm, durr, oh heck, Andy, there's something we need to tell you :yay:

Yes, had a feeling it was the one, very tidy even back then. Thanks 6x6.

Don't want to worry you Jack , but if I were you I would get the fire extinguishers serviced before letting Andyfowler up there, as they are all out of date by a long way, and he is a bit of a stickler for detail......

Before you imbibe too much Somerset cider in the course of your research, 6x6 - can you tell us where this vehicle is now? Is it the one Paul Rhodes restored in green? (can't read numberplate). p.s. We always forund in Somerset there was a shortage of glasses at any "do", so started a fad of drinking cider out of a tea pot......well you've got to be famous for something.....

Ist set, top left and bottom left a couple of M5 bomb trailers!

I believe I saw them advertised last/this year through Witham's?

There is a photo of one of these Militant rigs in army use, with sand/green cammo and set up and drilling, on the Service Pals website. I think it is copyright, perhaps someone who has access can find out more?

I'm sure all the Constructors were civilian rigs, a few on ex MOD chassis. Richard Farrant told me the army used MKs with lighter rotary-drive rigs.

Fiction is a very individual taste, but if you have the slightest interest in MVs and Normandy invasion I don't think you can go wrong! Let me know how you get on with it.

It is certainly a deep well type rig, typically for water. One of the neatest masts and legs for a rig of that era that I've seen! The MOD have had rigs for water supply work for a long while, Withams Jacksons etc have been selling various ex MOD rigs for some time. Might it have stemmed from forces service in the middle east??

Oh dear, Heliops will want one......

Yes, posted a very brief review last year. Of course it is fiction. Won't give the plot away, but - an interesting tale which unravels around the daily workings of the Red Ball Express. It is essentally three interwoven stories, commencing on 11th June 1944 on Omaha Beach and running to the end of that year. It involves negro drivers on the Red Ball, a U.S. army chaplain following his men from the beaches and through the bocage, and sinister goings on in the Parisian Black market. Educational as well as entertaining. I should warn you that several jimmies are harmed and even killed in this tale, so not for the preservation squeamish..... Can't help thinking it would make a damned good movie. There could be a role for Jack in it, if only he'd get his hair cut short Just a shame the cover shows M35 whatevers, and not wartime jimmies :confused:

Just received from Great War Truck the book PRECIOUS CARGO by Richard T Bass, a very detailed account of what the 146th Quartermaster Truck Company got up to before and after D Day. It really is a great read - where else for example could you discover that, in the early days of the Red Ball operation, the problem of knee-deep mud (both inside and outside a large warehouse) was solved by building a 1/2 mile haul road using flashlight batteries as hardcore :shocked: Well worth trying to get hold of a copy - I believe GWT has a couple left.

Just going to the edge of "off Topic", was every bit of alien kit used by the British technically LEND-LEASE, or did some come out of a pool of spare equipment shipped out to Europe? For example the Dodge tippers here - were they already in a British Engineer unit or obtained quickly to get the job done?

The (diesel) shovel could be British, Jack - I think some were Ruston Bucyrus British-built, some would have been Bucyrus Erie U.S.-built lend-lease machines. The cab looks like a British one, they were pretty much identical mechanically. Possibly a 17/19RB?

I hate to say it but that looks like bullet damage on the Longueau stone - guess a few cemeteries got in the way of fighting in the second war?

Andy, how about one called "Daisy Pulls" ? :cool2: If I get banned you're in big trouble......

That is an amazing site, Richard - how on earth do you drive and steer the beast? Had a go at looking up the front diaphragm 200278 and just get bits of sewing machine :-D :confused: