N.O.S.

Got a good solution to that Simon, - some of my enthusiasm has rubbed off and she's going to fly too!! :-D Have to agree with you on "do it sooner than later" - no doubt insurance / aviation regulations will eventually ground these aircraft before they beome too tired to fly any more :-( Tony

Roland - see you at the Hi/Lo and Splitter Group socials maybe? We meet in HMVF Clubhouse bar second Wednesday each month and play tunes on old crash boxes :thumbsup:

10/10, 6x6. The colour photo of the body seems to show RAF blue/grey overpainted with green, so this truck must be one of those transferred to army stock. Very atmospheric views of the two 30T tractors, I wonder what has become of these 3 girls some 8 years on?

Nice pics, Les. Just think of the huge volume of vehicles to have passed through Vass's yard. There was a photo in the office of a whole train load of Humbers (I think) heading off abroad somewhere. Anyone remember Mr. Chistianson? And is the old Coleman yard crane still around?

Caterpillar, Cat? I think you'll find Gardner were the best diesel engines ever made.

OK here too. So what was it, battery or bad earth? :whistle:

Yes, snail speed too. My "EZ" Firewall is working overtime tonight, so I suspect the great HMVF forum might have a bug :shake:. "EZ" doesn't even allow animated smilies, so is especially sensitive at the best of times. Try the wiring under the dash first, Joris - I wonder if Jack has been practising on the forum circuits before tackling the jimmy :-D

I did in fact email the guy who organises flights with Liberty Belle in the States just before the trip, but have had no reply. Expect he was on holiday "somewhere in England". Oh well, some of us will just have to slum it in 'Nine-0-Nine'. And please don't rub it more - we know you've experienced that one too :-D mutter mutter mutter mutter envy but big thanks for the story and pics anyway Clive

They're not bad for whisky and fresh fish too, according to my dad :-D Yah boo humbug - enjoyed my first ever ride in a (really nice) Champ:tup::

There is a good decription on the Morris Lubnricants website concerning use of modern vs. straight oils in old engines - worth repeating here: A modern (multigrade) oil is designed to pick up all particles and carry them straight to the FULL FLOW filter which then traps them, as all oil has to pass through the filter. The older spec (straight) oils are designed to drop all larger particles into the sump where they will remain to be drained atoilchange, the finer particles are carried by the oil around the engine and gradually removed by the BYPASS, or LEAK-OFF filter which only filters a proportion of the oil being circulated at any time. Thus the main criteria for deciding which oil to use is the method of filration. So can we assume that any straight 30 oil will do the job in the Albion engine?

I think you might have just solved an annoying problem with a certain RAF Constructor - thanks 6x6 !!

It ain't over 'till it's over.......... Now then you lot, concerning RAF Constructors: 1) The red one which Paul rolled was Crouch's orange one, which before that was the James Street Motors orange recovery truck (I posted a pic a long while back of it with a radiator fan driven alternator as battery charger) 2) Paul got the green one from ?? and found part of an old work sheet in the cab with the reg no. 21BT41, so assumed quite reasonably that this matched the truck's i.d.. 3) The grey one which Steve acquired - was this not the one from Gun Hill Garage/scrap yard near Colchester? It was grey and had "PSA" (Property or Public Services Agency - a govt department) on the cab door. The body was in the yard I was told, but Steve possibly did not realise at the time. Probably gone by now. I believe he bought it originall for the axles to get the ex. Geoff Rhodes one going again. 4) The red/grey one in Anglesssey was operated by TRS of Porth, north Wales before being bought by a farmer from the island. It has Explorer lockers grafted into the rear of the body. I believe it is still on the island. 5) Cyprus - can anyone say for sure that one has been repatriated from there? There was one on an old isolated and inaccessible airbase in the northern (?) part of the island. There was also one (shown in the photo) used by a transport company. Or were these one and the same?? There is also a civilian Constructor ballast tractor on the island, used with a trailer for carrying electrical transformers about, normally parked up in a layby and looking abandoned, but not! 6) There were 2 x 30T tractors and an RAF one in an old yard, completely surrounded by new housing, in the town of Soest in central Holland. They would have been only removable by (exceedingly) large crane or by dismantling. These were described with really nice photographs in an edition of the now defunct MV Magazine - an article by Nick Bullock - I have a poor photocopy but do not have the date of the magazine, can anyone help and scan pics please? I know someone who went to look at them but decided against, due to difficulty of removal (if anyone could have saved them, he would have!!) 7) The RAF Constructors were transferred to Army service after the RAF airfield construction regiments became part of the Engineer regiments. I have a list of 8 trucks with the new Army number, and (except for 3 case) the old RAF number, also the transfer date and disposal date. The W+P one (21BT41) unfortunately is one which does not have the RAF number (we have been trying to get evidence of both chassis and RAF number in order to establish if the chassis numbers and RAF numbers were consecutive). The reason only 8 trucks were transferred was probably due to the others being elsewhere in the world (e.g. the cyprus pair), these ones were never taken into Army service. 8) So there could be 20 - 8 = 12 RAF trucks unaccounted for so far. If we take the 2 on Cyprus (or maybe only 1 if the one photographed had in fact come from the airbase??), and the 1 in Soest, this leaves 9 or 10 still to be located. And this is assuming that all those known to exist were ex Army ones.... 9) I have a photo of 60AN45 at an RAF open day 'somehere'. This number is not on the transfer list, so might be 21BT41. Only clue in photo is a sign on a shed behind truck "Exhibition of 16 MU Activities" BE CAREFUL WHO YOU CALL AN ANORAK!

No pics of the dead horse then? Might not be there much longer - Grasshopper was eying it up for a meal to feed their hungry lot one night....

Same here - :argh::argh::rofl:

)kraz

Thanks Marty. And here is an emaciated Vickers Vigor seen today at Eye airfield in Suffolk. I cannot say if this was an ex army one or not, but I reckon the Army had most of them (?) so it probably is. There was another one here until about 9 months ago - I saw it being loaded onto a lorry, perhaps for spares as it was quite rough? Also here for many years was a complete dumper trailer on tracks (forget the name - Airey or something?) which I believe was wartime. It seems to have disappeared now.

diazapan (sorry, Rosie, that just slipped out! How's the neck doing?)

Back to the story, how long was the flight from Parham to Duxford Clive? (OK, just re-read post #1 - the info was there all the time) And more pictures please - the next best thing to being there!

The 'LaFrance' Ward, where else? :n00b:

Thanks for that, I've checked myself into a Clinic all day Thursday, and it looks like I'll be kept in overnight for further treatment Friday :-D

50 x VW 'Iltii' for sale, see www.commerce-trucks.nl Possibly a good contact for spares too?

Some things defy explanation, but no matter, they don't need one. You just know. These are the things we cannot share with each other. :thanx:

Yes Andy, except the Milweb one has a diesel under the bonnet, mine has a diesel on the floor in front of the front bumper :sweat:

Totally lost for words Sure you deserved it! Thanks for posting

In other words, a Tilley is pressurised, a Huricane is wick type. I think you're right, thanks. I ought to know, but I've got a lamp out somewhere up top.