gritineye

Well I know it ain't got a Meadows Petrol in it so it must be a Fowler! With a bridge plate too.

When the family firm that owned the DUKWs at Eastbourne was sold, with it went an as released spare DUKW, in the shed for 30 yrs. My Mate Gearge who worked for them had a hell of a job persuading the new owner not to rip out all the original fittings and alter it for use on the beach! The owner was persuaded to sell it and buy a rougher one, a wise move financially too I should think.

That is what it looks like, the rear worm drive is carried over from the Pioneer of course.

:tup:: Good one Clive, made us grin a few times!

we don't know how big they are or if they are even weapons do we? Maybe for cleaning earwax out :shake::shake::shake:

Rear diff is overhead worm drive so cant be reversed. The front diff is the same as Constructor, and I understand it, can be put in either way up, being just the center part of the axle and spiral bevel geared, this reverses the way it turns to drive forward, by putting the crown wheel the other side of the pinion. I think the oil catchers and a couple of minor things are altered, like the drain plug! Gearing can be altered by using different epicyclics (each side of the diff) for different applications.

Yes the last was an amazing insight on Naval Warfare, I was intrigued by this bit "The coal from the collier for the 'Bristol' was far too hot for her to put in her bunkers, so she was delayed." Any ideas?

How about boarding party weapons, or are those flint spikes? in which case were they issued to Celtic tribes in case the Romans brought some of Hannibals elephants over here? Were they some kind of dry land keel hauling device, like a loofah with attitude?

One for CW, after this bit; Editor's note: Lt-Cdr McEwan was a pioneer airship pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service during the First World War He entered the Royal Navy as a Public Schools entry from Shrewsbury in 1913, aged 19. After serving as a Midshipman in HMS Invincible at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December 1914, he was appointed to theRoyal Naval Air Service for duties with lighter-than-air craft. He served as an airship pilot from 1915 to 1919, attaining the temporary ranks of Flight-Lieutenant and Captain, Royal Air Force, in addition to his substantive rank as a Lieutenant, Royal Navy . He set an airship endurance record of 25 hours 22 minutes on 26/27 June 1917 from Pulham Airship Station in a North Sea class airship. He also flew a Sea Scout airship to a record height of 10 300 feet from Polegate Airship Station. This record stood even after the War. His total of airship hours flown was one of the highest, being about 2400 hours. here; http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol042am.html

And how about the first paragraph after in Parliament, in this little gem :yay: http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1920/1920%20-%200846.html

CW, I gotta get out more, I'm going to have a go at fitting a Jake brake on Forceful in the morning :thumbsup:

HMVF has done this to me, I can't stop now I've got the bug!

found this just now, http://www.gautier.me.uk/phpGedView/imageview.php?filename=media%2FRNAS%20Eastbourne.JPG

Its been slow all day today, I've been looking in between other stuff, I know it's not my connection

I think they hung one each behind a pair of poor old horses rumps so they would pull the guns through the deep mud faster, like bouncy spurs :-( :cry:

Rent a forest on maneuvers, almost invisible from the air

Found this great painting and article. http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1960/1960%20-%200795.html WW1 blimps.pdf

A friend of mine who farms a few miles from Polegate, he mentioned a curious old tin shed that is on his land, here are some photos of it, the construction of the frame is very heavy and unusual for a mere shed, although there is not much left now. It turns out that this shed came from the WW1 Royal Naval Airship Station at Polegate. Not a lot is left to see in the area now and I don't think anyone knows of this sheds history apart from the farmers family. 25 July 2007 Community news from Willingdon, Wannock and Jevington. AIRSHIP STATION – A plaque to commemorate Polegate Royal Naval Airship Station is to be unveiled at 12noon on Friday July 27 at Willingdon Library in Coppice Avenue. Chairman of Willingdon and Jevington Parish Council John Pritchett will be performing the ceremony and residents are very welcome to attend. The airship station, which stood on 142 acres of meadowland in the parish of Willingdon from July 1915 to April 1919, stretched from the British Queen along the A2270 to Polegate (then Willingdon) Mill and west to Wannock and the South Downs. The station was named 'Polegate' in accordance with service practice, as that was the nearest railway station. It was commissioned on July 6 1915. Polegate Airship Station was one of 11 stations around the coast carrying out air patrols against German U Boats, and was the most active. The patrol area in 1918 was 4,500 square miles stretching from Dungeness to Portland Bill. Eight thousand, one hundred and forty hours were flown that year. At that time the station's complement was 37 officers and 264 men. During the time the station was open, 13 officers and other ranks were decorated for bravery and service, and 13 mentioned in dispatches. Four officers and 10 other ranks died on active service. On December 20 1917, an unfortunate accident at Hill Farm, Willingdon, occurred when two airships collided, killing one of the pilots, Flight Sub Lieutenant R Swallow. He is buried in Ocklynge Cemetery. The station closed in April 1919 following the end of the war, and since then the land has been fully developed. The original idea of having a plaque to commemorate the Airship Station was that of Andy Watkins in January 2006, when, as a district and parish councillor, he set the wheels in motion. He said at the time, "This airship station is part of our heritage. I am sure that like me, other long time residents of Willingdon will remember the remaining concrete blocks being blown up when parts of Lower Willingdon were developed. Also, when in 1995 the former motor transport workshop, which became the Birds Engineering site, the last reminder of the station, was demolished. Behind that building there had been another former hut used as a library until the present library was built." http://www.eastbourneherald.co.uk/willingdon/Willingdon-Wannock-and-Jevington-.3057653.jp

I love other peoples restoration blogs Simon, it's almost like doing it myself, but at home in the warm! :-D keep it coming.

Hi Joris, I first used that name on an off road motor sport forum as I always seemed to have grit in my eyes then, restoring a Scammell has had the same result a lot of the time!

Here's another one from the same fleet as post #96, looks freshly painted and unregistered.

Here is a slightly longer version of the video that has been lost with HMVFTV. Something went wrong...

I forgot you didn't have an engine or gearbox either!! :-D

This was the bit that was the most interesting, did they turn the right way? Did you check? Others have fitted different gearboxes and had a big surprise when they had 6 reverses and 1 forward gear!

I think having the front axle engaged helped in my case and of course the flat ground, the worst case would have been a jack knife, the rubber block tracks gave the Cent extra grip, metal ones may have slipped more easily. Many hours of my life have been spent getting sideways off road so my opposite lock reaction was completely instinctive, which also helped. All very entertaining for the few in the crowd who even noticed! However this does show the risks involved when playing with big kit, I won't be doing that again :sweat: An un-ballasted DT may well have had the same problem using a Holebone, does the DT in the pics look ballasted? Does anyone know?.