ted angus

Many thanks for sharing these, I believe one was a 20ft platform the other a 33ft. . For the vehicle modellers both versions are currently obtainable the 20ft from Wespe (often on E bay) the 33 ft from MMS. 6x6 could I ask a favour please, at thread 34 you posted extracts from the data book re the Commer and the Crossley tractors do you have the second page of text for them please ?? On Pathe there are 3 items on the Coronation review in 1953 of the RAF, if you go to Pathe home page; click advanced search, on the new screen enter in Film ID 106 then scroll down to Film 106-11 change the viewing setting to 1 frame per second then look at frame 332 where you will see the X ray trailer, at Frame 338 is a fire fighting training classroom trailer. I have refrained from posting due to the huge copyright sticker on each !! regards TED

I think the concrete pillbox or concrete armoured versions were called BISONS ?? TED

Hanno apologies you were correct semi trailer 3 or 5 ton long low loader is correct the nomenclature was revised post WW2 to become low platform Sorry TED

Should have said the nomenclature was Semi -trailer low platform 3 or 5 ton 2 wheel. A semi trailer 5 ton long low loading is the type that normally has removeable rear bogies and is then lowered to the floor to facilitate loading etc. regards TED

The 3 ton was the original, the 5 ton was slightly longer the main recognition point is behind the wheels . The X ray unit had quite a lot removed from behind the wheels. Only Tasker made them during WW2. I believe the current manufacturer is KING ?/ The Bedford and Commer were the original tractors, the Crossley plus a later model Crossley and a later bonneted Commer were introduced to cope with the 5 ton trailer. But it is apparent all tractors were used with both size trailers. This is a great thread thanks for everyone for sharing. regards TED

I have just purchased a copy of Britain at war the colour picture in the magazine is obviously from the same staged photo shoot but is a different frame; the Armadillo is now driving into the head of the bespecaled guy on the right who is now looking down pretending to work. From the colour shot the armadillo appears to be in the SCC2 brown and SCC1a very dark brown scheme but in the MTP 20 pattern. The location is RAF Bottesford. TED ps 4 of the airmen are currently on jankers for not wearing their overalls LOL !!

attached is the 6 ton Taskers RAF trailer Richard mentioned. platform length is 38 ft; it has 2 interchangeable tow bars 27 & 10 ft. track rods can be disconnected to rotate front and rear bogies through 90 degrees. I have another view of the "Crates" under transportation and they are on the 6 ton version, unfortunately I cannot post the piccy due to copyright. However I think beyond doubt the trailer we are trying to identify is not one of the series of Tasker made RAF low flat platforms. regards TED

Having driven Series 1, 2, 2A, 3 90s, 110s plus the later defender 90s & 110s give me my GIPSY anyday, mine has flexitor on the front, a far better ride than any Series Landie, a far better chassis, far better engine and transmission, although the Army merely trialled a few, hundreds of Gipsys were purchased by the Home Office for the AFS, CD and Police Mobile columns. My Gipsy will happily cruise at 50 fully laden towing a 10cwt trailer pump.

Les, attached are some photos I took at Perth earlier this year, Mike, the "super glues" avalible at good model shops come in varying thicknesses, I use one by a firm called JARVIS it has a red lid, its fairly thick and has good gap filling qualties there is one that will fill even larger gaps and it gives you about 15 seconds for positioning before the big grab !! TED

Thanks for the paint info it has turned out very light ?? regards TED

Gents; slight change of tack I am presuming the restoration colour is replicating khaki Green No 3 it looks identical to some authentic unmolested, colour film I have of an RAF Amazon crane taken winter 43/43 However I have just airbrushed a model with the newly released white Ensign Model's KG no 3 which is made with the assistance of Mike Starmer, I also have Mike's excellent book which contains colour chips; neither the paint or chip of KG No 3 are anything like either the finish of the MAT or the crane in my film ?? Does anyone know anything about the colour portrayed in the restoration please Regards TEd

Just a thought looking again at the underbody ram version there are 2 devices each side with like a D shaped handle I wonder if this is a 3 wat tipper version and they are the locking levers for sideways tipping ?? TED

LES very interesting 2 distinct versions, the top pair with the underbody ram also have a one piece complete mudguard attached to the chassis, the version with the Edbro type ram has the rear portion of a mudguard on the tipping body frame , the front portion on the chassis. The bodies are also very different the Edbro type has 2 equal body side boards the other looks unequal, only the underbody has a behind cab spsre wheel carrier. ?? most interesting TED

Mike I second that motion, most reference material gives 59 and most give Wroughton as the pre Scampton storage, With Bicester being the make- over location between Scampton and Hendon. , I did some searches last night The Aussie story seems to have been doing the rounds for several years on numerous forums;; they will do anything to get the lamp swinging and earn a free beer, in fact they are only beaten by the Canadians !! Why did we ever join europe in preference to the Commonwealth ? sorry I digress regards TED

Mike just found some info on the gate guards at Scampton ; Q Queenie serial R5868 went to Scampton during 1959 after the 1955-58 expansion and A15 re-alignment had been completed , she remained there until Nov 1970 dismantled and taken to RAF Bicester where a 2 year refurb undertaken before being put on show at Hendon. Q Queenie was subsequently replaced By NX 611 in 1973 she remained at Scampton until 1988 when she was transported to East Kirkby where she can be seen taxying under her own steam; So by my reckoning, up to the period of Scampton's expansion and the A15 re-alignment there has never been a Gate Guard ?? TED

Mike I have just read this thread with great interest having been at Scampton december 1967 to september 1970. shivers down the spine at the mention of HTP part of the arrival course was to watch one drop of HTP being put onto a pair of battledress trousers whooooosssshhhhh bang gone !! Somewhere I have photos of the Lanc on the gate during my tour there I will have to dig and see if the big beast was still there I think it was. I do not believe the re-alignment of the A15 affect the portion of the road outside the main gate in the area of the Lanc::: as you left the station the guardroom was on your left and the Lanc on your right. I believe the road was then in 67 as it was before re-alignment. The realignment commenced about 100yardss north of the main gate. AS for taking the bomb by road to Shoeburyness ??? Mnnn From Scampton I went to Akrotiri and worked on the maintenance of weapon handling and loading equipment including the gear of the NEAF BD team I used to look after their steam generator with loving care as I knew one day the lad's lives might depend on it. The format for disposing of a HE bomb was to remove the fuses dets pistols etc. Once you were 100% all such items were removed, a trepanning tool was clamped to the bomb and a couple of holes trepanned through the casing , then you connected the steam generator and steamed the explosive out. It could then be safely taken away for disposal either by dumping at sea or by burning. I left Cyprus in sept 1973, The Greek Cypriot community had, for the last 12 months of my tour been tearing itself apart, In July 74 I was back out there with the Victor tankers when the full blown civil war within the Greek Cypriot community kicked off, this culminated in the Turkish invasion. When I left Akrotiri in 73 my Flt commander was Flt Lt Caustick amongst the SNCOs that worked with me were 3 Chief Technician Armourers: Mick Sharpe, Andy Anderson and Fred Knox. They all received awards for bravery in BD work in rendering safe Turkish bombs that had failed to explode they are legends in the RAF BD world. I will try and find the photos . regards TED

Attached are a couple of pre restoration pictures. The lad who rescued it from the scrappy got her running, did some cosmetic work and put her into NFS grey she was in IRR matt green when rescued. He caught the restoration bug in a big way and stripped her down to do a full job. He even took the rings off the pistons !! He then got the chance of an even larger trailer pump, mine got pushed to the back of his shed and forgotten about. He did a fantastic job on his new aquisition showed it for a couple of years then put it up for sale. I got a call from a 3rd party saying a pump was for sale. Paid the guy a visit but said no thanks I want something to restore not just polish; attention then turned to the trailer chassis and pile of boxes at the back of his shed. I'll take it !! The late Bill Ireland ( a top man that many MVT members will remember) lent me a trailer and a couple of days later a deal was done and the attached piccies show most of it in my married quarter back garden. THe engine in "restore 1 " is an SM from a Coventry Climax ex army generator this was to be a donor for spares. The head from the FSM engine can be seen just below the trailer wheel. The block, crank and pistons were safely in my nieghbours garage (only every second MQ had a garage) pending negotiations with I.C. House !! I soon tracked down a WW2 spares manual and operating manual. but there was never a H O workshop book. (I later tracked down an RAF tech manual for it). I tracked down an WD generator manual to obtain TDC BDC etc etc. I then got a call from the Station's housing office asking if it was true that I had a fire engine in my back garden Yes I answered and put the phone down on them . !!! They were all civil,servants and found us W.O.'s difficult creatures to deal with ! Some bits took some real searching, whilst other items were fabricated the manhandling bars were missing , they are spring loaded and they took some fettling until they operated correctly. Turning to the T reflector I made that I saw one on a trailer at a show sketched and measured it in great detail . Made up 2 paxilin jigs one for the plate the other for the T that sits on the back of the plate. After several false starts the plate was made and given a wired edge the hollow T was made the circular cutouts put into the plate. I then got a couple of red oblong reflectors and cut the reflective portions to fit inside the T. then attached the T to the back of the plate. THe silencer was no too brilliant, it gets filled with water from the exhaust ejector primer when you pump from open water, I got her skinned and she has been fine for the last 10 YEARS. Alas back in june at the village gala the pump was pushing exhaust out throuigh the pump !! you guessed the silencer had totally collapsed internally. I believe one from a FWP climax pump(side locker of a Goddess) will fit just need a slight modification to the pipe joint, just waiting now for my source to finish moving house and get it in the post. TED PS once it was restored I couldn't get it out of the garden but I had been nuturing a contact at the housing office they converted a section of my garden fence into a double gate !!

Not quite on the same scale here is my Army Fire Service trailer pump. built nov 1943 , spent its complete life with the Army, by 1945 it was in Germany. Later it returned to Bicester depot and it ended its days in the 1980s at Culttybraggen camp in Perthshire. It was rescued by the previous owner from a scrappies in Perth. When I bought the pile of scrap in 1997 I presumed it was ex NFS, research then revealed its true identity which was a real bonus as I was a member of the Scottish Military Vehicle Group. I still had about 7 years left in the RAF at the time and I lived in MQ therefore a full size vehicle was out of the question at the time. With red, grey and matt drab/green being the common colour for pumps at the shows I chose 1954 as the restroration point knowing the correct colour was gloss deep bronze green ; even RAF fire appliances in Germany at that time were in gloss DBG. Pure coincidence that 6 years later I chose another gloss DBG vehicle for a restoration !! but thats another story Yes that was the kitchen where I rebuilt the engine ! No timing marks on the engine, so a big card protracter was constructed so I was over the moon when after completion she started 2nd turn of the handle. TED

Ah the RED Thing the Mighty Dennis from The Steve Shirley Flying Circus ??? TED

I think this bears out my original theory based on the strap pattern that Snappers ne aquisition was a post WW2 Dutch. TED

P.S. photos not possible at the moment I got a monsoon in my digi and although I purchased a new one last week I had to send it back as the software was corrupt. Sorry

Re the markings:# JSS roman one HFF 1939 are on the rim . THe 60 is on the spider of the lining E58 roman one 1938 on rim 7BMB roman one 1939 on spider of lining TTC roman one 1939 spider of lining. By spider of lining == is the piece that sits above the top of the skull which is secured by a screw or press the dot fitting to the outer is called the spider as it normally has 4 legs !! TED

Hi Phil the following is going to muddy the water: My unmolested National Fire Service example has a date stamp 1938 under the rim. large retaining screw. Nothing else on either the helmet or inner legible. The one ex Nederlands has a small screw, but evidense that it once had a large headed screw; under rim marking JSS followed by a roman one then on a second line HFF 1939 the spider of the inner has 60 which of course is a metric size and suggests these helmets were put together post war in the Nederlands but utilising outers surplus from UK, or recycled from helmets originally issued to Free Dutch Forces. the next one origin unknown is a very dark brown almost black. large screw, E58 followed by Roman one then 1939 under rim spider is marked 7BMB next line a roman one next line 1939. finally tatty dk brown when I got it nothing visible under rim marked 6 and three quarters TTC roman one 1939 on the spider TED

Richard All operational units had active and passive defence teams ; manned by airmen who were not involved in the operational preperation of aircraft and /or weapons. Often teams were multi role ; fire, first aid, Lt Rescue . they wore coloured helmets with relevant markings. The guy in the picture I posted has a mid blue helmet with Rescue. He is wearing his war role team helmet on the fire strike. The helmet you describe may have been from the cold war RAD could be short for Radiac Survey. In the days when you were a junior you only knew what directly involved you if you get my drift. Certainly at Scampton in the late 60s we had teams but I never actually saw any on exercise I always seemed to be buried in some diesel set or in a truck trundling to our dispersed QRA at Thurliegh in Beds. In Germany where I was very involved in the defence support teams we had some blue helmets but they wre incident commanders. But I don't recall any bright blue helmets, all the bright blue I have seen were civ police I wonder if they had a radiac survey task post 1968 ?? or the helmet could have belonged to a member of a Special safety Team that responded to nuclear accidents ?? I have been looking for clues in a book about Civil Defence but it hasn't revealed anything . So my money on the poor sod tasked with carrying our Radiac Survey, GOING BACK to Snapper's original post this CD book mentions that helmets issued to all civilian services were in 1938/9 originally in a light grey green !!! in the light of lessons learned during early ARP type exercises the HO decided to embark on coloured helmets and markings to replace armbands So snappers helmet could be from some CD org and has been modified with a different strap ?/ TED

Some 10 years ago many of the stalls at shows were selling TOMMIE style helmets with canvas or leather straps that fastened with clips. No date just a short serial type number. Some had a leather neck veil. They were post WW2 Nederlands forces. The leather veiled ones were for RNAF firemen. I have one in my collection. I feel the colour of a helmet can easily mislead you when trying to find its origin history previous use. I joined the RAF in 64 , until 1972 I was only ever issued with a Tommie pattern, all WW2 dated; at each camp you haned in your helmet and got issued with a new one they were all with the horrible black liner which if you were unlucky stuck to your head. Colours were assorted, greys black, greens, browns and of course traces of Light Stone. Some that had been used by RAF firemen were red. they were tatty and most were down to bare steel all round the rim. In those days we didn't have matt green paint that came along in 1974. The norm was to scrounge some paint stripper from the paint shop, some red oxide primer and matt black blackboard paint. remove the liner , strip the paint, prime with red oxide, then mix a small amount of black to some red oxide for the finish. Most helmets seemed to have a dark brown as the original colour; traces of which were normally found inside around the area of the liner retainer fastening. Prior to Fire Service nationalisation in aug 1941 the AFS helmets were to be painted Dk Admiralty grey BS 381c tint 32 (later 632). once hostilities commenced full time firemen were required to don steel helmets in lieu of their cork/leather ones and these were normally glossy black or grey. On nationalisation the colour of Fire Service helmets was KHAKI for firemen and junior officer ranks, senior officers helmets were painted Aluminium. This information is taken from my 1942 copy of the NFS drill book (manual of firemanship). I have an unmolested NFS helmet and the colour is almost identical to SCC2 from the Standard Cam Colours of BS 987c. SCC 2 was commonly and incorrectly referred to as DK Earth. The first TURTLE helmet I was issued with was in the summer of 1972 in Cyprus. The internal security situation was deteriorating, guard stints increased and we all got a new helmet !! those for our flight arrived on a fork lift in a big wooden crate Property of the Home Office War Reserve stencilled all over the crate. Inside dozens of turtles, smooth finish bright blue POLICE in white on the front. Immaculate except one thing the black liners had started to melt and as they were unpacked part of your liner was left on the top of the helmet it had been sitting on. WE got some old sheets from the bedding store tore them into strips and using insulation tape stuck the sheet strips onto the black liners. My next helmet was issued in the UK in early 1974 another Turtle rough finish in its original colour finished in a satin dark brown , this one had the new type inner reddy brown internal spider made from a pressed board material ; a sponge type head band which had a green tubular cloth cover and an elasticated chin strap. I cherish that helmet it saved my swede on several occassions over the years. Then of course we got the Kevlar job which squashed the head and the rest is history. attached I am the handsome Sgt modelling the chick turtle that saved my swede more than once! P>S> ROB have you built your WEETON YET ??? TED