LarryH57

I went to photo mine on my LW but the carb in your photo doesn't look like a standard Zenith like mine, so what is it? Hopefully someone with the same carb can help you out

When doing the lighting for a military band events on Horse Guards Parade in the 1980's we mounted our carbon arc searchlights on scaffold towers on three sides of the square in advance and then turn up for each perforance over a few nights. It was great fun having such a good view and seeing the Blues & Royals & Guards in action often in the presence of the Queen. To incident spring to mind - The Lister generators were parked round the corner to keep the noise away from the crowd during the event. One night after going home we left one of the Lister Generators running and when one of the Squadron returned the next day it was still running! Once when I was working in Central London , I said to the lads I'll meet you up at Horse Guards rather than go all the way out to W3 and back. So I went to HG with my kit in my ruck sack and sat down on a Lister Generator right next to the rear of 10 Downing St. As I was in civys at the time a Policeman asked me what I was doing. I told him I was with 873 Mvt Light Sqn RE but he didn't like me being there so told me to move on. So I walked over to the gents toilet in St James and changed in to my uniform and then walked back to the Listers and started removing the covers and getting them ready, without interference, while the same Policeman looked on!

WOA2 you are right! Until 1977, 873 Movement Light Sqn RE (V) had been equipped with pre-war 90 inch Carbon Arc Searchlights, as used in the Blitz, which it had used since its formation in c.1947! The old Carbon Arc Searchlights were mostly dated from 1938 and each was mounted on the back of a Bedford RL towing a pre-war 15 KVA Lister Generator trailer. As you can imagine these ‘Searchlight portee and trailer’ combinations were very unwieldy and difficult to manoeuvre in to position at night. So during 1978 the unit re-equipped with new AN/TVS-3 30-inch Xenon Searchlights imported from the USA. The Xenons wererated at 800 Million Candle Power; more than double the power of the Carbon Arcs. (After the Xenons arrived the old Searchlights were retained by ‘873’ for ceremonial duties including lighting up events at Wembley Stadium, Horse Guards Parade and Buckingham Palace till about 1985?)

Later! 49 HG 92 Ex-Searchlight Operator RE (retired) (B2 Trade)

Go on have a guess when this type of pre-war searchlight stopped being used on active duty by the British Army?

Does the Frost stuff fill holes? I have a spare fuel tank I am working on and it has a very small hole in the front face - about the size of the tip of a pencil. The hole is in a place that I cannot reach with my arm in the tank.

17 Sqn was in the Far East & Japan in 1945-46, so I wonder if your BSA was used by the unit at this time. Incidentally your when I first saw your photo I thought it was some kind of tattoo on some guys beer gut!

The springs on a Series 3 Land Rover are handed; the idea being to compensate for the weight of the driver. So have you put each set on the wrong side?

Actually most people in my street think that my MV runs on special fuel rather than unleaded, which helps people leave it alone. Perhaps you could stop your Jerrycan being nicked, when its on your vehicle, by marking it up with a tag to say 'Combat Gas' or 'low octane MV use only' which would make some opportunist theft think twice.

I have just been reading in 'Windscreen' about a military vehicle auction that occured last August at the Grampian MV tattoo. While I am pleased that the vehicles have gone to new homes I am shocked that someone could own so many vehicles and yet leave them out in the open for so long! One vehicle listed as an 'aero screen Morris PU' in the magazine is a Morris CS8 4x2 Air Compressor and as it has the 51st Highland Div sign showing on the front mudguard, it may well be the same CS8 I read of some years ago in an early copy of Classic Miliatry Vehicle that had been used by a Scottish builder up to the 1980s and that it had been with the Royal Engineers of the 51st Highland Div at El Alamain and that the then current owner had been in contact with one of the veterans who drove it at the time. Let's hope the current owner restores it to its former glory as if I am correct, it really is a HISTORIC military vehicle.

Sorry to say I preferred the green colour to the original HMVF! Blue & grey makes me ill! I need my fix of green on a daily basis!