6 X 6

I'm sure you're right. It's hard to think of any other trailer of this length that would be in a convoy of this kind. Would it be fair to say that this convoy is a complete mobile airfield on the move ? If not, what other vehicles would one expect to be present.

Richard, do you agree with me about the last two ?

James, the penultimate vehicle in the convoy is a Bedford OX and the last looks like it may be another AEC Fueler.

Blimey younggun, I sincerely hope you, and your mates, don't ever get impatient hooting from other lorry drivers. I'm sure we all have the greatest respect for the difficult job you do. You'll know it's me because I always slow right down when I pass so that I can get a real good look at your rig. (and probably cause even more hooting from cars)

But did you manage to get the Christmas tree ?

The two photographs of YFO 311 below were taken about 10 years ago outside Laurence Davison's yard in Hexham, Northumberland.

Thank you very much. That's what I call impressive !

Priceless 'photos and welcome to the forum. There are people on this forum who are so knowledgeable they will not only tell what make and type these vehicles are but also what the air pressure in the tyres was when the photographs were taken. I look forward to seeing these 'photos posted on the forum. Cheers.

Andy, these aircraft recovery photographs are really wonderful. As you may know, I'm very partial to the 'Queen Mary' trailer and seeing these pictures has been a real treat for me. Many thanks for sticking them on here. Cheers.

Hey Ivor, I don't know about early retirement. Personally, I never really got started with a career as my "hobbies" haven't ever left me with much spare time for a job.

Very nice too. More 'photos please when you get the chance. I would say that, judging from your username, you should feel very much at home here.

Hey Martin, Looking forward to seeing a few 'photos of your vehicles when you have the time. Cheers.

Great pictures and a really nice Explorer younggun. And, now I know what you look like, I'll give you a hoot and a wave if I see you on the Mway with any abnormal loads.

A bit more about the "twin cabbed" Militant featured in the recent caption competition on "Other Chatter". I was traveling back to Bristol by train from Great Yarmouth where I'd been viewing a lorry I was thinking about buying when I glimpsed part of the cab of a Militant parked behind a warehouse. I only just resisted the urge to pull the emergency cord and got off a the next station, Witham, finding my way back to the warehouse by taxi. This is what I found. A coal merchant with a large fleet of delivery lorries had bought this gun tractor directly from Ruddington with the intention of converting it into a recovery truck. This bloke had got as far as removing the body when he died and the body (NOT his body ! the lorry's body ! please pay attention.) had been put into storage. The lorry had never been registered. I decided to buy it on the spot but didn't view the body, which was about 15 miles away, before buying in case it was in such poor condition it would make me depressed. Retrieving the body from where it had been stored for 10 years in an outbuilding and reuniting it with the lorry was quite an operation but the good news was that the body was in excellent original condition. In fact, mechanically the whole lorry was very good indeed, only the cab needed serious work because of corrosion. The spare cab being of the later type was of limited use because there's so much difference between this sort and the earlier one's fitted to gun tractors. In Bristol after coming down from Essex by low loader. In my Bristol lorry den. Before. After restoring the rusted frame the cab was completely reskinned with new galvanized panels.

Roland, thank you for such an interesting reply. The Militant is a real favourite of mine and a wonderful lorry out on the road. Let me know if you ever have problems finding spares. Looking forward to seeing a few 'photos of this A.E.C. on the Militant thread.

1955 petrol engined Constructor UVS 149, ex Barry Overton, ex Paul Rhodes, having it's body lifted off prior to restoration work. In the rear body space on the other Constructor (YFO 311 or YVS 865) is a spare Meadows engine that came with UVS and has just been transshipped from UVS. These 'photos were taken about four years ago.

Fair enough, just a thought. Thanks for your replies.

Just a thought. I know some HMV owners also collect, or build, scale models of historic military vehicles and I suspect that more than a few of the non-members who view this forum are scale modellers so what about a sub-forum on here dedicated to scale models of HMV's ? I don't think there would be any chance of them taking over if they were fenced off in their own department and, there are in any case, big scale modeling forums elsewhere on the web.

My favourite bumper sticker....also can be seen in Les's wondrous DT book.

The drive through, pick your own, Christmas tree scheme was not a complete success.

Placing pig manure filled pits around each tree certainly reduced the number that were stolen that year.

MK 1 6 X 4 Parts list on eBay. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=380081425705&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:GB:1123

But not too late to be the winner !!! Well done Vets. This truck can be driven either forwards or backwards.

It's got me stumped as well.