Smithy

Well the time of year arrived once again and it was time to head off to Dorset for what has now become the annual pilgrimage. Unfortunately this year I could only make it down for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday and not the usual nine days meaning I had to try and cram everything in that I could.

It had obviously been very wet as arriving late on Thursday evening there was still lots of muddy areas around the site. But luckily after only a couple of showers on the Friday the rest of the weekend was pretty much perfect with Sunday being a great day weather-wise.

As usual there was all the different array of vehicles and displays on offer with a few new ones thrown in for good measure.

Here are the first few pictures, will post more up tomorrow evening when I've got a bit more time.

I will start with some of the bigger stuff that was on display in the military area, with a couple of them being new ones to me.

In a very simple word..... No.

Dorset this year has been rather expensive to say the least.

We lost hydraulic pressure to the steering. You may have noticed a wet line along the road for half a mile or so before the pull-in. Not sure what’s up yet but it must be quite major to lose around two gallons in such a short distance. Fortunately the brakes were still working OK but they would have failed sometime soon as they use the same oil and pump. The only company that could come out were Wessex Recovery. Now £1180.00 down Not happy. Arrived home just after 5 this morning, woke the neighbours up off-loading with the clanking of chains, so now they are not happy.....

Oh right sorry to hear that, with it being dark I didn't see you until late but I did notice something dripping from towards the rear. I thought at the time that perhaps it was a bit too close to the site to be stoping for the night.

Hope that you can get everything sorted out. I never managed to get a picture of it in the end as there was always somebody around it and was only in attendance for a couple of days.

My mate Carl is going with his two kids and "my" Saladin !!!!!!!

I'm going but will be working..... Something not quite right me thinks?

Just got in from a three hour journey back from Dorset. On the way I passed the Saladin in a pull-in between Tidworth and Marlborough, hope everything was ok??

Will write a report tomorrow evening and post up some pictures but it is straight back to work for me now!!!

Here is one in Gloucestershire.

http://ccmv.fotopic.net/p60636563.html

This might not be the forum for this but......Kemble is far closer to where I live (Kidderminster - when I am home that is), and on the sight of it, lots to offer. I attended the show 2004, 2005 and 2006 and for me, the biggest issue was the climb in an already under-powered truck from the motorway to the higher ground, in addition to the windy and (unfortunately) rainy weather. Watching the rabbits hop past me on that hill was also soul destroying !

Ahhh you mean Birdlip Hill just after you come off the M5, Steve. We go up it every year in the Gipsy with a caravan behind on the way to Dorset. Lovely on a nice sunny clear day, but boy when it's not very nice weather it ain't the best place to be!!! :-D It is one hell of a hill though!!!

Hope to see a few of you at Dorset this weekend. Cheers. Daz

Going to be a bit of a wet one by the look of it this year, tomorrow is going to be really bad according to the forecast. That isn't going to stop me going but not until Thursday evening until Sunday evening.

See you all their.

From memory there is at least two big sheds full to bursting with different fire related vehicles in them. While there were also vehicles just sitting around outside.

This was around six-seven years ago though so I can't comment on what it is like now, but looking at the photo's it doesn't look as if much has changed!!!

I took these three years ago now at a show somewhere in Leicestershire, can't remember where about's it was!!

Just found them when I was looking through the old PC.

Any photo's anyone?

Sorry to bring up an old thread but have been sorting through some pictures on the old PC and found these out.

These were taken about three/four years ago while about six months ago there was a story in the local rag, The Express and Star, about this vehicle heping to move a canal boat back into the marina.

Thanks Runflat for the link. Just a shame it isn't updated a bit more often, although they have been talking about this musuem for ten years now and still no further forward.

Smithy,

 

See http://airborne-herdenkingen.nl/en/ for an up-to-date programme.

 

HTH,

Hanno

Thanks for the updates Hanno and also others.

At the time when I started the thread I was in a different job to the one I'm in now, so it wouldn't be possible to go anyway as booking time off is hard.

Also it was very soon after returning from Normandy and I really was looking at perhaps doing something similar for Market Garden but as time went on it became less of an opportunity.

I'm going down this Saturday, but I don't have anything big enough for your playpen

I don't know, there have been cyclists in the playpen over the years :-D

Hi guys,

Thought you would like to know about a couple of Austin 'K's needing your help. I am a member of the HCVS and two have appeared for sale in poor condition in their magazine this month, but possibly only useful for spares. One is a sister of the K4 in post113 except it is GXN202; the other is more military as it is a Sun-bodied K6 Airfield crash tender HXA 866 from 1947.

Both have been advertised by a Mr Cole from Fireworld, who is thinnning a collection. He can be contacted at admin@fireworld.org.uk or send me a pm for his phone number.Location is Weedon, Northampton, inspection is by appointment only. Save them before they go , even if it is only for spares. Anybody doing so, put a post up for my interest .Thanks.

Mike.

There is plenty more from "Fireworld" that could do with saving as well!!! At least he is finally seeing sense and letting a few of them go, albeit it could be too late for some of them.

I shall be there, but not until next Thursday evening . Stopping until the Sunday as that was all I could book off work unlike the usual week I have down Dorset.

Took these a couple of weeks ago at the Evesham Vintage Steam Rally.

In the Normandy coast episode Dick mentioned that the issue on that beach was the presence of peat just below the sandy top layer. We probably all know about the problem of blue clay which was overcome by using Bobbin AVRE's, rolling out a canvas carpet, but I have not seen any reference to peat patches in the books which I have read. In those books I have come across the Roly Poly AVRE which appears to have used small diameter trees linked with wire to form a log carpet.

 

Would this be used to provide the runway over the peat?

I was thinking the same. It certainly was interesting to see how by going down less then a foot Peat suddenly appeared as the foundation of the beach!!!

There is certainly something different that turns up at nearly every rally. Thanks for posting.

Nice pictures, thanks for posting. It does seem that there wasn't many people around at the show though considering the good weather we had at the weekend?

Right here is the last batch of photo's, including a stretched Jeep and some Russian and German hardware.

Thanks for posting Smithy my favourite place,wish i lived nearer.hope clive was behaving his self bet he brought that old L/rover he makes out is a Wolf :-D

No probs CW. Yes you guessed right, he was in the Wolf. I think that both Paul and Clive have taken a special picture for you, but that's all I can say :-D

Now for some bigger ones. Will post the rest up in the morning.

Today I visited the Evesham Steam Show and what a great day it has been, both weather wise and also by what was on offer at the show. Firstly I must say it was nice to meet both Paul (Papav66) and Clive (fv1609) and I talked at length to both.

I had always planned on going to the show and it was certainly a double bonus when I walked in and found out that the showground is actually located on the same field as Ashdown Camp in Evesham. This being my first visit to the camp I was really impressed with it as there is certainly some different stuff on offer.

I would say there were about 35-40 military vehicles in attendance with a couple more 'hiding' up the top end of the field. A good show, despite the very boggy field in places and certainly one to visit again in the future.

Right then onto the pictures and we shall start with some of the smaller stuff.

I couldn't attend this year (due to being at Edgbaston watching the 3rd Test :-D) but my dad went down and had a really good day.

It is traditionally a fire engine related show, being organised by the people from the local station in Odiham. There is always an interesting array of vehicles on show.

When I have been before it has only ever had a small military presence, however it seems to have grown recently and it looked as if there were a number there on Sunday.

There are some different ones that I haven't seen before.

Cheers Sirhc and Nick. Isn't it great how these massive structures are still standing and actually move with the sea.

Is it a repeat then? As I thought the ones where they went to France were new?

It was in Ireland tonight but only caught the last 20 minutes of it.