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Tomo.T

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Posts posted by Tomo.T

  1. Without wishing to steal any thunder from the excellent Gosling restoration. I can reveal that John Marshall's 1915 'J' type Thornycroft 2282 is now running and driving, and appeared at the recent Armed Forces Day event at Scarborough yesterday. The M4 engine is a composite of two originals and the restoration includes various parts that have been acquired by John over several years, or made from scratch as required.

     

    The engine starts and runs very nicely which is going to be useful as the lorry has been tasked with an important mission in Ypres in September this year. A new peal of bells has been cast by John Taylor & Co. of Loughborough for the St. Georges Chapel, Ypres and it is hoped to deliver the bells in style on the back of the Thornycroft.

     

    St. Georges Chapel was built at the end of the Great War as a memorial to the many troops killed in the area. It has full Church of England status but has never had a peal of bells until now. It is anticipated that these bells will be in place and rung to mark the centenary next year.

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  2. Excellent progress Team Gosling ! Radiator core looks the business. Remember to etch prime the ally and brass bits before the zinc primer goes on, to ensure good adhesion. I'm sure you knew that, just checking ! ;)

     

    Can't wait to see the finished item.

     

    Tomo

  3. A Chieftain has a centrifugal clutch and a seperate gearbox that uses epicyclic gear trains and hydraulicly operated clutches / brake bands to engage each gear. The centrifugal clutch allows you to start off and then gearchanges are done entirely by manual command, immediately and under full power. If you try to move off against an impossible load, you melt the centrifugal clutch or spin the tracks. As you can imagine, clutches do not last for ever under normal use but actually work remarkably well and very smoothly.

     

    David

     

    In this case, I happen to know that the driver of the tank engaged 'emergency forward gear' which was a manual override of the system on a Chieftain. This caused the McLaren engine to rear up and as the split pin was missing from the perch swivel the front axle fell out.

     

    Unfortunately the tank gearbox was completely 'mullered' in the incident and the driver was charged with wilful destruction of army equipment.

     

    That is what happened.

    Tomo

  4. Steve, that explains it, thanks. The lamp brackets on the Hampshire J type do resemble the ones on a post war Thornycroft in the same collection ! They are taller and less sturdy than the military type(s) which were obviously intended to keep the lamps tucked down out of harms way.

     

    Doug, This is clearly a can of worms ! I am all for restorers choice !

     

    Regards,

    Tomo

  5. Hi Tim,

     

    Good to meet up the other night. Is it possible that Thornycroft had more than one type of lamp bracket for the J type? I have seen a variation where the bracket is fixed to the chassis by two bolts arranged vertically. This version had the headlamps sitting in a yoke about level with the radiator brush bar. I would have posted a picture but had to give up due to incompetence.

     

    Regards,

    Tomo

     

    I may have answered my own question. The J type I was looking at was the Hampshire Museum one. I suspect it may be sporting civilian lamp brackets fitted when it returned after the war ?

  6. Hi Tim,

     

    Good to meet up the other night. Is it possible that Thornycroft had more than one type of lamp bracket for the J type? I have seen a variation where the bracket is fixed to the chassis by two bolts arranged vertically. This version had the headlamps sitting in a yoke about level with the radiator brush bar. I would have posted a picture but had to give up due to incompetence.

     

    Regards,

    Tomo

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