Jack Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 (edited) Off down to Paignton at the weekend - Churston Steam Railway in fact. Jim and the Allied Forces crew were invited down with the Sherman, DT and the first debut of Jims Mack NO2 - it is massive. Jess and I booked into a hotel in Paignton late on Saturday and then set out to find the railway station. After walking for around 10 miles - in the wrong direction - we were told actually it was the other side of town - So we walked about i million miles back in the other direction. We had a deadline to meet as Jim and everyone else was waiting for us to take the convoy down to Slapton Sands. At this point I called Jim to let him know we were close to station - his reply was ' I doubt it - its five miles out of town!' DOH. Once more my Honda 1.4 automatic (with CD player) saved the day :shocked: So we got to the OTHER station and jumped in the back of the Dodge and the convoy made its way down to Slapton to see the memorial tank. Have been wanting to go there for many years and glad to finally get there to see it. Some of the kids onboard the convoy decided they wanted to play skimmers in the sea..... On the way back we stopped off at Blaclpool sands were the DUKW crews trained. As true to form - if you ever hang out with the Allied Forces team then there is always an adventure involved somewhere. So Sunday brought steam trains rides which seemed to go all across Devon. Jim bought a pair of dated tankers binos for around £4. Git. At 17:30 we took the convoy into Brixham down to the harbour - headed up by the Sherman. Jess went up in the turrent and I went in the Martins Mans truck as we weren't allowed passengers on the out side of the tank (it wasn't Dorset). As always Jim is a great crowd pleaser with his tank and knows how to 'work' the crowd. It was an awesome sight seeing the convoy going through the tight streets of Brixham and the sound bouncing off the wall was amazing. People were falling over themselves to get out of the pubs and shops to see what on earth was going and it brought the town to a stand still. No one knew we were coming and it always has a massive impact on people. And here are some pictures taken with my iPhone! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Edited May 31, 2011 by Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Posted May 31, 2011 Author Share Posted May 31, 2011 Small clip here on YouTube - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Clark Posted May 31, 2011 Share Posted May 31, 2011 Thanks Jack for the photos. To give you all some idea of the logistics of taking the Sherman with the Diamond T and Rogers trailer, the distance from our workshops to Churston is 138 miles. We cannot use the motorways so we had to use A roads 9.30 pm Thursday 26th May we left the workshops and arrived at Churston 7.30am Friday the DT and the Mack both ran well , as it was the first run for the Mack I was constantly listening for any noises etc. Our return journey was a bit more interesting as the DT started to slip its clutch on some of the steeper hills, we left Churston at 6.30pm and got home by 5am this morning . After a quick nap it was back to work. We are going to Weymouth in two weks time with the whole outfit another all nighter both ways I expect.Its a round trip of 180miles Someone asked me at Churston why we didnt use a modern lowloader to make it all easier , my reply was , whats the point of having all this stuff if you dont use it for what it was intended for. Jim. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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