Mick Norton Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 Dear All, You may be interested in the attached 5 x page feature on the Royal Engineers "Gainsborough" military special in the Jan/Feb 2024 issue of Earthmovers magazine. Mick Gainsborough_5pp_sp sp l_BLUE_REV.pdf 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted January 1 Share Posted January 1 Hi Mick, A great article, well done. When I worked at 44 Command Wksp in the RE Bay working on plant, probably about 1975, I had a brief encounter with a Gainsborough as I assisted one of the older guys when he was readjusting the gearbox bands. I always recall him saying that it needed a 40 acre field to turn around in! I did a lot of repair work on Allis 645 loaders and they were basic and easy to operate, another good machine. I see you were at RSME, I went on a plant repair course there in 1980. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick Norton Posted January 2 Author Share Posted January 2 Richard, The Gainsborough was never any REME Workshop's dream machine as with any military special. Yes, like the Gainsborough operators of my vintage spent many hours on the Allis Chalmers, its successor. As I alluded to in my feature I thank the lord the Gainsborough never ventured onto the streets in N Ireland in the early 1970s the Allis Chalmers was a god send in dodgy situations and I have a few tales to tell in that region! I ran the Plant Training Area "The Ponderosa" as a WO1 Military Plant Foreman in 1984-6 and many REME guys passed through the Mech Training part of the complex at the bottom of the hill at Wainscott. Mick 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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