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A.E.C. Militant MK 1 Gallery


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Guest catweazle (Banned Member)
I would talk to owners but I'm shy and I'd hate to be listed in the "What is the daftest thing anyone has asked you " thread Catweazle ! :-D

Dont worry about that Andy ,i have had more daft answers from MV owners than questions,its unforgivable how little some owners know about there vehicles,except of course it was in the d day landings.some of the bigger stuff to be quite honest worrys me,its obvious the wheels on some of them havnt been off in years ,and as for some of the trailers.Think i will start a thread,Whats the daftest answer an MV owner has ever given you.

NO ITS NOT A HOTCHKISS MATE>:-D

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  • 3 weeks later...
A pic of the tractor unit taken at a military show in the late 1960s, i am not up much on signs so can anyone confirm the 171 and the X11 in the diamond

 

Les,

That would be a Royal Engineers vehicle. The XII formation sign was also used on 36 Engr Regt vehicles, but their number was 175, I think, and on a blue square. The trailer could well be a mobile map printing room, I saw one operating once.

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I don't understand why I took so few photos this year on the trip to Bethune, especially so few of the Militant. I hope someone else has taken more/ better pics! I think flat batteries (on the camera) and rain were the main cause. Never mind next year will rush round!

 

p.s. thanks to a suggestion from 6 x 6 in an earlier thread I had no repeat of the brakes sticking on, problem solved!!

Bethune 2008 004.jpg

Bethune 2008 032.jpg

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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.

 

sc002ecd54.jpg

 

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.

 

sc00764a05.jpg

 

In my Bristol lorry den.

 

sc00765ad1.jpg

 

Before.

 

sc00766ad0.jpg

 

After restoring the rusted frame the cab was completely reskinned with new galvanized panels.

 

sc00767897.jpg

Edited by 6 X 6
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Interesting front end on that one Tom ! Is it an optical illusion or a modification ? :-D

 

I think it's han hoptical illusion caused by the presence of something parked behind it. Or, it has been fitted with a 16 litre ,inline 12, Napier.

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