alan turner (RIP) Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 Way back in 1952 they found enough funds to build a tank testing track in Woolwich Arsenal, these images are taken over a 2 month period, dont just look at the picture look to the sides and backgrounds as well and see what was sitting there.It Also explains how the photographer was able to look down over the site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 Alan, Great photos, the background details.......whow, High Speed gun tractors, AEC Armd Command vehicles, spotted a Dingo under a sheet, an AEC armoured car, but the most intriguing is the load of what looks like CMP 3 ton trucks with a traversing artillery piece on them, with fold down deck extensions. They look like Polstens although I do not recollect every hearing of a self propelled version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
les freathy Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 Alan somwhere i have a closer view of those CMP with anti aircraft guns on them and when i first saw it i was amazed how many there were, the picture i have is not that good and would have been one from the neqs you have . Is it amongst them cheers Les Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcspool Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 but the most intriguing is the load of what looks like CMP 3 ton trucks with a traversing artillery piece on them, with fold down deck extensions. They look like Polstens although I do not recollect every hearing of a self propelled version. Alen, great pics indeed, thank for sharing them! Richard, indeed they are SP Polstens, they came in Triple and Quad version, see the pic below for a surviving Triple one. H. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan turner (RIP) Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 yes there are a lot of CMP Triple POlsten SP AA guns in background that area is by the river and you can see the old Becton gas works in some of the shots, a view i used to get every morning when I opened my bedroom curtains at my parents house in McLeod Rd Abbey Wood. Maple leaf site confirmed type from short strip I did for them. There are quite a number of Dorchesters around even the photo platform, and a good number of dingos but no one has spotted the Bren Carrier yet, again its believed to be charkie Ellis's work on what was known as 10 acre field the selling ground. One log book with about 200 entires confirms dates. £500 could probably have bought the lot with change for a fish & chip supper after a night out at one of Woolwichs theatres or cinemas, noine of which now exist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gritineye Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 Great photos Allan, any idea what is being laid under the road? It doesn't look like reinforcing steel, more like cable, tube, or maybe some sort of cost cutting recycling winch ropes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
radiomike7 Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 Great photos Allan, any idea what is being laid under the road? It doesn't look like reinforcing steel, more like cable, tube, or maybe some sort of cost cutting recycling winch ropes. If you blow the photo up the wrap looks wrong for wire rope. It may be some type of flexible re-bar? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antarmike Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 Unless it has been de-coiled on site, you can't get re-bar that long! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
les freathy Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 Now the burning question Alan where did they all end up especially those Polsten CMPs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan turner (RIP) Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 It is possible that they used yards of defunct wire cable of which there would have been tons on site as I seem to see screw eyes in different places. As for the fate of all these I have no idea, some might have gone to a museum, Bovvi,IWM. The rest probably met their end with a scrappers torch. Any time travellers out there? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lightweight Posted November 1, 2009 Share Posted November 1, 2009 Any time travellers out there? Not at the moment - ask me again yesterday:cool2: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
antarmike Posted November 2, 2009 Share Posted November 2, 2009 Not at the moment - ask me again yesterday:cool2: I saw it argued on telly that time travel was not impossible according to the laws of physics but if a time machine was ever to be built it could take you forward in time, and you could then travel back in time, but you could only ever go back to the time when the machine was first commisioned. It is aginst the law of phyiscs to go back beyond the day of building such a machine. If no time machine exists now, it will never be possible to go back beyond today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schliesser92 Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 (edited) The second vehicle from the left has a British civvy VRN. Edited November 5, 2009 by schliesser92 duplicated posting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoggyDriver Posted November 5, 2009 Share Posted November 5, 2009 An absolute waste of good vehicles.:cry: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LoggyDriver Posted November 9, 2009 Share Posted November 9, 2009 To think that is Woolwich. How different the place looks now!! Wish the clock could be turned back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex van de Wetering Posted November 10, 2009 Share Posted November 10, 2009 Wow, great pictures Alan. Those CMP Polstens are certainly rare and they would have been quite new at the time. It seems the one in the picture are all triples, like Hanno mentioned. I guess the triple was a special mount only fitted to CMp trucks and the Crusader (?), while the quad also came on a trailer of it's own. But, those Hight Speed Tractors are the M6 monsters!!! Just as rare now as the CMP Polstens I guess! Alex Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Farrant Posted February 1, 2010 Share Posted February 1, 2010 A couple of photos given to me today, of Ruddington vehicle sales. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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