The Classic Machinery Network

essexpete wrote:

Jeremy Rowland wrote:Thanks Fred I am not at all surprised that the Foden chassis was purpose built the visual look of the crane is huge compared to the truck it is mounted on, reckon it would have crushed a standard chassis.

Jeremy

The all up weight was only 22tons, not too bad for an 8 wheeler. Looks like the axles are non standard? Perhaps the reduction type?

Pete looks like Foden's standard rear axle to me; I have forgotten now but they may just be a worm and wheel as opposed to a crown wheel and pinion?

Jeremy

[quote="modelman093"]That picture of the John Willment site in London is just so atmospheric of the time. I was living in London in the late fifties and even then similar sites were quite common as whole areas of war damage were still being cleared up and rebuilt. Contrast that with an image taken and posted on the Dover Sea Forum last week.

Hi,
Here's another picture atmospheric of another time.
The first job I did when I started work was to help change the radiator in one of those Fordson 7V tippers.
Fred

Great pic - and the first wagon that I drove was an ex army O type Bedford tipper! The farmer that I worked for pre-college had several Os and an OB bus to collect the "potato gang" .The farm mechanic showed me how to adjust the tappets with the engine running using a long feeler strip and an open top tappet cover to allow access while keeping the oil in.

Yes Angus, These trucks were the "Little Giants" that helped rebuild Post War Britain. There were still a few in service when I started work in the 1950s.
Another trip down memory lane below.
Fred

Are the Bedfords O or K types?

I've always referred to the square fronted ones as O types , but........ . The farmer that I worked for before going to college frequently bought vehicles at the huge government disposal sales at Ruddington or one of the intermediate dealers in military surplus. Another of his "buys" was a job lot of 15 Austin Champs .

All O Types with the semi forward control short bonnet - Civvy ones were OB's , wartime issue square fronts to civilians were OW ( pic 1) and military square fronts were OY ( 3 tonners). Lighter K 30cwt and M 3 ton types had a longer bonnet.
The Bedford OY army 3 tonner played a major part in winning the war with 72,000 of this rock solid reliable model alone being built along with 170,000 other wartime trucks by Bedford .

This makes the reaction by Land Rover fans that it was a disgrace to sell Land Rover to Bedford trucks because they were foreign company in the 80s seem ridiculous but there was an absolute furore about it at the time with big ' Keep Land Rover British' demonstrations in London. Government took fright and sold Land Rover to British Aerospace .
Shortly after GM pulled the plug and closed down Bedford trucks with a massive loss to the UK economy .

[quote="XS650"]All O Types with the semi forward control short bonnet - Civvy ones were OB's , wartime issue square fronts to civilians were OW ( pic 1) and military square fronts were OY ( 3 tonners). Lighter K 30cwt and M 3 ton types had a longer bonnet.
The Bedford OY army 3 tonner played a major part in winning the war with 72,000 of this rock solid reliable model alone being built along with 170,000 other wartime trucks by Bedford .

Thanks for sorting that out - I stand corrected! By any name they were, as you say" a great truck and being under 21 at the time I was sort of legal!!!

On a different tack , Fred's post of the construction site shows two dozers. The one on the left looks very like the Dinky Super Toys No 961 Blaw Knox model which I think was loosely based on a Cletrac . Or should I have gone to Specksavers?

Hi Angus,
I think the dozer in the picture is an international It's too small to be sure what it is.

The "Dinkey" Blaw-Knox dozer was not loosely based on a Cletrac it was a Cletrac.
Blaw Knox marketed Cletrac crawlers from the 1930s, I think till the late 40s.
Blaw-Knox did however make the dozing equipment for them. They made blades, winches and scraper boxes for almost every other crawler including Cat and IH too. I used to run a 50ITD David Brown with a Blaw Knox blade.

Talking Blaw-Knox, the Navvy loading the Fordson 7V tipper in the third pic. in my earlier post is a Blaw-Knox BK50.
I worked on one when Yorkshire based William Pepper Co., who I worked for, sent one down to South Wales circa1962/3.
The NCB and British Rail were running them here at the time too.

Fred

Hi,
Here's a forgotten manufacturer from the past, Motor Rail Ltd.
I don't know if anyone besides Essex Pete and myself will remember the dumpers they made. They were introduced in 1939 and continued in production for some twenty odd years into the 1960s.
They were 3 yd. 4 ton machines. There were two models both powered by Dorman 2DWD 28 hp. diesels with Dixon-Abbott patent gearbox giving 3 forward and 1 reverse in two ranges. One model had the six gears skip first and the other had six speeds engine and driver end first.
This difference was achieved simply by turning the crown-wheel to drive off the opposite side of the pinion.
I found a pic of both models, the first pic of the Tarslag machine is probably circa 1950, the Priestman Wolf luffing shovel is I think a Mk 1 with wooden cab from the 1940s .


The one in the second pic. is being loaded by a Priestman Panther skimmer probably late 1950s.
Like the dumpers the Priestmans would have Dorman engines too, Dorman 4BK in the Wolf and a 4DWD in the Panther.


The Dixon Abbott 3 parallel shaft gearbox design was developed and patented in 1918 when Motor Rail and Dorman collaborated to design narrow gauge locos known as tractors for the army to get supplies to the trenches WW1. Some 600 were produced with Dorman petrol engines and David Brown building the Dixon Abbott gearboxes.
The dumper gearbox was developed from the original Dixon Abbott design, it was driven through a Simplex plate clutch, and direct coupled to the drive axle, (no prop-shaft).
I was surprised to find that an air cooled version of the dumper was later produced, but I have no knowledge of this. See below.