A newly fruitful area of IWM Collections, if you like that sort of thing. Lt. O'brien seems to have taken/overseen a lot of shots of 'Portable' machines. He appears to have had an interest in the PTOs & Gennys, but there's also a series by him on 'Damaged Machinery', which I thought at first might be bomb damage, but maybe has more of the tone of somebody interested in needless waste/carelessness. Machinery Lorries: Search our collection | Imperial War Museums Damaged Machinery & Equipment: Search our collection | Imperial War Museums Lathes, Mills, Welding gear, Pillar Drills, perhaps even a surface grinder, with all the associated gubbins. MACHINERY LORRIES. © IWM (H 25837) IWM Non Commercial License MACHINERY LORRIES. © IWM (H 25846) IWM Non Commercial License MACHINERY LORRIES. © IWM (H 26225) IWM Non Commercial License MACHINERY LORRIES. © IWM (H 25838) IWM Non Commercial License MACHINERY LORRIES. © IWM (H 25841) IWM Non Commercial License MACHINERY LORRIES. © IWM (H 25839) IWM Non Commercial License MACHINERY LORRIES. © IWM (H 25829) IWM Non Commercial License MACHINERY LORRIES. © IWM (H 6707) IWM Non Commercial License MACHINERY LORRIES. © IWM (H 25844) IWM Non Commercial License MACHINERY LORRIES. © IWM (H 26222) IWM Non Commercial License MACHINERY LORRIES. © IWM (H 26243) IWM Non Commercial License MACHINERY LORRIES. © IWM (H 25840) IWM Non Commercial License Field Workshop: ("In Picturesque settings"! Maybe a request from on high for Picture Post sort of stuff...) Search our collection | Imperial War Museums Not so many with machinery present in these, so far. FIELD WORKSHOPS IN PICTURESQUE SETTING. © IWM (H 18764) IWM Non Commercial License
Imagine fixing the thing with parts made on the thing... Sigh. Mind you, a fair chance of having to first move a sodding lathe to reach the part you're trying to fix. Two mobile workshops, & a crane, maybe.
Oh alright then, you've convinced me. I'll take a Leyland Retriever to go with the Crossley. One of them can have a gantry....May I have the OHC Norton too, please ? ROYAL ARMY ORDNANCE CORPS WITH THE B.E.F.
Sorry, mate. I searched the forum with British terminology! Might be worth merging. Currently finding it fascinating just what a C20th army's tail could contain. People using lathes & mills while parked up in some Normandy farmyard or orchard. I mean, really...
Tagging this onto an established thread The WE for a Field Park Company (or Squadron), RE, included a 3-ton, 6x4 Workshop lorry during the early war years. The same vehicle, or so it appears, then became a lorry, 3-ton, 6x4, machinery, RE, 24-kw, sometime during 1943. The 'Data book of wheeled vehicles - Fourth Edition' (MLRS books) gives over one whole page to Royal Engineer machinery lorries, half each for the later type 4x4 version (Ford WOT6) and the earlier 6x4 version (Leyland Retriever). The newer 4x4 version is illustrated with an overhead gantry (a long, centrally placed, horizontal beam, running the length of the body and extending over the cab at the front and over the tail at the rear), with a note that the older 6x4 had 'similar equipment'. Both have a 24-kw generator behind the cab. I can barely find any mention of the RE 24-kw on the internet, searching for either workshop or machinery lorry (or even substituting 'truck', which is a little sacrilegious), certainly nothing detailed. The Royal Canadian Engineers had a machinery lorry in their Field Parks but it looks a different beast, being a 4-ton 6x4 on a Diamond T chassis with a trailer mounted 25-kw generator. The 4-ton 6x4 RCE model was fitted with lathe, drill, circular saw and grinder, and the vehicle function was to 'effect the repair of engineering equipment'. I found a short reference to the planned successor vehicle in British service (mid 1950s maybe), the FV11102, as being based on the 10-ton 6x4 Albion, equipped with lathe, hacksaw, grinder, Mandrel press (?) and gas welding kit. Question then, is there a succinct contemporary description of the RE 24-kw machinery lorry anywhere? I'm assuming it had similar kit to the RCE model, as in lathe, drill, powered saw and welding kit, but it is an assumption. Also, was it provided primarily for repair of RE equipment in its parent Div or Corps Engineers, or did it offer some limited production capability as well, as mentioned for the postwar 10-tonner? https://www.nzsappers.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Corps-History-Vol-10.pdf PDF page 384-5 for details of the postwar variant https://electriccanadian.com/forces/Design_Record06.pdf PDF page 232 for details of the RCE equivalent Cheers, Gary
