Scammell Pioneer tank transporter

Discussion in 'User Introductions' started by jerry, Jan 29, 2010.

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  1. jerry

    jerry Junior Member

    Hello all,

    I have a Scammell tank transporter that I am restoring. I would love to track down any stories from veterans of their recolections of these vehicles and their own personal experiences.

    Briefly I rescued it from deriliction after it had been used in the fairground industry. They had a brief war career, sometimes tragically all to brief, but then had a new lease of life in civy street, in this case as a generator and towing vehicle, the body being modified to a chariot style with a flat bed over the towing platform supporting another Gardner engine coumpled to an ex searchlight generator.

    Jerry
     
  2. Gage

    Gage The Battle of Barking Creek

    Hello Jerry and welcome.
     
  3. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Jerry –
    Your account of restoring a Scammel Tank Transporter took me back a few years to North Africa and Italy particularly when I served in Churchill Tanks.

    We always seemed to get the same company – 781 coy RASC I think it was, and we knew a lot of the drivers as they delivered the whole Brigade from around Pentheverie to Bone ( Annaba) docks then from Taranto to Lucera and various destinations all throughout Italy.

    One trip especially comes to mind when we had to move through the mountains – we had a new driver straight out of England and he wasn’t too confident in his driving. For once we couldn’t get the Tank started having an electrical short somewhere and the panic was on to move – now !

    So we winched the Tank onto the Transporter and set off still trying to find the problem, pretty soon we were climbing in the lowest 21st gear, and we were walking alongside. We then came to a 40 ton limit Bailey bridge and with a total load of 55 tons – had a confab and decided to chance it.

    The Tank crew then moved over the bridge in order to ensure that the driver cleared both sides, which he did with a few inches to spare. It was then pointed out to us that should anything untoward had happened to the bridge – we would have been on the enemy’s side ! Those were the fun days

    Cheers
     
  4. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Hi Jerry and welcome to the forum...I wonder if you could post pictures of your project as you go? A kind of a 'Then and Now' job :)

    Good luck with it.
    Andy
     
  5. jerry

    jerry Junior Member

    Hello Tom,

    Thanks for the reply, your enemy then and my enemy now are quite different thankully. Rust is my enemy, outside mainly the cab but also the engine. Completely seized, one cylinder full of water and all inlet valves beyond repair all now curred (the fuel injection pump was seized as well). Think I prefer my enemy than yours all the same!

    Jerry
     
  6. jerry

    jerry Junior Member

    Hello Andy,

    I will get some pictures posted, have to try and put them on the system.

    Jerry
     
  7. Kieron Hill

    Kieron Hill Senior Member

  8. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    One of my favourite British vehicles Jerry.

    Many's the evening we've spent at beltring jealously watching the scammells doing their thing, including one memorably cross-axled beast easily overhauling a full-tracked FV432 in deep mud.
    All the best with the restoration, looking forward to some pictures.
    (Hopefully this thread will explain uploading them.)

    ~A
     
  9. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

  10. Mike L

    Mike L Very Senior Member

    Keiron, great thread, enjoyed reading it. Jerry, look forward to seeing the photos of your beast!
     
  11. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

  12. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Jerry -
    all the best with the rust - your engine will cost an arm and both legs - replacement of all the bodywork will also be an item - so this might be a very long project for you and will keep you off the streets -

    Kierons thread of the RASC I had forgotten about and I can only reiterate my feeling about the drivers of those monsters - just to sit in the cabs showed a lot of guts with a million dials and 21 gears to worry about - I always got a kick out of the drivers walking alongside doing about 1 MPH on a hill to inspect the tyres - forgotten how many there were and it took a while to change one as we always "helped " - I think that was what took so long ! We didn't know too much about tyres - tracks were bad enough....with the 44 bogies !
    Cheers
     
  13. Oldman

    Oldman Very Senior Member

    Jerry
    Welcome on board great project you have got, keep us informed as to the status of how you are going.
    As a point of interest to you COLUS/COLAS unsure of spelling used a Scammell to pull a street repair/surface removal unit until the 90's it may be worth contacting them if
    they are still going (York Based) to see what happened to it, and if there are spares lying around in their workshops.
     
  14. jerry

    jerry Junior Member

    Thank you all for your kind words.

    Here are some pictures, fingers crossed!!

    Jerry
     

    Attached Files:

  15. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

  16. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Owen - oops - I posted a reply onto the old thread.....
    Cheers
     
  17. jerry

    jerry Junior Member

    Well they are both 20 tonners (only a handfull made) with the knock out rear bogie that had to be removed to load the vehicle. They both feature non army spec (unless anyone knows differently) headlights, indeed only one headlght was usually fitted in any case. It does seem that they could be the same vehicle, I don't know how many vehicles actually got out with the BEF. The one i had started life as a 20 ton version, TRMU 20 but was converted on the production line to a 30 ton version. The main difference being the semi trailer which could not be easily disconnected, therefore both parts were considered as one and registered as the same.

    Jerry
     
  18. jerry

    jerry Junior Member

    Excuse the quality, it is a photo of a photo.
     

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  19. jerry

    jerry Junior Member

    Computers, tut.
     

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  20. Mike L

    Mike L Very Senior Member

    Jerry, Thanks for posting more photos. Still a lot to do I see! How is the engine coming on? (don't know anything about Scammell engines, could you give a few details?) I take it you will be restoring to WW2 condition, can you find a trailer? Any particular unit you would like to restore to?
     

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