That is one of a small number of bulldozers that were armoured by Greek Cypriots and used against the Turkish Cypriots during the inter-communal troubles in the '60s. None of them won any prizes for original design ;)

Fyll

That's an interesting take on the Armoured Bulldozer concept, similar to the "All or Nothing" design of Dreadnoughts from 1906 on. Derek.

International TD18 crawler tractor with towed grader (anyone know the make), note the large cleats on the tracks

A couple more 1. Tournapulls super C box scrapers in the far east in 1944 and a Buckeye 20 traction ditcher

I must be losing the plot, i know this crane has appeared somewhere in the forum but have forgotton the threads title so i will put it in here prehaps a moderator can move if required, its a Le Tourneau model AD2
cheers
Les

Case VAIWA tractor
 

Gentlemen, I'm looking for additional info regarding Case tractors in military use, especially the case VAIWA bomb loader. An internet search has turned up very little, other than a pic from the antiquetractors website. The VAIWA tractor was based upon the Case VAI (VA Industrial) tractor with the addition of an arm to lift bombs. The WA nomenclature, I assume is to denote W-wheeled, A-? Any info greatly appreciated.

A couple of shots of John Marchants Gallion grader taken at Duxford must be at least 12 years plus ago, i presume its still in his hands as he did have a sale a few years back
cheers
Les

A couple of photos for I.D here the first a crawler used for pipe laying ex U.S engineers the second i think is a Clark industrial fork lift ex U.S.A.F but what do you guys think
cheers
Les

'Morning, Les, the crawler is a International Harvester TD-14, I'm not sure about the forklift. The crawler in your picture has the Hughes-Keenan crane attachment, but as far as I know it wasn't used for pipeline laying but for various lifting duties around bases during the war. I've included a couple of pics, one of a TD-14 being used by USAAF mechanics to swap an engine on a B-17, the other of a TD-14 in a storage yard of some sort.

CHIMO! Derek.

Derek

A better photo of the inter tracked bomb handler, i should have known its purpose but these senior moments :doh:

Les,

The forklift has the letters "AFE" on the ide, I think this denotes Air Force Europe, and the letters "BWAFB", could well be Burtonwood Air Force Base, which was near Liverpool.

Derek, this is a Case Airborne.
Barry

Derek, this is off someones website and I can't remember where.
Barry

That picture is one of hundreds from AntiqueTractors.com, a very informative website if you're interested in researching tractors. When you look at the VAIW as compared to the VAIWA, there appears to be very little difference other than the lifting frame and it's associated attachment points and hydraulics. The VAIW in your picture may very well have been military at one time hence the green colour. I've learned a little more since my last post regarding the Case nomenclature: I now know that the W in VAIWA stands for Warehouse. The VAI was the industrial version of the agricultural tractor, which was further modified for warehouse use (VAIW). There were two models of the VAIW built, the VAIW-3 with single rear wheels which was the one used by the military, and the VAIW-4 with dual rear wheels. They were both used as towmotors. I'm still looking for the final definition of the "A" in VAIWA. I'm thinking "Army" or "Arm", but it's still a guess. SO, the VAIWA was the bomb loader version of the VAIW which was the towmotor version of the VAI which was the Industrial version of the VA which was the agricultural version. I think I'm starting to get it now.


CHIMO! Derek

P.S. thanks for the great pics.

Right on both accounts Richard the tractor along with a host of other US equipment came from Burtonwood and was in the process of refurbishment by Wolfendens of Liverpool prior to being returned to the states. Its amazing how many times we have all read over the last decades of the US agreement not to send items back yet here was this company and i suspect a few more refurbing and shipping items back
cheers
Les

That's an Allis HD-7.

Clark Forklift (Fork truck)
 

Hi all,

I was cruising some old posts and found this one, posted 18-7-08. The forklift is almost identical to my Clark forklift. In USA, they are sometimes called a forktruck, I have noticed.

By looking at pictures on the internet, I have worked out that mine is either a "Utilitruc" or a "Carloader". I bought it about a year ago and it is occasionally used in my workshop. It is definitely not an off-pavement vehicle, with around 2000kg of counter-weights riding on the small rear wheels while the drive is on the front (often unladen) wheels. Very easy to dry bog it. Although I suspect it is designed to lift 2 tons, the previous owner once lifted 8 tons with it!!!! He had to replace a hydraulic valve about 3 months later. Surprise, surprise!

It was delivered to the USN in June 1945 and seems to have always been an Orange/red sort of colour. I have a second one that was dis-assembled into major assemblies 15 years ago and then left out in the weather. :whinge

Anyway, here's to a 10 year old thread!!!

Have a nice day.

Sam, downunder.

Hello Les,
Would like to contribute a couple of shots from my Uncle's photo album.

He was part of a RCAF crew that built an airfield during WW2 at Massett (Haida Gwaii) British Columbia
Seen here in early days before the paving crew arrived..apparently during July 1943 ??.

A pilot friend…familiar with the area…said "that's probably Sandspit"

I have two questions…was this part of the American Aerial delivery highway to Alaska…or was it Canadian Coastal Defence.?

And ….can anyone decipher the door markings.

RCAF 5075
VC

With a letter "C" next to the upper hinge.

Sems to be early production Ford cab13…with no roof hatch..Tipper body on a C60…??

As it was with-in shooting distance of Japanese submarines…one head-light is blanked-out.
Fascinating photo..
Dennis

Oops that's an "S" not a C..on the upper part of the door.

Dennis. I believe the 'S' meant the truck had a 'suppressed' electrical system. Meaning it was all shielded to minimize electrical interference with radio communications, and to some extent, reduce the possibility the same electrical emissions could be used by the enemy to direction find on the location of the truck.

Have no clue how the RCAF Vehicle Numbering System worked.

The 'VC' is very likely the RCAF abbreviated ID for the Station where the truck was based. Here in Winnipeg, RCAF Station Winnipeg's ID Code was originally 'WG'. At some point, this had the letter 'Y' added to the from to become 'YWG'. I have seen both the two letter and three letter ID's for Winnipeg on surviving wartime vehicles but do not know when the change took place.

Hope this helps.


David

CYVC is the ICAO identifier for the La Ronge, Saskatchewan airport, quite a distance from Masset (CZMT) or Sandspit (CYZP).
I see the truck as a F60S with 4C1 body (body by Gar Wood Co.).

David,
re door markings.
That does help...a good start.
Dennis

Grant,
Does CZMT Massett still exist ?

Flying buddy is ex-military…then bush pilot... …flew into Sandspit many many times .
But was surprised to hear about a separate airfield ..across the Massett side of the bay..

Grant. I was wondering where the heck that code ended up.

Turns out 'VC' and 'YVC' were originally assigned to RCAF Station Jericho Beach sometime in the 1920's, which was in the Vancouver area. Not sure when that Station ceased operations (I think it was a seaplane base for the most part), but when Vancouver Airport in Richmond opened, it was assigned 'YVR' and the old Jericho Beach code was dropped for Vancouver and I guess ultimately reassigned.

David

All indications are that Masset airport still operates, there are current NOTAMs out about U/S lighting and Jet-A not being available tomorrow...

1953 air photo of Jericho Beach Air Station at http://vintageairphotos.com/bo-53-50/ , one photo includes CMPs in the compound, not any obvious tippers.

Gentlemen…this is very interesting.
And explains a great deal .
Jericho Beach was a major West Coast RCAF base for many years.

When the harbour-side Seaplane hanger and ramp were closed…the City of Vancouver turned it into a park.

But the main base across the road remained in operation.

When I reported there during the 1980's…along with a lot of Reg Force stuff..…pretty much all the BC Mobile Command units were run out of there as well.

So makes perfect sense that during WW2 it would have built the airfields.

Here's a couple of RCAF Blackburn Sharks about to land at Jericho…

Part of the Pre-War build up of the Airforce.