Well some more information has come to light on this project. I got in touch with the Hamilton Police Sgt who was quoted in the Hamilton Spectator article from 2007. Luckily we work out of the same station so I was able to meet up with him today and he handed me a shopping bag full of original paperwork. The paperwork includes minutes from the Hamilton Civil Guard meetings and Hamilton Officers clubs. But the best find so far has been what can best be described as the original bill of sale for the armoured car. Interestingly enough even in wartime it was business as usual. Nothing free/donated for the cause. It seems there were a few company's involved in making this car. International Harvester sold the chassis and drive systems. Dominion Foundries and Steel supplied the armour plate. Hamilton Bridge Company is the one who actually designed and built it. However the one that has somewhat stumped me is the involvement of Turnbull Elevator Company Limited of Toronto. They supplied what is called a "Rypa" for the sum of $877. Originally it was an order for 3 "rypa's" but this was changed to only one. I had heard reference to an outside of Hamilton company being contracted to supply one of the turrets. Would this be it?
What I did find really interesting was the actual price of the truck. A grand total of $6527.32 Considering that Universal Carriers cost approximately $3000 to build this was one expensive truck. That probably explains why the other two were cancelled. I guess with that much research and development the initial cost were very high.
Enjoy the documents. As I get more scanned over the next few days as time allows they will be posted.
