New to me C60L's

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Ken Smith

SM 6404 I have never seen a contract number on a chassis before

It's possible this was Indian practice Ken. The only other example I'm aware of myself is Lauren Child's mysterious "F22" in the UK, which was contracted to India around mid '45: C291Q.L-W under SM6389 was for Tractor 4x4 FA W/Out Winch C291Q for India, 350 vehicles. Build date is 12 Nov 45, and while it's my belief it was built in India, others are of the view it was diverted to the UK.

Here are some more pics of foreign built C60L in Australian use in Japan, alongside Australian built CMPs. The one at the collapsed roadway appears to be ex-Indian Army (full length wooden body) while the other one appears to be ex-British Army (steel body & spare wheel carrier):

HOBJ0344 Japan c January 1950 BCOF.jpg P01813.119 Okayama, Honshu, Japan, 1947-12-16. Members of the Transport Platoon, 67th Infantry .jpg

Gratuitous but rather good pics of late production Australian F60S tipper in action (Ford diff visible):

HOBJ0346 F60S tipper Japan c January 1950.jpg HOBJ0347 F60S tipper Japan c January 1950 BCOF.jpg

Regarding your Holden built engine cover Ken, presumably this got swapped at some stage during Australian service, possibly even in Japan.

Regarding your ARN 77821, the block 77001-79000 was originally allocated to New Armoured Vehicles (notified in Mechanization Circular No.307 of 4 March 1942) and it's my understanding that unused serials from earlier block allocations were used on vehicles acquired later overseas. I imagine Mike C can provide more info on this practice.