Caterpillar D6A

[John P]

Any update?

[Jakko Westerbeke]

I haven’t been back, but earlier this year I asked about it, and by this photo he sent me, they’ve started rebuilding the armour:

1T3045 bonnet.jpeg

And are doing it by welding pieces into the existing plates, rather than building a new cab from scratch as they originally intended to do.

[tankbarrell]

I thought the 1T serials were all D7s?

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by tankbarrell

I thought the 1T serials were all D7s?

No, 1T is the prefix for all the armoured bulldozers Caterpillar built for the British, both D6(Armored) and D7(Armored).¹ The D6s were 1T3001–1T3045² and the D7s were 1T1001–1T1138.


¹ Which, BTW, appear to be Caterpillar’s actual designations, rather than D6A and D7A that everyone uses nowadays.
² But there is a photo of one marked 1T3060 as well, which has yet to be explained AFAIK.

[tankbarrell]

Thanks for that Jakko! I knew the 1T serials don't appear in normal Caterpillar productions lists but had just thought they were all D7s. Good to know the facts.

[David Herbert]

I am sure that I have seen standard un-armoured D7s with 1T numbers but I didn't record the actual number and of course they could have been rebuilt from armoured ones. Post war there were also 3T and 4T un-armoured D7s. I wonder what the 2Ts were if that designation was used?

David

[tankbarrell]

2T's were standard D4. 2, 3 and 4T serials all appear in Caterpillar production lists but 1T's do not.

[Jakko Westerbeke]

Originally Posted by tankbarrell

I knew the 1T serials don't appear in normal Caterpillar productions lists

They do for the D6(Armored):


(previously posted here)

I haven’t seen a list for the D7-series, but I would suspect they appear there too?

Originally Posted by David Herbert

I am sure that I have seen standard un-armoured D7s with 1T numbers but I didn't record the actual number and of course they could have been rebuilt from armoured ones.

According to this page, only the armoured ones had 1T prefixes.

Originally Posted by David Herbert

Post war there were also 3T and 4T un-armoured D7s.

Actually from 1944, according to that same site. I get the impression from that that 3T was the next prefix used for the D7 after the 3M series reached 9999 (the 1T D7s are basically 3M-series tractors with armoured cab etc.) while 4T is from another factory.

[Alex van de Wetering]

Originally Posted by Jakko Westerbeke

I haven’t been back, but earlier this year I asked about it, and by this photo he sent me, they’ve started rebuilding the

And are doing it by welding pieces into the existing plates, rather than building a new cab from scratch as they originally intended to do.

That's awesome! I am happy they choose to take this route and restore the original armour in stead of making something new!