Past Present and in Between in Pictures (Part 1)

[buzzer]

Buzzer

[star_down_under]

Don’t muck around with ammonium nitrate. This incident near Wyandra has landed Kalari in court, with the Queensland Government suing them for the cost of repairs to the highway and two bridges. No doubt they’ll throw in the cost of the fire truck and cop car. Add the cost of the private vehicles, personal injuries and a loaded double road train, the bill is going to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

abc.net.au/news/2014-09-06/ … rt/5724512

[toshboy]

windrush:

Spardo:
Back in the 70s or 80s I think it was I paid £65 for a WW2 Morris Commercial 4WD recovery vehicle. It looked nothing like those examples, much more like a post war model. The straight 6 petrol engine pulled like a train and handled HGVs without a problem, the only thing was, with its non-air, non-assisted braking system I couldn’t stop the bloody thing. More than once I rolled to a gentle stop sweating cobs with the hand brake pulled almost back to the rear of the cab.

The 6 volt system came from 2 massive 6 volt batteries mounted end to end across the chassis behind the cab. I fitted it with West Coast mirrors from a Ford in a scrapyard and in our brand new blue and white colours she really looked the part. Only wish I had taken a picture at the time.

The BMC dealers in Reading where I was apprenticed used a Morris Commercial ‘quad’ as a recovery vehicle. It had a handpowered crane on the rear and also a towed ‘ambulance’ on solid rubber tyres which heated up and left the rims if 20 mph was exceeded. It was an awkward vehicle to get in and out of, the fuel tanks were under each seat and two SU electric fuel pumps were above the passengers feet! Centre throttle, four pot sidevalve engine but it pulled like a train. Four speed box with crawler. Speed wasn’t great, however the regular driver was a Reading FC fan and had a callout at Basingstoke on a match day. When he got back to the garage the poor sod in the broken down van he was towing was as white as a sheet, “That blokes a blooming maniac, he told me to hang on tight as he had a football match to go to but I wasn’t expecting the ride I got”! I suppose it got scrapped, we later had an ex AFS Morris Commercial NVS and then a MRA4. When the company changed hands we got a Matador.

0 NMP

Pete.

My introduction to the Morris Quad was during my Army training at Newbury way back when i was young , a vehicle that i remember well, i was then posted to the Far East and had to retrain all over again on the Canadian version which was by Chevrolet-similar but more lively! -----------------toshboy

[oiltreader]

Thanks to Star down under, Lawrence Dunbar, Buzzer, windrush and DIG for the photos also Franglais and Star down under for the links
Oily

Any ideas?
credit to Sludge G for the photo.

[buzzer]

Buzzer

[dennis_javelin]

oiltreader:
Thanks to Star down under, Lawrence Dunbar, Buzzer, windrush and DIG for the photos also Franglais and Star down under for the links
Oily

Any ideas?
credit to Sludge G for the photo.

That’s out of the Fast and Furious 9 film. Built on a Merc Unimog chassis.

[stu675]

How does that work? Is it 2 trailers, or wag and drag? Is it first 4 Axel’s on the unit? Steering bogie on the first trailer?

[dennis_javelin]

stu675:
How does that work? Is it 2 trailers, or wag and drag? Is it first 4 Axel’s on the unit? Steering bogie on the first trailer?

I assume the first two axles are from the standard Unimog and the rest is bolted on like a huge Meccano kit. It looks substantial but probably very little weight in it as it’s only a film prop.

[star_down_under]

stu675:
How does that work? Is it 2 trailers, or wag and drag? Is it first 4 Axel’s on the unit? Steering bogie on the first trailer?

Looks like a R/T dolly on the Mog, a turntable on the back of the first trailer (A trailer), then a simple trailer (B trailer). Simply, a B double on a dolly, behind a rigid.

[franglais]

Here is a tiny bit about the vehicle and the making of the film.
topgear.com/car-news/movies … ehind-cars

And the “vehicle” in action.
youtube.com/watch?v=snCg-y0NPrA

I know you have to “suspend disbelief” in lots of films, but I find believing in any of that, tooo much.

[dennis_javelin]

Franglais:
Here is a tiny bit about the vehicle and the making of the film.
topgear.com/car-news/movies … ehind-cars

And the “vehicle” in action.
youtube.com/watch?v=snCg-y0NPrA

I know you have to “suspend disbelief” in lots of films, but I find believing in any of that, tooo much.

So it’s not based on a true story

[star_down_under]

Franglais:
Here is a tiny bit about the vehicle and the making of the film.
topgear.com/car-news/movies … ehind-cars

And the “vehicle” in action.
youtube.com/watch?v=snCg-y0NPrA

I know you have to “suspend disbelief” in lots of films, but I find believing in any of that, tooo much.

I’m with you Frangers, I totally lack imagination and anyone who has ever watched a fictional show with me, complains about my running commentary on the lack of reality.
One that almost gave me apoplexy was an episode of Foyle’s War. Set during, or immediately post WW ll, there was a Routemaster double decker in the background!

[dennis_javelin]

Star down under.:

Franglais:
Here is a tiny bit about the vehicle and the making of the film.
topgear.com/car-news/movies … ehind-cars

And the “vehicle” in action.
youtube.com/watch?v=snCg-y0NPrA

I know you have to “suspend disbelief” in lots of films, but I find believing in any of that, tooo much.

I’m with you Frangers, I totally lack imagination and anyone who has ever watched a fictional show with me, complains about my running commentary on the lack of reality.
One that almost gave me apoplexy was an episode of Foyle’s War. Set during, or immediately post WW ll, there was a Routemaster double decker in the background!

Being ex Royal Navy it really grinds my gears when you watch a documentary about WW2 and they show clips of ships that weren’t built until the mid 50’s. How difficult is to do a bit of research

[robinswh]

another one

[robinswh]

re the lack of reality comment…in 1976 I was working as a coach driver for the now departed wallace arnold tours in leeds. One day I was assigned to drive a work bus for the cast and crew for the production of yorkshire television . The name of the show was "raffles " about 19th century cat burglars the filming was done on the campus of leeds university. One scene showed a stage coach proceeding down a side street unfortunately no one had the foresight to paint over the double yellow lines !!

[spardo]

robinswh:
re the lack of reality comment…in 1976 I was working as a coach driver for the now departed wallace arnold tours in leeds. One day I was assigned to drive a work bus for the cast and crew for the production of yorkshire television . The name of the show was "raffles " about 19th century cat burglars the filming was done on the campus of leeds university. One scene showed a stage coach proceeding down a side street unfortunately no one had the foresight to paint over the double yellow lines !!

Fair play mate, what if someone had taken advantage and parked a car on the street?

Mention of Wallace Arnold brings back a memory to me though. WASS (Wallace Arnold Sales and Service), who had taken over the local Bedford dealership of Oscrofts, forced the winding up of our small haulage company because we were a bit slow settling their massive bills. Non of our other creditors wanted it, they all knew that we were good for it because they knew our faithful customer base. A large conference room was hired in an expensive hotel for the settling, at the top table were my brother and I along with my mate and Dad, both fellow directors and of course the chairman. In front of us was this massive empty room with one seat occupied by a very embarrassed and uncomfortable representative of WASS, all alone in the middle.

[buzzer]

Buzzer

[franglais]

Dennis Javelin:

Star down under.:

Franglais:
Here is a tiny bit about the vehicle and the making of the film.
topgear.com/car-news/movies … ehind-cars

And the “vehicle” in action.
youtube.com/watch?v=snCg-y0NPrA

I know you have to “suspend disbelief” in lots of films, but I find believing in any of that, tooo much.

I’m with you Frangers, I totally lack imagination and anyone who has ever watched a fictional show with me, complains about my running commentary on the lack of reality.
One that almost gave me apoplexy was an episode of Foyle’s War. Set during, or immediately post WW ll, there was a Routemaster double decker in the background!

Being ex Royal Navy it really grinds my gears when you watch a documentary about WW2 and they show clips of ships that weren’t built until the mid 50’s. How difficult is to do a bit of research

Errors in documentaries plain wrong. No argument.
In fiction Ill accept coincidences, and in Sci-Fi accept warp drives etc. The ideas of alien systems based on silicon rather than carbon or with totally different social concepts interesting. Ill accept counterfactual concepts: Hitler won WW2 maybe, and look at what might have been.

But I got upset with a couple of books. In one the plot relied on the San Francisco bridge being constructed with workers digging away to build the foundations in some sort of underwater chambers. Just fanciful and only included to make the plot work.
Another book was about arson at a school. All the way through it was about the science, forensics, the statements of the survivors, but the big reveal on the last page was that information had been received by the ghost of a victim…I nearly threw that book across the room. Ill read ghost stories etc but dont give me a “believable” fiction that relies on the supernatural!

[lawrence_dunbar]

[spardo]

Franglais:
But I got upset with a couple of books. In one the plot relied on the San Francisco bridge being constructed with workers digging away to build the foundations in some sort of underwater chambers. Just fanciful and only included to make the plot work.
Another book was about arson at a school. All the way through it was about the science, forensics, the statements of the survivors, but the big reveal on the last page was that information had been received by the ghost of a victim…I nearly threw that book across the room. Ill read ghost stories etc but dont give me a “believable” fiction that relies on the supernatural!

I read a book lately, won’t give the title because of spoiler alert, but it was a very detailed telling of an actual murder case from the 19th century. It was gripping enough to be a fiction in which you only learned the outcome on the final page and I was really enjoying it.

But the author or publisher had thought it was a good idea to insert several pages 2 thirds way through of photos of the participants, 2 of which with captions gave away the ending.

Just had a rethink because there might be some interested. The title is Mr. Briggs’ Hat but if you do read it my advice is to skip all the photo pages and go back to them after you have finished it.