Here and There

Firstly, from "there", Paul has had an attempt at snapping some of the Aussie trucks for us.He admits his camera skills and camera are not of the highest calibre.

Kenworth T404SAR could easily be a kiwi rig.

Mack Trident. Note the interesting mounting of the warning beacons.

FM Volvo looks a bit more Aussie. with its heavy bull-bar and that second trailer, a type not often seen in NZ.

Western Star tanker with bull-bar again and Australian looking foliage in background.

Kenworth T404 with powder tanker. Cement perhaps.



And "here", my workplace has been a hive of activity this week with erecting of signs etc. for the new owners who begin operating from next Monday.

The concrete base of the old sign was dug out by digger, but a crane had to be brought in to lift it out of the hole...

...it weighed in excess of three tonnes.

A container full of new signage comes off the side lifter.

Pulled along by Hino FS power.

The big hole where the concrete block was removed, had to be refilled with more concrete, courtesy of another Hino.
This one an FS.

And even more concrete. This time from an eight wheeler Mack Metroliner.

A Couple More From Ohakea 1958

Max has found a couple more black & whites from the 1958 Ohakea Air Show.

Click this to enlarge and you can see just how big the Globemaster was, compared to the people on the ground.
Almost 15m to the top of the tail!

Rear view of the Blackburn Beverley.
The Beverley was a British built medium-range Heavy Freight or Troop Transport.
94 troops could be carried in that load compartment which was over 12m long and 3m high and wide.
With its gear hanging out in the breeze, the four Bristol Centaurus radials, each with 4 blade props, could only manage to drag it along at 240mph compared with the Globemaster which was 100mph faster.
Blackburn was swallowed up by the Hawker Siddeley and Bristol Siddeley organizations and the name Blackburn had disappeared by the early 60s.

Scenicruiser

I found this old black & white I took when on a boy scout trip some 45 odd years ago.

I was amused to see that Maxwell's Motor Services named their Bedford VAM, "Scenicruiser".
With petrol powered  front engine, it was quite a different beast to the original Greyhound Scenicruiser.....

......which was a rear engine diesel with tandem drive.
Power was by V8 Detroit two-stroke, although initial production example of the PD 4501  (which was its official title) used two 4 cylinder Detroits linked together as the bus was ready for the road before Detroit had their V8s fully signed off.
This picture from www.curbsideclassic.com


The Bedford had seating for 40, while the GM Scenicruiser seated 43 and included an on-board toilet.

Cars and Planes

Max has sent some more interesting pics.

Interesting photo of an NAC Fokker Friendship F27 being refuelled by a "Mobiljet" tanker towed by an S Bedford.
The hills in the background suggest to me that this is either at Palmerston North or Paraparaumu.
NAC and later Air New Zealand had a fleet of Friendships serving the smaller airfields throughout the country.
All of those have gone......

....but I know there is still one Friendship being operated by Airworks Flight Operations.
I managed to snap it at Blenheim last year, but accidentally deleted it. One of the disadvantages of digital photography.
However, I found this almost exact replica of my photo on Wikimedia Commons.
The Friendship could always be identified by its characteristic ear-piercing whistle from its two Rolls Royce Darts.

Max's '58 Vauxhall Velox PA from 1958.
I liked the three piece rear screen of this model.

Later he had a '62 model, which by now had a one piece rear screen, a larger grille and smaller taillights.

1935 Morris 8 with luggage box.

1969 Triumph Herald Coupe, Morris 8 series E, Austin A55 or A60 van.
I remember as an apprentice mechanic making oneself scarce if an A60 van required an oil filter change.
A ridiculously time consuming operation.

A better view of the Herald Coupe.
Its a pity the photographer hadn't moved his angle a little and got the '49/'50/'51 Ford  (can't tell without seeing the front) in the frame.

1965 Prince Gloria.
Prince Motors was merged with Nissan in 1966, but the Prince name was still used on some models after this date.

1955 Austin A30.

Lovely 1936 Ford V8 Fordor.

I took this pic in Cambridge last week.
1948 Chrysler New Yorker.

So nice I had to take a rear shot as well.
It was LHD and just looked superb in gloss black, shining chrome and whitewall tyres.

Ohakea Air Show 1958

Max has dug up some superb old black and whites that he took at an air show at Ohakea in 1958.

The Boeing B-47 Stratojet was powered by six general Electric jets and was classed as a long-range Medium Bomber.

Military Cargo and Troop Transport duties was the role of the Douglas C-124 Globemaster, with its four Pratt & Whitney radials, which each cranked out some 3800hp.

One of Britains famous three "V" Bombers, the Vickers BK-1 Valiant was a long-range Medium Bomber which could be converted to photo-reconnaissance or in-flight refuelling duties.
Thrust was supplied by four Rolls Royce Avons.
The other two "V" Bombers were the Handley Page Victor and the Avro Vulcan, both of which only performed bomber roles.

The massive tail fin could only belong to a Lockheed Hercules.
This would probably be a C-130A version with four 1750hp Allison turboprops driving 3 blade props. compared with  the current RNZAF C-130H models which use Allisons of 4910hp and 4 blade props.
Although the difference in top speed between the early and late is not considerable, the maximum take-off weight has improved by almost 25%.

Boeing's KC-97 Stratofreighter was a development of the civilan Stratocruiser.
The KC-97  could be used in either Transport or Tanker roles.
The big 4 blade props. were driven by Pratt & Whitney radials of 3250hp.

Even More Classic Cars

A few more photos from the car museum.

1952 Plymouth Cranbrook Convertible.

1958 Nash Metropolitan. Also marketed by AMC under a Hudson name and Austin, for RHD markets.
Modern styling, but power train was 1200cc Austin A40 and three speed transmission.

Built from 1920-23, the ABC used a twin cylinder horizontally opposed engine.

The 1959 Cadillac 62 convertible had luxuries such as electric windows, powered seat adjustment, tinted glass and two speed windscreen wipers !

1950 Austin A40 Devon was a common car on NZ roads.
Probably not so commonly seen with white-wall tyres though.

1958 BMW Isetta could manage over 50mph with its 300cc single cylinder.

The museum also has a large collection of die-cast models.
There are some trucks here I would like to add to my collection.

The 1954 Ford Zephyr was the first of Ford UK's "Big Fords".
Despite some annoying idiosyncrasies (like the hockey stick exhaust manifold) they were a smooth and powerful car with their 2.2 litre 6. The Mk 2 models were even more powerful with a 2.5 litre engine, but still with a 3 speed box.
It wasn't until Mk 3 production that they got the 4 speed box they needed. Later Mk 3s were also offered with an option of floor change and separate front buckets seats, but I have never seen either of these options in NZ.

Rear view of the Maserati 3500 GT.

Early Bedfords left you in no doubt where they were built.
Unfortunately this Bedford bus was parked in a difficult position to get a decent photo.

1959 Messerschmitt, despite its jet fighter canopy, was powered by a 199cc 2 stroke single

Interesting 500cc twin cam single by Jawa in a speedway bike.

The museum house a small collection of motorcycles, but they are bunched too closely to photograph well.

Wolseley 1500 was  sister to the Riley One-Point-Five, but Riley was more sporty with twin carbs and a tachometer.

Oldest car in the museum is a 1906 Alldays and Onions with a 4 cylinder side valve power plant and genuine leather upholstery.

In a typical garage setting is the "world famous in NZ" aircraft engine powered Lycoming special.
The Lycoming raced in many hill climbs and track races in the 50s and early 60s.
Although once officially timed at 111mph, it wasn't at full throttle and was believed to be capable of around 140mph.

Another garage setting for the shaft drive Sunbeam motorcycle.

The cute 1967 NSU Spider was the first production car with a rotary engine.

Fiat 500s were a popular runabout in the 60s and 70s.
1972 500L on the left and 1967 500 Bambina on the right.
The Bambina name was used only for the New Zealand market.

The Vespa name is usually associated with scooters, but Piaggio also marketed this Vespa 400 sedan,
although it was built in France rather than Italy.