Vintage MT
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Although Stan isn't an MT Driver we thought we'd 'post' a copy of an email we recently received.
(Note the site crest and his age).
Update 25.02.04:
Sadly, Stan Michael (PIP) Warren, Died 4.15 am, 3rd February 2004
Hello
Guys,
Had to laugh out
loud when I piped your logo Pist'n Broke!!!!, did me good having just
recovered from a bout of the lurgi (or something) You have a great site
there old lad, I had a good shufti, but must say that my old eyes find
your small pics a bit of a handicap, but I am 91 years old, although folks don't believe it.
Although I wasn't MT, I took the course for drivers ready for the 2nd
front at Pwhelli, cant spell that so lets say North Wales, then at
Blackpool where we had the big stuff, scared the shavings out of me having
to reverse a crane up a narrow ramp, but I made it. I volunteered for the
course, although I already held a licence, so it was like a con course, as
a result, I had a Thorney to take up through France, and was glad to be
shut of it at Brussels!, now I would not drive a pedal car !!
Regards
Stan Warren
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Dear
Both
Great site, some time ago I sent some stories to a RAF News advert for RAF tales, have heard nothing since so here they are,
In 1957 they decided to build a radar station on the top of Tai Mo Shan
(19,000ft) in the new territories, Hong Kong.
Most of the RAF Sek Kong drivers, now at Kai Tak, were involved.
Paddy Ferelli took a 10 ton Coles up to the top, no mean feat, as the road was a jeep
track, from the road (Twisk) it was five miles to the top, but as the crow flies it was only one mile.
I took several bits up on a Bedford RL tipper, past the front of the tipper you can see the runway of RAF Sek Kong, with China in the background.
Nine years later I was with 2 MT and a fellow driver showed me some photo's of what was left of the crane, It was up there some time then someone was bringing it
down, missed a gear, lost control, and jumped out of the cab, and the crane found
it's own way down.
Cliff
Lowe
Added:
18/09/08
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Hi Ian,
Came across your MT drivers website while trying to find information about 117 Signals Unit in Hong Kong.
The construction of the Tai Mo Shan radar site was mentioned in one of the e-mails on display. I was a Cpl Aerial Erector and helped to
build the site. There were two Bedford tipper lorries which delivered all the steelwork etc to the site up a very narrow and hairy track, the two drivers were
great, carefully dumping the loads of steel exactly where we asked thus saving us a lot of sweat and toil.
We, the
construction guys, were taken up there every day from RAF Kai Tak in the Tai Mo Shan Express, a Bedford 3 tonner driven by our MT driver
Cpl Jim Cook who also operated the crane. The journey up and down the mountain was very hair-raising with lots of shunting to get the 3 tonner around the hairpin corners, often with sheer-drops below. Jim was a brilliant driver and could work wonders with the crane to
get the girders into place for us.
The crane often had to be moved from one tower to the other along a steep and winding rough track which had to be done with the crane reversing down very slowly. Towards the end of the job Jim took a few days leave to get married and a new driver was sent to operate the crane for us. He knew it all!!! No creeping down for him. Just shoved it into gear and set off next thing it started sliding and over the side it went. He was lucky not to be killed.
The crane was wrecked. Jim went ballistic when he heard about it, up there for
Months and not so much as a scratch. Fortunately most of the heavy lifting was done by then.
Attached are a few photographs which may be of interest.
Happy days
Regards,
Eddie
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Added:
10/01/12
In
relation to the above incident Terry Fowler sent in these extracts from
his service history.
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I
was then posted to Hong Kong (1955-56?) where we built a radar set
on Mt Davis from a kit of parts supplied by the Americans so that
we could spy on Chinese planes and pass the information on to an
analysis unit in Australia. The radar was built on an old gun
emplacement that was accessed by two 45-degree ramps. The kit was
dragged to the top of these ramps using a Scammell tank recovery
vehicle to winch up three-ton lorries to the top.
One
day a clever RAOC driver decided to drive down the ramp with an
empty three tonner in front of the Scammell. This was fine until
the Scammell dropped out of gear and they ended up going down
relying on the Scammell's brakes. Fortunately the RAF driver in
the three tonner did not touch his brakes otherwise it would have
jack-knifed and they would have ended up at the bottom of a cliff.
A
party of airmen went out on a liberty run in a three-ton lorry to
go swimming. I was 'duty officer' and received a phone call to say
that the vehicle had been in an accident. It turned out that the
bed of the lorry had slammed against a cliff side and all the
bolts securing the lorry bed were sheered off, depositing the
lorry bed and the airmen on the road, no injuries thankfully.
Regards
Terry
Fowler (ex SGT) |
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MT Section. Royal Air Force Stradishall 1954
We were the best at something ??
Reason for the inane grins, someone had just let rip a great loud one
(or put another way had broken wind)
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The first picture below is line up of some of the Bedford QL 950 gal refuellers on the new hard standing extension of the MT yard.
The hard standing was the only thing left in 1989 of the MT section when I paid a visit to Stradishall, now called HMP Prison
Highpoint, (in my other life as a prison officer)
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Bedford QL 950 gal |
AEC Mamoth Major |
AEC Matador |
Ford
Phoenix
(a cow to drive) |
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Hippo's RAF Quedgley 1967 all vehicles are 2 MT |
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Group
photo is RAF Old Sarum 1964 [safe driving award] the last photo is
of ' Blodwyn' my crane, the last screw jib in the RAF, a
Leyland Retriever went for sale and we had a modern AEC COLES That
would not go round the tight 1912 little camp roads.
RAF
Sek Kong lazy vehicles 1956 All horizontal instead of vertical............. Still it is
China !
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Standard
Vanguard-
Taff Boyce in a borrowed overcoat. |
Austin
one tonner -Tai Po Road. |
Bedford
RL- Castle Peak Road |
B team,
RAF Abingdon refuelling flight 1964ish |
Cliff Lowe
Lots more from Cliff in MT Tales |
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This
fine selection was sent in by Gerald
Paul taken during his time as an MT Driver at RAF Ahlhorn in Germany
from 1956 - 1958. Most of his time at Ahlhorn was spent as Sick
Quarters Driver. When the camp was being handed over to the
Germans he was posted to RAF Gutersloh to finish his service.
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| Bussing |
Crashed German F84 Thunderstreak |
Crashed Opel Kapitan driven by Taffy Challenger |
Refueller |
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| RAF Ahlhorn Demob Party |
RAF Ahlhorn Officers Mess |
RAF Ahlhorn
Refuelling
Flt |
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| RAF Ahlhorn Refuelling
Vehicles |
RAF Ahlhorn Sick
Quarters |
RAF Fassberg MT
Drivers |
Sylt Sqn Refueller Drivers, Myself, Moby Whale and Granville
Kershaw |
Came across your
page through reading the 'RAF NEWS' a great page.
Just thought that
you may like to see a pic of me and my trusty 'Thorny' at RAF Locking in
1951, I used locking as a stop over when I was on a task running between
Exeter and Lytham St Annes, a really long distance run in those days, I
was on this task for about two months.
At No 2 Mt Company
once we managed to get away from RAF Bicester which was 40 Group HQ's,
and a real bull camp,( in fact our CO said if we came back to Bicester
on a Monday, we were not fit to be in 2MT as he could not get us off kit
inspection on a Tuesday morning) we did not know when we would return,
as once a task was finished we would get another task from what ever
movements control was nearest to us.
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