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By Jeff Lakaszcyck - Friday, December 16, 2011 4:09 PM
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This truck has had a few alterations since it was new. Photo from Dan Souday.
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By Brocky - Friday, December 16, 2011 4:10 PM
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Oshkosh (??)
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By ppsyclone - Friday, December 16, 2011 4:13 PM
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Pacific Dragon Wagon
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By Bill White - Friday, December 16, 2011 4:16 PM
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I go with Brian,
Pacific
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By clyde318 - Friday, December 16, 2011 4:21 PM
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I think Pacific as well. Military unit?
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By Stretch - Friday, December 16, 2011 4:32 PM
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Knuckey
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By TonyC - Friday, December 16, 2011 5:37 PM
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Sterling WWII vintage
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By Bruce Ohnstad - Friday, December 16, 2011 5:39 PM
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hey, that would be fun to drive! I'll join the Pacific club.
Bruce
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By Gordon_M - Friday, December 16, 2011 9:36 PM
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Oooh, that would be nice to have. They only made 1100 or so Dragon Wagons and the only formal conversions I've seen have been single big wheel all round units, plus the usual French drop-on cabs of whatever age.
That's based on the M26A1 or M26A2 as it has the full-length front bumper that was found on the soft cab version, rather than the shorter version seen on the original M26 armoured cab. I have a full set of original manuals for the M26 and M15 trailer sitting on my desk at home, waiting for the lottery to kick in. 1070 cu in Hall-Scott I seem to remember. I'll certainly borrow a copy of that image, and it would be even more interesting if it was a military conversion. |
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By JPark - Saturday, December 17, 2011 7:56 AM
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The latest MVPA Supply Line has an article about Wynns heavy haulage in Britian converting several M26's to work in 'civvy street' after WW2 and into the 1960s.
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By Jeff Lakaszcyck - Saturday, December 17, 2011 2:52 PM
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Pacific it is, and that is the Pacific Car and Foundry Company (now PACCAR), not the Canadian Pacifics that were built after the war. This Pacific has had extensive modifications, none of the original bodywork is present. The prototype for these tank transporter tractors was built by Knuckey, but because Knuckey did not have the production capacity needed by the military all the production models were built by PACCAR. Knuckey continued to supply the dual chain drive bogies these trucks are famous for. The armored version of these trucks was the M26; the later "softskin" version was the M26A1. Our WAI truck has a cummins emblem on the front; the original engine in these trucks was a Hall-Scott 440 Invader. Brian Kelly had this 1st. Thanks to Dan Souday for the WAI photo. The 3rd pic is from the Life Magazine Collection and was taken in France after the war. And the last one is one of my favorites.
Gordon, your comment on the bumpers is interesting, but I've looked at photos of of both versions and don't see much difference.
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By Gordon_M - Saturday, December 17, 2011 10:25 PM
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Nice pics there Jeff, never seen the NASA one before.
Front bumper length then. Look at the image you have in the list where there is an armoured cab in front of a soft cab. Look at the front cab edges of the armoured cab below the windscreen and see how they taper in for that chiselled look? Then look at the same cab front edges below the screen on the soft cab behind it - they are square running down to the bumper corners. The bumper on the armoured cab, when fitted to the soft cab, comes up 3 to 4" short at each side, so it is relatively easy to tell whether a re-cabbed / reworked M26 series started as armoured or soft cab just by the length of the front bumper. I know three of those in that picture belonged to the Cadman brothers at one time ( Rex runs the big military War & Peace Show in Beltring, Kent, England ) and the fourth one, right at the front, has a UK registration painted on the bumper too. I say relatively, as with all things military there is a twist or two. The original production was armoured cab, 12 volt, M26 Second bite was soft cab, 12 volt, M26A1 Third bite was soft cab, 24 volt, M26A2 The wrinkle is that some of the armoured cab M26 trucks were rebuilt as either ( or both ) M26A1 and M26A2 soft cabs, so apart from a production total ( don't have it to hand, but it is 1140 or so ) there is no way to tell if a truck should have an armoured or soft cab, or 12 / 24 volts, based solely on the chassis number. I suspect that production changed from armoured to soft cab on the line some time 44/45, and that later a bunch were rebuilt as soft cab 24 volt trucks for Korea, but no way to know for sure. yes, you're right, more detail than is needed - back to today's WAI. One of these days you are going to post something only I can answer, but I'm 6 to 8 hours down the time line from most of you so I'm always a day late and a Dollar short.
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By patgxo - Saturday, December 17, 2011 10:42 PM
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In France after WW2 , a lot of this Pacific was used for heavy haulage transport, generaly the cabs was rebuilt
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By Gordon_M - Saturday, December 17, 2011 11:17 PM
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the red and white one at the front in the image above is exactly the same cab as Jeff's image of the dump truck that heads up this thread .... ?
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By patgxo - Sunday, December 18, 2011 12:02 AM
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Excatly Gordon, it's the same manufacturer ( Decauville from Lille ) who has rebuilt the both
Patrick
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By Gordon_M - Sunday, December 18, 2011 1:39 AM
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Thanks Patrick,
I saw the dump truck and just assumed ( wrongly .... ) that it had been converted in the US.
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By Jeff Lakaszcyck - Sunday, December 18, 2011 5:09 AM
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Our WAI photo was also in this ad.
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By TonyC - Sunday, December 18, 2011 7:39 AM
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http://youtu.be/CNTyf4Zsmsc
and this: http://youtu.be/IIGYQTCY-5w
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By wc62 - Sunday, December 18, 2011 10:34 AM
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Gordon & Patrick,
The WAI truck is a civil conversion by Decauville. The red & white half cab truck (posted by Patrick) belonged to the French Electrical Company, this company got several of M26A1 recab or not to move heavy transformers or turbines.
Most of the French recab were done by Geneva, Pelpel & Willeme. In Nederlands/dutchland recab was done by Van Twist.
At least, one truck was recab in Germany & a new Mercedes engine was installed.
In UK, Wynns got 6 of those baby recab.
An other civil conversion appeared in 70s in the States, done by Lockheed Ground Vehicle System; the dual tandem rear axles were fitted only with single wheel instead of dual. But the most surprising modification was on the front, were a second front axle was installed with twin steer.
Gordon, if you are looking for an M26 Dragon truck as a Xmas gift; just let me know, a junkyard got a dozen in a pretty/fair good condition ready to ship. Before, you should check your carport size and be sure that small Scottish windings & tortuous roads will let it go away.
Be carefull, DHL wont handle/deliver it in one day schedule - Need to hurry if you want it under the Xmas tree.
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By Gordon_M - Monday, December 19, 2011 12:37 AM
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Thanks Dan, given the chance I'd take the lot but I fear it is not to be. They are getting very popular here in Europe and all the ex-French army ones that were lying around have been snapped up. If you can get that dozen for scrap price you'll have about 1% of the total production right there.
I don't know why, but unusually for me I've always preferred the soft cab version. I think replacing the armoured cab with a soft cab removes almost ten tons from the weight, and greatly reduces the other Pacific problem of broken front axle. Despite being unbraked that front axle was prone to give when grossed to about 80+ tons and the driver stamped on the brake
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By patgxo - Monday, December 19, 2011 2:08 AM
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Thanks Dan for your very complete explainations:
about red and white PACIFIC recab ,this truck belonged to SITCA DEWASNE company for the French Electrical Company ( Electricité De France ) but French Electrical Company also had their own trucks in orange livery and original recab .
Patrick France
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