[SEL] Things You Find In A Scrapyard

[Listerdiesel]

Went looking for some largish cast iron wheels today for the Ruston
trolley. Something 15" - 18" diameter and 3" - 4" face would be nice,
but you take what you can find.

The owner and son were there in the office, and the Father took me
outside and showed me where to look, but he didn't think there'd me
much of interest in the two piles of scrap.

After a bit of rooting around, a cast iron rubber-tyred wheel and hub
and part of a support bracket came to light, then another and then a
3rd. Ideal size, albeit a bit heavy, but having the hub/bearings was a
bonus. A further search turned up a similar wheel, which was attached
to an axle, which was attached to a bl**dy great steel frame, and
another wheel and finally another axle. Looks like a big engine
trolley. It has a swivelling axle and is all complete.

Walking round a bit more, I came across the fourth wheel from the
first set I had found, so my cup runneth over!

The 4 loose wheels are 17" diameter X 4" face, with tyres bonded on to
take the OD to 20". After a bit of inspection, "FM CO 44" is found
cast into the spokes, and the 'Firestone' logo and a date code "28 44"
bonded into the rubber.

We now know that these are almost certainly from a Universal Carrier,
made by Ford Motor Co in Windsor, Ontario during WWII. That was what
was called here a Bren Gun Carrier.

Pictures are:

http://www.stationary-engine.co.uk/Misc/Wheels4.jpg
http://www.stationary-engine.co.uk/Misc/Wheels5.jpg

I will probably strip the rubber off and use them as plain cast iron
wheels, but we have a local company in St Ives that do traction engine
tyres, so I have asked them how much to put new rubbers on.

We have to go back for the trolley as that was buried under a few tons
of scrap machinery, but that looks to be a different wheel as far as
we can see. I'll do some pictures when we get it back home.

Peter
-- 
Peter A Forbes
Email: listerdiesel at gmail.com
http://www.oldengine.org/members/diesel
http://stationary-engine.co.uk
http://www.oldengine.co.uk