Well done Oily your page is one of the first I look at [emoji1303]
And me! Well done, Oily.
Congratulations on reaching 500 pages oily.
Cheers, Leyland 600
Well done Oily,a very popular thread,congratulations on reaching 500.
David
oiltreader:
A big thanks to all out there who have got this thread to 500 pages, all the photos and the craic from here and abroad, not forgetting the detailed info input from the experts
Oily
Well done Oily. A great thread. Great craic.
Johnny
Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk
DEANB:
Diamond T.wish my dad was still alive he would love this forum, especially this info on diamondTs as he drove these for 5 yrs in WW2 in north africa and italy he told me some funny stories of that time but nothing serious if you get my drift
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Congratulations on the big 500 Oily. A good mix. Harvey
Congrats on reaching Page 500 Sir!
It’s got to 500 pages because it’s good, daily visit from me. A example…I’d never even heard of an Atky Omega until it was posted on here, my experience with Atky’s is a 150 Gardner and a 6 speed DB box.
Well done sir.
Thanks for all the plaudits lads but it is a joint effort and for those of my age group by lads I mean from the neck up cos if your like me anything below that is defo not lad like anymore:lol: 
Oily
Thanks to DEANB for the pic fredm mentions Diamond Ts so a couple or three.
Congratulations Oily a great thread. Looking at the Hayes Logger, I recall an article few years ago about a Hayes that was still being used as a heavy hauler, it was about 40years old and still a vital part of the fleet. I think the article may have appeared in Classic Commercial but I could be wrong. Regards Kev.
fredm:
DEANB:
Diamond T.wish my dad was still alive he would love this forum, especially this info on diamondTs as he drove these for 5 yrs in WW2 in north africa and italy he told me some funny stories of that time but nothing serious if you get my drift.
This may be of intrest Fred / Oily.
Click on page twice to read.
My very first job when I left school in 1970 was in the workshop at BRS TVTE Gateshead. Jus before I started the depot had acquired a Diamond T wrecker complete with Holmes gear. Accompanied a couple of different fitters on breakdowns and I think the max speed was 23 mph, bit of a draw back when we had to tow one in from Scotch Corner. Another time we had to rescue a fully loaded Seddon 32 tonner which had come to grief on the steepest part of Watergate bank between Lobley Hill and Sunniside on the way up to Consett.
Put the tow bar on and away we went, couldn’t tell the difference between solo and towing, that thing would pull a street of houses down.
Tyneside.
A little more info on the Diamond-T in military use, the models 980 and 981 were produced from 1941-45 to supplement the shortage of the British Army’s Scammell Pioneer tank transporters, Britain had approached US manufacturers to produce a spec for a 40 Ton diesel engine tractor and one that could be put into production straight away. Diamond T was able to answer this with a tractor based on their civilian 12 Ton model 512, a 6x4 conventional design, this had already been used by the Canadians for their Diamond T 967/975 models. The Hercules DFXE diesel engine was chosen so the British had some fuel compatibility with the Gardner engined Pioneers as the US generally preferred gasoline engines. The first production model the 980 was designed to haul the 40 Ton British Crane or British Trailers multi wheel trailers, (presumably the Dyson trailers came in at a later period) or the US 45 Ton Fruehauf or Winter-Weiss types. The model 981 was introduced 1942-43 and the only main difference externally with this to the previous model was the winch fairlead rollers on the nearside of the bumper, this now allowed the vehicle to recover tanks. An open cab design was introduced in 1943 to reduce the need for material and lower the shipping height. Around 6,500 Diamond T tractors had been built by 1945 and the British Army had 2,255 of these and many remained in service well into the 50’s until replaced by the Mighty Antar and re-engined with the Rolls Royce C6NFL-143 inline six diesel engine. As we know many of these ex service vehicles worked on for many more years in civilian guise. Franky.
DEANB:
fredm:
DEANB:
Diamond T.wish my dad was still alive he would love this forum, especially this info on diamondTs as he drove these for 5 yrs in WW2 in north africa and italy he told me some funny stories of that time but nothing serious if you get my drift.
This may be of intrest Fred / Oily.
Click on page twice to read.
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Cheers for the article Dean, nice one
For Fred, tyneside, Franky and others this is worth a look, beautifully restored Hercules powered Diamond T.
youtube.com/watch?v=RoUnh2hGNq8
Oily
oiltreader:
DEANB:
fredm:
DEANB:
Diamond T.wish my dad was still alive he would love this forum, especially this info on diamondTs as he drove these for 5 yrs in WW2 in north africa and italy he told me some funny stories of that time but nothing serious if you get my drift.
This may be of intrest Fred / Oily.
Click on page twice to read.
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Cheers for the article Dean, nice one
For Fred, tyneside, Franky and others this is worth a look, beautifully restored Hercules powered Diamond T.
youtube.com/watch?v=RoUnh2hGNq8
Oily
thats great cheers gents, my dad had a lot of respect for them and especially the hercules engine, him and his mate used to put bully beef tins on the exhaust manifold to warm them up, sometimes they got forgot and blew up and smothered the engine compartment with bully beef, its funny in civvy life after the war dad only drove rigids and never went in for the big stuff maybe he had enough of it after the desert and mountain roads in italy, incidently he was at monte cassino as well , thanks again chaps, fredm
DEANB:
A mighty contractor ! With a F88 cab.0
i think that is a HHT, one of Heanors own built tractors.
240 Gardner:
Frankydobo:
I would think the Omega was directed more at the Oil Industry for export to the Middle East in particular rather than an attempt to gain MoD orders for Tank Transporters, the build spec isn’t anything the MoD would require for that. Thornycroft also produced the Antar Sandmaster for the same type of work, only the cab resembled the Tank Transporter model the rest of the build was similar to the Omega, 21.00 x 25 Sand Tyres and with some being fitted with a huge 900 US gallon fuel tank behind the cab in an inverted U shape for long distance desert travel. Franky.Omega was built specifically to the order of Aramco, because currency restrictions meant that they were unable to buy any new American vehicles to replace their Kenworths. According to Atkinson’s own history, published in 1967, it was further currency restrictions that killed off the project after only seven were built.
I have an original period report of the testing carried out at Chobham in 1958 by Aramco engineers on Omegas 2 & 3 - by all accounts, the vehicle performed well.
Very intresting post Chris thanks for popping that on. Here is a bit more about the Omega.
Click on page twice to read.
Congratulations on the milestone, lots of great pics on here. 