I live near the A50 and in the 60’s about 11p.m I used to hear Elsbey’s Foden coming up Red Hill at Doveridge.Didn’t go to sleep until she went on it’s way.Better than a bedtime story.
rastone:
I live near the A50 and in the 60’s about 11p.m I used to hear Elsbey’s Foden coming up Red Hill at Doveridge.Didn’t go to sleep until she went on it’s way.Better than a bedtime story.
Better than a bedtime story, I like that 
RJ
Ralph drove that little S20 Foden of Sellers and Kent from new, it had the four pot two stroke fitted and was a regular in Ballidon quarry where I worked. Before my time there but when Ballidon were doing a lot of lime spreading, and before ramps were used, they carried lime on dropsiders and shovelled it off into the spreaders and that was used a lot on that work with the sides fitted. He carted mostly bagged lime when I worked there though, possibly blocks as well, so it worked well into the 1970’s and I assume was only taken off the road when Ralph retired? I believe it is still around?
Pete.
windrush:
Ralph drove that little S20 Foden of Sellers and Kent from new, it had the four pot two stroke fitted and was a regular in Ballidon quarry where I worked. Before my time there but when Ballidon were doing a lot of lime spreading, and before ramps were used, they carried lime on dropsiders and shovelled it off into the spreaders and that was used a lot on that work with the sides fitted. He carted mostly bagged lime when I worked there though, possibly blocks as well, so it worked well into the 1970’s and I assume was only taken off the road when Ralph retired? I believe it is still around?Pete.
Yes Ralph was a very fussy bloke and Fred Kent told me he didn’t like anybody else to drive it.I sold him a beautiful Wolsely saloon in Maroon when we were able to sell cars aswell as Commercials ( in fact tractors too ) It took him about an hour to make his mind up.
Tony
hi 1st post
1962 and i was 18 and i was sent to avonmouth docks in a 3ton bmc box van A4 in those days no M4 then so take a overnight bag not able to load until next day so found some digs just outside the docks in a cafe good food but boy was the bed cold and damp next morning frost and ice and one of the guys had a S20 to me big wheels so stayed and watched as they got it started one guy went to the front and just to the near side of the rad put in what looked to me a 12 bore shot gun cartridge
next thing the driver pressed the starter the guy round the front did something there was a bang and the Foden started just like that never seen that done since could that have been a 2 stroke i have asked a few lads over the years and nobody had any ideas i have driven a few Fodens over the years but with ■■■■■■■■ 220 engines
captain1:
hi 1st post
1962 and i was 18 and i was sent to avonmouth docks in a 3ton bmc box van A4 in those days no M4 then so take a overnight bag not able to load until next day so found some digs just outside the docks in a cafe good food but boy was the bed cold and damp next morning frost and ice and one of the guys had a S20 to me big wheels so stayed and watched as they got it started one guy went to the front and just to the near side of the rad put in what looked to me a 12 bore shot gun cartridge
next thing the driver pressed the starter the guy round the front did something there was a bang and the Foden started just like that never seen that done since could that have been a 2 stroke i have asked a few lads over the years and nobody had any ideas i have driven a few Fodens over the years but with ■■■■■■■■ 220 engines
Sounds like a cartridge starter to me. These were cordite cartridges that supplied the force of a blast to spin the engine to start. I have never seen one.
The Coffman starter was the most often used and consisted of a cordite blank cartridge to power down a piston that was screw connected to the main engine to turn it over, some even fired directly onto one of the engines pistons. Aircraft and Military vehicles used them mainly for the radial engines. Some variants of the Spitfire used these too. If anyone recalls the film Flight of the Phoenix, James Stewart as the pilot uses some to start the plane they built from a crashed one in the desert, good film. This could have been a 2 Stroke or a Gardner in the S20, the cartridge assisted the engines main electrical starter especially on cold mornings, the same method could be used when bump starting as the clutch was engaged the driver turned the starter at the same time and the engine usually fired up no problems unless of course there was other faults stopping this. Franky.
^^^^^^^^
Doesn’t the Field Marshall tractor engine start with a cartridge?
gingerfold:
^^^^^^^^
Doesn’t the Field Marshall tractor engine start with a cartridge?
Yes, that’s the easy way. However…a friend of mine helped out on a farm as a youngster and the farmer instructed his son and my friend to start the Field Marshal up, both lads were pre teen I believe? Anyway, being a farmer ( ) he didn’t buy cartridges but started it on the handle. The machine was in a newish barn, the lads fitted the handle and both swung it and it started. Unfortunately the handle stuck on the shaft, the lads dived for cover and watched the handle fly off and vanish through the barn roof…then a few seconds later it came back through the roof further along! The farmer bought cartridges after that… 
Pete.
gingerfold:
^^^^^^^^
Doesn’t the Field Marshall tractor engine start with a cartridge?
You can start them in 2 ways, as you rightly say you can put a starting cartridge in, hit it then off you go, the other way is a bit more complicated, set fire to a special lighting paper & put it in a chamber at the front of the engine, set the decompressor then wind the starting handle, as you wind the handle the decompressor flicks over & then it’s time to pull the starting handle out in case it kicks back & breaks your arm.
youtube.com/watch?v=bg0-s7NzN3Q
OR
youtube.com/watch?v=4K1OPmYbaDg
Single cylinder 2 stroke diesel engine
Those lighting papers still appear on stalls at rallies nowadays Robert, surprising just how many are still around. Nigel Wilde’s late father Graham used to tow a threshing set around the Peaks with one back in the fifties and he loved them! It was replaced with a tvo Nuffield which Nigel still rallies, to get the set up ‘the scratter’ out of Ashford towards Monsal Head Graham used to hang a claw hammer on the Nuffield’s governor and he said all the following traffic vanished in the smoke!!
Pete.
windrush:
Those lighting papers still appear on stalls at rallies nowadays Robert, surprising just how many are still around. Nigel Wilde’s late father Graham used to tow a threshing set around the Peaks with one back in the fifties and he loved them! It was replaced with a tvo Nuffield which Nigel still rallies, to get the set up ‘the scratter’ out of Ashford towards Monsal Head Graham used to hang a claw hammer on the Nuffield’s governor and he said all the following traffic vanished in the smoke!!Pete.
I started Maurice Dean’s Field Marshal at Elvaston Steam Rally a few years ago Pete, he couldn’t emphasise enough the importance of pulling the starting handle out as the decompressor dropped back over, he said if it kicked back it WOULD break your arm,
I’ve got a single cylinder Armstrong Siddeley 8hp which drives my saw bench, the handle takes some turning on that on a cold morning but I’ve never had it try to break my arm YET!!!
I think that’s probably enough posting now for another 12 months, back into hibernation, what do you think?
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Aye, I suppose you have almost exhausted your vocabulary by now so it’s time for a rest!
Pete.
hi
i had a few Gardners 180 240 and never had a problem starting on the coldest morning never even used the decompress er a lot of smoke though unlike the ■■■■■■■■ that were addicted to easy start so back to the Foden 2 stroke were thy fitted with this cartridge system ? it realy did work well that morning i dont rember a lot of smoke or noise but it was about 58 years ago and i was as green as grass then
please tell me i have not been dreaming all these years
john
captain1:
hi
i had a few Gardners 180 240 and never had a problem starting on the coldest morning never even used the decompress er a lot of smoke though unlike the ■■■■■■■■ that were addicted to easy start so back to the Foden 2 stroke were thy fitted with this cartridge system ? it realy did work well that morning i dont rember a lot of smoke or noise but it was about 58 years ago and i was as green as grass then
please tell me i have not been dreaming all these years
john
I hadn’t ever heard of the Foden having a cartridge starter John, but then I didn’t have much to do with them?
Pete.
ramone:
Carryfast:
gingerfold:
It’s interesting that Pete’s experience of performance from Foden Two-stroke drivers in his neck of the woods is at odds with the experiences of former drivers I knew. Without exception they told me that hill climbing fully loaded wasn’t the strong suit of the two-stroke. One of these drivers worked for J.W. Whewell of Radcliffe, a chemicals company, and they had a couple of Foden six-wheeler rigids with Two-stroke engines. They were hellish noisy things I remember.A 5 litre engine struggles in anything heavier than a 4 wheeler who would have thought it.It’s a bit like Bedford expecting the 6v71 to work in a 32 tonner.It’s impossible to understand the thought process of the designers and managements in the day.
The F86 and F7s worked at 32 tons and they were only 6.7 litre
Plenty of F7s ran at 38 tons. I think they were turning out 240hp from the TD7 by that time, and they weren’t the slowest yokes by any means.
1970commer:
windrush:
Those lighting papers still appear on stalls at rallies nowadays Robert, surprising just how many are still around. Nigel Wilde’s late father Graham used to tow a threshing set around the Peaks with one back in the fifties and he loved them! It was replaced with a tvo Nuffield which Nigel still rallies, to get the set up ‘the scratter’ out of Ashford towards Monsal Head Graham used to hang a claw hammer on the Nuffield’s governor and he said all the following traffic vanished in the smoke!!Pete.
I started Maurice Dean’s Field Marshal at Elvaston Steam Rally a few years ago Pete, he couldn’t emphasise enough the importance of pulling the starting handle out as the decompressor dropped back over, he said if it kicked back it WOULD break your arm,
I’ve got a single cylinder Armstrong Siddeley 8hp which drives my saw bench, the handle takes some turning on that on a cold morning but I’ve never had it try to break my arm YET!!!
I think that’s probably enough posting now for another 12 months, back into hibernation, what do you think?
There was a farmer mate of mine had a two stroke Foden as a stand by generator
