Alec Bray
Do you recognise this vehicle?
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I thought not …
This vehicle was exhibited at the Strumpshaw Hall Steam Museum Steam Rally over this last Bank Holiday weekend (27 May 2017 to 29 May 2017).
I am afraid that I took the owners (Brian and Barbara Morgan to task for the rather strange imitation Marconi Mark 3 (where is the lens change handle? etc) and mounting on the roof, but surely there is more to be said about this vehicle (but not being an OB person, what do I know?)!
According to the information sheet that the owners have, this was a BBC OB generator van:
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Brian said that he had had a long chat with Stan Bale about this vehicle (for some info about Stan Bale see: http://tech-ops.co.uk/next/more-personalities-the-crew/ )
Brian said that he had approached “official” BBC sources for information about this vehicle, its history and use, but had absolutely no help from there – basically a brush off.. I wondered in any of us could provide the current owners with more information about this vehicle, its use in OBs – and stories about it and its companion vehicles..
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Here is a picture of the vehicle in original BBC ownership:
and another picture showing it when the current owners purchased it:
(I hope that the owners will not object to these pictures being shown here – and apologies for any distortion – I took a quick photo of their display panel and have tried to compensate for various distortions in my original image.).
The owners have rebuilt the body work from scratch – and have done a very fine job on the paintwork – it’s a very good match for what I remember of the BBC OB green and grey, and they have had help from vehicle restoration enthusiasts on the web to help get this good colour match.
I am pretty sure that the genny did not have an IO camera mounted on its roof! I can’t imagine what the combination of vibration and magnetic fields would do to an Image Orthicon! The trouble is, the owner fancies mounting a seat on top as well – à la Roving Eye!
The inside is no longer a genny but a small food bar, used to raise money for charity.
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Albert Barber
Even the colours make you feel proud… silly really.
Mike Jordan
This was BBC OB P4 (power van number 4): the BBC number on the side A905 was BBC code for an Austin vehicle with registration number 905.
Similarly, my first radio Link vehicle was 124A which was also an Austin – VLW124
I ran this past Derek Hooper who was Garage Workshop manager at KA and this is reply:-
“… Yes, I’ve seen pictures of this vehicle before and like you realised it would not have had a camera or any tech. kit other than power cable. I have scant info on vehicles this age but after the chassis (no.255874) had been ordered, probably late 1954, it was sent to be built under scheme no. 2/7909 and allocated the under construction number of UC 11. This was authorised on 26/1/55. It was to become Power 4 (P.4.).
There wasn’t any other vehicles like it as the info board suggests but the preceding reg no’s include a batch of six Austin Tel OB links trucks and four Austin Tel OB tenders.
If P4 was at the 1966 World Cup and Churchill’s funeral l would guess it was London based. It would have been at the Palace of Arts then Kendal Ave before being disposed of in 1968 as the owner mentioned. Probably couldn’t power up the newly converted colour scanners and definitely not the type 2s then under design/build.
When I started at K.A. in 1973, the oldest Power van we had on site was P.6. which again was an Austin. It was rarely used and ended life ‘donating’ its Genny to a transmitter station in Yorkshire, I believe. The others were in regular use – P.7. an Austin FGK and P.8. and P.9. which were both Bedfords. After P.10.came along it was decided not to build large gennys any more and instead hire in as required.
Manchester w/shops were running either P.3. or P.5. as a historic vehicle. I’ve no idea what happened to it when they closed down. …”
Tony Crake
…. and here is a photo of P10: Thruxton Circuit April 1980:
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The “scanner” truck was brand new and we had spent the previous months getting it all to work …this was its first real outing.
The “power van” was also a newish item (as I recall): P10 power generator unit. The P10 vehicle has a Bedford TK cab and the actual generator was a Volvo, a great thing to drive apparently.
Dave Mundy
Spotted by my son at the annual Goodwood Revival 10th September 2017
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——
But that is not the only vehicle sporting some strange “equipment” …
Dave Mundy
Again spotted by my son at the Goodwood Revival 10th September 2017:
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My son sent me the picture because I used to own a posh version of ‘Noddy’ with two-tone grey/green livery and streamlined panniers.
John Howell
I love the Noddy bike, also known as ‘The Silent LE’ – police could cruise around and surprise villains up to no good, but give chase……noooo !
What’s the tele ‘F’ got to do with anything?
Mike Jordan
It must have needed a very long cable for the Field telephone on the back of the bike to keep in touch with HQ!
It looks like a primitive RT set using the fone as the mic/speaker. There is definitely the 4pin going to the handset with possible a twig aerial sticking up behind and a cable going into the pannier. A bit fake as I am sure they never used gaffer tape to cover the cables.
Not unlike our marathon rigs with some cameraman tweaking!
Marathon 1987 Bike:
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I only have a more modern Field Telephone in my loft next to the nice BBC wooden boxed EBU PPM:
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EBU PPM
Geoff Fletcher
For all our members interested in vintage transport, here is a video I received from my old school friend Bill Morris. He has spent the last ten years restoring his father’s 1926 H.R.D.80 motorbike after its 40 years in storage, and this is him trying it out at High Ercall airfield in Shropshire.
HRD at High Ercall
John Howell
I envy him, nothing to beat the sound of a big ‘one lunger’. Having said that, I owned a Scott Flying Squirrel for over 40 years and that’s a twin cylinder two stroke, a different sound altogether. Regrettably I didn’t record it before I sold it!
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Geoff Fletcher
A fine looking machine. It must have been quite a blow to part with it.
I would have liked to have heard it running.
Mike Jordan
Lets hope it has a proper exhaust pipe/silencer, unlike many around here (all cc) who drill out the silencer to make them horrendously noisy as they do wheelies up the main road and then have a “spare” working one to put on for the MOT!
Nick Ware
That’s a mega-serious problem where I live. So bad in fact, that I literally pray for wet rainy weekends in the Summer months. We’re in a village that’s a rat-run from M25 jct 10 up to Newlands Corner. The latter is a regular meeting point for literally hundreds of the motor cyclists. Added to which a rendezvous point is a Shell petrol station directly opposite our house. Why do they sit there twisting the throttle when standing still? No way, legal exhausts, trust me – I have a son with a bike!
And if that’s not enough, it’s the sort of area where every third or fourth house has a sports car. Some of them have fuel injection directly into the exhaust pipe to create a series of gunshots at every gear change.
It’s so unfair and so unnecessary.
Bernie Newnham
Took my Cobra to Surrey Sports Cars to get it tuned. After the IVA test the first thing you do is take out the wire wool jammed into the exhausts. Not too noisy, but beyond the IVA limit. Sorry to have disturbed you.
Mike Giles
We also get deafened down here in the Dorking area by motor bikers doing the ton on a 50mph stretch. Probably some of the same lot that Nick mentioned on their way to Newlands Corner. Amazingly, the police down here have no equipment for measuring exhaust noise levels on the road, but I’m assured that it’s untrue that they will not give chase, if needs be, for fear that the offender will fall off and hurt him (or her) self!
John Howell
When I had restored my Flying Squirrel in 1968 I was lucky to obtain a works exhaust pipe and silencer. It seemed to be rather noisy so I asked at the local police station how I might have it checked. They said they couldn’t help but I would find out soon enough when I had been stopped for excessive noise.
Sometime later it got even louder during a fast run when the oil accumulated in the silencer caught fire and all the fibreglass stuffing departed in showers of sparks.
Geoff Fletcher
Bill just restored his dad’s old motorbike and he took it to a disused airfield, away from Joe Public, to avoid any possible problems with regulations as he wants it to be in as original condition as possible. The exhaust noise is as you hear it but he won’t be using it on public roads.
Mike Jordan
We “grumbling old gits” never meant anything personally but we all like a prompt to get up on our high horses about current anti-social behaviour displayed nowadays which upsets us all when carried out in unsuitable places.
Peter Cook
You should try going to Italy. It seems that despite EU regulations, silencers or mufflers are not standard fittings on any motorbikes there. On a recent holiday in Tuscany we had a balcony with a wonderful view, but it was on a hillside above a busy road. As well as the sound of lorries climbing a steep hill we listened to these bikes which seemed always to journey in convoys.
The video of the restored motorbike was very impressive especially as the first time I viewed it (in VLC Media player) the images were rotated 90 deg clockwise and the bike was climbing vertically. It was ok when I opened in QuickTime. Does anyone know how to rotate video in VLC?
Nick Ware
Sports car moaner, and former Spitfire owner/lover, I’m reminded of this magic moment:
Director to Spitfire pilot (a BA 747 Captain in his day job):
“Please don’t keep looking at the camera!”
Our pilot (Red Arrows team pilot):
“If he doesn’t keep looking at the camera, we’ll all die!”
This pic on a wide lens, door off, his wing tip tucked in behind ours. Happy days!
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Pat Heigham
Couple of things:
I worked as sound recordist on a pilot training video for an outfit based at Bedford airport (I think it was CabAir).
We fitted lipstick cameras on one wingtip and on the top of the tail fin. A Betacam inside was showing the instrument panel, and the edited version showed the attitude of the aircraft compared to the actual view from the wing/fin cameras. They reckoned it was the best instructional video, yet.
My claim to fame was that I was deputised as the student pilot, and flew the aircraft from the left-hand seat, while being filmed from a second camera in a Jet Ranger alongside.
Wasn’t allowed to land it, though!
I did fly my cameraman’s Cessna 414 across the channel. This aircraft was used extensively for European shoots, but one night we were so late that Fairoaks was closed, and the alternative destination
was Heathrow!
I remember well, flying onto a runway that seemed endless. Tower said: “What’s your flying speed?”
“180 Knots.”
“Keep airborne along the runway, there’s a heavy (Jumbo or equiv) behind you, going faster than you. I’ll tell you when to drop down and take the next taxiway!”
As we had come in from Sweden, I was impressed, at 1:00 am that BA private had laid on a minibus to collect us and equipment from General Aviation and delivered us to International Ingress and we found a single Immigration officer and Customs official to handle our paperwork (and let us back in!).
