some folk have asked me about the origins of the semi I did for the 'Heavy Haulers' campaign so here are 6 photos of the real McCoy.

History

originally the Ford Tractor units were standard cabed,off the line conventional trucks of 3 ton rating with 158inch wheelbases and powered by a 95hp Ford flathead V8 motor.

When the Australian Army had to shift 1000,s of tons of freight from the rail head at Mt Isa to Darwin in 1941/42 it was these trucks that were initially used.

How ever the North/South road (now the Stuart Highway) between Mt Isa and Darwin did not exsist in places and so the road was made as the trucks drove between. The original cabs and bodywork fell to bits during the first trip due to vibrations and the Ford engineers were bought in to 'solve' the problem. So doors were removed and a 'U' shaped brace put in to brace the cab. Front guards replaced with thick steel which meant the headlights had to be mounted on spring steel mounts.

Then Brand new look-a-likes with a canvas top were produced at the Ford plant to supply army needs.

original photos

this first photo is the one that inspired me to look for information about these trucks and resulted in the model being built.













all photos are from the Australian War Museum, Canberra, Australia database and high resolution copies can be purchased from them of these photos

Hope this helps explain the uniqueness of these oddball Aussie trucks

Thanks for sharing this interesting archive with us Cliff. I particularly like the shots of trucks carrying trucks & rather the guys working on the engine in the middle of the river than me!

That sheds a lot of light on the condition of these trucks, to why they had big gaps between the fenders and the bonnets-hoods, or any other part that two pieces came together.

They must of been really rough roads, sense they had to remove the doors all together, even with the headlights mounted on spring steel mounts it was probably still amazing that they were still able to keep them working, or the bulb from breaking, cause lights weren't near as good as they are today.

They probably had a lot of dark trips, and I bet the driver shrunk an inch every trip from the beating that truck give him.

Kerry

This well-informed title about the subject and helps undurstanding your model.Thank you for sharing.

G,DAY Cliff great pic,s i dont think any of these are in "convoys up the track" the old girl in the river would be a great dio , im trying to track down a V3000S kit as the base kit for a Marmon Herrington No 3A artillery tractor ...mmm might do one of these instead jamie

dang MR Roo your pics never work for me! staved to see them! as i am a real fan of aussie soft skins! hope to finish a dio of Darwin during the bombing soon!
been busy doing a few kits atm! so yeah nothing to post here yet! hope too soon!