Richard 'The Brochure King' Stanier has contacted Biglorryblog to say: "Good Morning, Brian, I thought a couple of photos I purchased at the weekend at Gaydon may be of interest to the Blog. The first should be familiar to BLB regulars, as it's a Pacific Heavy Hauler in the livery of South African Railways. I wonder if it is one of the actual units that Dennis Child uses today?" And just to give you and idea of the size of this beast look to the back of it and that's a man standing there...
Well BLB readers what do you think? This is one of Dennis' recently-rebuilt Pacfics....so Dennis what do you say? As I recall in your article you did for Truck & Driver some time ago you ,mentioned that you did inherit some of these units. Post a comment and put us out of our misery please!
Now click through here for another vintage SA heavy hitter treat!
Richard goes on to say: "The other photo is again a heavy haulage unit for South African Railways, but this time it's an AEC. Although the photo is an original AEC publicity shot it is not captioned, so I don't have any further details. Atki Pete and I have been contemplating whether this could have been the AV 1100 AEC he has listed for the Australian market in 1962, but never sold there. If any of BLB's Army know any more about this beast, it would be good to find out! Cheers, Rich."
OK BLB army..front and centre and get cracking with some answers!
Comments (7)
Some AV100s went to South Africa fitted in Super Mammoth Majors; maybe that's what this is.
Posted by Vic Hungerford | June 13, 2008 10:31 AM
Posted on June 13, 2008 10:31
I meant AV1100s - typing error!
Posted by Vic Hungerford | June 13, 2008 10:34 AM
Posted on June 13, 2008 10:34
Yes Brian, the Rotran Pacifics are definitely ex-South African Railways, the first of which was imported via Durban in 1973/74. And no disrespect to Dennis or Rotran but they looked much better in the dark maroon livery of SAR. They even featured in a promotional video made by Pacific in the early 1980s I think. Great to think that Dennis has had them refurished and that they are still at work.
Posted by Martin Phippard | June 14, 2008 8:33 PM
Posted on June 14, 2008 20:33
Hi Brian, yes the unit displayed parked in Langlaate Workship in Johannesburg whereby the accommodations / drawbars were built. This unit arrived in SA actually in Cape Town don't ask why and wer driven up without ballast and burst front tyres. Today of the ficve units built for SAR&H only four will be operational. The fourth unit is under rebuild and engine arrives on Wednedsay, new DANA SPICER 16281 torque converter and transmission DANA Spicer 16281 will be fitted. It looks at mid July the unit will be operational. The fifth unit someone cut up the back axles for scrap steel so I can't rebuild it ROCKWELL SPR 570's. Tried sourcing them from Vancouver Island but they use a small wheel base.
Posted by Dennis Child | June 22, 2008 4:33 PM
Posted on June 22, 2008 16:33
Hi Brian, yes the unit displayed parked in Langlaate Workshop in Johannesburg whereby the accommodations / drawbars were built. This unit arrived in SA actually in Cape Town don't ask why and wer driven up without ballast and burst numerous front tyres. Today of the five units built for SAR&H only four (4) will be operational. The fourth unit is under rebuild and engine arrives on Wednedsay, new DANA SPICER 16281 torque converter and transmission DANA Spicer 16281 will be fitted. It looks at mid July the unit will be operational. The fifth unit someone cut up the back axles for scrap steel so I can't rebuild it ROCKWELL SPR 570's. Tried sourcing them from Vancouver Island but they use a small wheel base.
Posted by Dennis Child | June 22, 2008 4:35 PM
Posted on June 22, 2008 16:35
Hi Brian, yes the unit displayed parked in Langlaate Workshop in Johannesburg whereby the accommodations / drawbars were built.
Martin refers to the smaller units Pacific P12WE3 (650hp) derated to 500hp first units arrived 1974. I have now four (4) of these smaller units operational with Cummins K19 (650hp) engines in. The ULTRA (800hp) units arrived in SA actually in Cape Town 1987 (built in Vancouver 1977) don't ask me why and were driven up without ballast and burst numerous front tyres. The trip took three weeks to complete. Today of the five units built for SAR&H only four (4) will be operational. The fourth unit is under rebuild and engine arrives on Wednedsay, new DANA SPICER 16281 torque converter and transmission DANA Spicer 16281 will be fitted (actually Tractomas spare units). It looks at mid July the unit will be operational. The fifth unit someone cut up the back axles for scrap steel so I can't rebuild it ROCKWELL SPR 570's. Tried sourcing them from Vancouver Island but they use a small wheel base.
Posted by Dennis Child | June 22, 2008 4:40 PM
Posted on June 22, 2008 16:40
Finally heard back from my local AEC guru, He is confident this is s Super Mammoth.
Posted by Peter Lynch | July 15, 2008 10:02 AM
Posted on July 15, 2008 10:02