Peter Murray has obviously been following the Rotinoff thread as he says: "Hello Brian, two Rotinoff Viscounts were brought to Australia in late 1957, by a Lord Vestey of the homeland. Vestey had been a large cattle producer and meatworks owner in Australia since around 1910ish. As road transport was taking over from the traditional 'drover' (walking cattle to market) as the means of moving large numbers of cattle to market - from remote outback properties, Vestey purchased his own ex-WW2 Diamond T and a road train... Soon after he decided to upgrade and in competition to the famous B Model Macks and other British breeds - he had Rotinoff build him 2 road train capable trucks." Now click through here for more...
"Both units are now in the hands of the Australian National Road Transport Hall of Fame in Alice Springs. One has been restored and is on display." And having visisted it some years ago Biglorryblog can confirm the Aussie Roadtrain Hall of Fame in Alice is superb! Thanks Peter for brigning the Rotinoff story on another step.
The story of these unique vehicles has been captured in a booklet ‘Vestey’s Rotinoff Viscounts’ by Liz Martin. It was indeed published by National Road Transport Hall of Fame as No. 7 in the ‘Australia’s Road Transport Heritage’ series. I am not sure if it can be obtained directly from the folks in Alice Springs. Hopefully it can. I have certainly seen it a couple of times for sale on ebay.
Happy hunting!!
Cheers from Poland.
Andrzej
Well done Andrzej. Always good to have a little more information. And by the way did you know (and I am sure you do) that the trailers were fitted with self-tracking bogies developed by bush pioneer Kurt Johanssen and modelled on the Dyson trailers pulled behind the 1934 AEC 'Government' road train?
I have photo of the Rotoniff taken outside the hall of fame prior to renovation and wondered what happened to it.At that time it had a Foden 6x4 prime mover fitted with an 8cylinder Gardner engine parked next to it.I often wonder what happened to that.
Great info from Andrzej & Martin
Good to read what happened to the Rotinoff and additional info about trailers.I have a photo n of the vehicle taken outside the Hall of Fame prior to renovation.
At that time it had a Foden 6x4 prime mover with a Gardner 8 cylinder engine parked next to it and as amatter of interest I often wonder what happened to that
Mike Davies
Portsmouth
England
Andrzej & Martin
The Rotinoff book is avail via mail order from the Alice Springs Museum. There is a similar book (No 10 in the series)by Liz Martin - covering the 1934 AEC Road Train.
And yes the Vestey Rotinoff 'dog' trailers were self tracking. Made by Freighter Trailers following Kurt Johanssen design. Including Kurts favoured 45foot trailer lenght.
There is also a book about Kurt Johanssens life and engineering expolits. Son of the Red Centre is the title.
Google 'Rally Badges' for it and a great DVD - titled 'Shrinking The Continent'. It contains archival footage of both Kurts Diamond Ts and the Rotinoffs at work along with the Govt 1934 AEC Road Train and much much more of the early Australian Road Train scene.
Peter Murray
Australia
Does anyone know what became of the Rotinoff (I'm assuming a Viscount) that was lying derelict in the northern suburb of Perth, Quinns Rock? I spent my teenage years in Quinns Rock from 1994 onwards and I remember coming across a "rotting" Rotinoff truck amongst overgrown bushes right beside a fish and chip shop on Quinns Rd.
Finding that truck was like finding a treasure for me...I spent days and days climbing over that thing and sitting in the old rotted out (and rather disgusting lol) seats.
I ended up constructing a motorised LEGO truck modelled after this truck with a front mounted electric motor and 2 speed gearbox to the rear axle.
Anyways, a few years later it was taken away, much to my dismay. Since then I'd been wondering whatever became of that truck...would be a real blast if I ended up being restored and even more of a blast if the truck I was poring over was one of the two bought in by Lord Vestey!
I've got the book "Australia`s Road Transport Heritage # 7 : Vestey`s Rotinoff Viscounts" on mail order now btw.
Regards,
Fred