So what do you make of this beast?! One of the great pleasures of doing Biglorryblog is that you learn something new every day from a community of real enthusiasts. And I have two people to thank for reminding me about the wonderful Sterling T26 8x8 army truck and tank transporter---the brainchild of US military vehicle designer and innovator Steve Hodges. First BLB is grateful to Ed Burrows for sending me his original article on the subject in TRUCKING and reminding me of its existence...but in particular it's a Biglorryblog BIG thank-you to Tony Gibbs, author of "Sterling T26 Discovered", the definitive work on this go-anywhere truck and the man who very kindly allowed me to use a couple of his pictures---and you can read all about the T26 Sterling and how to get a copy of Tony's book by visiting his excellent website http://web.me.com/tony.gibbs2/Sterling_T26_/Home.html
Not only has Tony amassed a great deal of information and illustrations on the truck through the course of his pain-staking research, thanks to his skills learnt in a previous career as an industrial designer he has also created fascinating CAD reproductions of what the cab (seen above) and various other Sterling T26 components looked like---and it's VERY impressive stuff! Now click through here for more....
What makes the T26 unusual is that its driven front bogie was 'waggon steered' in other words it rotated in either direction on turntable beneath the cab. Moreover, both front and rear bogies were chain-driven. And, thanks to some very low gearing (and I mean LOW..like 373:1), plus twin tyres front and rear and special traction devices fitted around each wheel pair, it was unstoppable--literally---around a mud-filled US Army proving ground even beating a tracked high-speed artillery tractor in a timed trial
And here it is in action! However, rather than spoil it by giving away all the Sterling's secrets I strongly recommend you got to Tony's website where you'll find sample pages from his 224-page book...which is packed with photos, illustrations, and those CAD drawings
And my thanks once again to Tony for sharing this with Biglorryblog. And if you know anything else about the T26 why not post a comment?
Hi Tony,
I got your book safe and very good packed. Having the book in my hand
I thought the cover is very impressive, but when I opened the book, I
did not found any word! This must be written by a man with a very big
passion - no, with a unbelievable obssesion!!!!
I am researching the heavy haulage trailer industry since more than
ten years and I got a lot of information from my sources, I had a good
contact to the youngest son of the founder of Cranes of Dereham, who
was the technical leader in this very special industry (sadly he died
last October in the age of nearly 86 years.), but it is a long way to
built up such a documentation like you did!
I would be very pleased if we could hold the contact, even when my
English is not so good, I hope you will understand how impressed I was
about your book.