TS3

In message , Charles Hamilton writes

Somewhere, I have a video of a TS3-fitted tractor, a Fordson IIRC but I'm not sure. If I get the tuits, I'll try and look it out.

I took the video at the end-of-May Bank Holiday rally at Dumfries, in

I saw a Reliant 3 wheeler fitted with a TS3 - "Throbbin' Robin" - taking part in a tractor pull at Tallington in the early 90's. Incredibly noisy and surprisingly effective!

I can well imagine. Ah, Tallington - 'twas a pity that that one ended. Geoff and I used to take the Morris truck there. Quite a reasonable engine line most years too, IIRC.

When I was a kid in Liverpool ('60s/'70s), I'm sure that Tate & Lyle (sugar refinery) had some Scammell 3 wheeler (?) artic tractors (like a Mechanical Horse, only bigger) that used the TS3 (I was familiar with the TS3 noise from the fleet of Commers that some FOTF had) Up the hill from the docks they had quite a bark on them. Can't find a ref for these things though.

Nope, bigger! Much bigger!

They were almost certainly specials for Tate & Lyle, and they didn't travel more than a mile or two - just up the hill from the docks to the refinery. This was short, steep and took a good deal of power, hence the TS3. They kept their steam wagons for quite some time too, as they had better torque than older petrol wagons.

When I first came to this area (mid sixties) Cowburn & Cowpar still had one or two chain-drive Scammell units running up & down the A56, long bonnet jobs with a thermometer on top of the radiator. Almost certainly Gardner engines, though.

Tim

Not the scarab because that was the little artic that was used for local deliveries by british rail wasn't it? I remember one delivering to our house and being amazed that it nearly turned in its own length to go, rather than reverse. It used its own coupling which differed from the fifth wheel type used on hgvs.

AJH