OFM Low Loader info please

Cam - That BSM part has me beat, never seen it before. It may be a Britstand casting (British Standard Machinery), but I can't recall ever seeing it on any cast item in the past. The only other thing I could think of, would be a casting/foundry company using BSM in their name, such as BSM Castings, or BSM Foundry??

Would it be

B & M Foundry Dandenong ...........

Probably Alliance castings now they merged with a few other companies........Mark

Thanks for all the info. Swishy, I do my best not to use the brake pedal anyway, if I put one truck on it, the whole lot will probobly weigh between 12 and 15 tonnes, depending on what I put on it, and it should be allright. There is actually a couple of flat spots on the tyres so they must have worked all right once. I looked into putting full air on it, and if it had standard trailer suspension it would be relativly cheap, but to change from 90mm square solid axles to 5" (127mm) I'd have to change the suspension as well, and because of the way it tapers up at the back wheels, it would have to be single piont again, which are relativly rare, the 2 prices I got for axles and suspension where $7,500 and $8,000 + the G, then probobly 4 or 500 for a brake kit, and a couple of days under it, I reckon Hydraulic is for me.

Myflint E mailed me some photo's of his float for your viewing pleasure, thanks Peter.

Cam - I discovered, after some research, that Britstand was purchased by the Clyde Group in 1958, and became a subsidiary of Clyde Industries, one of Australias largest, and amongst the most famous, engineering/manufacturing/finance groups in the nation.

After Clyde took over, they regularly referred to Britstand (British Standard Machinery) as BSM.
Thus, you're correct in your assumption that the casting is a Britstand casting, manufactured when Britstand had already been a Clyde subsidiary for a number of years.

Another interesting thing that I found was that Aveling-Barford, the Pommy earthmoving equipment manufacturer, bought a large slice of Britstand in 1955, when Britstand started running into financial difficulties due to poor sales, and when they needed a capital injection.

I am not sure when A-B got out of Britstand, I'm presuming that Clyde bought up A-B's shares in Britstand, when they took over in 1958.

Britstand did well during the 1930's, during WW2, after WW2, and up until 1952 .. the year when they recorded a record profit and paid a 10% dividend.
However, that was their last good year, and things went downhill from there, and they never paid another dividend again, due to poor profit levels, until after Clyde took over.

I remember Clyde industries, owned Trailer manufacturers, Body Builders, Imported PTO's and Pumps. I think if you pick up a Truck and Bus magazine from the 70's, every second ad has Clyde Industries in the corner. Obviously they are gone now, what happened to them? Did the big slow down in the early 80's get them? They had some major brands from memory, Gitsham, Fruehauf that I can think of, and I used to see Clyde on the Rail Locomotives as well.

Cam - Clyde Industries was purchased by Evan Deakins Industries (EDICO P/L) on 26th Jan 1996, in a sharemarket takeover bid. EDICO initially offered $1.90 a share for all the Clyde shares, but it was rejected, and 3 mths later, an offer of $2.10 for all the Clyde shares was accepted by a majority of Clyde shareholders, and EDICO took them over, and the Clyde name was later de-registered. In 2000, Clyde and EDICO were merged to form Downer EDI Rail.

There has been a book written about Clyde Industries .. Phoenix to the World; the Story of Clyde Industries and Sir Raymond Purves, CBE. (Playright Publishing Pty Ltd., 1992, by J. Murray).
The logo of the Phoenix was chosen for Clyde Engineering, because the business was originally started by the Hudson Bros in 1855 .. but the Hudsons went broke in 1898, after the devastating 1890's recession that saw numerous banks and a large amount of farming enterprises, bite the dust, too.
William Hudson resurrected the business as Clyde Engineering almost immediately, and was the driving force behind it. The Phoenix logo was first seen on Clyde Engineerings first product .. steam trucks, in 1899.

Clyde Industries built everything you could imagine in the engineering business .. from trailers to forklifts, and even Volkswagens! .. but railway rolling stock and locomotives were a favorite line (Martin & King were a Clyde subsidiary and they assembled CKD VW's for Regent Motors, the VW importers). Clyde even had their own finance business. Clyde owned engineering/manufacturing operations in every state.

In 1949, the business was renamed Clyde Industries, such was the number of businesses they owned. By 1960, Clyde owned 40 subsidiary companies, that engaged in operations that included the design, manufacture and distribution of engineering, transport, public utility, and industrial undertakings .. right through to leasing, finance, land development and property subdivision.

Both Fruehauf and Freighters Australian operations, were owned by Clyde, as was the APAC line of garage equipment (Clyde commenced with 50% of Fruehauf Australasia in 1958, but increased that to a majority shareholding in 1967).
The GM X-class locos are the most commonly recognised Clyde product, but Clyde also built Galion graders and Yale forklifts.

In the early 1980's they came under financial pressure and started to sell off unprofitable divisions around the country. Tomlinsons in W.A. was one of the first to go, it was sold to Centurion Industries in 1985, and Centurion later merged with RCR Engineeering (1996) to form RCR Tomlinson.

Powerhouse Museum - Clyde Engineering .. www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=395994

Once again you've nailed it, thanks Ron.

Bigcam mate its a Britstand or somewhat theres one we use as a training aid up at Bandiana,been flung off more cliffs and recovered more times than i remember i will see what i can find out about them.......cya

Hi All,
Last year (2013) I bought a truck and float combination out of Sydney. It turns out the float is the blue and white Ordnance in earlier pics. It has been converted to freighter axles with full air Brakes I can send Photos if anyone is interested.