A different watzit

Could be the only one.

There were the standard military Crossleys as well and a small number came back from the Middle East but if there were 20 I would be surprised.

Here is the standard Crossley, the worst looking vehicle of WW2 after the Scammel wrecker. In fact Crossley trucks looked so bad you have to think they set out to make it so deliberately.

Remember reading something somewhere about Crossleys own "oil engines" (diesels), had a bad name for some reason or other, this was between the two World wars. A lot of it may have had to do with their submarine engines ( some said the engine was at the wrong end of the anchor chain!), have an idea they ( sub engines) at least were two strokes??

Mrsmackpaul wrote: Cool little Fiat Overnite

As for the old yella beast, definitely pommy, I'll chuck Albion up
I'm thinking though it's more likely AEC or Leyland

Maybe Morris Commercial

Paul

I thought the radiator looked a bit Albion too, Paul, but on closer inspection, it doesn't have the trademark, rising sun. My vote is Leyland, it cant be AEC as it lacks the triangular, blue badge.

Dave_64 wrote: Remember reading something somewhere about Crossleys own "oil engines" (diesels), had a bad name for some reason or other, this was between the two World wars. A lot of it may have had to do with their submarine engines ( some said the engine was at the wrong end of the anchor chain!), have an idea they ( sub engines) at least were two strokes??

Dave, Crossley two stroke engines were highly regarded in marine and stationary applications. They blotted their copybook trying to transition into railway engines.

Thanks for the correction, V8Ian.
Funny isn't it? Often see or here of a certain type of engine which seemingly goes forever as an industrial setting and yet when introduced to a constant variation in RPM, doesn't seem to like it.
On those air starts in another topic, was a Ruston and Hornsby stationary engine sitting in a wreckers paddock for yonks, just on the edge of Werribee, eventually broken for scrap. I had asked the yard boss if I could have a quick squiz and he said OK as long as I didn't climb up on it.
Possibly was originally hooked up to a power generator, I'd guess. Probably about 12-14 foot high up to the catwalk. AT first glance I thought it was a TEN cylinder, (had injector pipes seemed to be about two inch diameter) until a more thorough investigation turned out to be a nine cylinder in line, the first cylinder was actually the air starting system.
Hate to even guess what the thing weighed, was on a massive steel plinth. Did have a "clock" sized RPM counter which someone had hurled a rock at and broke the glass, but you could still make out the redline set at 5oo (or maybe 450, RPM).

Had a Ruston drag line once, actually had they had air start
Different than a Mack

Had big cast tank underneath, the pilot motor (my description) was a 2 cylinder motor, one pot was say maybe 4 inches which was petrol the other pot was maybe 3 inches and that was the air compressor

Anyway both ended up in the scrap at Smorgons, carted them down on a B model with a 871 and quad box that was apparently ex Mianes truck

Gave one of the pilot motors to a collector bloke that was looking for old motors up around Griffith I think

Drag lines paid for my honey moon and Im still paying that price :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly: :silly:

Paul

The photo is of a Crossley wwll tractor unit, and as Lang says extremely rare. Not only did they look terrible but engineering wise they were equally bad! I have remains of an engine and at first thought it was early wwl, it is that archaic.
Crossley originally made very high quality cars and stationary engines and the company actually lasted into the 70's.
The big power house engines were mostly made following amalgamation with another engine maker and hence were a separate branch from the vehicle side. There is an (possibly) operational 6 cylinder one in the old Glen Innes power house, was in service until the early 80's as a back-up.

The Crossley may be ugly but it sure looks like it was cheap to build at a time when trucks were needed and money was tight.

Basically lots of flat steel and (most likely) a wood frame.

It was built to work not look good.