Hallo all, The "Nellie" or "Cultivator No 6" / "White Rabbit" Trenching Machine was transported in loads on an early tracked trailer. (This was the foreunner of the later 40 ton tracked trailer Mk I and II by Boulton & Paul). It looked different to the later Mk I/II as it had a built in winch, different platform, ramps etc. I am looking for any info on this Nellie trailer (photos, drawings), help is much appreciated. Yours sincerly, Juergen Kurz Salzburg, Austria
I was sure there is a thread on here somewhere about Nellie (other than 'name that vehicle references'), cannot for the life of me find it though. Digging in our useless search engine...
Have you read this article?: (it provides an email address for the society in Lincoln that published it plus a mention of the War Office file on the matter) PS - for some reason I can't paste text onto threads at the moment, but hopefully you will be able to find the link
I'm sure the thread on here had Bod or someone commenting from that Lincoln booklet. (And BTW Dave, try ctrl+v to paste.)
Would the later 1970s Thorneycroft LMD or Light Mobile Digger be a development of this then? http://www.thornycroft.org.uk/Images_AB/N.A.C.%20%20STONLEIGH.08-2000..jpg
Not really, Bryan. Similar intention, perhaps, but hard to understate the scale and 'ambition' of Nellie. From an earlier post within 'name that vehicle': It is in Fletcher's Great Tank scandal, but I think I culled all that was useful in there into the above quote from 2007. I'll have another shufti. There were other WW2 trench diggers perhaps more closely related to your Thorneycroft, both experimental & deployed.
Only refs I could find on here: Bod's book reading ... http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/13481-what-are-you-reading-at-the-moment/?p=180176 with link, same pic as cover http://ww2talk.com/forums/topic/16281-trenches-i-guess-that-is-a-technology/?p=186435
But a sod to keep going. Air changeover for the drive from normal to creep. 15 Gallon of Petrol per hour when working at 7 - 8000 RPM with an 8ft flame out of the exhaust. Kept the infantry lads hands warm though when I was digging them in on Salisbury Plain in February though. Try hiding that at night.
Thanks to all for the kind replies! I could meanwhile purchase some photos of the trailer (w/o Nellie but in the trial role for tank recovery) at the TankMuseum in Bovington. Juergen Kurz, Salzburg Austria
