Snowmobile
 

Have just got back from Stoneleigh Militaria Fair which was pretty good overall. Bought two manuals. Maintenance Manual 1942 Snowmobile "L'Auto-Neige Bombardier" and Instruction Book Ford Special Pattern Vehicles, built for British WD. No date on this but shows DND Models 8cwt to Rear Engined Armoured Car. Includes Fitting Instructions for Tensioner Type Tire Chains whcih would be uselful for your winter convoys in Canada! What you don't take your CMPs out in the snow!! Too much salt!! Too much snow!!! Shame on you!!

Anyone want info from these just let me know.

1.35 scale models of CMP I vote!! What about the F60H or Portree?

Nigel

Ooops
 

Sorry Giff! Should have been under Armour me thinks...sort of but its not even that! Oh what the h...! This will do!

Nigel

Re: Snowmobile
 

Nigel, sounds like a good catch!

Alex Blair has listed a Nov.'44 manual titled B-SNOW ARMOURED SNOWMOBILE Maintenance Manual.
Could yours be an earlier edition?


Looks like you found a copy of this manual. Which edition is yours?

Regards,
Hanno

The ones before!
 

Hi Hanno
The Special Pattern Vehicles Instruction Book is the Second Edition, grey cover with black writing. The Snowmobile one is earlier than Alex's but isn't the Armoured Snowmobile is the wooden curved bodied one but with the same running gear and two skiis on the front. Also a Ford V8!

Once I get them scanned will include photos.

Had an enquiry re the Ford CMP of mine from someone who wants to make it into a 2pdr Portree! Interesting.

Nigel

B1 snowmobile
 

Nigel,

According to the Bombardier museum website, "L’Auto-Neige Bombardier" was the name of the plant built in 1940 to cope with the increased demand for snowmobiles. Among others, they built 130 B1 snowmobiles for the Canadian Armed Forces:

http://www.museebombardier.com/en/co...9_1945/R43.jpg

Compare with the pic of the survivor in Russia:
http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/at...?s=&postid=127

Production of the B1 started in the spring of 1942, with most of them being shipped to the U.K. So there's the explanation for that manual turning up at Stoneleigh.

Interesting stuff, post some pictures from the manual here sometime!

Hanno

Re: "beetle-back bombardier"
 

Nigel,

Just found another picture of the "beetle-back bombardier" at the National Archives of Canada.

Cheers,
Hanno


http://data2.archives.ca/e/e031/e000761188.jpg

Item part of: National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque collection

Workmen assemble the body of the Bombardier Military Snowmobile in the Bombardier plant.

Mar. 1943 / Valcourt, Quebec — 1 item
WRM
REFERENCE NUMBERS: ACCESSION: 1971-271
CONSULTATION/REPRODUCTION: Graphics: photos Restrictions on access: nil
USE/REPRODUCTION: Restrictions on use/reproduction: nil
Copyright: Expired
Credit: National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / National Archives of Canada /
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: 26a (Phototype)
"MILITARY SNOWMOBILE MANUFACTURING (BOMBARDIER) MARCH 1943. The body of the Bombardier Military Snowmobile is assembled in Valcourt, Quebec. The final assembly is done in the Montreal factory. Armand Bombardier, the inventor, claims his military vehicle is the fastest snowmobile of this weight he has ever built." (Inscription)
WRM 2758 (Original item number)
CREATORS: Unknown
SOURCE: DAPDCAP 564059

Velly Eenterresting!
 

Great picture Hanno. Some fuel funnel it has on the roof though! Guess they hadn't sorted the fuel problem by then!!!

Did you spot the Carrier rear lights?

Once I get organised on how to get pictures up here without using my own server I'll post hundreds!!

Nigel

I've found several Bombardiers in Norway during the years, but thought they were all post-war civilian vehicles.

Does anyone has info about production years, and model changes?

Find me one please!
 

Any chance of finding me one or even an armoured snowmobile?
Scotlands pretty close to Norway!! Or how about some photos.

Thanks
Nigel

Hi Nigel,

I only know of one in the moment, but its up in the far north of Norway, and I dont know if its for sale, or if its there anymore in the first place.....
I also dont know if its a wartime type. As I found out, they made them up to 1951?
I'll check it out for you as soon as i'm going up there again!

Erik

Thanks
 

Thanks Erik that would be brilliant. If you can get some photos so I can see which one it is. Keep your eyes open for carriers as well please.

Hows about coming over to our National Show in September?

Regards
Nigel

Lloyd carrier
 

Hi Nigel,

A friend has a Lloyd carrier for sale, its quite complete, but need complete restoration. e-mail me for photos.

Lloyd
 

Hi Nigel,

Your computer does'nt like what Im trying to send you, and refuses to recieve anything........

Erik

Strange.
 

Maybe the pictures, if that is what you are trying to send, are too big. Could you try and save the size to around 300-500 pixels wide and resend and you could try to send them to me as the MLU email seems to have gone crackers!!!

Thanks
Nigel

LLoyd carrier
 

Hi Nigel,

Did you get the photos of the Lloyd?

Erik

Re: LLoyd carrier
 

Yea I did thanks Erik. Looks fairly complete. Are the tracks loose? Would love to get it over here but at the moment have to finish my trucks. Will pass the word.

Thanks
Nigel

Re: B1 snowmobile
 

Another picture of the survivor in the Kubinka Tank Museum, Russia: http://gallery.vondur.net/v/industri...02184.jpg.html

Hello Nigel, Hanno, Erik,

Nigel, you must be the gent who saw me buy the other Bombardier manual, at Stoneleigh ? see scans,

Attachment 118759
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data...nowmobile1.jpg

Attachment 118760
http://www.surfacezero.com/g503/data...nowmobile2.jpg

Is it the same?
Hanno I had allready found this on the forum, but last night it wouldn't let me log in.

Erik, if you find one let me know, I have a manual !

How many of these snowmobiles were built, and why were they sent to England?

Alex Schmidt

Those Bombardiers look like the civilian versions that I used to see quite often out in this "frozen wasteland". The military ones have different head and tail lights and a few other minor differences. The ones I've seen had either a Cadillac flathead V8 or a Dodge flathead inline 6 for power. Some had the wheels put on the front for light snow or muddy conditions. Any that are still around here are owned by oil exploration or service companies but are used infrequently.

How's this for an updated version? It lacks a little in the practicability department, though.

"Cindy II an old Bombardier was sitting by the railroad tracks on the Trans Lab Highway ... the owner uses it all the time in the winter." (source)

S/M 2561
 

Thanks for posting the scan of the booklet for the S/M 2561 Bombardier "Car Half Tracked Personnel" M 4659864 to 4659963. I have just been writing about the Cadillac-engined 15-cwt armoured snowmobiles to S/M 6028 as I jhave that official photo of one (the pioneer of the batch) that should be going into the new book.

Why were they sent to the UK? Because the Ministry of Supply placed an order but it seems from reading between the lines that this was possibly part of an allied review of snow vehicles in late 1941. If delivery was from spring 1942, what on earth did they do with them?

The Archives photo is dated 1943: was that therefore of the pilot "greater capacity" model that was trialled winter 1942/3?

Re: S/M 2561
 

David, see if my web page on the Canadian Armoured Snowmobile answers any of you questions. You're welcome to use the info for your book, as long as you don't let us wait for it much longer! (and provide me with a signed copy ;) ).

H.

Thanks!
 

This adds to the info I got online elsewhere thanks! Am half-way through putting the book together. Just ignore the non-military bits though please in the book when we get it printed next year!

I have a Bombardier snowmobile with the wheels on the front . It was used in northern Alberta before I got it . It has long benches that are stuffed with horse hair to sit on .It's powered by a Chrysler 6 ,Is in very good oridginal conditiona . George

Here are two pictures of the Bombardier B2 preserved at Kubinka, Russia:

http://www.cardatabase.net/?pid=00005820
http://www.cardatabase.net/?pid=00005819

H.

Concept snowmobile
 

Received this in my e-mail today, thought it was pretty interesting .

http://www.flixxy.com/snow-vehicle-concept.htm


Eric

Kebnekaise 1944 or maybe 1945
 

Hi all.
I stumbled over this very interesting thread.
When me and my brother were little kids (before TV) we often heard our father Erik telling stories about war-times.
Now this story has always fascinated me.
My father and his best friend Emil had a workshop together where they did everything from repairing vehicles to filling baloons for the circus that traveled by every year. :cool:
My father and Emil were good friends with the Sarri brothers from Nikkaluokta.
(this is in Sweden).
They had an interest of beeing able to drive a motorvehicle from Nikkaluokta to Kebnekaise Mountain Lodge (tourist-station about 20 kilometers).
So my father and Emil somehow got a snowmobile but without an engine.
In these times Sweden was a neutral country and the Germans transported lots of war-material through Sweden from Norway.
Every night as a German train stopped at the station (Gällivare) my father and Emil got through the wagons to see if they could find anything useful.
And one night they found a Chrysler V-8 that was just perfect for their snowmobile.
They simply lifted the engine off the train and moved it to the workshop and installed it in the snowmobile.

When it was all done they drove the snowmobile to Nikkaluokta.

Then my father became the first person to drive a motorvehicle from Nikkaluokta to Kebnekaise Mountain Lodge.

He drove the route a few times and one day as he crossed a creeq (a small river) a fuel-line burst and set the whole vehicle on fire and it burned to the ground. :mad:

My father died in 1994 and after his departure I found a picture I´d never seen before. (my father holds his hand on the right forward lamp).
Looks very much like a Bombardier to me...but what model?

I will now try to include the picture.

Best to you all.

http://img829.imageshack.us/img829/8...etouris.th.jpg

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Armoured snow mobile...
 

I believe that this is a home built cabin and front ski Assembly,modeled after the Bombardier snow mobile ,but in this case a Canadian Armoured snowmobile was used complete and the cabin and front ski assembly was added to the machine enclosing the driver..
An early Penguin...
More research would be needed and wiser than I would have to research it,but those are armoured snowmobile tracks and road wheels..many of them were sent to Norway and Russia,late war ..they had V-8Cadillac flat head engines in them so if any of those parts are still kicking around ,they could have been from that machine..
Nice Find,...
This picture is probably post war and the Armoured snowmobiles would have been war surplus..maybe early '50's...may even been Norwegian Army vehicle as I see uniforms and hat badges on some of the men gathered around your father..

Hi SwBogart,

The snowmobile in the picture is a B1 (B-1) military snowmobile.

It seems to be all there and unmodified.

The front suspension was outside the bodyframe, contrary to the civilian B12.

This vehicule was wider than the previous B7 and the B12 that will follow. The reason is it was not designed to go unto the same logger's snow trails that the horse drawn bobsleighs used.

The snowmobile would accomodate a squadron of soldier and their gear.

Can't comment on the engine... but I think it was a Chrysler 6-cylinder Flathead.... the Cadillac was only used in the Mark I armored snowmobile (later Mark II & III which were body rebuilts of some Mark I).

The Bombardier Snowmobile were made to give easy access to the engine, while being well enclosed. There are drain holes in the bottom toboggan, side plates the lifts and remove on both sides of the engine behind the tracks, under the large engine access doors and the back radiator door also removes. You can get the engine in and out from the back with a engine hoist.

You see the sprockets that make the machine go forward have a reinforced dome on the front. You won't see this on any other Bombardier machine. Must have been an army requirement. The sporckets on the Mark I (Penguin) are entierly different... no relation.

Another particularity is that there was water lines and a portable heater inside the snowmobile. If the sprocket became covered with ice... you could blow hot water on it through pipes that are on top of it. This device did not carry on to civilian models.

There was also hand brakes on both sprocket axles. That way you could steer with the skis at high speed and like a tank at lower speeds; blocking a sprocket from turning... you get the drift.

-Patrick LeBrun
former cataloger at Bombardier Museum