Need to know......

Bob Carriere · #1 19-07-06, 04:36

I am trying to recall the exact date fo an event that was held in Ottawa....... I beleive it to be 1996 for the 5oth of D-Day.....

The Landsdown park was used as a staging area for the military vehicles....... the CWM had a red Ford 6x6 civvy on display... all near and around the Cow Palace.......

Reason for asking..... I beleive that there was a huge large radar trailer on display with some older gentlemen (probably retired) former employees of National Research Council explaining the display .... possibly had been involved with the actual design......

Seem to recall that it may have been on loan from the Science and Tech Museum for the day.......

That event was critical in triggiring my interest in restoring my Cab 11 and tracking exact information from someone who may also have been there may help us track and preserve a piece of history before it is sold at $200 a pound for scrap aluminium...

Any recollections of the event and trailer????

Bob C.

Gunner · #2 19-07-06, 22:46

Hi Bob:

There were several events there from 1994 to 96, I was at all of them (see photo of our 40mm on the S&P website www.calnan.com/swords).

I don't remember the radar trailer. I'll ask others who were there if they remember.

What's up with the trailer... you didn't give many details.

Cheers, Mike

Jon Skagfeld · #3 20-07-06, 03:57

Gunner:

Sidebar question...

Got any TI on the triple 7?

Bob Carriere · #4 20-07-06, 03:59

Hi Mike

The event I am trying to recall from Lansdown park was the largest I can remember.... it included vehicles seldom (at the time) seen from the CWM.... remember a French Canadian chap who had brought down a fully refitted half track from Montreal....

The tricky part is during that same time frame I was attending a lot of old tractor and old single cylinder farm engine shows.... and I am not sure if it was a tractor show or the Landsdown event that had the tractor on display.

That tractor has to be arround Ottawa somewhere..... I retired form NRC in July 1995 and I had a particular interest in talking to the older NRC gents that were there to explain the guts of the trailer.... it was large one.... with swing up panels that were opened to display the rows of wires, tubes, etc...... alot of these things were worked on as prototype.... some slept at the back of the Communications grounds near the Connaught rifle range including some large C/F60 cab 13 with enclosed boxes with exhaust vents for inboard mounted generators..... this is dating back to the mid 70s when I was into M37 and scouting for parts.

Even in 1994 .there were some amazing left behind items in buildings of NRC........ such as the largest wartime collection of pictures which is still gradually rotting away today as we speak.
Rumors ran wild of complete Arrow jet engines in containers.... never materialize....... crates of firearms.... handguns, rifles some complete others just the firing components, aircraft machine guns, etc... a lot of them from other countries for testing/assessments or prototype models.... when that lot was discovered, the CWM was contacted to examine the lot before destruction..... to my best recollection they had a cursory glanced at the well preserved greasy lot and possibly took a few.... they rest were cut up under guard at a local junk yard.

That darn radar trailer is somewhere........ I know for a fact that some armored vehicles used to test communication equipment were donated to the Science and Tech Museum.... they were 6x6 British Saladins if I am correct.... with almost new no mileage RR 6 cyl. engines...... they were stored outside on St Laurent for the longest time.....

Ok enough rambling about the old days....

Bob C.

servicepub (RIP) · #5 20-07-06, 04:19

Bob,

I believe that was the 50th Anniversary of D-Day, therefore 1994. This was the first of the BIG reenactnebt and vehicle get-togethers.

Bob Carriere · #6 20-07-06, 04:26

Clive

Can you send me, on a PM or home address the e-amil address for the Iltis gnag in Ottawa and other assorted PQ side ROT related guys so I may contact them directly for the BB1.......

Do you ever recall seeing that large unrestored radar trailer on display in or around Ottawa????

Thanks

Bob C

Grant Bowker · #7 10-08-06, 00:22

For many years in the 60s and 70s (perhaps into early 80s) there was what I thought of as a radar trailer on the Montreal Road campus of NRC near their Radio and Electrical labs. It was a full trailer with dual tyres on at least the rear, colour was silver/grey. There was a square platform/tower at one end of the frame (front?) and a house structure at the other (rear?). Initially it was in the open, so of course the local children could climb and investigate until a commissionaire arrived to chase us away. I think there was another trailer close by but I don't remember much about it so it must have been something more mundane, in my view at the time. Perhaps a house body for more electronics and operators? Does this match what you were looking for? If so, I can try to remember more about the trailers. At the same period there was also a 6 wheeled CMP, probably the yellow ex Communications Canada or whatever with flatbed body, that was at Vimy House just before they closed for the move to the new War Museum. I'm sorry to say that we didn't show the proper reverence for the CMP, but at least we didn't follow the present trend to vandalise things in the name of grafitti art. You are right that NRC's scrap yards and other areas whether public or otherwise were/are a treasure trove.

Bob Carriere · #8 10-08-06, 05:24

Thanks for confirming that I was not having another pipe dream...

Let talk about it some more on the weekend..... we may have to drop in on the Science and Tech gusy to see where it might be...

Just to make things worst... in the same period when I was scrounging parts for the M37..... early 70s.... in Gatineau was a large junk yard... the outside perimeter was line with old Ottawa street cars used to store parts.... they had stacks of complete engine for CCKW and/or 2 1/2.... plywood cases where rotting away.... engines were complete from fan to bellhousing and carb to gen....... it was risky tro climb as they were staked 3 or 4 high and the bottom ones were rotten..... heck I still have one of the waterproof carb and dist we liberated...... maybe we can dig it up on the week end....

How about cases of Mosquitoe 12 cyl. engines in North Gowers not far from Bakers general store..... seemed no one wanted them in the early 70s Aluminum price was not that high...... I remember removing neat little pink plastic bottles of silica gel crystals that were screwed in place of the the sprakplugs....nasty boys we were!!!!

It was in one of those early Sunday morning recce that we discovered the Churchill tank now sitting in the Museum. Before I die I must write the correct story of how it was found and moved the old Annex on Sussex drive in December 1972.... the year my daughter was born..... it was featured as a fullpage article in the now defunct Ottawa journal.... I still have a copy of that paper.... ha the good old days..

Bob