Australian 5 spoke carrier wheels

[Tony Smith]

After much discussion in This thread, it is time to leave David's thread alone and start afresh. It now seems that "D&B" cast on the 5 spoke wheels is the maker's initials for Davies and Baird, a foundry in the Melbourne suburb of Brunswick (in WW2).
Other foundry markings found on Roadwheels and track links include:
Roadwheels
HAD: Hadfield's Foundry, Sydney
NZR: New Zealand Railways, Hutt Workshops, NZ
SEW: State Engineering Works, WA

Track Links
KC: ???
BK: Bradford Kendall
TS: Thompson & Scougall
MALCO: Malleable Castings, Petone, NZ
MP: Mason & Porter's, Auckland, NZ

Any other markings, wether you can ID them or not?

[Wayne Henderson]

Track link

SE. State Engineering Works, W.A.

[Lynn Eades]

All the L.P.1 (specific) parts are stamped N.Z.R.H as opposed to just N.Z.R
(Cast items are also N.Z.R.H marked)

[Richard Farrant]

Originally posted by Tony Smith
Roadwheels

Any other markings, wether you can ID them or not?

Tony,

A LP carrier was at Beltring this year, and I note it had "Sunshine" boldly cast on the road wheels. This will no doubt be the Sunshine farm machinery makers who were situated outside Melbourne and were part of Massey Harris at some point in time.

Richard

[Bob Moseley (RIP)]

Well done Tim Tam
This now raises the question as to whether they still have the casting moulds for the wheels.
Bob

[Tony Smith]

Futher to the comments in the link to David's thread above, here's a poser for you. I have looked at LP2 Carrier 533 today. 533 was built by Victorian Railways in 1941. This carrier was restored over the last 3 years, by a person who managed to buy it off the original owner, who himself bought it off the Army in the later half of the 40's. That is is, it has been owned by one owner for 50 years, and he said he parked it up in 1950 when it was no longer running well.

The reason I mention it, is that it had ALL it's original road wheels. The two front Idler Return wheels had perished beyond use and were replaced, but all others were retained and returned to their original locations. ALL 8 wheels are 5 spoke! The original owner never changed a thing and only had a couple of years use before parking it up in a barn. ( ) The wheels bear builder's castings "D&B" and just a plain "S".

[Rob Beale]

Lynn could this be Hutt workshops in Woburn? Its unlikely to be the Hillside workshops.

Rob

[Lynn Eades]

New Zealand Railways Huttshops (Hutt Valley, Upper Hutt)

[Jared Archibald]

G'day everyone,

I was recently reading a book on Australian and US involvment in the air war against Japanese forces over northern Australia and the Netherland East Indies.
I was suprised to find a image of a number of Australian carriers that were about to be loaded onto ships to be taken to Timor. This occured and the convoy set off in mid Feb 1942. It only got halfway when it came under air attack and returned to Darwin. The ships were subsequently sunk in Darwin harbour during the first enemy attack on Australian soil on the 19 Feb 1942.
In 1959-60, Japanese salvors returned and cut up the wrecks and shipped them back to Japan as scrap. There are apparently a couple of these carriers still on the bottom of the harbour which are regularly dived upon -the water is always murky so I have never seen a photo.
Anyway, if you look at the pic (although not very clear) it can be seen that this carrier has 5 spoke wheels on the bogies, but a six spoke type on the idler. This picture was taken in Jan or early Feb 1942 so the carrier couldn't be more than about a year old at the most (or much less). I always assumed that the 5 spokers were made by a later contractor and used as spares later in the war - this picture seems to refute that.
The hull on tracks I have has six of the eight road wheels as 5 spoke types also, with six spoke wheels being on the single bogies only. They seem to be fairly common in the Top End.
The book the image came from is called "Nor The Years Contemn" by J.D. Rorrison. For those interested in a really well researched and readable book on a little known facet of Australian wartime history - I recommend you obtain a copy.

Jared