British 4.2-inch Heavy Mortar

[horsa]

Hey Keith,

I've got one of the towed mortars that I am just starting to restore. Haven't seen any for sale but people still say there might be one or two available in Australia. Will post something if I hear anything on one being available.

One thing that I will need to fabricate is the pair of poles used to help swing the wheels up and down for lowering the base. I'd guess they are 2" diameter since the sockets in the base and wheel brackets are slightly bigger than that. And the length is probably 40-42" based on how it seems to be the same rough length of the base plate. It would help me in getting something made proper to know a few true measuements if you have access to the example at your museum since it has them with it. Items related that I can think of are:

Diameter of socket end of pole.
Diameter of the blocking wide part of the pole (ring about 1" tall?).
Diameter of the hand holding end of the pole.
Length of the thinner hand holding end of the pole.
Length from wide end of pole to the blocking ring.
Overall length of the entire pole.
And are they hollow, made of sections of pipe welded together or are they solid and milled down? Seems it would be entirely too heavy if solid.

Many thanks in advance.