Elliott's Yard, Ontario in 1993

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by Bruce Parker

The Fox in the photo is the one the Elliott's kept for their museum and went to the US. It has two front axles and, because they left the interior 'as-is', it was a wealth of information for my restoration. Paul's Fox was at the lower left, mine in the middle and the museum one on the right. One Otter was in the museum, the other went to a father/son team north of Montreal where it got a coat of post war gloss green paint and disappeared. I tried to look up the owners a few years ago without luck (there is an MLU post on this with pics).

The Fox in the yard were odd, and I think factory seconds. They were marked with welded on triangles and this one with THIN ROOF HULL (now ground off). All had early features (square gauges, no fire suppression, early turret crank) yet were at the end of the production run according to their manufacture dates.

Here are the locations of the Otters and Fox back then and the packing slip that came with them. My Fox is the top one, the Otter and Fox marked 'ours' went to the USA, Paul's is the third line and the other Otter is MIA.

Thanks Bruce,

I did not realise there were multiple Foxes in your photos.

I think the Foxes with welded on triangles and thin roof hull were not factory seconds, they were likely pilot models. As with other armoured vehicles, pilots were constructed of mild steel and would be used for component testing and ironing out the last manufacturing details before committing to full scale production using armour plate. The early features are an indicator of them being pilot models.