REME machinery lorries - designation of Types

[Gary_GJK]

I've been looking for a contemporary source identifying the various types of REME machinery lorries without success. The War Establishments for REME Workshops show these vehicles by their letter ID Type but this gives no clue as to the role they perform. The closest I've found is a Canadian publication at the below link, which seems to largely be in sync with British designations (page 140 of the PDF doc).

https://electriccanadian.com/

https://electriccanadian.com/forces/Design_Record06.pdf

I know there was a great deal of commonality between Br/Cdn units and equipment but they were by no means identical. The ones of interest to me at the moment are those in the 2nd Line REME Workshops (serving Brigades and Corps Troops) -

Armament Section;
Type J - for recharging recuperators of artillery pieces
Type X - general workshop (RCEME equivalent was Type A)

Vehicle Section;
Type I30 - battery charging
Type M - MT workshop

Telecoms Section;
Type Z - wireless workshop

In the post VE-Day WEs, there's also a 15-cwt truck, machinery, Type "T", replacing a car, heavy utility, Type "T", both in the Telecommunication Section. I've not seen anything on these vehicles.

Any directions on where to find a list of the REME machinery lorries, or thumbs up or down for the above would be appreciated.

Cheers,

Gary

[Hanno Spoelstra]

P.140 of the AEDB Design Record Vol.VI:




Cab 12 Pattern Ford F60L Workshop, Canadian factory photo. I don’t know which machinery type it is.

[Richard Farrant]

Originally Posted by Gary_GJK

Any directions on where to find a list of the REME machinery lorries, or thumbs up or down for the above would be appreciated.

Hi Gary,
There was two books published by The War Office in 1951 titled Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers Volume 1 Organisation and Operations, and Volume 2 Technical. In Vol.2 there is a list of types of Machinery Lorries as well as more information, see a photo here.
The books covered the REME operations through WW2 and lessons learnt.

regards, Richard

[Gary_GJK]

Thanks both very much, the list for the workshop types is very helpful in particular. A few of the post-war War Office titles are available as PDFs these days, not seen a reprint of the REME one myself.

Thanks again,

Gary

[Ilian Filipov]

Hi Gary,
Some Canadians are illustrated here with short description, and they are common with the British ones but on different chassis:
https://archive.org/details/rceme-ma...02101/mode/2up

The British/Canadian machinery lorries are as follows:

Type 'A'. Function; General turning, drilling, grinding and battery charging in the field. British: flat-floor 6x4. Canadian; 14' Lindsay house type on 6 wheel, then Mk. 2 on 12' GS type (flat-floor) on 4x4. British replaced by type ‘X’.
Type 'B'. Function: Milling, drilling and grinding in the field, British: fiat-floor 6x4, then flat-floor 4x4. Canadian: 14' Lindsay house type on 6 wheel, then Mk. 2 on 12' Lindsay house type on 4x4.
Type 'C'. Function: General turning, thread-cutting, metal sawing and drilling in the field, British: flat-floor 6x4. Canadian: 14' Lindsay house type on 6 wheel, British replaced by type ‘X’.
Type 'CZ'. Function: Testing, maintaining and repairing radio equipment in the field. Canadian only: 14' Lindsay house type, then Mk. 2 on 12' Lindsay house. 6 wheel and 4x4, respectively.
Type 'D'. Function: Precision turning and drilling in the field. British: flat-floor 6x4. Canadian: 14' Lindsay house type on 6 wheel. Replaced by type 'M'.
Type 'DI'. Function: Instrument repair in the field. British: house type 4x4. Canadian: 12' Lindsay house on 4x4.
Type 'D2'. Function: Same as 'DI'. British: house type 6x4. Canadian: No record. Replaced by type 'DI'.
Type 'F'. Function: General repair of automotive electrical equipment and machinery lorry electrical equipment in field. British: house type 6x4, then house type 4x4. Canadian: 14' Lindsay house type on 6 wheel, then Mk. 2 12' Lindsay house on 4x4.
Type 'G'. Function: Milling, drilling and grinding in the field. British: flat-floor 6x4, Canadian: No record. Replaced by type 'B'.
Type 'H'. Function: Heavy turning and screw-cutting in the field. British: flat-floor 4x4. Canadian: 15' 3" flat-floor on Diamond T 201" wheelbase 6x6.
Type '1'. Function: Battery charging in the field. British literature says "7.5 to 15v", Canadian says "6v and 12v". British: flat-floor 6x4. Canadian: 12' GS type (flat-floor) on 4x4. Replaced by type 'I 30'.
Type 'I 30'. Function: Battery charging in the field. British literature says "15 to 30v", Canadian says "12v and 24v". British: flat-floor 4x4. Canadian: 12' GS type (flat-floor) on 4x4.
Type 'J'. Function: Dry air charging of recuperators. British: flat-floor 6x4, then flat-floor 4x4. Canadian: 12' GS type (flatfloor).
Type 'K'. Function: Electric welding and cutting and smithing in the field, British: flat-floor 6x4. Canadian: No record. Replaced by type 'KL'.
Type 'KL'. Function: Electric welding in the field. British: 15cwt 4x2. Canadian: 15cwt 4x4.
Type 'L'. Function: General woodworking in the field. British: fiat-floor 6x4. Canadian 14' GS type (flat-floor) on 6 wheel chassis. There are references to the later, shorter bodies being used for this role, but I having a feeling that, especially in the British case, they were extremely rare in service. The woodworking machinery was large and bulky and to operate effectively needed all the space that could be found. (if you are passing a piece of timber through a planer you need room for manoeuvre). Therefore I feel that the older, larger bodies were probably much preferred, however slight the actual difference in size.
Type 'M'. Function: General repair to motor transport in the field, with drilling, milling, grinding and valve refacing. British:flat-floor 6x4, then flat-floor 4x4. Canadian: 15' 3" Lindsay house type on Diamond T 201" wheelbase 6x6, then Mk. 2 on CMP 4x4.
Type 'X'. Function: Similar to type 'M'. British: fiat-floor 6x4, then 4x4.
Type 'Z'. Function: Maintaining, testing and repairing wireless equipment in the field. British: house type 6x4, then 4x4. Canadian: 14' Lindsay house type on 6 wheel, then Mk.2 12' Lindsay house on 4x4.
Type 'ZL'. Function: light version of type 'Z'. Canadian only: Chevrolet C8A Heavy Utility.
Type 'R.E. 24K.W.' (British), 'R.E. 25K.W.'(Canadian). Function: Heavy repair of Engineers' equipment. British: flat-floor 6x4, then flat-floor 4x4, both with overhead gantry with hand operated block capable of 2.5 ton max. lift. (Similar to equipment fitted to Breakdown Gantry bodies). Canadian: 15' 3" flat-floor on Diamond T 201" wheelbase 6x6 with overhead gantry and hoist capable of 1.5 ton lift. Power supplied by 25K.W, trailer, which also provided electric welding facilities.

The list above is compiled by Tom Muir.

HTH
Cheers!

[Gary_GJK]

Thanks very much for that listing Ilian, and the link to the RCEME publications at archive.org. I'd found the first pamphlet for Organization, etc of REME Workshops in the Field included in there but I couldn't recall where.

Cheers,

Gary