Vickers artillery tractor

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Speaking of Dragons:

MEMORIES OF AN ROF APPRENTICE - JOHN DAY

At the end of the month I moved to the erecting bay of the Main Machine Shop, where I spent most of my time building Mk.1 Dragons. These were gun-towing tractors that held a gun crew of six, powered by a 4 litre Meadows engine driving through a Wilson pre-selector gearbox to a front axle having two steering clutches. They were full - track vehicles with a top speed, unloaded, of about 30 m.p.h. Holes in the hull were drilled with air powered drills having four cylinders in V formation, they were quite heavy and to get faster drilling it was the practice to slip a plank into a rope loop, tied to a convenient point, and to lean on the other end giving a leverage of around 4 to 1 on the drill. Owen Stott, a large Welshman, was the ganger and he took the finished Dragons out on test with an apprentice as mate. Between the Danger Buildings and Plumstead Road was a tank testing area with built-up single figure gradients and crossed by a railway line. Owen's joy was to spot a rabbit and chase it full speed over the testing ground - one soon learnt to hang on tight when this happened. Owen gave me another lesson I have never forgotten. The Meadows engine had a ducted radiator at the rear that included an oil cooler. One leaked and I was given the job of replacing it. After the new cooler was installed I was running the engine to see the cooler was not leaking and concentrating very near the unguarded fan. Owen saw the danger and tossed a scrumpled sheet of newspaper into the fan. This produced a white explosive blur and I shot out over the three foot high hull side in one bound. You won't find me near an unguarded fan again.

Source: GREENWICH INDUSTRIAL HISTORY