Caterpillar D6A

[Jakko Westerbeke]

At the invitation of its new owner, I went to look at a D6A today:

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This arrived last Monday from the UK, where it had sat outside, apparently in the woods, for a good amount of time. It still has fairly substantial pieces of the original armour plate (22 mm thick, incidentally — I don’t think I’ve read the actual thickness anywhere) as well as the fuel and hydraulics tanks, seat, instrument panel etc. of the armoured version rather than the normal, unarmoured D6. The tracks are also the original military ones, which apparently differ from the civilian type in both width (50 cm vs. 44, IIRC) and material (high-nickel steel vs. lower-quality). The remains of original military paint are still there too, under the yellow.

The ID plate is still legible:

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Chassis number 1T3045.

And it came with these bits too:

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The original winch and dozer blade, though the latter appears to have been modified to be a snow plough and the arm is incomplete, partially rusted through and with bits sheared off. But it should be repairable, by the looks of it.