The Night Mail

[bbishop]

32 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

 

 

BTW, don't ever replace the transmission in the old Beetle with one from a VW van. People have done that and ended up with four reverse gears and one forward gear.

 

Wasn't that standard on Italian tanks?  Bill

[PhilJ W]

36 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Are you sure it was a dash shifter? I thought they all had a long spindly stick coming up from the floor. It acted on a shaft than ran all the way back to the gearbox.

 

BTW, don't ever replace the transmission in the old Beetle with one from a VW van. People have done that and ended up with four reverse gears and one forward gear.

It was a floor mounted lever but connected to the gearbox by cables that used to twist and stretch. The vans used the the same gearbox as the cars but had step down gears in the hubs which meant the driveshafts rotate backwards. The differential was designed to be flipped over when it was used on the van. The worst gear change I ever came across was the Honda mini truck. Like the 2CV but disappearing beneath the front seat. If you took a corner at anything above walking pace the driver would slide across the bench seat and knock it out of gear.

[Happy Hippo]

10 minutes ago, bbishop said:

 

Wasn't that standard on Italian tanks?  Bill

Not just Italian tanks.  The CVRT range had 5 forward, and a transfer lever that made the 5 forward into 5 reverse.

 

It allowed you to scuttle back the way you came without a*sing around trying to turn to make a swift exit whilst exposing the thinner armour at the rear.

[PhilJ W]

19 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

Not just Italian tanks.  The CVRT range had 5 forward, and a transfer lever that made the 5 forward into 5 reverse.

 

It allowed you to scuttle back the way you came without a*sing around trying to turn to make a swift exit whilst exposing the thinner armour at the rear.

And they copied it from the British Daimler Dingo/Lynx. The Italians even copied the Lynx and put it into production.

Edited March 2, 2022 by PhilJ W

[pH]

2 hours ago, Happy Hippo said:

Not just Italian tanks.  The CVRT range had 5 forward, and a transfer lever that made the 5 forward into 5 reverse.

The Austin Champ also had 5 forward and 5 reverse gears.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

gearbox by cables that used to twist and stretch

I think either an ERA or one of the very early racing spec Jags uses the same method.

 

Oh and the Lancaster Bomber...

[AndyID]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

It was a floor mounted lever but connected to the gearbox by cables that used to twist and stretch.

 

That was Jamie's Maxi

 

The Type 2 VW's  used a similar mechanism to the Type 1 (Beetle). The lever engaged with a hollow shaft under the floor that could slide fore and aft and rotate to select and shift the desired fork in the gearbox. It worked quite well until the shaft's bearings started to wear.

 

The Type 1, 2 and 3 connected the clutch pedal to the clutch arm by a cable and they were forever breaking.

 

We don't have any VWs now but we've owned seven over the years:

 

55 Type 1 (Oval rear window, no fuel gauge!)

65 Type 3 1500 Estate

68 Type 1 1500 Automatic (sort of!)

69 Type 1 1500 (I rebuilt the engine to 1700cc)

91 Type 2 Vanagon "Wasserboxer" (the coolant leaked!)

01 GTi 2.8L VR6 (PDQ)

17 Jetta TDi (VW gave us our money back.)

[J. S. Bach]

4 hours ago, pH said:

Out of the dashboard? I’ve driven a Renault 4 with the same arrangement. I liked it.

I had a Honda 600 sedan with a shifter coming out of the dash, I kind of liked it.

[J. S. Bach]

4 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

A fine version but I was waiting for the percussion .....  

I've long been a great fan of this version

I saw one that but opted for the PIPE ORGAN version.*

 

* I may give that one a listen tomorrow.

[rockershovel]

4 hours ago, pH said:

The Austin Champ also had 5 forward and 5 reverse gears.

I remember driving a Champ on a pipeline job once, it had any number of gears, most of which seemed to be quite similar. Horrible thing. 

 

The Renault dashboard-mounted "umbrella handle" gear change was actually quite good. Not exactly a racing change, but not the "long lever waving from the floor" which was quite common on fwd cars in those days

[rockershovel]

Did anyone ever actually sleep in an Austin Maxi? I was something of a connoisseur of sleeping in cars in my 90s pipeline days, it being something of a learned skill in that business. 

 

The Maxi used to have a rather absurd advert depicting a couple (complete with sheets, blankets and striped pyjamas) doing this on the folded-down bench seats. 

 

The Citroën DS was the car for that...

[polybear]

8 hours ago, Tony_S said:

British built and designed. What could go wrong ? 

 

Now that gets Bear's Joke of the Month Award 

 

You crack this Bear up Tony, you really do....

[jamie92208]

10 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

Glad you liked it, it also is on my favorites list but somewhat behind Bach's Toccata and Fugue in  D Minor BWV 565 :

 

 

A favourite of mine, especially played on the Willis organ in our school chapel by our music master Hugh Stalker. Miscreants in his class used to have to hand pump the chapel organ whilst Hugh practised, no euphemism intended.

9 hours ago, AndyID said:

 

Couldn't have been any worse than the contraption in my fabulous Citroen Ami wagon. Same as the 2CV. One of your neighbors might let you have a shot at driving one

Yes one ofvour neighbours made quite a bit of doish repairing them and has been a beatifully restored one called Molly in his garage.  Just onevproblem, getting it back to the UK.

1 hour ago, rockershovel said:

Did anyone ever actually sleep in an Austin Maxi? I was something of a connoisseur of sleeping in cars in my 90s pipeline days, it being something of a learned skill in that business. 

 

The Maxi used to have a rather absurd advert depicting a couple (complete with sheets, blankets and striped pyjamas) doing this on the folded-down bench seats. 

 

The Citroën DS was the car for that...

Yes the famous Maxi advert. BL were accused of encoraging immorality and promiscuity over that one.  I never  slept in ours but all three kids did during long journeys to the south west.

 

Jamie

[Northmoor]

1 hour ago, rockershovel said:

Did anyone ever actually sleep in an Austin Maxi? I was something of a connoisseur of sleeping in cars in my 90s pipeline days, it being something of a learned skill in that business. 

 

The Maxi used to have a rather absurd advert depicting a couple (complete with sheets, blankets and striped pyjamas) doing this on the folded-down bench seats. 

Yes, we had three Maxis when I was a kid and did sleep in one once just to say I had.  It wasn't just that the seats folded down in the Maxi (like most hatchbacks), under the bench were two brackets that folded up so the bench was flat.

 

As for the gearbox, it had it's problems; our third Maxi developed a number of problems which required a strip-down at the village garage to, from memory, re-seat a small bush which had slipped along a shaft and stopped the selector mechanism from engaging.  We had some interesting experiences when the gearbox provided, variously:

• 1 forward and 0 reverse gears
• 0 forward and 1 reverse gears (Mum reversed the car two miles to the garage!)
• 4 forward and 0 reverse gears (we drove around like that for about two weeks)
• 1 forward and 0 reverse gears; this time the one gear was 5th!  Dad was working away that day but drove the car 50 miles back to the local garage, including dropping off a colleague on the way and the car could actually pull away on a slight downhill, with a gentle push from his mate, in 5th.

Dad always reckoned the gearchange improved when towing the caravan, so perhaps the extra load made the box run hotter and increased clearance in some linkages?  Whatever, it was brilliant tow-car and better than almost anything since for carrying big stuff; the rear sill was low and with only a very small lip, unlike lots of "practical" hatchbacks with a high lip 6-8" above the boot floor.  Throwing two bags of cement in the boot (and getting them out again) was no problem.

[New Haven Neil]

5 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

I saw one that but opted for the PIPE ORGAN version.*

 

* I may give that one a listen tomorrow.

 

Oh gents, we have been through this before - none of your common or garden Bach, the real music for pipe organ is....

 

 

[Oldddudders]

12 hours ago, J. S. Bach said:

 

 

 

There is something about a swelling organ, as the last girl said....

[polybear]

3 hours ago, Northmoor said:

........the rear sill was low and with only a very small lip, unlike lots of "practical" hatchbacks with a high lip 6-8" above the boot floor.  Throwing two bags of cement in the boot (and getting them out again) was no problem.

 

And I'm guessing those bags were one hundredweight (50.8 Kg), not the wussy 25 kilo jobbies you get today....

[Gwiwer]

5 hours ago, rockershovel said:

Did anyone ever actually sleep in an Austin Maxi?

Yes. 
 

Used for a couple of “camping” trips about which the less said the better  

[Gwiwer]

3 hours ago, Northmoor said:

 

As for the gearbox, it had it's problems;

Mine certainly did. First and second were always a little stiff engaging / disengaging but once in it was positive. 
 

Until the day the stick locked in second. 
 

An abrupt roadside halt was made. After several very rude words indeed were uttered I managed to free the stick into neutral. I never had first or second again. The rest worked fine. 
 

Living in a hilly area some careful route-planning was henceforth required. Uphill starts were out of the question; certain parking moves likewise though I could reverse in and roll forwards when facing downhill. 
 

The clutch survived the many subsequent occasions when it was slipped to effect a rolling start or when an uphill start became unavoidable. There are only so many times you can run through an amber traffic light without being spotted and there is always the unplanned moment when another road-user does something requiring you to stop or brake unexpectedly 

 

The lack of first and second gears contributed to the car’s demise. But the discovery of fuel being sprayed around the engine bay from the chambers was what ended its life. 
 

What replaced the car built like a tank?  Our second Austin Allegro Aggro which also had a very short life with us as it lacked any serious compression and had to be nursed over the hills along the A30 by dropping down through the gears. 

[simontaylor484]

19 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 

A fine version but I was waiting for the percussion .....   

 

I've long been a great fan of this version

 

 

 

Most impressive I must say

[J. S. Bach]

20 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 

A fine version but I was waiting for the percussion .....   

 

I've long been a great fan of this version

I just listened to it but really did not like it. This version popped up and I find that the piece translates into brass much better than the Sky version:

 

[AndyID]

6 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

always a little stiff
 

 

Remind a me of one of my mum's favorite jokes about the chap who introduced himself and said

 

"I'm a little stiff from rugby."

[Happy Hippo]

13 minutes ago, AndyID said:

 

Remind a me of one of my mum's favorite jokes about the chap who introduced himself and said

 

"I'm a little stiff from rugby."

In this neck of the woods it's Badminton

 

Which is marginally better than 'humping stuff into the cellar'.

[SM42]

Some years ago I helped a friend move house. 

I collected the hire van and  got two miles before the clutch gave up. 

No way to disengage it.  I was doing alright on the tour of the one way system to turn round, but then took a wrong turn and had to do a 3 pointer. 

Ended up with a 7.5 tonner, which was fortunate as he had more stuff than he thought.

 

Being taught to double declutch and balance road speed to engine speed by my dad, who grew up with crash boxes, served me well.

 

This knowledge also came in useful when the Rent a Wreck ( yes that was the company name) Metro suffered a similar fault in Cambridgeshire.

 

What larks

 

Andy

[PhilJ W]

The idea of 'Rent a wreck' came from the USA. It was in fact quite popular because it was a lot cheaper than more conventional hire companies. There is the story of the couple who rented a car from them. The wife was a heavy smoker and they'd only gone a few miles when the wife discovered that there was no ashtray. She said to her husband "There's no ashtray." to which he replied "The whole damn cars an ashtray."