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the_shadock

Hi everybody,

I've found this on a website :
Tiger I - private restoration facility -
Another vehicle of the 501st Heavy Tank Battalion. This Tiger belongs to the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen, Maryland. It was on loan to Germany and is currently being restored in Britain. It is scheduled to return to Aberdeen in 2006. (source : www.alanhamby.com/survivors.html )

I've found a photo of it. This is the Tiger 712, which was on loan to the Sinsheim auto + technik museum in Germany.

My question is : do anybody has any recent information about this tank? I'm looking for recent photos for my PDF file, and want to know when it will be back to Aberdeen. Will it be in running condition? Or is this only a cosmetic restoration?

I'm also wondering if the Saumur Tiger I, which was on loan to the MÃƒÂ¼nster Panzer museum in 2003-2004, was back in Saumur, or if it is still in Germany.

thanks for any information

cheers from France

Pierre-Olivier

piney

Bob Smart or Neil B. would be the men to ask. they have Aberdeen pretty well covered

Jeff Lewis

bsmart

I'm not sure where they got the 'scheduled to return date' from. The last time I talked to Ed Heasley at the museum he didnn't commit to any date. I don't know of any recent pictures. I can tell you that the one you have is at least 20 years old. It was taken at the museum before the concrete pads were put in for the tanks in 1985.

It will not be in running condition. I was told that as part of the restoration there would be a running replica made. I don't know if that is still planned or not.

masada31 · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jun 30, 2006 Posts: 10

Bob or anyone,
Do we know the who in the UK is doing the restoration??no doubt private means private but thought I'd ask.
Steve

Rikard_Hufschmied

- masada31

Bob or anyone,
Do we know the who in the UK is doing the restoration??no doubt private means private but thought I'd ask.
Steve

The restoration, to my knowledge, is being done by Kevin Wheatcroft and crew; he's also restoring/rebuilding 3 Panthers.

There were plans to copy the Aberdeen Tiger and build accurate replicas for sale to museums and collectors, this project was said to go under the name "Big Cat", I've never been able to confirm this though.

Cheers,
Rik

bsmart

That is the name I've been told, I remember hearing he was working on a panther also, I didn't know how many

My information came directly from the staff at Aberdeen, I just haven't had the time to update it in the last few months. Hopefully I'll be able to run up there soon. Also I don't know if the planned replicas would be accurate internally or would use a modern engine & transmission inside an otherwise accurate chassis.

After all most of the Old German WWII aircraft that are still airworthy use different engines than they were originally designed for just because of parts availability

jtrowbridge5 · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 24, 2006 Posts: 234

polar
this is the replica tiger used in the private ryan film

dennis

bsmart

- the_shadock

Hi everybody,

I've found this on a website :
Tiger I - private restoration facility -
Another vehicle of the 501st Heavy Tank Battalion. This Tiger belongs to the U.S. Army Ordnance Museum in Aberdeen, Maryland. It was on loan to Germany and is currently being restored in Britain. It is scheduled to return to Aberdeen in 2006. (source : www.alanhamby.com/survivors.html )

I just looked at the survivors list and have a question

The list has an Elephant/Ferdinand at Kubinka and at Aberdeen. Isn't there one at Bovington also?

Rikard_Hufschmied

- the_shadock

I just looked at the survivors list and have a question

The list has an Elephant/Ferdinand at Kubinka and at Aberdeen. Isn't there one at Bovington also?

Sadly no, the one at Kubinka (early version captured at Kursk) and the one at APG (late version captured in Italy) are the only complete ones left in the world ... AFAIK.

Cheers,
Rik

jcneel

and the one at Aberdeen isn't in all that great of shape. Certainly could stand some work - as do many of the Aberdeen vehicles. Took these photos early last year:

cn

bsmart

- Rikard_Hufschmied

- the_shadock

I just looked at the survivors list and have a question

The list has an Elephant/Ferdinand at Kubinka and at Aberdeen. Isn't there one at Bovington also?

Sadly no, the one at Kubinka (early version captured at Kursk) and the one at APG (late version captured in Italy) are the only complete ones left in the world ... AFAIK.

Cheers,
Rik

Yea, I looked at the list again and realized it is the JagdTiger that they have that I remembered. It has a different suspension from the JagdTiger at Aberdeen

the_shadock

New photos that I received today :

Obviously, the 2 hulls are the same. The first pic in black and white was taken at Saumur, it seems to date from the 70's or the 80's. The second picture is a more recent one, and the person who sent it to me told me that this hull was maybe photographed in Germany. I have very few information about this hull, I don''t know its current location. However, it's great to see that one more hull coming from Saumur is preserved 'somewhere'. I always wondered where are the dozen of Panther wrecks the Saumur Museum owned once.. (a Panther wreck is said to have been restored using parts coming from 14 other wrecks). Maybe we will do more discoveries soon.

Pierre-Olivier

jtrowbridge5 · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 24, 2006 Posts: 234

polar,
the tiger in your photo is the mock up one as used in "saving private ryan"
at duxford uk
dennis

jtrowbridge5 · ***Power User*** Offline Joined: Jan 24, 2006 Posts: 234

sorry about that!! I gave the same answer earlier
dennis

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