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the_shadock

Really great news !! I'm happy to see this and really hope that this very rare tank will be now better preserved !!

P-O

piney

Thanks for the pictures Bob

Jeff Lewis

Hellfish6

Great pics, great story. I can't wait to see this monster restored.

bsmart

The background to the sudden change in the elephant's status

As I understand it the Commanding General asked at her staff meting why 'the old tank' was still sitting at the railhead. Dr Atwater explained the long history about not being able to get it moved. Then she asked something to the staff like 'You mean we can't move a tank?' After the meeting the Colnel called the recovery section chief and asked something like 'Chief why can't we move a tank?' The Chief ( a Chief Warrant Officer) said 'Sir we haven't been asked, of course we can move a tank'. In all fairness this has gone on so long the folks involved now are not the ones who had problems years ago.

Anyway The ball got rolling quickly. The Warrants and NCOs checked things like weight and balance, got clearances for a heavy move across base and arranged a base police escort. They were surprised that the Elephant uses an electric transmission (The comment was they had hybred drive 50 years ago? I told them there is at least one other similar vehicle (The T23) in the museums possecion. Rolling Eyes

)

This was obviously a well qualified group. There were several Warrants, and most of the rest were E6s and E7s with a few civilians. Several sported Senior Instructor badges on their uniforms. They quickly layed out the planned operation, had an alternative prepared if they had trouble loading like they did last time. While waiting for the HETT to arrive they pulled the Elephant forward and back about 100yards to loosen up the track. The pictures were taken from so far back while they were winching it up because they insisted that everyone not actively involved be further away from the action than the cable was long (just in case Shocked

) Everything went very smoothly, if not as quickly as some thought it could.

Neil_Baumgardner

Great pics Bob!

I take it the tracks "rolled" okay? Otherwise I'd have worried about the tracks ripping off, like the Mile of Tanks ones... Didnt they try to use TWO M88s last time they tried to move it for just that reason? Seems like they did it rather easily this time...

Neil

bsmart

Last night I received an e-mail from Ed Heasley saying they were planning on moving the Elephant this morning. After some soul searching and 'Telecommuting' into work very early this morning to make sure I could afford to take off I decided to take at least the morning off and drive up to Aberdeen to watch and document the effort.

The tow truck arrives

First we push

Then we pull

The HETT arrives

Hooking up the cables

The first tug

Almost there!

Loaded up

We got us a convoy!!

There was one casualty of the move. There was a 4-5' black snake that insisted on climbing onto the tracks and drive sproket. is now 2 1' snakes, 1 2' snake, and a lot of goo!

They left the Elephant on the HETT tonight in the motorpool and will drop it at the Refurb center in the morning.

Two final notes - Ed asked me to let everyone know that I already gave him copies of all the pictures I took today so there is no need to send him any! And I would have had his out an hour ago but Firefox decided to update itself just before I hit submit and I lost the entire message!

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