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Quiz question: Who built it? (builder plate removed by me) Yes, it formed the basis of an AFV.

Watch those hands and feet lady and gentleman! She must have had some major stones...

OSHA would soil themselves.

Wild guess, is it a Roebling tractor?

Neil

I'm Guessing it is a Holt Caterpiller tractor, but I could go for an early Roebling also.

There has to be a story behind you removing the builder plate, let us in on it.

- bsmart

I'm Guessing it is a Holt Caterpiller tractor, but I could go for an early Roebling also.

There has to be a story behind you removing the builder plate, let us in on it.

The story is that I used the "cut" function from Microsoft Photo Editor.

I just removed it from the pic because it would spoil the quiz...Jeez, how old do you think I am?!


..and the builder plate weren't neither of those.

Okay, lets see, Cunningham would be another guess from the period... Or Christie, but it doesnt look like one of his...

One a side note, I always thought it kinda funny that the big names in armored vehicles in the 1920s & 1930s were Christie, Cunningham & Holt - names that are almost entirely unknown today & were quickly overtaken by the major auto manufacturers (Chrysler especially) with the buildup for WWII. From WWII on, the big names were Chrysler, GM & Cadillac. Of these, only the Chrysler business has really survived, as General Dynamics. GM basically exited the business after losing the XM1 contract... Cadillac left some time after the M41 ended I guess...

FMC was a relatively small time LVT builder but gradually got APC contracts until it merged with Harsco & BMY and became the modern United Defense now BAE bohemeth...

Neil

- Neil_Baumgardner

One a side note, I always thought it kinda funny that the big names in armored vehicles in the 1920s & 1930s were Christie, Cunningham & Holt - names that are almost entirely unknown today & were quickly overtaken by the major auto manufacturers

Ooooh! Oooooh! Getting warmer, big clue there!

...and no just guessing companies now...there are too few of them. BUT....you're gonna' be surprised!


One guess per customer now please, after that mega-clue...choose carefully!

- Doug_Kibbey

- bsmart

I'm Guessing it is a Holt Caterpiller tractor, but I could go for an early Roebling also.

There has to be a story behind you removing the builder plate, let us in on it.

The story is that I used the "cut" function from Microsoft Photo Editor.

I just removed it from the pic because it would spoil the quiz...Jeez, how old do you think I am?!


..and the builder plate weren't neither of those.

Hey you're a member of CIA! Actually I thought there may be a story about it being abandoned bewind a barn and you recognized it and ...

Strictly guessing now - Allis Chalmers or Massey Harris (or is it Massey Fergueson) both built tanks and other tracked vehicles in WWII and after

I was actually hoping it was an early Roebling.

Neil - I think the presence of Chrysler and GM was really not due to a desire of their manangement to get into the Armored vehicle business but a response to the government's request for the auto manufacturers to run the production facilities during WWII. I'm not sure of the exact circumstances of FMC's start but if I remember correctly FMC stands for Food Machinery Corporation and they made large sugarbeet processing machinery originally. I don't know hether they teamed with Roebling before the mobilization of WWII.

I think the use of auto manufacturers was one of the big 'secret weapons' of the U.S. in WWII. In most countries it was felt that only 'Heavy Machinery' companies (Like Locomotive works) would handle tank production. those companies are more in the 'each vehicle is unique' mentality while the auto companies were into true mass production.

- bsmart

Hey you're a member of CIA!

There goes my cover! ( I thought our rolls were kept secret and known only to the other members of our secret society...)

I think the presence of Chrysler and GM was really not due to a desire of their manangement to get into the Armored vehicle business but a response to the government's request for the auto manufacturers to run the production facilities during WWII.

...because they had capacity and no steel or rubber to build passenger vehicles for the duration.

I'm not sure of the exact circumstances of FMC's start but if I remember correctly FMC stands for Food Machinery Corporation

Absolutely!

I think the use of auto manufacturers was one of the big 'secret weapons' of the U.S. in WWII.

But not a secret to Yamamato, who feared it mightily.

- bsmart

Neil - I think the presence of Chrysler and GM was really not due to a desire of their manangement to get into the Armored vehicle business but a response to the government's request for the auto manufacturers to run the production facilities during WWII.

Oh yeah, exactly. Christie, Cunningham & Holt were in it to be in the business, but were overtaken as the government needed larger production facilities & went to the auto makers. Not an armored vehicle, but the Jeep is the classic example of this - developed by American Bantam, but production went to Willys & Ford... After the war, the auto makers stayed in the business, at least for a time... The pre-war guys were basically never heard from again...

Neil

is it a lincoln machine, William Foster & Co. Ltd. of Lincoln

- SHAWN

is it a lincoln machine, William Foster & Co. Ltd. of Lincoln

err....nope!

doug, is it an american company? if it isnt a foster, is it a ford?

It's an American company...and not the FoMoCo.

Its a British designed Newton tractor... lack of engine covers suggests its a Buick built version.

- JimWeb

Its a British designed Newton tractor... lack of engine covers suggests its a Buick built version.

Ding! Ding! Ding!