Scrapyard Photos; Any More?

brunty circa 2006/7

some photo’s of what was around before the big clear up

Finchampstead scrap yard

The yard you are on about was on lower Sandhurst road heading towards Finchampstead . I cannot remember the date, probably early eighties . The yard had early Jet Provests in and four wheel generators that i can remember. It is now a posh housing estate.

finchampstead scrap yard

qUOTE=mollusc;1231971]Great thread this, we could go on for years talking about metal recycling.

Meanwhile, I’ve scanned another mystery (right way round this time).

For those in the south of England, this was taken in the south west corner of White Waltham airfield in 1968. I assume it it a Chipmunk and Vampire, quite what the Vampire is doing on this grass airfield is a mystery in itself.
The Chipmunk (if it is) carries the serial 136 or 436 code “R”, nothing on the Vampire I’m afraid.

Whilst on the subject of scrap, there used to be a aircraft scrapyard on Finchampstead Ridges, I think it was one of Staravia’s and I also believe it was destroyed by a fire. Does anyone have any knowledge of this, its exact location or what was stored there. I only ask because I’m currently living less than half a mile away.[/QUOTE]

Look at some of these both scrapyard pics and recovery restorations!

http://rnzaf.proboards43.com/index.cgi?board=Airshows&action=print&thread=6514

US aircraft scrap

It looks like that stuff is about to be buried G-ASEA.

I knew an old pilot called Bunny Brookes. He was locally famous for having a Spitfire on his garage forecourt in the 1960’s (one of two he and a friend saved from Belgium serialled, I think SG-108 and which eventually became G-FIRE).

He once narrated a tale to me of when he was with the RAF in West Africa (a place called Yundum, I think) either late-war or post-war. The Yanks were moving out of the airfield and wanted the British government to purchase the airfield and all its facilities. When we said no, the Americans completely trashed the place including all the air-con in the buildings. There was a quarry nearby where they dumped loads of aircraft including C-47’s and Bunny and the lads used to go to the quarry to get spares for their own machines. I had visions of the quarry looking something like the image on your picture.

Anon.

I got this photo some years ago. Its a bit more of a dump than scrap yard. But intresting! I dont know any thing about it. Bits of B24, B25 and a P38.

Dave:diablo:

Hi Cees–

I’m sure there are…haven’t seen any myself, but several ex-maritime patrol Lancs were cut up at the old Dunnville station as late as 1963. One or two escaped from there, including one that was ferried to Goderich under its own power to become a memorial…that of course would be FM213, now functioning as the best kind of memorial aircraft, thundering overhead instead of sitting silent! BTW the Dunnville RCAF station, after decades as a turkey farm, reopened earlier this decade as an airfield, and there is a museum in one of the hangars dedicated to #6 Service Flying Training School which operated there during wartime.

Eventually I’ll be posting a few more boneyard-ish pix, but the Clunks from Barrie are nearest the intended focus of this thread…Warbirds being recycled. (Environmentally sound, maybe, but frequently very hard to look at!)

S.

They are Steve,

Are there any pics of the scrappings of the Canadian Lancasters?

Cheers

Cees

Last pic of this group shows the one of the three hulks I could not identify. It is, though, presumably another Mk.5 EW trainer like 772 and 775. The presence of the shortlived Canadian Centennial maple leaf logo on the cockpit side suggests this one ended its flying days circa 1967-68…

And that’s that for the Clunk Junk. Hope these are of interest…

Cheers

S.

Here we have 100772 (nee 18772), late of the EWU’s successor unit, 414EW “Black Knight” Sqn CF. I tried to get the scrappies to cut out one of the 414 crests from this hulk and save it for me but to no avail…

And another angle of 772. Sad end to an impressive machine.

One more to come…

…Wanting to see that anything that could be preserved was, I got in touch with Walter Soplata, whom I had met on a visit to his collection in summer 1982, to inform him of the Barrie Clunk hulks. Walter came up from Ohio a bit later in the year and loaded and took home what was left of 18775; the metals men got there about the same time and the other two hulks were smelted. Here’s another angle on 775.

And another angle…

775, check six…oops…too late. (The metals men are every bit as effective as a Sidewinder or similar, eh…):(

More to follow…

OK, going to do this in sections…tried it all in one go earlier but the system timed-out on me. The next 4-5 posts will show the Clunk Junk my dad and I saw in early 1983 while I was tracking surviving CF-100s. I had become aware of a scrap operation in Etobicoke (west Toronto) who were involved in breaking-up a batch of CF-100s stored at CFB Mountain View. This first pic was taken inside their warehouse on Advance Road in Etobicoke, and shows CF-100 landing gear and other bits. Parts of a Goblin engine were there too.

The guy (supposedly) in charge at Advance Road informed me of three CF-100s in a yard run by a relative of his in Barrie (a few miles north of Toronto); we decided to check those out too. Disappointingly they proved to be thoroughly mangled hulks. Here’s Mk.5C 18775 seen in the previous post, late of the RCAF Electronic Warfare Unit…

More to follow…

Peter–

Aw, that would indeed have been a good thought…At least someone, whether on the RAF or CWH side, thought to spare the nose. Incidentally the cockpit was not quite completely gutted; as you probably know, the two M-B bang seats were left in place (I have a couple old slides showing them still inside the cockpit), and one, and probably both, survive in Ontario.

On hearing that CWH did not in fact want the nose (or the seats) because they were too “modern” (at the time), I quickly got in touch with Walt Soplata, who came up from Ohio and purchased the nose in early 1987. At about the same time, unknown to me, there was a gent in the Toronto area who’d wanted to buy the nose and make a sim display of it. Had I known about that I likely would not have called Walt…but either way, the nose still exists!

The CF-100 hulk was one of three ripped-asunder Mk.5s in the same scrapyard at the time. Walt got 775 at about the same time the guys from the smelter came for the other two. Pix of all three will be on here soon, stay tuned…

S.

Great pics Steve. I remember walking around the victor nose in 1987. The interior was compeltely gutted. Shame someone could not have saved the vertical tail with the squadron markings.

Sorry if these are actually duplicates, but I don’t think I had them on P’bucket last time I posted to this thread…

Avro Canada CF-100 Mk.5C 18775, ex-RCAF Electronic Warfare Unit; partial hulk seen in a scrapyard in Barrie, Ontario, in early 1983, now in the collection of Walt Soplata in the USA.

HP Victor K.2 XL191 nose, ex-55 Sqn RAF; seen outside Hgr#4 at Mt.Hope, Ontario, in early 1987, now also in the Soplata collection.

S.

Thank you Brian, much appreciated, I’ll give them a call.

Lovely dog…!

cheers
Alan

If you search on AbeBooks.co.uk you will find someone listing “in Enemy Hands” at 10 GBP.

very useful site for old books as it links many used booksellers.

I have also found that if you contact the seller direct – as they have to pay a commission to AbeBooks – they sometimes sell direct to you at slightly lower price.

AA722 Vb 2037 CHA M45 FF 3-9-41 5MU 7-9-41 234S ‘AZ-B’ 13-9-41 ASTH 20-11-41 Missing from escort mission off Belgian coast 12-2-42

b_d:)

The quote is as written in the book – it took me a couple of readings to understand. The confusion lies in the fact that the chapter is about the channel dash and the reference to his crash is trying to explain that he crashed previous to this.

My reference to the recovery is my mistaken recollection of a set of pictures in the book. In these is shows the loading of RF-S on the back of a truck following it’s crash. I thought the images were of Tuck’s recovery.

Sorry for the confusion.

All we can say is that the image is post 28 Jan 42. If the loss of AA722 can be found it may help get a closer date.

ATVB & sorry the book was unavailable.

G

Hi Alan,
Apols too for taking so long – too many senior moments!

Did you get a copy?

Looking at the book the rocvery was actually of AB824/RF-S.
There is a picture of RS-T in a field though on the page after the one carrying the illustration above.

It states:

Taken from “In Enemy Hands” by Bryan Philpott ISBBN 0 85059 499 5 page 9

Hi there,
No, the book had gone long ago, as has that particular firm, although the phone is still manned, and obviously by the originator. Anyway…

The photo seems to have a place in the book describing some sort of recovery, and I assume it is about Bob Stanford Tuck. What I believe I understand from what you write is that another was flying RS-T when it was shot down, because he was already in captivity. Er…which one was he flying then, and, more to the point, who was flying RS-T? Or have I totally lost the thread?

The significance of AB824/RF-S is rather lost on me. Help!?:confused:

Alan
p.s. I shall have to contact the Bundesarchiv and ask them nicely to let me know where and when the photo was taken, and anything else, since it is one of theirs, and bears a catalogue number on’t back.