Okay, this one oughtn’t to be too difficult, either….

I’ll go for F.N.120, one of a fine collection of turrets in the Air Gunners Museum at Elvington?

No! On second thoughts, that turret looks too well used to be the one at Elvington…

Hmmm, didn’t you recently take a trip to Canada?

Hi Peter,

Perhaps I should have stated in my first reply that my opinion is formed after studying Air Publications A.P.1275, 1275A and A.P.1086, Part 4, Aircraft Instruments. The Stores Reference No. you quoted was 6A/1275. I think you’ll find this is a typo on your part (6A/1275 is a Clock, Mk.IID) and that it is actually 6A/1273. A.P.1086 confirms that this Stores Reference relates to a Mk. XIVA altimeter with fluorescent paint finish.

Luminous finished instruments are the ones that contain paint with radium. If I thought that the dial contained radium based paint, I would echo some of the advice already offered.

Regards!

I think Melvyn’s scrap price explanation is spot on.

Have a look at my Lancaster front turret in one of the other scrapyard threads. I think the reason this (and others) was dumped and buried, was that there was simply not enough scrap alloy in it to merit the scrappies effort. They had bid for and won whole Lancasters, which had to be cleared off-site within a certain period of time.

There happened to be an otherwise unused hole in the ground in the close vicinity and it was just so easy to “lose” the turrets on the way home. It saved on space in the yard, too.

And most of the damage to the turret was done by the digger that pulled it out of the hole, so I would not be too worried by the B17/P38 ice cap experience: bent, buckled and corroded, yes, crushed beyond salvation, not necessarily.

Here’s a more recent pic of the same turret, for comparison.

The Staravia yard at Ascot was a proper ‘spares reclamation yard’ rather than just a ‘scrap yard’.They had 2 more yards (storage) yards, Finchampstead (10 miles from Ascot) & one in Wales.

In Wrecks and Relics, Second Edition (1963), there’s a photo of Sabres and a Sea Fury at Staravia’s yard at Church Crookham, in Hampshire.

Anyone know how this one fits into the Staravia jig-saw and when it closed? Staravia must have been quite a set-up at one time. I seem to recall they also had a store in north Manchester in the late ’70s/early ’80’s. but I’m unsure as to when it closed down or what happened to the contents.

Hi Dave,

Well, “no” is the short answer. When you’ve spent thirty years building up a collection of cockpit parts, you are naturally loathe to part with one of the star exhibits.

It’s not the kind of thing that merits discussion in a public forum either. There “might” be a way forward, but we should continue it elsewhere. Is there a means of contacting you? 😉

I thought it was Wellington, Al

No, that’s a different story altogether, Ed!