Talking of restoration projects from the troubles, there is a group in Northamptonshire embarking on the restoration of a cold war 'troubles' Conqueror tank. Here's my comments........

Post by Peter Laidlericon » Sun Dec 04, 2022 10:15 pm
Ho, ho, ho........, but lovely to see......... A bundle of trouble from the word go!. An absolute mechanical nightmare for the C category mechanics, the gun fitter, the tels techs and pretty much anyone else that set eyes on them. Especially so, those that had to move them from their barracks to the training areas in BAOR as they were too wide and point-load heavy for the German railways and post war 'erzats' bridges* and even more so for the old Diamond T (and a bit later, the Mighty Antar) Tank transporters.
* post-war cheapo steel girder bridges quickly built to replace the bombed out ones

Recovery was a logistical nightmare too especially in the boggy ranges of Nrthern Germanyicon because if the Conc was stuck (they used to bed-out in spite of the track width) the old Churchill recovery and Centurion recovery tanks could GET to them but a staraight-pull was absolutely out of the question - UNLESS you could get THREE of them to the site

Salvation came in the form of the up-gunned, 1945/6 era gentlemanly Centurion from 17 pounder to 20 pounder and then 120mm gun that was more than a match for the Sovieticon tanks - and remained there to augment the Chieftain until the Challenger. By this time, MILAN and JAVELIN had made tanks obsolete. Whhen the Concs were withdrawn there were no buyers..... They languished in open ordnance until the late 60's and used as hard range targets. Alas, even a few years of tank and anti-tank hits couldn't destroy them

Made my day to see one