I am working on a Revell Corporal Missile & Transporter
kit, and thanks to the good offices of a fellow on another rmessage board, I
was able to get in touch with Mr. Dale Hardy of the R.G. LeTourneau Heritage
Center. The Center owns an
early-Sixties Transporter/Erector, currently resting peacefully on the grounds
of a private collector in California.
My question was about the model’s rather bare-looking
driver’s compartment. Mr. Hardy
was able to supply pages from the Technical Manuals for both early- and
late-production machines, and, thanks to the California collector, was able to
send me photos of the Heritage Center machine’s driver and assistant driver
compartments.
These pictures seem
to me to be valuable enough that, although I don’t normally post here, I
thought they should be shared with military modellers who might be planning to
build the Revell kit.
Mr. Hardy’s latest email to me contained information about
the peculiarities of the Heritage Center machine, so, with his permission, here
is that email, slightly edited:
“I’ll explain the differences you see. The vertical posts
you see [rust-colored, protruding from the “cargo” area] were added by the
previous owner. You will notice that the circular grapples that would grab the
missile are not there either. The previous owner purchased this machine to use
for setting tall poles at a ski resort. He removed the grapples and welded in
cross braces to mount the vertical posts you see. He would evidently strap the
poles into the cradle the posts made and lift them to vertical. His son said he
either didn’t finish or he finished and it didn’t work like he wanted so he
never really used it. He just parked it.
“The “ducts” you see on the bottom of the front end are
actually head light sockets. As these machines were built, modifications and
changes were made. [Mr. LeTourneau was fond of tinkering with designs in
mid-stream.] This is one of the changes. The Revell models were made from a mid
to late 1950’s version. The one we have in California is an early 1960’s
version. On the Revell models the headlights are on top of the hood.
“There is a book you should get that gives a lot of
details on this machine and others built by LeTourneau during that time. The
book is “R.G. LeTourneau Heavy Equipment – The Electric Drive Era 1953-1970” by
Eric Orlemann. You can find this book on eBay and other internet sites. It is a
companion book to “R.G. LeTourneau Heavy Equipment – The Mechanical Drive Era
1921-1953” by Eric Orlemann. The book shows the evolution of this machine
with three versions. The third version is the one the Revell model was made
from. You have to remember the Revell model was first introduced in 1959 so the
changes we have on ours in Placerville had not taken place yet.
“These machines also had RC. That’s not Radio Controlled,
but Remote Controlled. There was a remote control box with a heavy wire that
could be attached to the rear of the machine so the operator could see how to
better and more accurately set the missile down onto the launch pad.
“I’ve attached [five] pictures I received from my friend in California that show the inside of the cabs. The right side cab had no
operator controls. It had only a bar to hold on to. In the left cab the
potentiometer is located under the right side of the operator’s panel.
“There was a small fire extinguisher to the left of the
panel post, [and] a fuel primer handle mounted on the post. That box or drawer
to the right of the seat is not part of the cab. I think it just got stuck in
there. I’ve talked to my friend that worked on these in Germany and we
feel the two bottles behind the seat in the right side cab were added later and
not original equipment. They appear to be pressure bottles for a fire control
system.”
In a later email, Mr. Hardy also said, “…You mentioned that
the operator's panel may have had a decal in the original model. I have an
original 1959 model that has the original decal sheet and instructions and there is
not a decal nor does the instructions call for one. This is true for the 1983
History Makers model also, no operator's panel decal.
"The other item is the crank-like handle that is included with
the model to go in the right-side cab. The instructions list this as the
Steering Handle. I don't believe this should be put in. My guess is that the
model designer didn't know how this machine could be steered without some sort
of a mechanical steering device. He didn't know it was steered electrically
with a toggle switch so he installed a ‘Steering Handle’.”
Here is a link to a Photobucket album containing the
pictures Mr Hardy sent me (plus two of the Heritage Center's machine I found on the
Internet as part of a description of a tour of the private collection)—click on the thumbnail:
http://s193.photobucket.com/albums/z256/hilbyf/Corporal%20missile%20transporter-erector/