Churchill Engine

[Armortek]

Anyone planning on taking on an engine and transmission ?

Pictures are of the Mark III at the Tank Museum. Apparently a new clutch is required.

[Stephen White]

Or "engines". The original design for the A20 had a 300bhp Meadows engine and was underpowered, as were a lot of contemporary tanks. When Vauxhall took over the design for the A22, they saw an opportunity to get into the tank engine market.Their solution was innovative: take two proven six cylinder Bedford truck engines, combine them in a common crankcase and produce a horizontally opposed flat 12, producing 350bhp, which was respectable for the day.

It did have problems, particularly in harmonising the fuel flow and ignition from the four carburettors, each feeding three cylinders and the twin ignition systems but was otherwise a good engine. Apart from the innovative power plant, the other major advance was selection of the Merritt-Brown gearbox. This was truly innovative in introducing regenerative steering, by which direction was controlled by varying the relative speed of the tracks rather than braking one or other. It is actually much closer to the way the Armortek motion pack operates. It made it possible to achieve a neutral turn. The design informed a succession of British tank gearboxes culminating in the Centurion/Chieftain designs, with the latter having the TN12, which was largely reliable and effective.

The downside of innovative design is the need for extensive testing. In the context of 1941 and the continuing threat of invasion, the tank was introduced prematurely and quickly gained a reputation for unreliability. Ironically, the much over-rated Tiger was going through a similar troubled introduction into service at the same time.

Put that lot into the model and there won't be a lot of room for the model motion pack. Great challenge for someone.

[Stephen White]

[Frank Breitenbach]

Hello Stephen
Very interesting pictures from the engine. Your idea to build engine copartment is ist also interesting. I like the Churchill……
All the best
Frank

[Adrian Harris]

Do you remember the fad for putting "economy" lights in cars, to tell you when you were being too heavy footed ?

Churchill had one

Adrian.