Howard rotaspreader of the 1970s

[BR traction instructor]

Is anyone aware of a farming museum or similar that has one of these please? The two smaller sized ones look to be the ones commonly railed across the North Wales coast in our period. We have five to build to go onto two Plate opens and a Lowfit to run on Mostyn. Measuring up the essential dimensions of the prototype inc decals etc will make it much easier to produce convincing 4mm versions.

 

The pictures below isn't mine...photographer currently unknown...

 

BeRTIe

 

Edited February 27 by BR traction instructor

[phil_sutters]

Is this leaflet helpful or are you already aware of it?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/395032433706?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200818143230%26meid%3D2a1f49fd0d0b48209405aa06a6f79242%26pid%3D101224%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D363800472601%26itm%3D395032433706%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4429486%26algv%3DDefaultOrganicWebV9BertRefreshRanker&_trksid=p4429486.c101224.m-1

Edited February 27 by phil_sutters

[Enterprisingwestern]

 

I cheated and got a couple of these;

 

https://www.scale3d.co.uk/products/rf-0018-a-76-muck-spreader

 

Mike.

[Wickham Green too]

OK - who's going to be the first to produce a working model ??!?

[Paul H Vigor]

21 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

OK - who's going to be the first to produce a working model ??!?

https://www.google.com/search?q=the+wurzels+champion+dung+spreader&rlz=1C1GGRV_enGB755GB757&oq=the+wurzels+muck+spreader&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j0i22i30j0i390i512i650l2j69i64.38909j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:ae3f8e11,vid:4SH281p2u18,st:0

[Colin_McLeod]

21 minutes ago, Wickham Green too said:

OK - who's going to be the first to produce a working model ??!?

 

Complete with Accurasmell effects. 😀

[Paul H Vigor]

22 minutes ago, Colin_McLeod said:

 

Complete with Accurasmell effects. 😀

'Scratch & Sniff'! 😎

[BR traction instructor]

2 hours ago, phil_sutters said:

Is this leaflet helpful or are you already aware of it?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/395032433706?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20200818143230%26meid%3D2a1f49fd0d0b48209405aa06a6f79242%26pid%3D101224%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D5%26sd%3D363800472601%26itm%3D395032433706%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D4429486%26algv%3DDefaultOrganicWebV9BertRefreshRanker&_trksid=p4429486.c101224.m-1

 

Thankyou Phil,

 

I had a good trawl of the available literature on the net to try to date the appearance of these around 1977 and did see that one.

 

BeRTIe

[Michael Hodgson]

 

[SP Steve]

I know they say never to model a model but how about using a Britains diecast model as a reference source? They do a 1:32 version of a Howard 155 model which can be found on eBay for a reasonable sum and for your purposes should yield a scaled down 4mm version that looks the part (if necessary you could also use it's various proportions to make smaller / larger types to fit your wagons).

 

Another avenue I've used for information are auction houses which deal with farm and machinery sales. They frequently catalogue their lots on line with a reasonable number of pictures taken from different angles. They sometimes give the tyre size but even if they don't by entering your own value for this you can then work out dimensions using it as your reference (it won't be 100% accurate but I've found it works to produce vehicles that look in proportion).

Edited February 28 by SP Steve

[jwealleans]

I've got one if you want to measure it.    It's the middle one in your photo, or close to it.  I'm at the top of the North Yorkshire Moors National Park.

[BR traction instructor]

...thankyou for the suggestion/offer guys. I have a number of local examples albeit in farmyard condition available to inspect but was attempting to locate a conserved example complete with decals etc so that I could photograph/measure everything in one go.

 

BeRTIe

[BR traction instructor]

On 27/02/2024 at 09:36, Enterprisingwestern said:

 

I cheated and got a couple of these;

 

https://www.scale3d.co.uk/products/rf-0018-a-76-muck-spreader

 

Mike.

 

Good recommendation Mike. I ordered a 3 pack to see what could be done to gain a better likeness of the Howard type. There will be quite a bit of detail change required but I'm confident of a worthwhile outcome...

 

BeRTIe

[Morello Cherry]

I would suggest asking theMerl on twitter aka the museum of rural life in Reading. They would love to be asked about muck spreaders. If anyone is going to know it is them. If you don't do twitter the website is https://merl.reading.ac.uk/

 

Fwiw there is a photo of a train of these going through I think Newbury behind a Western in K.G.Jones's 'Diesels West of Paddington'

 

Edit - I am not sure what has happened when I posted the link to theMerl on twitter.

 

Edit  a second time - if I link to a specific tweet then we avoid getting the whole feed, which is what happens if I link to the twitter account. So hence a link to a twitter post about a chicken in trousers from the eighteenth century. You'd almost think the owner of twitter was almost trying to make it completely unusable. (Not that I use it anyway). But I digress - MERL I think are your best bet for the answer.
 

 

Edited March 9 by Morello Cherry

[Wickham Green too]

You seem to have imported the whole of Twitter - including some Twit called E*** M***.